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"Helen Mirren",
"2000-2009",
"Was she acting in 2000?",
"Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000),"
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Did she receive positive reviews?
| 2 |
Did Helen Mirren receive positive reviews?
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Helen Mirren
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Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the award-winning prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics, who felt that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films. The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, actor Sean Penn's second directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also the year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics. Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. An homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren was initially resistant to join the project, at first dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, and grossed $96,000,000 worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams. CANNOTANSWER
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The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics,
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren (; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.
Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Early life and education
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London on 26 July 1945, to an English mother and Russian father. Her mother, Kathleen "Kitty" Alexandrina Eva Matilda (née Rogers; 1909–1996), was a working-class woman from West Ham, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility; he had been taken to England at age two by his father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov. Pyotr, who owned a family estate near Gzhatsk (now Gagarin), was part of the Russian aristocracy. Pyotr's mother, Mirren's great-grandmother, was Countess Lydia Andreevna Kamenskaya, aristocrat and a descendant of Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, a prominent Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars. Pyotr served as a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded by the Russian Revolution in 1917. The former diplomat settled down in England, and became a London cab driver to support his family.
Vasily also worked as a cab driver and then played the viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before World War II. During the war, he worked as an ambulance driver and served in the East End of London during the Blitz. He and Kathleen married in Hammersmith in 1938, and at some point before 1951 he anglicised his name to Basil. After the birth of Helen, Basil left the orchestra and returned to cab-driving in order to support the family. He later worked as a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. In 1951, Basil changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist". She was the second of three children, born between older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942) and younger brother Peter Basil (1947–2002). Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Mirren attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she had the lead role in a school production of Hansel and Gretel, and St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she also acted in school productions. She then attended a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on North End Road, which runs from Hampstead to Golders Green. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and was accepted. At twenty, she played Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, a role which Mirren says "launched my career", and led to her signing with agent Al Parker.
Theatre career
Early years
As a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). While with the RSC, she played Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (1967), Cressida in Troilus and Cressida (1968), Rosalind in As You Like It (1968), Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970), Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych (1971), and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place (1971). She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, between 1965 and 1967.
In 1970, the director and producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made for ATV, it was shown on the ITV network in the UK. In 1972 and 1973, Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US, during which they created The Conference of the Birds. She then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975.
Sally Beauman reported, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren — while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a letter to The Guardian newspaper — had sharply criticised both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre", and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." This started a big debate, and led to a question in parliament. There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.
West End and RSC
At the West End's Royal Court Theatre in September 1975, she played the role of a rock star named Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare; she reprised the role the following year in a revival of the play at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976.
Beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers's new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace', and winning acclaim for her performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios.
In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. That same year she also won acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which was later transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story." In her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl—at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre in April 1983—she was described as having "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.
At the beginning of 1989, Mirren co-starred with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions. British actors like to speak. In London, there’s a much more open-hearted kind of exchange between stage and audience" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989). In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).
On 15 February 2013, at the West End's Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience. The show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role.
Broadway debut
A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev.
Prior to 2015, Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001.
On 7 June 2015‚ Mirren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play‚ for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience (a performance which also won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Her Tony Award win made her one of the few actors to achieve the US “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of acclaimed performers including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino.
National Theatre
In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; The Guardian called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while The Daily Telegraph said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."
At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies. "This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better." She played the title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the Epidaurus amphitheatre on 11 and 12 July 2009.
Film career
Mirren has appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film appearances include roles in Herostratus (1967) Dir. Don Levy, Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Age of Consent (1969), O Lucky Man! (1973), Caligula (1979), The Long Good Friday (1980)—co-starring with Bob Hoskins in what was her breakthrough film role, Excalibur (1981), 2010 (1984), White Nights (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988) and When the Whales Came (1989). She appeared in The Madness of King George (1994), Some Mother's Son (1996), Painted Lady (1997) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In Peter Greenaway's colorful The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Mirren plays the wife opposite Michael Gambon. In Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), she plays sadistic history teacher Mrs Eve Tingle.
In 2007, she claimed that the director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a casting call in 1964. Asked about the incident, Winner told The Guardian: "I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious. I was only doing what the [casting] agent asked me – and for this I get reviled! Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actress and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."
Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in Gosford Park (2001) with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls (2003) with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing (2004), Pride (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Shadowboxer (2005). Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
2000–2009
Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison, who won gardening awards. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project received lukewarm reviews, which suggested that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films.
The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, Sean Penn's third directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also that year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics.
Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. A homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. It received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins.
In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren initially was reluctant to join the project, dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film was generally well received by critics, and grossed $96 million worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams.
2010–2014
In 2010, Mirren appeared in five films. In Love Ranch, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, she portrayed Sally Conforte, one half of a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the US, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada. Mirren starred in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, in Julie Taymor's The Tempest. This was based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare; Taymor changed the original character's gender to cast Mirren as her lead. While the actor garnered strong reviews for her portrayal, the film itself was largely panned by critics.
Mirren played a gutsy tea-shop owner who tries to save one of her young employees from marrying a teenage killer in Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, a crime film loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel. The film noir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, where it received mixed reviews. Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success of the year was Robert Schwentke's ensemble action comedy Red, based on Warren Ellis’s graphic novel, in which she portrayed Victoria, an ex-MI6 assassin. Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis' involvement. Released to positive reviews, it grossed $186.5 million worldwide. Also in 2010, the actor lent her voice to Zack Snyder's computer-animated fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, voicing antagonist Nyra, a leader of a group of owls. The film grossed $140.1 million on an $80 million budget.
Mirren's next film was the comedy film Arthur, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, starring Russell Brand in the lead role. Arthur received generally negative reviews from critics, who declared it an "irritating, unnecessary remake." In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name.
In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection." Mirren was universally praised, however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective." Her other film that year was The Door, a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things [she has] ever done."
The following year, Mirren replaced Bette Midler in David Mamet's biographical television film Phil Spector about the American musician. The HBO film focuses on the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Mirren, during the first of his two murder trials for the death in 2003 of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector received largely mixed to positive reviews from critics, particularly for Mirren and co-star Al Pacino's performances, and was nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, also winning Mirren a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 20th awards ceremony. The film drew criticism both from Clarkson's family and friends, who charged that the suicide defense was given more merit than it deserved, and from Spector's wife, who argued that Spector was portrayed as a "foul-mouthed megalomaniac" and a "minotaur". Also in 2013, Mirren voiced the character of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Pixar's computer-animated comedy film Monsters University, which grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million, and reprised her role in the sequel film Red 2. The action comedy received a mixed reviews from film critics, who called it a "lackadaisical sequel", but became another commercial success, making over $140 million worldwide.
Mirren's only film of 2014 was the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey opposite the Indian actor Om Puri. Directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film is based on Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel with the same name and tells the story of a feud between two adjacent restaurants in a French town. Mirren garnered largely positive reviews for her performance of a snobby restaurateur, a role which she accepted as she was keen to play a French character, reflecting her "pathetic attempt at being a French actress." The film earned her another Golden Globe nomination and became a modest commercial success, grossing $88.9 million worldwide.
2015–present
In 2015, Mirren reunited with her former assistant Simon Curtis on Woman in Gold, co-starring Ryan Reynolds. The film was based on the true story of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann, who, together with her young lawyer Randy Schoenberg, fought the Austrian government to be reunited with Gustav Klimt's painting of her aunt, the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although Mirren and Reynold's performances were widely praised. A commercial success, Woman in Gold became one of the highest-grossing specialty films of the year. The same year, Mirren appeared in Gavin Hood's thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), in which she played as a military intelligence officer who leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in Nairobi, Kenya. Mirren's last film that year was Jay Roach's biographical drama Trumbo, co-starring Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane. The actor played Hedda Hopper, the famous actor and gossip columnist, in the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics and garnered her a 14th Golden Globe nomination.
Mirren's only film of 2016 was Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel. Co-Starring Will Smith, Keira Knightley, and Kate Winslet, the ensemble drama follows a man who copes with his daughter's death by writing letters to time, death, and love. The film earned largely negative reviews from critics, who called it "well-meaning but fundamentally flawed." In 2017, Mirren narrated Cries from Syria, a documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. Also that year, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious, the eighth instalment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, playing Magdalene, the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw. Mirren had a larger role in director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut The Leisure Seeker, based on the 2009 novel of the same name. On set, she was reunited with Donald Sutherland with whom she had not worked again since Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990), portraying a terminally ill couple who escape from their retirement home and take one last cross-country adventure in a vintage van. At the 75th awards ceremony, Mirren received her 15th Golden Globe nomination.
In 2018, Mirren portrayed heiress Sarah Winchester in the supernatural horror film Winchester, directed by The Spierig Brothers. In the same year, she starred as Mother Ginger in Disney's adaptation of The Nutcracker, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston. In 2019, she appeared in the ensemble film Berlin, I Love You, the French crime thriller film Anna, directed and written by Luc Besson, and co-starred in the Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. In March 2021, she was cast as the villain Hespera in the upcoming superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Mirren is set to portray Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel 1969–1974, in a biopic entitled Golda. As at April 2021 the film was in production.
Television career
Prime Suspect
Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama series that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994 (making her one of four actors to have received three consecutive BAFTA TV Awards for a role, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Michael Gambon). Primarily due to Prime Suspect, in 2006 Mirren came 29th on ITV’s poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars voted by the British public.
Other roles
Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her an Emmy; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series. She also played Queen Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006. Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.
Personal life
Mirren lived with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson during the early 1980s; they met while working on Excalibur (1981). When interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors Studio, Neeson said Mirren was instrumental in him getting an agent.
Mirren began dating American director Taylor Hackford in 1986. They were married on 31 December 1997 at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The couple met on the set of White Nights (1985). It is her first marriage and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children, stating she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever".
Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."
In 1990, Mirren stated in an interview that she is an atheist. In the August 2011 issue of Esquire, Mirren said, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."
In a 2008 interview with GQ, Mirren revealed she was date raped as a student, and had often taken cocaine at parties in her twenties and until the 1980s. She stopped using the drug after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.
On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London. In 2012, she was among the British cultural icons selected by the artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires. In 2010, she was named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire, and in a 2011 photo shoot for the magazine she stripped down and then covered up with the Union Jack.
In 2013, Mirren was announced as one of several new models for Marks & Spencer's "Womanism" campaign. Subtitled "Britain's leading ladies", the campaign saw Mirren appear alongside British women from various fields, including pop singer Ellie Goulding, double Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams, and writer Monica Ali. In March 2013, The Guardian listed Mirren as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50.
She told the Radio Times, "I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly people, beautiful people, old people, whatever. It's so unisexual and so liberating." In 2004, she was named "Naturist of the Year" by British Naturism. She said: "Many thanks to British Naturism for this great honour. I do believe in naturism and am my happiest on a nude beach with people of all ages and races!"
Mirren became a U.S. citizen in 2017 and voted in her first U.S. election in 2020.
In April 2021, she took part in the music video "La Vacinada" (meaning the vaccinated woman in broken Spanish language) of Italian comedian and singer Checco Zalone.
In said song and video, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of Covid-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and as the elderly get vaccinated first, a higher-aged partner (played by Mirren in the video) is now the best choice.
Acting credits
Awards and honours
Among her major competitive awards, Mirren has won one Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award. Her numerous honorary awards include the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Gala Tribute presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace in December. In January 2009, Mirren was named on The Times''' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. The list included Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench and Audrey Hepburn.
See also
List of British actors
List of British Academy Award nominees and winners
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Bibliography
Ward, Philip (2019). Becoming Helen Mirren. Troubador Press. . A survey of the actress's early career.
External links
Interviews:''
1945 births
Living people
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actresses awarded British damehoods
Actresses from Essex
Alumni of Middlesex University
Audiobook narrators
BAFTA fellows
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
British naturists
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English atheists
English film actresses
English people of Russian descent
English radio actresses
English Shakespearean actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
English voice actresses
European Film Award for Best Actress winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Golden Orange Honorary Award winners
Honorary Golden Bear recipients
Laurence Olivier Award winners
National Youth Theatre members
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People from Hammersmith
People from Westcliff-on-Sea
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Tony Award winners
Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners
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"A Killing Affair (also known as Behind the Badge) is a 1977 American made-for-television crime drama film starring Elizabeth Montgomery and O. J. Simpson. The film originally aired on CBS on September 21, 1977.\n\nPlot\nElizabeth Montgomery and O. J. Simpson star as homicide detectives pursuing a killer played by Dean Stockwell. While working on the case, the partners begin having a heated romantic affair.\n\nCast\n\nReception\nA Killing Affair received generally positive reviews, with particular praise for O. J. Simpson. People called it Simpson's \"best dramatic performance to date.\" John J. O'Connor of the New York Times wrote,\n\nA Killing Affair received a 29% Nielsen rating, finishing second to Charlie's Angels in its time slot.\n\nThere was relatively little controversy generated by the interracial romance between the protagonists. Montgomery and Simpson did not receive any significant hate mail, though one Southern CBS affiliate did receive a bomb threat after the film aired.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1977 television films\n1977 films\nAmerican crime films\nAmerican films\nCBS network films\nFilms about interracial romance\nFilms directed by Richard C. Sarafian",
"Sai Dhanshika is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu\n\nCareer \nDhanshika made her lead film debut with Kempa (2009). She starred in several films including Peranmai (2009), Maanja Velu (2010) and Nil Gavani Sellathey (2010). Regarding her role in Nil Gavani Sellathey, a reviewer stated that \"Among the relatively fresh cast, only Dhansika (Maanja Velu, Peraanmai) makes an impression\". She starred as the heroine in Aravaan (2012) and Paradesi. She garnered acclaim for her performance in the latter with a critic noting that \"Dhansikaa is as good as ever\". Her next film Ya Ya released to negative reviews. Thiranthidu Seese (2015) released to positive reviews with a critic stating that \"A ravishing Dhanshika plays Charmi with elan\". She also garnered recognition for her portrayal of Rajinikanth's daughter in Kabali (2016) with a critic noting that \"Watching Yogi (Dhansikaa) is a delight, given her stylish makeover and ease in fight sequence\". For her role in the film, she sported a short hair cut. Her next film Enga Amma Rani (2017), which was set in Malaysia, released to positive reviews with a critic stating that \"Sai Dhanshika is pretty much the highlight here: tough, determined, and also vulnerable to grief when the situation demands\". Her performance was praised in her subsequent films Uru and Solo. Vizhithiru, Kaathadi, and Kaalakkoothu released to negative reviews. Her Kannada debut Udgharsha (2019) released to positive reviews. Her next film Iruttu released to mixed and Positive reviews. She was cast in Laabam in a negative role. She has also been cast in Yogi Da. The multilingual films Kitna and Vaalujada got stuck in production.\n\nFilmography\n\nShort films and web series\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n \n\nActresses from Tamil Nadu\nIndian film actresses\nLiving people\nActresses in Tamil cinema\n21st-century Indian actresses\nFilmfare Awards South winners\nActresses in Malayalam cinema\nActresses in Kannada cinema\nActresses in Telugu cinema\nPlace of birth missing (living people)\n1989 births"
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"Helen Mirren",
"2000-2009",
"Was she acting in 2000?",
"Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000),",
"Did she receive positive reviews?",
"The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics,"
] |
C_aaa4e21dc2e84349b08163dfce1fb19a_1
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Were their any more movies in 2000?
| 3 |
Were there any more movies in 2000 that Helen Mirren was in besides Greengingers?
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Helen Mirren
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Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the award-winning prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics, who felt that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films. The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, actor Sean Penn's second directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also the year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics. Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. An homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren was initially resistant to join the project, at first dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, and grossed $96,000,000 worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams. CANNOTANSWER
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The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge,
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren (; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.
Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Early life and education
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London on 26 July 1945, to an English mother and Russian father. Her mother, Kathleen "Kitty" Alexandrina Eva Matilda (née Rogers; 1909–1996), was a working-class woman from West Ham, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility; he had been taken to England at age two by his father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov. Pyotr, who owned a family estate near Gzhatsk (now Gagarin), was part of the Russian aristocracy. Pyotr's mother, Mirren's great-grandmother, was Countess Lydia Andreevna Kamenskaya, aristocrat and a descendant of Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, a prominent Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars. Pyotr served as a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded by the Russian Revolution in 1917. The former diplomat settled down in England, and became a London cab driver to support his family.
Vasily also worked as a cab driver and then played the viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before World War II. During the war, he worked as an ambulance driver and served in the East End of London during the Blitz. He and Kathleen married in Hammersmith in 1938, and at some point before 1951 he anglicised his name to Basil. After the birth of Helen, Basil left the orchestra and returned to cab-driving in order to support the family. He later worked as a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. In 1951, Basil changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist". She was the second of three children, born between older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942) and younger brother Peter Basil (1947–2002). Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Mirren attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she had the lead role in a school production of Hansel and Gretel, and St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she also acted in school productions. She then attended a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on North End Road, which runs from Hampstead to Golders Green. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and was accepted. At twenty, she played Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, a role which Mirren says "launched my career", and led to her signing with agent Al Parker.
Theatre career
Early years
As a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). While with the RSC, she played Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (1967), Cressida in Troilus and Cressida (1968), Rosalind in As You Like It (1968), Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970), Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych (1971), and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place (1971). She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, between 1965 and 1967.
In 1970, the director and producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made for ATV, it was shown on the ITV network in the UK. In 1972 and 1973, Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US, during which they created The Conference of the Birds. She then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975.
Sally Beauman reported, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren — while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a letter to The Guardian newspaper — had sharply criticised both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre", and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." This started a big debate, and led to a question in parliament. There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.
West End and RSC
At the West End's Royal Court Theatre in September 1975, she played the role of a rock star named Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare; she reprised the role the following year in a revival of the play at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976.
Beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers's new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace', and winning acclaim for her performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios.
In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. That same year she also won acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which was later transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story." In her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl—at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre in April 1983—she was described as having "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.
At the beginning of 1989, Mirren co-starred with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions. British actors like to speak. In London, there’s a much more open-hearted kind of exchange between stage and audience" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989). In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).
On 15 February 2013, at the West End's Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience. The show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role.
Broadway debut
A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev.
Prior to 2015, Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001.
On 7 June 2015‚ Mirren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play‚ for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience (a performance which also won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Her Tony Award win made her one of the few actors to achieve the US “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of acclaimed performers including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino.
National Theatre
In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; The Guardian called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while The Daily Telegraph said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."
At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies. "This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better." She played the title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the Epidaurus amphitheatre on 11 and 12 July 2009.
Film career
Mirren has appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film appearances include roles in Herostratus (1967) Dir. Don Levy, Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Age of Consent (1969), O Lucky Man! (1973), Caligula (1979), The Long Good Friday (1980)—co-starring with Bob Hoskins in what was her breakthrough film role, Excalibur (1981), 2010 (1984), White Nights (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988) and When the Whales Came (1989). She appeared in The Madness of King George (1994), Some Mother's Son (1996), Painted Lady (1997) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In Peter Greenaway's colorful The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Mirren plays the wife opposite Michael Gambon. In Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), she plays sadistic history teacher Mrs Eve Tingle.
In 2007, she claimed that the director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a casting call in 1964. Asked about the incident, Winner told The Guardian: "I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious. I was only doing what the [casting] agent asked me – and for this I get reviled! Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actress and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."
Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in Gosford Park (2001) with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls (2003) with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing (2004), Pride (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Shadowboxer (2005). Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
2000–2009
Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison, who won gardening awards. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project received lukewarm reviews, which suggested that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films.
The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, Sean Penn's third directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also that year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics.
Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. A homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. It received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins.
In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren initially was reluctant to join the project, dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film was generally well received by critics, and grossed $96 million worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams.
2010–2014
In 2010, Mirren appeared in five films. In Love Ranch, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, she portrayed Sally Conforte, one half of a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the US, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada. Mirren starred in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, in Julie Taymor's The Tempest. This was based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare; Taymor changed the original character's gender to cast Mirren as her lead. While the actor garnered strong reviews for her portrayal, the film itself was largely panned by critics.
Mirren played a gutsy tea-shop owner who tries to save one of her young employees from marrying a teenage killer in Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, a crime film loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel. The film noir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, where it received mixed reviews. Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success of the year was Robert Schwentke's ensemble action comedy Red, based on Warren Ellis’s graphic novel, in which she portrayed Victoria, an ex-MI6 assassin. Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis' involvement. Released to positive reviews, it grossed $186.5 million worldwide. Also in 2010, the actor lent her voice to Zack Snyder's computer-animated fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, voicing antagonist Nyra, a leader of a group of owls. The film grossed $140.1 million on an $80 million budget.
Mirren's next film was the comedy film Arthur, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, starring Russell Brand in the lead role. Arthur received generally negative reviews from critics, who declared it an "irritating, unnecessary remake." In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name.
In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection." Mirren was universally praised, however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective." Her other film that year was The Door, a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things [she has] ever done."
The following year, Mirren replaced Bette Midler in David Mamet's biographical television film Phil Spector about the American musician. The HBO film focuses on the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Mirren, during the first of his two murder trials for the death in 2003 of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector received largely mixed to positive reviews from critics, particularly for Mirren and co-star Al Pacino's performances, and was nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, also winning Mirren a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 20th awards ceremony. The film drew criticism both from Clarkson's family and friends, who charged that the suicide defense was given more merit than it deserved, and from Spector's wife, who argued that Spector was portrayed as a "foul-mouthed megalomaniac" and a "minotaur". Also in 2013, Mirren voiced the character of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Pixar's computer-animated comedy film Monsters University, which grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million, and reprised her role in the sequel film Red 2. The action comedy received a mixed reviews from film critics, who called it a "lackadaisical sequel", but became another commercial success, making over $140 million worldwide.
Mirren's only film of 2014 was the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey opposite the Indian actor Om Puri. Directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film is based on Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel with the same name and tells the story of a feud between two adjacent restaurants in a French town. Mirren garnered largely positive reviews for her performance of a snobby restaurateur, a role which she accepted as she was keen to play a French character, reflecting her "pathetic attempt at being a French actress." The film earned her another Golden Globe nomination and became a modest commercial success, grossing $88.9 million worldwide.
2015–present
In 2015, Mirren reunited with her former assistant Simon Curtis on Woman in Gold, co-starring Ryan Reynolds. The film was based on the true story of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann, who, together with her young lawyer Randy Schoenberg, fought the Austrian government to be reunited with Gustav Klimt's painting of her aunt, the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although Mirren and Reynold's performances were widely praised. A commercial success, Woman in Gold became one of the highest-grossing specialty films of the year. The same year, Mirren appeared in Gavin Hood's thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), in which she played as a military intelligence officer who leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in Nairobi, Kenya. Mirren's last film that year was Jay Roach's biographical drama Trumbo, co-starring Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane. The actor played Hedda Hopper, the famous actor and gossip columnist, in the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics and garnered her a 14th Golden Globe nomination.
Mirren's only film of 2016 was Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel. Co-Starring Will Smith, Keira Knightley, and Kate Winslet, the ensemble drama follows a man who copes with his daughter's death by writing letters to time, death, and love. The film earned largely negative reviews from critics, who called it "well-meaning but fundamentally flawed." In 2017, Mirren narrated Cries from Syria, a documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. Also that year, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious, the eighth instalment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, playing Magdalene, the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw. Mirren had a larger role in director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut The Leisure Seeker, based on the 2009 novel of the same name. On set, she was reunited with Donald Sutherland with whom she had not worked again since Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990), portraying a terminally ill couple who escape from their retirement home and take one last cross-country adventure in a vintage van. At the 75th awards ceremony, Mirren received her 15th Golden Globe nomination.
In 2018, Mirren portrayed heiress Sarah Winchester in the supernatural horror film Winchester, directed by The Spierig Brothers. In the same year, she starred as Mother Ginger in Disney's adaptation of The Nutcracker, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston. In 2019, she appeared in the ensemble film Berlin, I Love You, the French crime thriller film Anna, directed and written by Luc Besson, and co-starred in the Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. In March 2021, she was cast as the villain Hespera in the upcoming superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Mirren is set to portray Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel 1969–1974, in a biopic entitled Golda. As at April 2021 the film was in production.
Television career
Prime Suspect
Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama series that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994 (making her one of four actors to have received three consecutive BAFTA TV Awards for a role, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Michael Gambon). Primarily due to Prime Suspect, in 2006 Mirren came 29th on ITV’s poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars voted by the British public.
Other roles
Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her an Emmy; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series. She also played Queen Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006. Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.
Personal life
Mirren lived with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson during the early 1980s; they met while working on Excalibur (1981). When interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors Studio, Neeson said Mirren was instrumental in him getting an agent.
Mirren began dating American director Taylor Hackford in 1986. They were married on 31 December 1997 at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The couple met on the set of White Nights (1985). It is her first marriage and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children, stating she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever".
Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."
In 1990, Mirren stated in an interview that she is an atheist. In the August 2011 issue of Esquire, Mirren said, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."
In a 2008 interview with GQ, Mirren revealed she was date raped as a student, and had often taken cocaine at parties in her twenties and until the 1980s. She stopped using the drug after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.
On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London. In 2012, she was among the British cultural icons selected by the artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires. In 2010, she was named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire, and in a 2011 photo shoot for the magazine she stripped down and then covered up with the Union Jack.
In 2013, Mirren was announced as one of several new models for Marks & Spencer's "Womanism" campaign. Subtitled "Britain's leading ladies", the campaign saw Mirren appear alongside British women from various fields, including pop singer Ellie Goulding, double Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams, and writer Monica Ali. In March 2013, The Guardian listed Mirren as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50.
She told the Radio Times, "I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly people, beautiful people, old people, whatever. It's so unisexual and so liberating." In 2004, she was named "Naturist of the Year" by British Naturism. She said: "Many thanks to British Naturism for this great honour. I do believe in naturism and am my happiest on a nude beach with people of all ages and races!"
Mirren became a U.S. citizen in 2017 and voted in her first U.S. election in 2020.
In April 2021, she took part in the music video "La Vacinada" (meaning the vaccinated woman in broken Spanish language) of Italian comedian and singer Checco Zalone.
In said song and video, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of Covid-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and as the elderly get vaccinated first, a higher-aged partner (played by Mirren in the video) is now the best choice.
Acting credits
Awards and honours
Among her major competitive awards, Mirren has won one Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award. Her numerous honorary awards include the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Gala Tribute presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace in December. In January 2009, Mirren was named on The Times''' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. The list included Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench and Audrey Hepburn.
See also
List of British actors
List of British Academy Award nominees and winners
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Bibliography
Ward, Philip (2019). Becoming Helen Mirren. Troubador Press. . A survey of the actress's early career.
External links
Interviews:''
1945 births
Living people
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actresses awarded British damehoods
Actresses from Essex
Alumni of Middlesex University
Audiobook narrators
BAFTA fellows
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
British naturists
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English atheists
English film actresses
English people of Russian descent
English radio actresses
English Shakespearean actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
English voice actresses
European Film Award for Best Actress winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Golden Orange Honorary Award winners
Honorary Golden Bear recipients
Laurence Olivier Award winners
National Youth Theatre members
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People from Hammersmith
People from Westcliff-on-Sea
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Tony Award winners
Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners
| true |
[
"C More Entertainment AB is a pay television company that previously operated as Canal+. It targets Nordic countries and has a separate channel in Sweden (C More Film).\n\nThe main competitors of C More Entertainment are Viasat Film and Viasat Sport, which are part of Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT) since 2018.\n\nSince 30 October 2012, the C More channels in Finland are bundled with MTV Oy's premium channels. The combined package was initially named MTV3 Total (later MTV Total) but was changed back to C More in 2017.\n\nOwnership history\nSouth African company MultiChoice launched the Nordic version of FilmNet in 1985, and SuperSport followed in 1995. The channels were renamed Canal+ in 1997 after MultiChoice sold most of its European operations to French company Groupe Canal+. In 2003, two private equity firms, Baker Capital and Nordic Capital, acquired 100% of Canal+ Television from the international media conglomerate Vivendi Universal. At the same time, the company changed its legal name to C More Entertainment, but it retained the right to use the “Canal+” trademark. On February 9, 2005, SBS Broadcasting Group announced the acquisition of C More Entertainment. Belgian SBS channels VT4 and VIJFtv launched their VOD offering under the C-More brand in October 2006. On June 16, 2008, Swedish TV4 Gruppen announced it had acquired C More Entertainment from German ProSiebenSat.1 Media (which acquired SBS) for €320 million. In May 2010 Telenor bought 35% of shares in C More Entertainment from TV4 Gruppen for SEK787 million, but sold them back in 2014.\n\nProgramming\nC More Entertainment operated over 20 SD channels in the Nordic region and eleven HD channels in September 2012.\n\n1990s \nC More Entertainment was originated from the Filmnet channel created in 1985. In the early 1990s, Filmnet became two channels: Filmnet Plus and The Complete Movie Channel: Filmnet. They were later rebranded as Filmnet 1 and Filmnet 2.\n\nCanal+ bought Filmnet in 1996 and the two channels were renamed on September 1, 1997. Filmnet 1 became \"Canal+\" with localized versions for the different Nordic countries and Filmnet 2 became the pan-Nordic \"Canal+ Gul/Canal+ Kulta\" (English: \"Canal+ Yellow/Canal+ Gold,\" following the colour naming pattern used by Canal+ in France and other countries).\n\nA third channel \"Canal+ Blå/Canal+ Sininen\" (Blue) was created on September 3, 1999.\n\n2000s \n\"Canal+ Zap/\nRød/Punainen\" (Red) was launched on September 22, 2001, allowing cable and satellite viewers to choose an alternative match to watch during fixtures of the FA Premier League and National Hockey League.\n\nThe channels were redesigned on May 1, 2004. The three colour-coded mixed channels were replaced with four themed channels. The Canal+ line-up consisted of the main Canal+ channel, Canal+ Film 1 and Canal+ Film 2 showing new movies, the all-sports channel Canal+ Sport, and C More Film, a channel showing older films. C More Film was the first channel to use the C More name.\n\nThe line-up was extended on September 1, 2005, when Canal+ Film 3, C More Film 2, and C More HD were launched. C More HD was the first HD channel for the Nordic region. Canal+ Film 1 was renamed \"Canal+ Film\". Canal+ Sport was split into country-specific channels. Canal+, which had been country-specific, became pan-Nordic. At the same time, IPTV operators in association with satellite operator Canal Digital launched an interactive VOD service called \"Canal+ Play\", accessed from the customer's set-top box, letting the viewers watch any seasons from any show ebroadcast on Canal+ and any movie that was showing on the channels. On satellite it has since been merged to the Canal Digital Go service, covering every channel on the platform and also available without a box online (much like its British equivalent Sky Go).\n\nOn November 1, 2006, the C More Film and C More Film 2 channels were merged with Canal+ Film 2 and the main Canal+ channel was replaced by a bonus channel Canal+ Mix, showing series, entertainment, music, sports, children’s programmings, documentaries and movies. C More also introduced a new sports channel called Canal+ Sport 2. Three channels were renamed: Canal+ Film was renamed back to \"Canal+ Film 1\", Canal+ Sport became Canal+ Sport 1\", and C More HD became \"Canal+ HD\". Customers previously could only subscribe to all channels, but customers were now able to only subscribe to the sports or movie channels. The \"Canal+ Film\" package consisted of Canal+ Film 1, 2 and 3 and \"Canal+ Sport\" consisted of Canal+ Sport 1 and 2. The full package was called \"Canal+ Total\" and contains Canal+ Mix and Canal+ HD as a bonus.\n\nOn February 1, 2007, Canal+ HD was split to 2 channels in HD: Canal+ Film HD airs movies in HD and Canal+ Sport HD airs sports events in HD. In September 2007 a pay-per-view sports service called C Sports was launched in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. It was never launched in Finland or available in Finnish but could also be viewed there. The service initially showed single matches from Canal+ channels on a PPV basis, but soon after launch customers could also subscribe to a season ticket. This allowed them to view all matches from a chosen league during its season. In 2009 it was expanded to cover an archive of all shown matches and the ability to watch live streams of all Canal+ Sport's channels. The service is still available in all countries except for Finland, where the content of the service is now available through parent company MTV3's VOD service Katsomo.\n\nThe channel were again redesigned on November 1, 2007. The movies and series channels were all renamed and recategorised. Canal+ Film 1 became \"Canal+ First\", specialized in new movies, as well as series and Canal+ Film 2 was replaced by \"Canal+ Hits\", specialized in classic and old movies. Canal+ Film 3 and Canal+ Mix were renamed \"Canal+ Action\", specialized in action movies and series and \"Canal+ Drama\", specialized in TV shows and movies related to drama and romantic and were joined by Canal+ Comedy which broadcasts movies in different genres. Canal+ Sport 1 and 2 kept their names but were joined by Canal+ Sport Extra which time-shared overnights with Canal 69, specialized in pornographic movies.\n\nIn July 2009, C More Entertainment launched Canal 9, a new sports channel, and another program for men. Canal 9 was free for Canal+ Sport and Canal+ Total customers on cable, satellite and IPTV and shared many sports rights with Canal+ channels, along with its independently purchased rights commissioned by TV4 Gruppen. The station was modeled on the Finnish MTV3 Max. There have been discussions to rename MTV3 Max as Canal 9 Suomi. In November 2011 Canal 9 also launched in Norway.\n\nOn October 1, 2009, Canal+ launched the SF-kanalen, a channel which broadcasts Swedish movies and miniseries from the libraries of Svensk Filmindustri. After TV4's purchase of the company, Canal+ and Svensk Filmindustri became part of the same corporation. SF-kanalen replaced Canal 69, which ceased operations the day before.\n\n2010s \nOn April 1, 2010, Canal+ Comedy was replaced by Canal+ Series. It was similar to Canal+ Hits, but it showed series from 8pm to midnight instead of movies, while from midnight to 8pm it showed movies.\n\nOn May 14, 2010, C More Entertainment launched three sports channels named Canal+ Sport 3, Canal+ Football and Canal+ Hockey. Canal+ Sport 3 was only available in Norway. At the same time, many new sports rights were announced. Later that year Canal+ announced it would launch a second Finnish-language sports channel called Canal+ Aitio (English: Canal+ Skybox) in December, since it retained the Finnish rights to Premier League and UEFA Champions League matches. The new channel allowed broadcasting a second simultaneous match from the Premier League, previously only possible on FTA channels. Canal+ also launched a new channel for Finnish viewers called \"Canal+ Urheilu\". HD versions of the channels have since appeared on all platforms.\n\nOn June 1, 2011, Canal+ launched two movies and series channels named Canal+ Family and Canal+ Emotion. Canal+ Family consists of family-oriented movies and children’s programmings. At the same time, Canal+ Drama was renamed as Canal+ Emotion.\n\nIn May 2012, C More Entertainment announced it would rebrand itself as C More. While most channels kept their previous names (apart from replacing the Canal+ suffix with C More), some sports channels were renamed. Canal+ Sport 1 was changed to C More Sport, Canal+ Sport 2 was changed to C More Tennis, Canal+ Sport Extra to C More Extreme, and Canal+ Extra channels were renamed to C More Live. The only channels unchanged during the rebrand are Canal 9 and the Danish Canal 8 Sport, which was launched in August 2012 as the successor of Canal+ Sport 1 Denmark. C More Entertainment also announced that it would add documentaries as a new type of programming to complement their film programming.\n\nOn 30 October 2012, C More channels in Finland were merged with MTV3 Kanavapaketti to form MTV3 Total. C More Urheilu (Sport), C More Aitio and C More Premier HD were renamed MTV3 MAX Sport 1, MTV3 MAX Sport 2 and MTV3 MAX Premier HD, respectively. The package was renamed MTV Total in the corporate-wide rebrand at MTV Oy in 2013, and then changed back to C More in 2017. As a result of the 2017 rebrand, MTV Oy's MTV Junior and MTV Max were renamed C More Juniori and C More Max, respectively.\n\nIn October 2012, C More launched Filmnet in Sweden, an online streaming service to compete with Netflix and HBO Nordic. Filmnet was available in Norway and Finland in early 2013. In Denmark, C More worked with YouSee on a similar service called YouBio. The Filmnet-branded services were moved to the main C More website on 30 June 2015.\n\nTelevision channels\nMovies and Entertainment Group\n\nC More First (formerly Canal+ Film 1, Canal+ Film and Canal+ First. Replaced Canal+ Gul.)\nC More Hits (formerly Canal+ Film 2 and Canal+ Hits. Replaced Canal+ Blå.)\nC More Juniori (Finland only. Formerly Subtv Juniori, Sub Juniori, MTV3 Juniori and MTV Juniori.)\nC More Series (formerly Canal+ Series. Replaced Canal+ Comedy.)\nC More Stars\nSF-kanalen\n\nDiscontinued:\nC More Action (formerly Canal+ Film 3 and Canal+ Action)\nC More Emotion (formerly Canal+ Emotion. Replaced Canal+ Drama.)\nC More Film\nC More Film 2\nC More Kids (formerly Canal+ Family)\nCanal+ Blå (replaced by Canal+ Film 2)\nCanal+ Comedy (replaced by Canal+ Series)\nCanal+ Drama (replaced by Canal+ Emotion)\nCanal+ Film HD (formerly C More HD and Canal+ HD)\nCanal+ Gul (replaced by Canal+ Film 1)\n\nSports Group\n\nC More Fotboll (Sweden only. Formerly Canal+ Football.)\nC More Golf (Denmark and Sweden)\nC More Hockey (Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Formerly Canal+ Hockey.)\nC More Live (Norway and Sweden. Formerly Canal+ Extra.)\nC More Live 2 (Norway and Sweden. Formerly Canal+ Extra 2.)\nC More Live 3 (Norway and Sweden. Formerly Canal+ Extra 3.)\nC More Live 4 (Norway and Sweden. Formerly Canal+ Extra 4.)\nC More Max (Finland only. Formerly MTV3 MAX and MTV Max.)\nC More Sport (Sweden only. Formerly Canal+ Sport and Canal+ Sport 1. Replaced Canal+ Zap.)\nC More Sport 1 (Finland only. Formerly Canal+ Sport 1, Canal+ Urheilu, MTV3 MAX Sport 1 and MTV Sport 1.)\nC More Sport 2 (Finland only. Formerly Canal+ Sport 2, Canal+ Aitio, MTV3 MAX Sport 2 and MTV Sport 2.)\nSportkanalen (Sweden only)\n\nDiscontinued:\nC More Extreme (formerly Canal+ Sport Extra)\nC More Live 5 (Norway and Sweden. Replaced C More Tennis.)\nC More Premier HD (Finland only. Formerly Canal+ Premier HD. Renamed MTV MAX Premier HD.)\nC More Tennis (replaced Canal+ Sport 2)\nCanal 8 Sport (Denmark only. Sold to Discovery Communications. Replaced Canal+ Sport 1.)\nCanal 9 (Denmark only. Sold to Discovery Communications.)\nCanal+ Sport 2 (replaced by C More Tennis)\nCanal+ Sport HD\n\nOnDemand Services\nC More Play\nFilmnet (Sweden only)\nC Sports (Sweden, Denmark and Norway)\n\nRights \nThe premium pay-TV concept used by C More Entertainment is based on exclusive broadcasting rights. These broadcasting rights include sports, movies and TV series.\n\nSports rights\nFootball\nSerie A (Sweden only)\nReal Madrid TV\nArsenal TV\nBarça TV\nMilan TV\nLiga BBVA (Finland and Sweden only)\nMajor League Soccer (excluding Finland)\nUEFA Champions League (only in Finland)\nUEFA Europa League (only in Finland)\nUEFA Euro 2012 (Denmark and Norway only)\nMotorsports (excluding Finland)\nSwedish Speedway Championship\nSwedish Touring Car Championship\nIndyCar Series\nFormula 3\nBTCC\nTennis\nWimbledon\nFrench Open\nATP\nWTA\nIce Hockey\nElitserien\nIIHF World Championship\nOther sports\nNBA\nUFC\nDiamond League (only in Finland)\n\nFilm and TV rights\nIn 2011, C More Entertainment had exclusive first-run deals for feature films and TV series with Fox Entertainment Group, DreamWorks, Home Box Office, MGM, Nonstop Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sandrew Metronome, Svensk Filmindustri, Warner Bros. Pictures and Zentropa.\n\nSee also\nList of programs broadcast by C More\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nC More Sweden\nC More Denmark\nC More Norway\nC More Finland\n\nMass media companies of Sweden\nPan-Nordic television channels\nTelevision channels and stations established in 1997\nTelevision networks in Sweden\nTV4 AB",
"Arthropods, mainly insects and arachnids, are used in film either to create fear and disgust in horror and thriller movies, or they are anthropomorphized and used as sympathetic characters in animated children's movies.\nThere are over 1,000,000 species of arthropods, including such familiar animals as ants, spiders, shrimps, crabs and butterflies.\n\nEarly 20th century films had difficulty featuring small insects due to technical difficulties in film-stock exposure and the quality of lenses available. Horror movies involving arthropods include the pioneering 1954 Them!, featuring giant ants mutated by radiation, and the 1957 The Deadly Mantis. Films based on oversized arthropods are sometimes described as big bug movies.\n\nArthropods used in films may be animated, sculpted, or otherwise synthesized; however, in many cases these films use actual creatures. As these creatures are not easily tamed or directed, a specialist known as a \"Bug Wrangler\" may be hired to control and direct these creatures. Some bug wranglers have become famous as a result of their expertise, such as Norman Gary, a champion bee-wrangler who is also a college professor, and Steven R. Kutcher, who wrangles a multitude of different types of bugs and who is the subject of over 100 print articles.\n\nHorror\n\nArthropods are effective tools to instill horror, because fear of arthropods may be conditioned into people's minds. Indeed, Jamie Whitten quoted in his book That We May Live, (talking about insects): \n<blockquote>The enemy is already here-in the skies, in the fields, and waterways. It is dug into every square foot of our earth; it has invaded homes, schoolhouses, public buildings; it has poisoned food and water; it brings sickness and death by germ warfare to countless millions of people every year.... The enemy within-these walking, crawling, jumping, flying pests-destroy more crops than drought and floods. They destroy more buildings than fire. They are responsible for many of the most dreaded diseases of man and his domestic animals.... Some of them eat or attack everything man owns or produces-including man himself.<ref>Belveal, Dee, Today's Health, Feb. 1996. Quoted in Whitten, Jamie L. That We May Live,\" D. Van Norstrand Company 1996. Print.</ref></blockquote>\nThus, insects and other arthropods are dangerous to humans in both obvious and less obvious ways. Undoubtedly, arthropods are dangerous for their potential to carry disease. Somewhat less apparently, arthropods cause damage to buildings, crops, and animals. Since arthropods can be harmful in so many ways, using insects and other arthropods to frighten people in movies was a logical step.\n\n Giant insects or \"Big Bugs\" \nAside from a natural fear or aversion to arthropods, reasons for using such creatures in movies could be metaphorical. Many of the most famous \"Big Bug Movies\" were made in the 1950s in the aftermath of World War II, when the world was introduced to the cataclysmic destruction inflicted by nuclear bombs. The bomb was unapproachable, remote, and terrifying; spiders and ants mutated by nuclear radiation to become huge were terrifying, but thanks to the competent government officials, soldiers, policemen, and detectives, the bugs were stopped and safety was restored. Nuclear terror was conquered without expressly facing a nuclear bomb. In this way, big bug movies could be cathartic and liberating to the general public. By another view, big bug movies could be less metaphorical, and more literally reflect concerns about the health effects of actual insect infestations as well as pesticides such as DDT.\n\nBig bug films may symbolize sexual desire. Margaret Tarrat says in her article \"Monsters of the id\" that \"[Big bug movies] arrive at social comment through a dramatization of the individual's anxiety about his or her own repressed sexual desires, which are incompatible with the morals of civilized life.\" By this theory, gigantic swarming insects could represent the huge, torrential—but repressed due to the demands of society—sexual desires possessed by the creator and viewer of the Big Bug movie.\n\nOn gigantic arthropods, Charles Q. Choi stated that, if the atmosphere had a higher percentage of oxygen, arthropods would be able to grow quite a bit larger before their trachea became too large and could not grow any more. In fact, in the early years of the earth, when the atmosphere was more oxygen-rich, dragonflies the size of crows were not an uncommon sight. According to biologist Michael C. LaBarbera in \"The Biology of B-Movie Monsters\", there may be additional limitations on gigantic insects. Square-cube law would require allometric scaling for any scaled up or scaled down creature, contrary to most movie monsters. For giant bugs as in Them!, their exoskeleton would consist of essentially hollow tubes -- thin-walled tubes are very efficient structures, however any slight damage would make them vulnerable to buckling. Additionally he argues, giant insects would face greater stresses on their joints due to a very small contact area (pin joints) compared to vertebrate joints.\n\nAnimation\nWinsor McCay, one of the founders of animation, made the first animated film about insects in 1912, titled How a Mosquito Operates. In the early 20th century, it was technically easier to include insects in animated films, which are drawn, over live-action films which would require more advanced techniques to film insects, due to their small size, necessitating better lenses and exposure techniques than those available at the time. One filmmaker, Władysław Starewicz, found that when filming live stag beetles, they tended to stop moving under the hot lights. To solve this problem, he killed his film subjects and attached wires to their bodies in order to puppeteer them. His films were successful, and he eventually abandoned real insects in favor of puppets of his own creation. One of the best-known animated insects is Jiminy Cricket, whose initial design was more realistic and insect-like, but eventually evolved into an elf-like creature. Computer-animated films have proven particularly suited for depicting insects, beginning with Pixar's 1984 short film The Adventures of André and Wally B. Early computer animation was successful at depicting rod-like appendages and shiny metallic surfaces, lending itself to the depiction of insects. By 1996, films like Joe’s Apartment achieved rendering hundreds of photorealistic insects. Other animated films continued to depict more anthropomorphized characters, such as A Bug's Life and Antz'', both of which came out in 1998, and the 2007 Bee Movie.\n\nOne reason insects are used successfully in such animations could be that an insect or other arthropod's small size makes it seem heroic and sympathetic when faced against the big, big world. Another reason is counterpoint to the reason for using arthropods in horror films: whereas horror movies play upon the instinctive negative reaction humans have towards insects and arachnids, these animation films make something that is different and strange seem real, approachable, and sympathetic, thus making it comforting.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n \n \n\n \nInsects in culture"
] |
[
"Helen Mirren",
"2000-2009",
"Was she acting in 2000?",
"Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000),",
"Did she receive positive reviews?",
"The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics,",
"Were their any more movies in 2000?",
"The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge,"
] |
C_aaa4e21dc2e84349b08163dfce1fb19a_1
|
Did she receive any reviews for either one in 2000?
| 4 |
Did Mirren receive any reviews for either The Pledge or Greenfingers in 2000?
|
Helen Mirren
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Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the award-winning prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics, who felt that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films. The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, actor Sean Penn's second directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also the year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics. Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. An homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren was initially resistant to join the project, at first dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, and grossed $96,000,000 worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams. CANNOTANSWER
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A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office.
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren (; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.
Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Early life and education
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London on 26 July 1945, to an English mother and Russian father. Her mother, Kathleen "Kitty" Alexandrina Eva Matilda (née Rogers; 1909–1996), was a working-class woman from West Ham, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility; he had been taken to England at age two by his father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov. Pyotr, who owned a family estate near Gzhatsk (now Gagarin), was part of the Russian aristocracy. Pyotr's mother, Mirren's great-grandmother, was Countess Lydia Andreevna Kamenskaya, aristocrat and a descendant of Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, a prominent Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars. Pyotr served as a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded by the Russian Revolution in 1917. The former diplomat settled down in England, and became a London cab driver to support his family.
Vasily also worked as a cab driver and then played the viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before World War II. During the war, he worked as an ambulance driver and served in the East End of London during the Blitz. He and Kathleen married in Hammersmith in 1938, and at some point before 1951 he anglicised his name to Basil. After the birth of Helen, Basil left the orchestra and returned to cab-driving in order to support the family. He later worked as a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. In 1951, Basil changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist". She was the second of three children, born between older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942) and younger brother Peter Basil (1947–2002). Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Mirren attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she had the lead role in a school production of Hansel and Gretel, and St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she also acted in school productions. She then attended a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on North End Road, which runs from Hampstead to Golders Green. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and was accepted. At twenty, she played Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, a role which Mirren says "launched my career", and led to her signing with agent Al Parker.
Theatre career
Early years
As a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). While with the RSC, she played Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (1967), Cressida in Troilus and Cressida (1968), Rosalind in As You Like It (1968), Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970), Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych (1971), and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place (1971). She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, between 1965 and 1967.
In 1970, the director and producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made for ATV, it was shown on the ITV network in the UK. In 1972 and 1973, Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US, during which they created The Conference of the Birds. She then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975.
Sally Beauman reported, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren — while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a letter to The Guardian newspaper — had sharply criticised both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre", and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." This started a big debate, and led to a question in parliament. There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.
West End and RSC
At the West End's Royal Court Theatre in September 1975, she played the role of a rock star named Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare; she reprised the role the following year in a revival of the play at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976.
Beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers's new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace', and winning acclaim for her performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios.
In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. That same year she also won acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which was later transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story." In her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl—at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre in April 1983—she was described as having "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.
At the beginning of 1989, Mirren co-starred with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions. British actors like to speak. In London, there’s a much more open-hearted kind of exchange between stage and audience" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989). In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).
On 15 February 2013, at the West End's Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience. The show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role.
Broadway debut
A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev.
Prior to 2015, Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001.
On 7 June 2015‚ Mirren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play‚ for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience (a performance which also won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Her Tony Award win made her one of the few actors to achieve the US “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of acclaimed performers including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino.
National Theatre
In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; The Guardian called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while The Daily Telegraph said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."
At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies. "This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better." She played the title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the Epidaurus amphitheatre on 11 and 12 July 2009.
Film career
Mirren has appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film appearances include roles in Herostratus (1967) Dir. Don Levy, Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Age of Consent (1969), O Lucky Man! (1973), Caligula (1979), The Long Good Friday (1980)—co-starring with Bob Hoskins in what was her breakthrough film role, Excalibur (1981), 2010 (1984), White Nights (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988) and When the Whales Came (1989). She appeared in The Madness of King George (1994), Some Mother's Son (1996), Painted Lady (1997) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In Peter Greenaway's colorful The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Mirren plays the wife opposite Michael Gambon. In Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), she plays sadistic history teacher Mrs Eve Tingle.
In 2007, she claimed that the director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a casting call in 1964. Asked about the incident, Winner told The Guardian: "I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious. I was only doing what the [casting] agent asked me – and for this I get reviled! Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actress and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."
Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in Gosford Park (2001) with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls (2003) with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing (2004), Pride (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Shadowboxer (2005). Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
2000–2009
Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison, who won gardening awards. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project received lukewarm reviews, which suggested that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films.
The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, Sean Penn's third directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also that year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics.
Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. A homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. It received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins.
In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren initially was reluctant to join the project, dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film was generally well received by critics, and grossed $96 million worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams.
2010–2014
In 2010, Mirren appeared in five films. In Love Ranch, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, she portrayed Sally Conforte, one half of a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the US, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada. Mirren starred in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, in Julie Taymor's The Tempest. This was based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare; Taymor changed the original character's gender to cast Mirren as her lead. While the actor garnered strong reviews for her portrayal, the film itself was largely panned by critics.
Mirren played a gutsy tea-shop owner who tries to save one of her young employees from marrying a teenage killer in Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, a crime film loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel. The film noir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, where it received mixed reviews. Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success of the year was Robert Schwentke's ensemble action comedy Red, based on Warren Ellis’s graphic novel, in which she portrayed Victoria, an ex-MI6 assassin. Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis' involvement. Released to positive reviews, it grossed $186.5 million worldwide. Also in 2010, the actor lent her voice to Zack Snyder's computer-animated fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, voicing antagonist Nyra, a leader of a group of owls. The film grossed $140.1 million on an $80 million budget.
Mirren's next film was the comedy film Arthur, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, starring Russell Brand in the lead role. Arthur received generally negative reviews from critics, who declared it an "irritating, unnecessary remake." In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name.
In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection." Mirren was universally praised, however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective." Her other film that year was The Door, a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things [she has] ever done."
The following year, Mirren replaced Bette Midler in David Mamet's biographical television film Phil Spector about the American musician. The HBO film focuses on the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Mirren, during the first of his two murder trials for the death in 2003 of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector received largely mixed to positive reviews from critics, particularly for Mirren and co-star Al Pacino's performances, and was nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, also winning Mirren a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 20th awards ceremony. The film drew criticism both from Clarkson's family and friends, who charged that the suicide defense was given more merit than it deserved, and from Spector's wife, who argued that Spector was portrayed as a "foul-mouthed megalomaniac" and a "minotaur". Also in 2013, Mirren voiced the character of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Pixar's computer-animated comedy film Monsters University, which grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million, and reprised her role in the sequel film Red 2. The action comedy received a mixed reviews from film critics, who called it a "lackadaisical sequel", but became another commercial success, making over $140 million worldwide.
Mirren's only film of 2014 was the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey opposite the Indian actor Om Puri. Directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film is based on Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel with the same name and tells the story of a feud between two adjacent restaurants in a French town. Mirren garnered largely positive reviews for her performance of a snobby restaurateur, a role which she accepted as she was keen to play a French character, reflecting her "pathetic attempt at being a French actress." The film earned her another Golden Globe nomination and became a modest commercial success, grossing $88.9 million worldwide.
2015–present
In 2015, Mirren reunited with her former assistant Simon Curtis on Woman in Gold, co-starring Ryan Reynolds. The film was based on the true story of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann, who, together with her young lawyer Randy Schoenberg, fought the Austrian government to be reunited with Gustav Klimt's painting of her aunt, the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although Mirren and Reynold's performances were widely praised. A commercial success, Woman in Gold became one of the highest-grossing specialty films of the year. The same year, Mirren appeared in Gavin Hood's thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), in which she played as a military intelligence officer who leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in Nairobi, Kenya. Mirren's last film that year was Jay Roach's biographical drama Trumbo, co-starring Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane. The actor played Hedda Hopper, the famous actor and gossip columnist, in the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics and garnered her a 14th Golden Globe nomination.
Mirren's only film of 2016 was Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel. Co-Starring Will Smith, Keira Knightley, and Kate Winslet, the ensemble drama follows a man who copes with his daughter's death by writing letters to time, death, and love. The film earned largely negative reviews from critics, who called it "well-meaning but fundamentally flawed." In 2017, Mirren narrated Cries from Syria, a documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. Also that year, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious, the eighth instalment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, playing Magdalene, the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw. Mirren had a larger role in director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut The Leisure Seeker, based on the 2009 novel of the same name. On set, she was reunited with Donald Sutherland with whom she had not worked again since Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990), portraying a terminally ill couple who escape from their retirement home and take one last cross-country adventure in a vintage van. At the 75th awards ceremony, Mirren received her 15th Golden Globe nomination.
In 2018, Mirren portrayed heiress Sarah Winchester in the supernatural horror film Winchester, directed by The Spierig Brothers. In the same year, she starred as Mother Ginger in Disney's adaptation of The Nutcracker, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston. In 2019, she appeared in the ensemble film Berlin, I Love You, the French crime thriller film Anna, directed and written by Luc Besson, and co-starred in the Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. In March 2021, she was cast as the villain Hespera in the upcoming superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Mirren is set to portray Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel 1969–1974, in a biopic entitled Golda. As at April 2021 the film was in production.
Television career
Prime Suspect
Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama series that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994 (making her one of four actors to have received three consecutive BAFTA TV Awards for a role, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Michael Gambon). Primarily due to Prime Suspect, in 2006 Mirren came 29th on ITV’s poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars voted by the British public.
Other roles
Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her an Emmy; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series. She also played Queen Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006. Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.
Personal life
Mirren lived with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson during the early 1980s; they met while working on Excalibur (1981). When interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors Studio, Neeson said Mirren was instrumental in him getting an agent.
Mirren began dating American director Taylor Hackford in 1986. They were married on 31 December 1997 at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The couple met on the set of White Nights (1985). It is her first marriage and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children, stating she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever".
Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."
In 1990, Mirren stated in an interview that she is an atheist. In the August 2011 issue of Esquire, Mirren said, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."
In a 2008 interview with GQ, Mirren revealed she was date raped as a student, and had often taken cocaine at parties in her twenties and until the 1980s. She stopped using the drug after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.
On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London. In 2012, she was among the British cultural icons selected by the artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires. In 2010, she was named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire, and in a 2011 photo shoot for the magazine she stripped down and then covered up with the Union Jack.
In 2013, Mirren was announced as one of several new models for Marks & Spencer's "Womanism" campaign. Subtitled "Britain's leading ladies", the campaign saw Mirren appear alongside British women from various fields, including pop singer Ellie Goulding, double Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams, and writer Monica Ali. In March 2013, The Guardian listed Mirren as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50.
She told the Radio Times, "I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly people, beautiful people, old people, whatever. It's so unisexual and so liberating." In 2004, she was named "Naturist of the Year" by British Naturism. She said: "Many thanks to British Naturism for this great honour. I do believe in naturism and am my happiest on a nude beach with people of all ages and races!"
Mirren became a U.S. citizen in 2017 and voted in her first U.S. election in 2020.
In April 2021, she took part in the music video "La Vacinada" (meaning the vaccinated woman in broken Spanish language) of Italian comedian and singer Checco Zalone.
In said song and video, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of Covid-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and as the elderly get vaccinated first, a higher-aged partner (played by Mirren in the video) is now the best choice.
Acting credits
Awards and honours
Among her major competitive awards, Mirren has won one Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award. Her numerous honorary awards include the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Gala Tribute presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace in December. In January 2009, Mirren was named on The Times''' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. The list included Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench and Audrey Hepburn.
See also
List of British actors
List of British Academy Award nominees and winners
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Bibliography
Ward, Philip (2019). Becoming Helen Mirren. Troubador Press. . A survey of the actress's early career.
External links
Interviews:''
1945 births
Living people
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actresses awarded British damehoods
Actresses from Essex
Alumni of Middlesex University
Audiobook narrators
BAFTA fellows
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
British naturists
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English atheists
English film actresses
English people of Russian descent
English radio actresses
English Shakespearean actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
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European Film Award for Best Actress winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Golden Orange Honorary Award winners
Honorary Golden Bear recipients
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National Youth Theatre members
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Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
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People from Hammersmith
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Tony Award winners
Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners
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[
"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",
"Mahenur Haider is a Pakistani actress and model. She is known for her role in drama Aulaad. She is best known for her roles in movie Parchi as Natasha and in movie Teefa in Trouble as Sara. She runs her fashion brand called Zyre.\n\nEarly life\nMahenur was born in 1995 on 14 September in Lahore, Pakistan. She completed her studies from Beaconhouse National University, she graduated with a degree in Visual Communication Design.\n\nCareer\nShe also did theatre at school, she did stage performance in 2011 for Umair Ashfaq's play, The Will at Lahore's famous Alhamra Arts Council she played the role of a Sikh woman named Aishwariya and after that she did a second play which was a Frankengujjar and was directed by Subhan Ahmad Bhutta. Mahenur first started modeling at age 17.\n\nShe first did her fashion shoot for Bareezé. For five years she did modeling for brands such as Khaadi, Nishat Linen, Maria B, Kayseria, Alkaram Studio, Beechtree, Charizma, Chen One, Clive Shoes, Limelight, Rang Ja, Rungrez, Shoe Planet and The Closet. She was also model for skincare brand and Conatural.\n\nMahenur later decided to do TV commercials and editorils. In 2016 she appeared in Jal’s music video for Layian Layian opposite Goher Mumtaz.\n\nIn 2018 she made her debuted in films with Imran Kazmi’s Parchi, directed by Azfar Jafri. The film came out to be a blockbuster with Mahenur role of Natasha received positively reviews in newspapers and magazines.\n \nThe same year in July she appeared in flim Teefa in Trouble her role was of Sara. The film was directed by Ahsan Rahim and had an ensemble cast of Ali Zafar, Maya Ali, Jawed Sheikh, Faisal Qureshi and Simi Raheal. Teefa in Trouble became one of the highest grossing films in the country her role was met with positive reviews.\n\nIn 2019, she appeared in the Strings music video for Raat Shabnami. The music video along with her performance garnered media attention and applaud.\n\nIn 2020 she was given the role of Muskaan in drama Aulaad aired on ARY Digital which she accepted. She also appeared in music video So Long, Goodbye by Danyal Zafar brother of Ali Zafar. The following year she appeared in film Naseeba with Mohsin Abbas Haider.\n\nPersonal life\nShe is married to businessman Zarrar Mustapha, they both married in 4th April 2018. She is influent in three languages which include English, Urdu and Punjabi and loves Urdu poetry.\n\nFilmography\n\nTelevision\n\nFilm\n\nMusic videos\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n \n \n\n1995 births\nLiving people\nPakistani television actresses\n21st-century Pakistani actresses\nPakistani film actresses"
] |
[
"Helen Mirren",
"2000-2009",
"Was she acting in 2000?",
"Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000),",
"Did she receive positive reviews?",
"The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics,",
"Were their any more movies in 2000?",
"The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge,",
"Did she receive any reviews for either one in 2000?",
"A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office."
] |
C_aaa4e21dc2e84349b08163dfce1fb19a_1
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Did she have any box office hits?
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Did Helen Mirren have any box office hits?
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Helen Mirren
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Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the award-winning prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics, who felt that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films. The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, actor Sean Penn's second directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also the year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics. Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. An homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren was initially resistant to join the project, at first dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, and grossed $96,000,000 worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams. CANNOTANSWER
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Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park.
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren (; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.
Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Early life and education
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London on 26 July 1945, to an English mother and Russian father. Her mother, Kathleen "Kitty" Alexandrina Eva Matilda (née Rogers; 1909–1996), was a working-class woman from West Ham, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility; he had been taken to England at age two by his father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov. Pyotr, who owned a family estate near Gzhatsk (now Gagarin), was part of the Russian aristocracy. Pyotr's mother, Mirren's great-grandmother, was Countess Lydia Andreevna Kamenskaya, aristocrat and a descendant of Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, a prominent Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars. Pyotr served as a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded by the Russian Revolution in 1917. The former diplomat settled down in England, and became a London cab driver to support his family.
Vasily also worked as a cab driver and then played the viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before World War II. During the war, he worked as an ambulance driver and served in the East End of London during the Blitz. He and Kathleen married in Hammersmith in 1938, and at some point before 1951 he anglicised his name to Basil. After the birth of Helen, Basil left the orchestra and returned to cab-driving in order to support the family. He later worked as a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. In 1951, Basil changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist". She was the second of three children, born between older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942) and younger brother Peter Basil (1947–2002). Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Mirren attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she had the lead role in a school production of Hansel and Gretel, and St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she also acted in school productions. She then attended a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on North End Road, which runs from Hampstead to Golders Green. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and was accepted. At twenty, she played Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, a role which Mirren says "launched my career", and led to her signing with agent Al Parker.
Theatre career
Early years
As a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). While with the RSC, she played Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (1967), Cressida in Troilus and Cressida (1968), Rosalind in As You Like It (1968), Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970), Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych (1971), and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place (1971). She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, between 1965 and 1967.
In 1970, the director and producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made for ATV, it was shown on the ITV network in the UK. In 1972 and 1973, Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US, during which they created The Conference of the Birds. She then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975.
Sally Beauman reported, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren — while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a letter to The Guardian newspaper — had sharply criticised both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre", and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." This started a big debate, and led to a question in parliament. There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.
West End and RSC
At the West End's Royal Court Theatre in September 1975, she played the role of a rock star named Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare; she reprised the role the following year in a revival of the play at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976.
Beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers's new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace', and winning acclaim for her performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios.
In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. That same year she also won acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which was later transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story." In her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl—at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre in April 1983—she was described as having "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.
At the beginning of 1989, Mirren co-starred with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions. British actors like to speak. In London, there’s a much more open-hearted kind of exchange between stage and audience" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989). In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).
On 15 February 2013, at the West End's Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience. The show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role.
Broadway debut
A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev.
Prior to 2015, Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001.
On 7 June 2015‚ Mirren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play‚ for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience (a performance which also won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Her Tony Award win made her one of the few actors to achieve the US “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of acclaimed performers including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino.
National Theatre
In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; The Guardian called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while The Daily Telegraph said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."
At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies. "This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better." She played the title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the Epidaurus amphitheatre on 11 and 12 July 2009.
Film career
Mirren has appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film appearances include roles in Herostratus (1967) Dir. Don Levy, Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Age of Consent (1969), O Lucky Man! (1973), Caligula (1979), The Long Good Friday (1980)—co-starring with Bob Hoskins in what was her breakthrough film role, Excalibur (1981), 2010 (1984), White Nights (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988) and When the Whales Came (1989). She appeared in The Madness of King George (1994), Some Mother's Son (1996), Painted Lady (1997) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In Peter Greenaway's colorful The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Mirren plays the wife opposite Michael Gambon. In Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), she plays sadistic history teacher Mrs Eve Tingle.
In 2007, she claimed that the director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a casting call in 1964. Asked about the incident, Winner told The Guardian: "I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious. I was only doing what the [casting] agent asked me – and for this I get reviled! Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actress and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."
Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in Gosford Park (2001) with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls (2003) with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing (2004), Pride (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Shadowboxer (2005). Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
2000–2009
Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison, who won gardening awards. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project received lukewarm reviews, which suggested that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films.
The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, Sean Penn's third directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also that year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics.
Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. A homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. It received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins.
In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren initially was reluctant to join the project, dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film was generally well received by critics, and grossed $96 million worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams.
2010–2014
In 2010, Mirren appeared in five films. In Love Ranch, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, she portrayed Sally Conforte, one half of a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the US, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada. Mirren starred in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, in Julie Taymor's The Tempest. This was based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare; Taymor changed the original character's gender to cast Mirren as her lead. While the actor garnered strong reviews for her portrayal, the film itself was largely panned by critics.
Mirren played a gutsy tea-shop owner who tries to save one of her young employees from marrying a teenage killer in Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, a crime film loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel. The film noir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, where it received mixed reviews. Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success of the year was Robert Schwentke's ensemble action comedy Red, based on Warren Ellis’s graphic novel, in which she portrayed Victoria, an ex-MI6 assassin. Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis' involvement. Released to positive reviews, it grossed $186.5 million worldwide. Also in 2010, the actor lent her voice to Zack Snyder's computer-animated fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, voicing antagonist Nyra, a leader of a group of owls. The film grossed $140.1 million on an $80 million budget.
Mirren's next film was the comedy film Arthur, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, starring Russell Brand in the lead role. Arthur received generally negative reviews from critics, who declared it an "irritating, unnecessary remake." In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name.
In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection." Mirren was universally praised, however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective." Her other film that year was The Door, a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things [she has] ever done."
The following year, Mirren replaced Bette Midler in David Mamet's biographical television film Phil Spector about the American musician. The HBO film focuses on the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Mirren, during the first of his two murder trials for the death in 2003 of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector received largely mixed to positive reviews from critics, particularly for Mirren and co-star Al Pacino's performances, and was nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, also winning Mirren a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 20th awards ceremony. The film drew criticism both from Clarkson's family and friends, who charged that the suicide defense was given more merit than it deserved, and from Spector's wife, who argued that Spector was portrayed as a "foul-mouthed megalomaniac" and a "minotaur". Also in 2013, Mirren voiced the character of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Pixar's computer-animated comedy film Monsters University, which grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million, and reprised her role in the sequel film Red 2. The action comedy received a mixed reviews from film critics, who called it a "lackadaisical sequel", but became another commercial success, making over $140 million worldwide.
Mirren's only film of 2014 was the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey opposite the Indian actor Om Puri. Directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film is based on Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel with the same name and tells the story of a feud between two adjacent restaurants in a French town. Mirren garnered largely positive reviews for her performance of a snobby restaurateur, a role which she accepted as she was keen to play a French character, reflecting her "pathetic attempt at being a French actress." The film earned her another Golden Globe nomination and became a modest commercial success, grossing $88.9 million worldwide.
2015–present
In 2015, Mirren reunited with her former assistant Simon Curtis on Woman in Gold, co-starring Ryan Reynolds. The film was based on the true story of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann, who, together with her young lawyer Randy Schoenberg, fought the Austrian government to be reunited with Gustav Klimt's painting of her aunt, the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although Mirren and Reynold's performances were widely praised. A commercial success, Woman in Gold became one of the highest-grossing specialty films of the year. The same year, Mirren appeared in Gavin Hood's thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), in which she played as a military intelligence officer who leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in Nairobi, Kenya. Mirren's last film that year was Jay Roach's biographical drama Trumbo, co-starring Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane. The actor played Hedda Hopper, the famous actor and gossip columnist, in the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics and garnered her a 14th Golden Globe nomination.
Mirren's only film of 2016 was Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel. Co-Starring Will Smith, Keira Knightley, and Kate Winslet, the ensemble drama follows a man who copes with his daughter's death by writing letters to time, death, and love. The film earned largely negative reviews from critics, who called it "well-meaning but fundamentally flawed." In 2017, Mirren narrated Cries from Syria, a documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. Also that year, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious, the eighth instalment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, playing Magdalene, the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw. Mirren had a larger role in director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut The Leisure Seeker, based on the 2009 novel of the same name. On set, she was reunited with Donald Sutherland with whom she had not worked again since Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990), portraying a terminally ill couple who escape from their retirement home and take one last cross-country adventure in a vintage van. At the 75th awards ceremony, Mirren received her 15th Golden Globe nomination.
In 2018, Mirren portrayed heiress Sarah Winchester in the supernatural horror film Winchester, directed by The Spierig Brothers. In the same year, she starred as Mother Ginger in Disney's adaptation of The Nutcracker, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston. In 2019, she appeared in the ensemble film Berlin, I Love You, the French crime thriller film Anna, directed and written by Luc Besson, and co-starred in the Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. In March 2021, she was cast as the villain Hespera in the upcoming superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Mirren is set to portray Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel 1969–1974, in a biopic entitled Golda. As at April 2021 the film was in production.
Television career
Prime Suspect
Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama series that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994 (making her one of four actors to have received three consecutive BAFTA TV Awards for a role, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Michael Gambon). Primarily due to Prime Suspect, in 2006 Mirren came 29th on ITV’s poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars voted by the British public.
Other roles
Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her an Emmy; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series. She also played Queen Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006. Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.
Personal life
Mirren lived with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson during the early 1980s; they met while working on Excalibur (1981). When interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors Studio, Neeson said Mirren was instrumental in him getting an agent.
Mirren began dating American director Taylor Hackford in 1986. They were married on 31 December 1997 at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The couple met on the set of White Nights (1985). It is her first marriage and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children, stating she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever".
Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."
In 1990, Mirren stated in an interview that she is an atheist. In the August 2011 issue of Esquire, Mirren said, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."
In a 2008 interview with GQ, Mirren revealed she was date raped as a student, and had often taken cocaine at parties in her twenties and until the 1980s. She stopped using the drug after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.
On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London. In 2012, she was among the British cultural icons selected by the artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires. In 2010, she was named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire, and in a 2011 photo shoot for the magazine she stripped down and then covered up with the Union Jack.
In 2013, Mirren was announced as one of several new models for Marks & Spencer's "Womanism" campaign. Subtitled "Britain's leading ladies", the campaign saw Mirren appear alongside British women from various fields, including pop singer Ellie Goulding, double Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams, and writer Monica Ali. In March 2013, The Guardian listed Mirren as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50.
She told the Radio Times, "I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly people, beautiful people, old people, whatever. It's so unisexual and so liberating." In 2004, she was named "Naturist of the Year" by British Naturism. She said: "Many thanks to British Naturism for this great honour. I do believe in naturism and am my happiest on a nude beach with people of all ages and races!"
Mirren became a U.S. citizen in 2017 and voted in her first U.S. election in 2020.
In April 2021, she took part in the music video "La Vacinada" (meaning the vaccinated woman in broken Spanish language) of Italian comedian and singer Checco Zalone.
In said song and video, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of Covid-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and as the elderly get vaccinated first, a higher-aged partner (played by Mirren in the video) is now the best choice.
Acting credits
Awards and honours
Among her major competitive awards, Mirren has won one Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award. Her numerous honorary awards include the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Gala Tribute presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace in December. In January 2009, Mirren was named on The Times''' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. The list included Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench and Audrey Hepburn.
See also
List of British actors
List of British Academy Award nominees and winners
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Bibliography
Ward, Philip (2019). Becoming Helen Mirren. Troubador Press. . A survey of the actress's early career.
External links
Interviews:''
1945 births
Living people
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actresses awarded British damehoods
Actresses from Essex
Alumni of Middlesex University
Audiobook narrators
BAFTA fellows
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
British naturists
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English atheists
English film actresses
English people of Russian descent
English radio actresses
English Shakespearean actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
English voice actresses
European Film Award for Best Actress winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Golden Orange Honorary Award winners
Honorary Golden Bear recipients
Laurence Olivier Award winners
National Youth Theatre members
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People from Hammersmith
People from Westcliff-on-Sea
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Tony Award winners
Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners
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[
"The following is a list of released songs recorded and performed by Roxette.\n\nThe goal here is to capture all songs and their initial source. \n\nAlternate versions are captured as indents following the main song (album) version. \n\nAlternates and B-sides may include other publications beyond the initial source. \n\nLive versions not included unless it was the only or initial source of the song.\n\n0–9 \n \"2 Cinnamon Street\" (Super Mario Bros OST, 1993)\n \"7Twenty7\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\nDemo (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006) (Rox Box 15)\n \"20 BPM\" (Good Karma, 2016)\n\nA \n \"A Thing About You\" (The Ballad Hits, 2002) (A collection . . ) (XXX) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n \"After All\" (Charm School, 2011)\nT&A demo 7/27/10 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n \"All I Ever Wanted\" (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006)\n \"Almost Unreal\" (A-Side from \"Almost Unreal\"/Super Mario Bros OST, 1993) (Don’t bore us …) (Ballad hits) (A collection . . ) (XXX) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\nDemo Feb 1993 (Roxette Rarities, 1995)\n \"Always Breaking My Heart\" (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006) (Rox Box 15)\n”Always the Last to Know” (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Angel Passing\" (Travelling, 2012)\n ”Another Place Another Time” (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"Anyone\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\n \"Anyone/I Love How You Love Me\" (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006) (Rox Box 15)\n \"April Clouds\" (Good Karma, 2016)\n\nB \n “Beautiful Boy” (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n\"Beautiful Things\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\n”Before You Go To Sleep” demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Better Off on Her Own\" (B-Side from \"Stars\",1999) (The Pop Hits, 2003)\n Demo (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006)\n \"Big Black Cadillac\" (Charm School, 2011)\nT&A demo 7/2/10 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n \"Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla (You Broke My Heart)\" (The Pop Hits, 2003) (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006) (Rox Box 15)\n \"Breathe\" (The Ballad Hits, 2002) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n \"Bringing Me Down to My Knees\" (Room Service, 2001)\n\nC \n \"Call of the Wild\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\n \"Chances\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\n \"Church of Your Heart\" (Joyride, 1991)\n US ac-mix (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n T&A demo (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"Cinnamon Street\" (Tourism, 1992)\n \"Come Back (Before You Leave)\" (B-Side from \"Joyride\", 1991) (Joyride 30th)\n Version on Tourism\n \"Cooper\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\nCooper(Closer to God) (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Crash! Boom! Bang!\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\nSingle edit (Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus - Roxette's Greatest Hits, 1995)(Ballad hits) (A collection . . ) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\nRadio edit (Roxette XXX The 30 Biggest Hits)\n \"Crazy About You\" (B-Side from \"You Don't Understand Me\",1995)\n \"Crush on You\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\n \"Cry\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\nDemo (The Rox Box/Roxette 86 - 06) (Rox Box 15)\n\nD \n \"Dance Away\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\n \"Dangerous\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\nMTV Unplugged (Roxette Rarities, 1995)\nsingle version (Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus - Roxette's Greatest Hits, 1995) (A collection . . ) (Rox Box 15)\nswedish single version (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Don't Believe in Accidents\" (B-Side from \"Run to You\", 1991)\n \"(Do You Get) Excited?\" (Joyride, 1991)\n T&A demo (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"Do You Wanna Go the Whole Way?\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\n \"Dream On\" (Charm School, 2011)\nT&A demo 1/25/10 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n \"Dressed for Success\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\nU.S. single mix (Roxette Rarities, 1995) (Don’t bore us …) (The Pop Hits, 2003) (A collection . . ) (XXX) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n\nE \n \"Easy Way Out\" (Travelling, 2012)\n \"Entering Your Heart\" (B-Side from \"The Centre Of The Heart\", 2001)\n \"Every Day\" (The Ballad Hits, 2002) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\nStudio Vinden demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Excuse Me, Sir, Do You Want Me to Check on Your Wife?\" (Travelling, 2012)\n\nF \n \"Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)\" (Joyride, 1991)\n US single, Humberto Vatican mix (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n T&A demo (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"Fingertips\" (Tourism, 1992)\nFingertips ‘93 (Roxette Rarities, 1995)\n \"Fireworks\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\nJesus Jones remix (Roxette Rarities, 1995)\n \"Fool\" (Room Service, 2001)\n \"From a Distance\" (Good Karma, 2016)\n \"From One Heart to Another\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\nMontezuma demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n\nG \n \"Go to Sleep\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\nSkinnarviksringen demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Good Karma\" (Good Karma, 2016)\n \"Goodbye to You\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\nMontezuma demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n\nH \n \"Half a Woman, Half a Shadow\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\n \"Happy on the Outside\" (Charm School, 2011)\nT&A demo 8/17/05 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n \"Happy Together\" (B-Side from \"Wish I Could Fly\", 1999) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n \"Harleys & Indians (Riders in the Sky)\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\n \"Help\" (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006) (Rox Box 15) (Trix)\n \"Here Comes the Weekend\" (Tourism, 1992)\n \"Hotblooded\" (Joyride, 1991)\nT&A demo 12/13/90 (Bag of Trix, 2020) (Joyride 30th)\nT&A demo 1/23/90 (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"How Do You Do!\" (Tourism, 1992)\n\nI \n \"I Call Your Name\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\nMontezuma demo (Pearls of Passion reissue 1997)\nFrank Mono-mix (Pearls of Passion reissue 1997)\n \"(I Could Never) Give You Up\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\n \"I Don't Want To Get Hurt\" (Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus - Roxette's Greatest Hits, 1995) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n \"I Love the Sound of Crashing Guitars\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\n \"I Remember You\" (Joyride, 1991)\nT&A demo 3/15/90 (Bag of Trix, 2020) (Joyride 30th)\nT&A demo 4/1/90 (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"I Was So Lucky\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\nOuttake (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"I'm Glad You Called\" (Charm School, 2011)\nLive Demo Rotterdam 11/19/09 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n \"I'm Sorry\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\n \"In My Own Way\" (Charm School, 2011)\nT&A demo 8/7/09 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n \"It Hurts\" (The Ballad Hits, 2002) (Rox Box 06)\nT&A demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"It Just Happens\" (Good Karma, 2016)\n \"It Must Have Been Love\" (A-Side from \"It Must Have Been Love\"/Pretty Woman Soundtrack, 1990) (Ballad hits) (A collection . . ) (XXX) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n \"It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)\" (A-Side from \"It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)\", 1987)\n \"It Takes You No Time to Get Here\" (Room Service, 2001)\nOuttake (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"It Will Take a Long Long Time\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\nModern Rock version (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006) (Rox Box 15) (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"It's Possible\" (Travelling, 2012)\nVersion 2 (Travelling, 2012)\n\nJ \n \"Jefferson\" (Room Service, 2001)\n \"Joy of a Toy\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\nMontezuma demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Joyride\" (Joyride, 1991)\nMTV Unplugged (Roxette Rarities, 1995)\nsingle edit (Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus - Roxette's Greatest Hits, 1995) (The Pop Hits, 2003) (A collection . . ) (XXX)\nBrian Malouf U.S. single (Bag of Trix, 2020) (Joyride 30th)\nRadio edit (The Rox Box/Roxette 86 - 06) (Rox Box 15)\nT&A demo (Joyride 30th, 2021)\nJoyrider T&A demo (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"June Afternoon\" (Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus - Roxette's Greatest Hits, 1995) (The Pop Hits, 2003) (XXX) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n\nK \n \"Keep Me Waiting\" (Tourism, 1992)\n \"Knockin' on Every Door\" (Joyride, 1991)\n T&A demo (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n\nL \n \"Let Your Heart Dance with Me\" (Bag of Trix, 2020) \n\"Lies\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\n \"Like Lovers Do\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\nMontezuma demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Listen to Your Heart\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\nSwedish single (Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus - Roxette's Greatest Hits, 1995) (Ballad hits) (A collection . . ) (XXX) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\nAbbey Road sessions 1995 (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Little Girl\" (Room Service, 2001)\nStudio Vinden demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Little Miss Sorrow\" (The Pop Hits, 2003) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n \"Looking for Jane\" (Room Service, 2001)\n \"Love Is All (Shine Your Light On Me)\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\n \"Love Spins\" (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006) (Rox Box 15) (Joyride 30th)\n \"Lover, Lover, Lover\" (Travelling, 2012)\n\nM \n \"Make My Head Go Pop\" (Room Service, 2001)\n \"Makin' Love to You\" (The Pop Hits, 2006)\n \"Me & You & Terry & Julie\" (Travelling, 2012)\n \"Milk and Toast and Honey\" (Room Service, 2001)\n Single master (Ballad hits, 2002) (XXX)\n \"My World, My Love, My Life\" (Room Service, 2001)\n \"Myth\" (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006) (Rox Box 15)\n\nN \n \"Never Is a Long Time\" (Tourism, 1992)\n \"Neverending Love\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\nT&A demo (Pearls of Passion reissue, 1997)\nFrank Mono-mix (Pearls of Passion reissue 1997)\n \"New World\" (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006) (Trix)\n \"No One Makes It on Her Own\" (Charm School, 2011)\nT&A Demo 7/26/10 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n\nO \n \"One Is Such a Lonely Number\" (B-Side from \"The Big L.\", 1991)\nDemo September 1987 (Roxette Rarities, 1995)\n \"One Wish\" (A Collection of Roxette Hits: Their 20 Greatest Songs!, 2006) (Rox Box 15)\n \"Only When I Dream\" (Charm School, 2011)\nT&A demo 8/7/09 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n \"Opportunity Nox\" (The Pop Hits, 2003) (XXX) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n\nP \n \"Paint\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\n \"Pay the Price\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\n \"Pearls of Passion\" (B-Side from \"Soul Deep\", 1987)\nMontezuma demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Perfect Day\" (Joyride, 1991)\nT&A demo (Bag of Trix, 2020) (Joyride 30th)\n \"Perfect Excuse\" (Travelling, 2012)\n \"Piece of Cake\" (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Physical Fascination\" (Joyride, 1991)\n T&A demo (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"Place Your Love\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\n”Pocketful of Rain” (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n\nQ \n \"Queen of Rain\" (Tourism, 1992)\n T&A demo (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n\nR \n \"Real Sugar\" (Room Service, 2001)\n \"Reveal\" (A Collection of Roxette Hits: Their 20 Greatest Songs!, 2006)\n Attic remix (Rox Box 15)\n “Run Run Run” (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"Run to You\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\n\nS \n \"Salvation\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\n \"Secrets That She Keeps\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\nT&A demo (Pearls of Passion reissue 1997)\n \"Seduce Me\" (B-Side from \"June Afternoon\", 1996) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n \"See Me\" (B-Side from \"Salvation\", 1999) (Rox Box 06)\n \"Shadow of a Doubt\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\n \"She Doesn't Live Here Anymore\" (Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus - Roxette's Greatest Hits, 1995) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n \"She's Got Nothing On (But the Radio)\" (Charm School, 2011)\nAdam Rickfors remix (Charm School revisited, 2011)\nAdrian Lux remix (Charm School revisited, 2011)\nT&A Demo 8/7/10 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n \"Silver Blue\" (B-Side from \"Chances\", 1988)\n \"Sitting on Top of the World\" (Charm School, 2011)\nT&A demo 7/13/10 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n \"Sleeping in My Car\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\nSingle edit (Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus - Roxette's Greatest Hits, 1995) (The Pop Hits, 2003) (A collection . . ) (XXX) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\nStockholm demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Sleeping Single\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\n \"Small Talk\" (Joyride, 1991)\n T&A demo (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"So Far Away\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\n \"Some Other Summer\" (Good Karma, 2016)\n \"Soul Deep\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\nTom Lord-Alge mix (Bag of Trix, 2020) (Joyride 30th)\n \"Speak to Me\" (Charm School, 2011)\nBassflow remake (Charm School revisited 2011) (Rox Box 15)\nT&A Demo 7/13/10 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n \"Spending My Time\" (Joyride, 1991)\nElectric Dance remix (Roxette Rarities, 1995)\nT&A demo (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"Staring at the Ground\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\nDemo (The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06, 2006) (Rox Box 15)\n \"Stars\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\n \"Stupid\" (The Pop Hits, 2003)\n \"Surrender\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\n ”Sweet Thing” (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n\nT \n \"The Big L.\" (Joyride, 1991)\nT&A demo 3/29/90 (Bag of Trix, 2020) (Joyride 30th)\nT&A demo 4/1/90 (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"The Centre of the Heart (Is a Suburb to the Brain)\" (Room Service, 2001)\nOuttake (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"The First Girl on the Moon\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\n \"The Heart Shaped Sea\" (Tourism, 1992)\n \"The Rain\" (Tourism, 1992)\n \"The Sweet Hello, the Sad Goodbye\" (B-Side from \"Spending My Time\",1991) (Rarities) (Rox Box 06)\nBassflow remake (A Collection of Roxette Hits: Their 20 Greatest Songs!, 2006) (XXX) (Rox Box 15)\nT&A demo (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"The Look\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\nMTV Unplugged (Roxette Rarities, 1995)\nabbey road sessions 1995 (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n2015 remake\n \"The Voice\" (B-Side from \"Dressed for Success\", 1988) (Rarities) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n \"The Weight of the World\" (The Ballad Hits, 2002) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n \"Things Will Never Be the Same\" (Joyride, 1991)\nT&A demo 12/13/90 (Bag of Trix, 2020) (Joyride 30th)\nT&A demo 6/17/89 (Joyride 30th, 2021)\nT&A demo 9/17/89 (Joyride 30th, 2021)\n \"This One\" (Good Karma, 2016)\n \"Touched by the Hand of God\" (Travelling, 2012)\n \"Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)\" (Room Service, 2001)\n \"Turn of the Tide\" (Travelling, 2012)\n \"Turn to Me\" (B-Side from \"It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)\",1987)\n\nV \n \"View from a Hill\" (Look Sharp!, 1988)\n \"Voices\" (Pearls of Passion, 1986)\n \"Vulnerable\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\nSingle version (Roxette Rarities, 1995)\nsingle edit (Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus - Roxette's Greatest Hits, 1995) (Ballad hits) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\n\nW \n \"Waiting for the Rain\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\nStudio Vinden demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"Watercolours in the Rain\" (Joyride, 1991)\nT&A demo (Bag of Trix, 2020) (Joyride 30th)\n \"Way Out\" (Charm School, 2011)\nT&A Demo 1/25/10 (Charm School revisited, 2011)\n What's She Like?\" (Crash! Boom! Bang!, 1994)\n \"Why Don't You Bring Me Flowers?\" (Good Karma, 2016)\n \"Why Dontcha?\" (Good Karma, 2016)\n \"Wish I Could Fly\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\n\nY \n \"You Can't Do This to Me Anymore\" (Good Karma, 2016)\n \"You Can't Put Your Arms Around What's Already Gone\" (Have a Nice Day, 1999)\n \"You Don't Understand Me\" (Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus - Roxette's Greatest Hits, 1995) (Ballad hits) (XXX) (Rox Box 06) (Rox Box 15)\nAbbey Road sessions 1995 (Bag of Trix, 2020)\nT&A demo (Bag of Trix, 2020)\n \"You Make It Sound So Simple\" (Good Karma, 2016)\n\n \nRoxette",
"The Box Office Entertainment Awards, sometimes known as the GMMSF Box Office Entertainment Awards is an annual award ceremony held in Metro Manila and organized by Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Scholarship Foundation. The award-giving body honors stars and performers simply for their popularity and commercial success in the Philippine entertainment industry, regardless of their excellence in their particular fields.\n\nDuring the first months of each year, mostly during March or April, the Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Scholarship Foundation board of jurors will deliberate for the year's winners, which will be chosen from the Top 10 Philippine films of the past year, top-rating shows in Philippine television, top recording awards received by singers, and top gross receipts of concerts and performances. The list will then be released prior to the awards night, which is held during April or May.\n\nHistory\nFerdie Syquia Villar, the person who launched the \"Miss Republic of the Philippines\" contest, came up with the \"Box Office King and Queen Awards\" in 1960s, and formally launched his idea in 1970. By the late '70s, after then President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972, he turned the responsibility over to Corazon Samaniego before leaving for abroad.\n\nCorazon Samaniego, a former businesswoman in Bulacan, continued the presentation and officially inaugurated the \"Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Scholarship Foundation Inc.\" in 1971. The organization is named after a former Bulacan town mayor and philanthropist and her late father, Guillermo Mendoza. It became an annual event, recognizing the most popular people and their works in the Philippine entertainment industry. At the end of the day, the proceeds from the television rights and gate receipts are used to send underprivileged Bulacan students to school.\n\nRecords\nVice Ganda has the most phenomenal box office star titles with six, he is also the first person to receive this award in 2012.\n\nSharon Cuneta has the most box office queen titles in history with 10.\n\nFernando Poe Jr. and Vic Sotto have the most box office king titles in history with seven.\n\nMilestones\n1960s: The first \"Box Office King and Queen\" was introduced by Ferdie Syquia Villar. The late Fernando \"Ronnie\"., Poe, Jr. and Boots Anson-Roa were actually the first recipients of the \"Box Office King and Queen of Philippine Movies\" title in 1968. Subsequently, Ronnie became a regular recipient of the award as if to certify that he is the \"King of Philippine Movies\" or \"Da King\"\n1971: The award-giving body was officially established in the year 1971 after the turn-over. Nora Aunor won the \"Box Office Queen\" award for the Guillermo Mendoza Foundation.\n2006: The former \"Box Office King and Queen Awards\" was renamed to \"Box Office Entertainment Awards\". Together with the name change, some categories were also altered. For example, the former \"Mr. and Miss RP Movies\" and \"Prince and Princess of RP Movies\" titles became \"Film Actor and Actress of the Year\" and \"Prince and Princess of Philippine Movies\" respectively.\n2007 For the first time, there were two recipients for the \"Box Office Queen\". Kris Aquino and Claudine Barretto received the award for their film Sukob under Star Cinema.\n2009: This was the 39th year of the annual event; however, the organization believes that 39 is an unlucky number. Thus they skipped 39 and consider this event the 40th instead.\n2012: The award-giving body officially introduced a new award called \"Phenomenal Box Office Star\", which is given to the actor(s) whose film attains the highest-grossing film of all time in the Philippines. It was given to Vice Ganda for his fim The Unkabogable Praybeyt Benjamin, which received PHP 332M.\n\nAward ceremonies\n\n1The yearly event is supposed to be the 39th year, but they believe that it is an unlucky number. Thus they skipped the 39th and consider this event the 40th instead.\n\nMerit categories\n\nMajor awards\n Phenomenal Box Office Star\n Box Office King\n Box Office Queen\n\nOther awards\n\nFilm category\n\nTelevision category\n\nMusic category\n\nRecurring awards\n Valentine Box Office King\n Valentine Box Office Queen\n Teenage King of Philippine Movies\n Teenage Queen of Philippine Movies\n Phenomenal Box Office Child Star\n Phenomenal Box Office Tandem\n\nOther awards\n Bert Marcelo Lifetime Achievement Award \n Breakthrough Box Office Indie Film\n All-Time Highest Grossing Horror Film\n\nDiscontinued categories\n Stuntman of the Year \n Female Stunt of the Year \n All-Time Favorite Actor \n All-Time Favorite Actress\n\nControversies\nThe following are the controversies of the award ceremonies:\n1986: Maricel Soriano should have won Box-Office Queen for Batang Quiapo. Her co-star FPJ was named Box-Office King. But she was named Ms. RP for Movies instead. She didn’t attend the Awarding thus she was never awarded the Box-Office Queen ever.\n2003: Many questioned Aga Muhlach's win as the \"Box Office King\" after the official list of winners were released. In particular, the fans of the late Rico Yan contested, saying that his last film Got 2 Believe was the highest-grossing film of the year. Although they were not personally against Muhlach, they believed that the award-giving body should give an explanation.\n2006: Questions from the readers arose after the organization chose Kristine Hermosa for the \"Box Office Queen\" title. They argued that there were more deserving actresses to receive the title over Hermosa, who only had one film that year. Furthermore, they believed that her one and only film, Enteng Kabisote 2: Okay Ka Fairy Ko: The Legend Continues, was actually successful because of her leading man, Vic Sotto, who was the \"Box Office King\" of 2005. Thus, most, if not all, the credit goes to Sotto, not hers.\n2008: There was speculation that Judy Ann Santos would not win any of the awards from the award-giving body anymore. Although her 2006 films Don't Give Up on Us and Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo, and the latter's sequel Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo in 2007 were all box office hits, top-grossing films in fact, she did not win any of the awards. Furthermore, not even Ryan Agoncillo, her leading man and real life partner, nor the director of the two films Joey Reyes won an award. They believed that it all started during the awards night of the 30th award ceremony in 2000 wherein \"Box Office King and Queen\" winners Fernando Poe Jr. and Judy Ann Santos of Isusumbong Kita sa Tatay Ko were not able to attend. Santos had a taping at that time, while FPJ does not want to be crowned without his queen. The next year, and until now, they were not able to receive any of the awards anymore, not even nominees nor special mentions despite them having box office films. They believe that the award-giving body disqualified Santos as they took her (and FPJ's) absence personally.\n2011: There were reports that Bea Alonzo was a snob to Gerald Anderson during the awards night as he was linked to her before. Alonzo denied the issue, however, explaining that her seat is far from him. Since she was already a latecomer, she does not want to make a scene by going there just to get his attention.\nIt was also believed that there was a leakage of the winners list, saying that the \"Box Office Queen\" title would be given to Toni Gonzaga for her film My Amnesia Girl. However, many even speculated that Ai-Ai delas Alas would receive the title for her box office movie Ang Tanging Ina Mo (Last na 'To!). In the end, the latter received the award.\n2013: There were rumors that the organization was disappointed with John Lloyd Cruz for not attending the awards night. Cruz, as the report says, promised to attend the event to receive the \"Box Office King\" award personally. However, he was not seen throughout the event, saying that he was sick. In contrast, the speculations point out that Cruz attended another event, instead.\n\nSee also\n\n List of Asian television awards\n\nReferences\n\n \nPhilippine music awards\nPhilippine television awards\nPhilippine film awards"
] |
[
"Helen Mirren",
"2000-2009",
"Was she acting in 2000?",
"Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000),",
"Did she receive positive reviews?",
"The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics,",
"Were their any more movies in 2000?",
"The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge,",
"Did she receive any reviews for either one in 2000?",
"A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office.",
"Did she have any box office hits?",
"Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park."
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C_aaa4e21dc2e84349b08163dfce1fb19a_1
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Did she win an award for that movie?
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Did Mirren win an award for Gosford Park?
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Helen Mirren
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Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the award-winning prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics, who felt that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films. The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, actor Sean Penn's second directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also the year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics. Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. An homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren was initially resistant to join the project, at first dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, and grossed $96,000,000 worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams. CANNOTANSWER
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Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren (; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.
Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Early life and education
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London on 26 July 1945, to an English mother and Russian father. Her mother, Kathleen "Kitty" Alexandrina Eva Matilda (née Rogers; 1909–1996), was a working-class woman from West Ham, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility; he had been taken to England at age two by his father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov. Pyotr, who owned a family estate near Gzhatsk (now Gagarin), was part of the Russian aristocracy. Pyotr's mother, Mirren's great-grandmother, was Countess Lydia Andreevna Kamenskaya, aristocrat and a descendant of Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, a prominent Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars. Pyotr served as a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded by the Russian Revolution in 1917. The former diplomat settled down in England, and became a London cab driver to support his family.
Vasily also worked as a cab driver and then played the viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before World War II. During the war, he worked as an ambulance driver and served in the East End of London during the Blitz. He and Kathleen married in Hammersmith in 1938, and at some point before 1951 he anglicised his name to Basil. After the birth of Helen, Basil left the orchestra and returned to cab-driving in order to support the family. He later worked as a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. In 1951, Basil changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist". She was the second of three children, born between older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942) and younger brother Peter Basil (1947–2002). Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Mirren attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she had the lead role in a school production of Hansel and Gretel, and St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she also acted in school productions. She then attended a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on North End Road, which runs from Hampstead to Golders Green. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and was accepted. At twenty, she played Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, a role which Mirren says "launched my career", and led to her signing with agent Al Parker.
Theatre career
Early years
As a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). While with the RSC, she played Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (1967), Cressida in Troilus and Cressida (1968), Rosalind in As You Like It (1968), Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970), Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych (1971), and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place (1971). She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, between 1965 and 1967.
In 1970, the director and producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made for ATV, it was shown on the ITV network in the UK. In 1972 and 1973, Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US, during which they created The Conference of the Birds. She then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975.
Sally Beauman reported, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren — while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a letter to The Guardian newspaper — had sharply criticised both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre", and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." This started a big debate, and led to a question in parliament. There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.
West End and RSC
At the West End's Royal Court Theatre in September 1975, she played the role of a rock star named Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare; she reprised the role the following year in a revival of the play at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976.
Beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers's new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace', and winning acclaim for her performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios.
In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. That same year she also won acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which was later transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story." In her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl—at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre in April 1983—she was described as having "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.
At the beginning of 1989, Mirren co-starred with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions. British actors like to speak. In London, there’s a much more open-hearted kind of exchange between stage and audience" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989). In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).
On 15 February 2013, at the West End's Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience. The show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role.
Broadway debut
A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev.
Prior to 2015, Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001.
On 7 June 2015‚ Mirren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play‚ for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience (a performance which also won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Her Tony Award win made her one of the few actors to achieve the US “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of acclaimed performers including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino.
National Theatre
In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; The Guardian called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while The Daily Telegraph said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."
At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies. "This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better." She played the title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the Epidaurus amphitheatre on 11 and 12 July 2009.
Film career
Mirren has appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film appearances include roles in Herostratus (1967) Dir. Don Levy, Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Age of Consent (1969), O Lucky Man! (1973), Caligula (1979), The Long Good Friday (1980)—co-starring with Bob Hoskins in what was her breakthrough film role, Excalibur (1981), 2010 (1984), White Nights (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988) and When the Whales Came (1989). She appeared in The Madness of King George (1994), Some Mother's Son (1996), Painted Lady (1997) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In Peter Greenaway's colorful The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Mirren plays the wife opposite Michael Gambon. In Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), she plays sadistic history teacher Mrs Eve Tingle.
In 2007, she claimed that the director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a casting call in 1964. Asked about the incident, Winner told The Guardian: "I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious. I was only doing what the [casting] agent asked me – and for this I get reviled! Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actress and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."
Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in Gosford Park (2001) with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls (2003) with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing (2004), Pride (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Shadowboxer (2005). Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
2000–2009
Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison, who won gardening awards. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project received lukewarm reviews, which suggested that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films.
The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, Sean Penn's third directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also that year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics.
Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. A homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. It received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins.
In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren initially was reluctant to join the project, dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film was generally well received by critics, and grossed $96 million worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams.
2010–2014
In 2010, Mirren appeared in five films. In Love Ranch, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, she portrayed Sally Conforte, one half of a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the US, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada. Mirren starred in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, in Julie Taymor's The Tempest. This was based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare; Taymor changed the original character's gender to cast Mirren as her lead. While the actor garnered strong reviews for her portrayal, the film itself was largely panned by critics.
Mirren played a gutsy tea-shop owner who tries to save one of her young employees from marrying a teenage killer in Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, a crime film loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel. The film noir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, where it received mixed reviews. Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success of the year was Robert Schwentke's ensemble action comedy Red, based on Warren Ellis’s graphic novel, in which she portrayed Victoria, an ex-MI6 assassin. Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis' involvement. Released to positive reviews, it grossed $186.5 million worldwide. Also in 2010, the actor lent her voice to Zack Snyder's computer-animated fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, voicing antagonist Nyra, a leader of a group of owls. The film grossed $140.1 million on an $80 million budget.
Mirren's next film was the comedy film Arthur, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, starring Russell Brand in the lead role. Arthur received generally negative reviews from critics, who declared it an "irritating, unnecessary remake." In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name.
In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection." Mirren was universally praised, however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective." Her other film that year was The Door, a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things [she has] ever done."
The following year, Mirren replaced Bette Midler in David Mamet's biographical television film Phil Spector about the American musician. The HBO film focuses on the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Mirren, during the first of his two murder trials for the death in 2003 of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector received largely mixed to positive reviews from critics, particularly for Mirren and co-star Al Pacino's performances, and was nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, also winning Mirren a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 20th awards ceremony. The film drew criticism both from Clarkson's family and friends, who charged that the suicide defense was given more merit than it deserved, and from Spector's wife, who argued that Spector was portrayed as a "foul-mouthed megalomaniac" and a "minotaur". Also in 2013, Mirren voiced the character of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Pixar's computer-animated comedy film Monsters University, which grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million, and reprised her role in the sequel film Red 2. The action comedy received a mixed reviews from film critics, who called it a "lackadaisical sequel", but became another commercial success, making over $140 million worldwide.
Mirren's only film of 2014 was the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey opposite the Indian actor Om Puri. Directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film is based on Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel with the same name and tells the story of a feud between two adjacent restaurants in a French town. Mirren garnered largely positive reviews for her performance of a snobby restaurateur, a role which she accepted as she was keen to play a French character, reflecting her "pathetic attempt at being a French actress." The film earned her another Golden Globe nomination and became a modest commercial success, grossing $88.9 million worldwide.
2015–present
In 2015, Mirren reunited with her former assistant Simon Curtis on Woman in Gold, co-starring Ryan Reynolds. The film was based on the true story of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann, who, together with her young lawyer Randy Schoenberg, fought the Austrian government to be reunited with Gustav Klimt's painting of her aunt, the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although Mirren and Reynold's performances were widely praised. A commercial success, Woman in Gold became one of the highest-grossing specialty films of the year. The same year, Mirren appeared in Gavin Hood's thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), in which she played as a military intelligence officer who leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in Nairobi, Kenya. Mirren's last film that year was Jay Roach's biographical drama Trumbo, co-starring Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane. The actor played Hedda Hopper, the famous actor and gossip columnist, in the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics and garnered her a 14th Golden Globe nomination.
Mirren's only film of 2016 was Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel. Co-Starring Will Smith, Keira Knightley, and Kate Winslet, the ensemble drama follows a man who copes with his daughter's death by writing letters to time, death, and love. The film earned largely negative reviews from critics, who called it "well-meaning but fundamentally flawed." In 2017, Mirren narrated Cries from Syria, a documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. Also that year, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious, the eighth instalment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, playing Magdalene, the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw. Mirren had a larger role in director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut The Leisure Seeker, based on the 2009 novel of the same name. On set, she was reunited with Donald Sutherland with whom she had not worked again since Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990), portraying a terminally ill couple who escape from their retirement home and take one last cross-country adventure in a vintage van. At the 75th awards ceremony, Mirren received her 15th Golden Globe nomination.
In 2018, Mirren portrayed heiress Sarah Winchester in the supernatural horror film Winchester, directed by The Spierig Brothers. In the same year, she starred as Mother Ginger in Disney's adaptation of The Nutcracker, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston. In 2019, she appeared in the ensemble film Berlin, I Love You, the French crime thriller film Anna, directed and written by Luc Besson, and co-starred in the Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. In March 2021, she was cast as the villain Hespera in the upcoming superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Mirren is set to portray Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel 1969–1974, in a biopic entitled Golda. As at April 2021 the film was in production.
Television career
Prime Suspect
Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama series that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994 (making her one of four actors to have received three consecutive BAFTA TV Awards for a role, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Michael Gambon). Primarily due to Prime Suspect, in 2006 Mirren came 29th on ITV’s poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars voted by the British public.
Other roles
Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her an Emmy; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series. She also played Queen Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006. Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.
Personal life
Mirren lived with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson during the early 1980s; they met while working on Excalibur (1981). When interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors Studio, Neeson said Mirren was instrumental in him getting an agent.
Mirren began dating American director Taylor Hackford in 1986. They were married on 31 December 1997 at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The couple met on the set of White Nights (1985). It is her first marriage and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children, stating she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever".
Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."
In 1990, Mirren stated in an interview that she is an atheist. In the August 2011 issue of Esquire, Mirren said, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."
In a 2008 interview with GQ, Mirren revealed she was date raped as a student, and had often taken cocaine at parties in her twenties and until the 1980s. She stopped using the drug after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.
On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London. In 2012, she was among the British cultural icons selected by the artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires. In 2010, she was named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire, and in a 2011 photo shoot for the magazine she stripped down and then covered up with the Union Jack.
In 2013, Mirren was announced as one of several new models for Marks & Spencer's "Womanism" campaign. Subtitled "Britain's leading ladies", the campaign saw Mirren appear alongside British women from various fields, including pop singer Ellie Goulding, double Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams, and writer Monica Ali. In March 2013, The Guardian listed Mirren as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50.
She told the Radio Times, "I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly people, beautiful people, old people, whatever. It's so unisexual and so liberating." In 2004, she was named "Naturist of the Year" by British Naturism. She said: "Many thanks to British Naturism for this great honour. I do believe in naturism and am my happiest on a nude beach with people of all ages and races!"
Mirren became a U.S. citizen in 2017 and voted in her first U.S. election in 2020.
In April 2021, she took part in the music video "La Vacinada" (meaning the vaccinated woman in broken Spanish language) of Italian comedian and singer Checco Zalone.
In said song and video, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of Covid-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and as the elderly get vaccinated first, a higher-aged partner (played by Mirren in the video) is now the best choice.
Acting credits
Awards and honours
Among her major competitive awards, Mirren has won one Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award. Her numerous honorary awards include the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Gala Tribute presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace in December. In January 2009, Mirren was named on The Times''' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. The list included Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench and Audrey Hepburn.
See also
List of British actors
List of British Academy Award nominees and winners
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Bibliography
Ward, Philip (2019). Becoming Helen Mirren. Troubador Press. . A survey of the actress's early career.
External links
Interviews:''
1945 births
Living people
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actresses awarded British damehoods
Actresses from Essex
Alumni of Middlesex University
Audiobook narrators
BAFTA fellows
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
British naturists
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English atheists
English film actresses
English people of Russian descent
English radio actresses
English Shakespearean actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
English voice actresses
European Film Award for Best Actress winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Golden Orange Honorary Award winners
Honorary Golden Bear recipients
Laurence Olivier Award winners
National Youth Theatre members
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People from Hammersmith
People from Westcliff-on-Sea
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Tony Award winners
Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners
| false |
[
"Nora Lum (Chinese: 林家珍; pinyin: Lín Jiāzhēn), known professionally as Awkwafina, is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and rapper. In 2014, Awkwafina debuted as an actress from the third season of Girl Code. Before rising to prominence, she played supporting roles in the comedy films Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising (2016), Ocean's 8 (2018), and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). In 2018, Awkwafina starred in Jon M. Chu's romantic-comedy Crazy Rich Asians. Her performance in the film was widely praised by the critics and audiences. Awkwafina, went on to win the Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture, and she was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance, and MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance.\n\nIn 2019, Awkwafina appeared in Lulu Wang's comedy-drama The Farewell. A film about a Chinese-American family who discover that their grandmother has only a short while left to live, they decide to not to tell her and schedule a family gathering before she dies. Her performance in the film was widely praised by the critics and she went on to win numerous accolades. Awkwafina won the Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, Virtuoso Award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and the Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Actress. She became the first woman of Asian descent to capture a Golden Globe in a lead actress film category after winning Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. In 2020, Awkwafina was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award.\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReferences\n\nFootnotes\n\nCitations\n\nExternal links\n \n\nAwkwafina",
"Dorcas Wright \"Dede\" Gardner is an American film producer and the president of Plan B Entertainment. She is a two-time Oscar winner for 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight, the first woman to win two Oscars for Best Picture. Her films Selma, The Tree of Life, The Big Short, and Vice were additionally nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.\n\nBiography\nShe is the daughter of Dorothy and John Gardner, of Winnetka, Illinois. She graduated cum laude from Columbia University in 1990. Her classmates included television showrunners Jeff Rake and Gina Fattore. Her father is a partner at the Chicago investment bank William Blair & Company; her mother is president of the Michael Reese Health Trust.\n\nIn 2000, she married Jonathan Boris Berg in an Episcopalian ceremony on Martha's Vineyard.\n\nFilmography\nShe was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.\n\nFilm\n\nLocation management\n\nThanks\n\nTelevision\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nIn 2012, Gardner and her fellow producers were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for The Tree of Life. In 2014, she won the Academy Award for Best Picture for the movie 12 Years a Slave alongside co-producers Brad Pitt, Steve McQueen, Jeremy Kleiner and Anthony Katagas. In 2015, she was nominated once again for the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing Selma alongside fellow producers Oprah Winfrey, Jeremy Kleiner, and Christian Colson. In 2017, she won her second Academy Award for Best Picture for the movie, Moonlight. She becomes the first female producer to win two Academy Awards for Best Picture.\n\nAcademy Awards\n\nAACTA International Awards\n\nAFI Awards\n\nAlliance of Women Film Journalists\n\nAmerican Black Film Festival\n\nAwards Circuit Community Awards\n\nBlack Reel Awards\n\nBritish Academy Film Awards\n\nCinEuphoria Awards\n\nGotham Awards\n\nIndependent Spirit Awards\n\nItalian Online Movie Awards\n\nOnline Film & Television Association Awards\n\nPrimetime Emmy Awards\n\nProducers Guild of America Awards\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLiving people\nFilmmakers who won the Best Film BAFTA Award\nGolden Globe Award-winning producers\nAmerican film producers\nProducers who won the Best Picture Academy Award\nAmerican women film producers\n1967 births\nColumbia College (New York) alumni\n21st-century American women"
] |
[
"Helen Mirren",
"2000-2009",
"Was she acting in 2000?",
"Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000),",
"Did she receive positive reviews?",
"The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics,",
"Were their any more movies in 2000?",
"The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge,",
"Did she receive any reviews for either one in 2000?",
"A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office.",
"Did she have any box office hits?",
"Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park.",
"Did she win an award for that movie?",
"Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award"
] |
C_aaa4e21dc2e84349b08163dfce1fb19a_1
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Are there any other movies she is best known in?
| 7 |
Are there any other movies Mirren is best known in besides Godsford Park, The Pledge or Greenfingers?
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Helen Mirren
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Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the award-winning prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics, who felt that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films. The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, actor Sean Penn's second directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also the year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics. Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. An homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren was initially resistant to join the project, at first dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, and grossed $96,000,000 worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams. CANNOTANSWER
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In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls,
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren (; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.
Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Early life and education
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London on 26 July 1945, to an English mother and Russian father. Her mother, Kathleen "Kitty" Alexandrina Eva Matilda (née Rogers; 1909–1996), was a working-class woman from West Ham, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility; he had been taken to England at age two by his father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov. Pyotr, who owned a family estate near Gzhatsk (now Gagarin), was part of the Russian aristocracy. Pyotr's mother, Mirren's great-grandmother, was Countess Lydia Andreevna Kamenskaya, aristocrat and a descendant of Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, a prominent Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars. Pyotr served as a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded by the Russian Revolution in 1917. The former diplomat settled down in England, and became a London cab driver to support his family.
Vasily also worked as a cab driver and then played the viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before World War II. During the war, he worked as an ambulance driver and served in the East End of London during the Blitz. He and Kathleen married in Hammersmith in 1938, and at some point before 1951 he anglicised his name to Basil. After the birth of Helen, Basil left the orchestra and returned to cab-driving in order to support the family. He later worked as a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. In 1951, Basil changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist". She was the second of three children, born between older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942) and younger brother Peter Basil (1947–2002). Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Mirren attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she had the lead role in a school production of Hansel and Gretel, and St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she also acted in school productions. She then attended a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on North End Road, which runs from Hampstead to Golders Green. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and was accepted. At twenty, she played Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, a role which Mirren says "launched my career", and led to her signing with agent Al Parker.
Theatre career
Early years
As a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). While with the RSC, she played Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (1967), Cressida in Troilus and Cressida (1968), Rosalind in As You Like It (1968), Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970), Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych (1971), and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place (1971). She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, between 1965 and 1967.
In 1970, the director and producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made for ATV, it was shown on the ITV network in the UK. In 1972 and 1973, Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US, during which they created The Conference of the Birds. She then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975.
Sally Beauman reported, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren — while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a letter to The Guardian newspaper — had sharply criticised both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre", and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." This started a big debate, and led to a question in parliament. There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.
West End and RSC
At the West End's Royal Court Theatre in September 1975, she played the role of a rock star named Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare; she reprised the role the following year in a revival of the play at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976.
Beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers's new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace', and winning acclaim for her performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios.
In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. That same year she also won acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which was later transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story." In her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl—at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre in April 1983—she was described as having "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.
At the beginning of 1989, Mirren co-starred with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions. British actors like to speak. In London, there’s a much more open-hearted kind of exchange between stage and audience" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989). In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).
On 15 February 2013, at the West End's Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience. The show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role.
Broadway debut
A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev.
Prior to 2015, Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001.
On 7 June 2015‚ Mirren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play‚ for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience (a performance which also won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Her Tony Award win made her one of the few actors to achieve the US “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of acclaimed performers including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino.
National Theatre
In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; The Guardian called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while The Daily Telegraph said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."
At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies. "This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better." She played the title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the Epidaurus amphitheatre on 11 and 12 July 2009.
Film career
Mirren has appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film appearances include roles in Herostratus (1967) Dir. Don Levy, Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Age of Consent (1969), O Lucky Man! (1973), Caligula (1979), The Long Good Friday (1980)—co-starring with Bob Hoskins in what was her breakthrough film role, Excalibur (1981), 2010 (1984), White Nights (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988) and When the Whales Came (1989). She appeared in The Madness of King George (1994), Some Mother's Son (1996), Painted Lady (1997) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In Peter Greenaway's colorful The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Mirren plays the wife opposite Michael Gambon. In Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), she plays sadistic history teacher Mrs Eve Tingle.
In 2007, she claimed that the director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a casting call in 1964. Asked about the incident, Winner told The Guardian: "I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious. I was only doing what the [casting] agent asked me – and for this I get reviled! Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actress and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."
Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in Gosford Park (2001) with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls (2003) with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing (2004), Pride (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Shadowboxer (2005). Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
2000–2009
Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison, who won gardening awards. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project received lukewarm reviews, which suggested that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films.
The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, Sean Penn's third directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also that year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics.
Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. A homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. It received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins.
In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren initially was reluctant to join the project, dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film was generally well received by critics, and grossed $96 million worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams.
2010–2014
In 2010, Mirren appeared in five films. In Love Ranch, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, she portrayed Sally Conforte, one half of a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the US, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada. Mirren starred in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, in Julie Taymor's The Tempest. This was based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare; Taymor changed the original character's gender to cast Mirren as her lead. While the actor garnered strong reviews for her portrayal, the film itself was largely panned by critics.
Mirren played a gutsy tea-shop owner who tries to save one of her young employees from marrying a teenage killer in Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, a crime film loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel. The film noir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, where it received mixed reviews. Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success of the year was Robert Schwentke's ensemble action comedy Red, based on Warren Ellis’s graphic novel, in which she portrayed Victoria, an ex-MI6 assassin. Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis' involvement. Released to positive reviews, it grossed $186.5 million worldwide. Also in 2010, the actor lent her voice to Zack Snyder's computer-animated fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, voicing antagonist Nyra, a leader of a group of owls. The film grossed $140.1 million on an $80 million budget.
Mirren's next film was the comedy film Arthur, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, starring Russell Brand in the lead role. Arthur received generally negative reviews from critics, who declared it an "irritating, unnecessary remake." In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name.
In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection." Mirren was universally praised, however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective." Her other film that year was The Door, a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things [she has] ever done."
The following year, Mirren replaced Bette Midler in David Mamet's biographical television film Phil Spector about the American musician. The HBO film focuses on the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Mirren, during the first of his two murder trials for the death in 2003 of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector received largely mixed to positive reviews from critics, particularly for Mirren and co-star Al Pacino's performances, and was nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, also winning Mirren a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 20th awards ceremony. The film drew criticism both from Clarkson's family and friends, who charged that the suicide defense was given more merit than it deserved, and from Spector's wife, who argued that Spector was portrayed as a "foul-mouthed megalomaniac" and a "minotaur". Also in 2013, Mirren voiced the character of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Pixar's computer-animated comedy film Monsters University, which grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million, and reprised her role in the sequel film Red 2. The action comedy received a mixed reviews from film critics, who called it a "lackadaisical sequel", but became another commercial success, making over $140 million worldwide.
Mirren's only film of 2014 was the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey opposite the Indian actor Om Puri. Directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film is based on Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel with the same name and tells the story of a feud between two adjacent restaurants in a French town. Mirren garnered largely positive reviews for her performance of a snobby restaurateur, a role which she accepted as she was keen to play a French character, reflecting her "pathetic attempt at being a French actress." The film earned her another Golden Globe nomination and became a modest commercial success, grossing $88.9 million worldwide.
2015–present
In 2015, Mirren reunited with her former assistant Simon Curtis on Woman in Gold, co-starring Ryan Reynolds. The film was based on the true story of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann, who, together with her young lawyer Randy Schoenberg, fought the Austrian government to be reunited with Gustav Klimt's painting of her aunt, the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although Mirren and Reynold's performances were widely praised. A commercial success, Woman in Gold became one of the highest-grossing specialty films of the year. The same year, Mirren appeared in Gavin Hood's thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), in which she played as a military intelligence officer who leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in Nairobi, Kenya. Mirren's last film that year was Jay Roach's biographical drama Trumbo, co-starring Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane. The actor played Hedda Hopper, the famous actor and gossip columnist, in the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics and garnered her a 14th Golden Globe nomination.
Mirren's only film of 2016 was Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel. Co-Starring Will Smith, Keira Knightley, and Kate Winslet, the ensemble drama follows a man who copes with his daughter's death by writing letters to time, death, and love. The film earned largely negative reviews from critics, who called it "well-meaning but fundamentally flawed." In 2017, Mirren narrated Cries from Syria, a documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. Also that year, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious, the eighth instalment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, playing Magdalene, the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw. Mirren had a larger role in director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut The Leisure Seeker, based on the 2009 novel of the same name. On set, she was reunited with Donald Sutherland with whom she had not worked again since Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990), portraying a terminally ill couple who escape from their retirement home and take one last cross-country adventure in a vintage van. At the 75th awards ceremony, Mirren received her 15th Golden Globe nomination.
In 2018, Mirren portrayed heiress Sarah Winchester in the supernatural horror film Winchester, directed by The Spierig Brothers. In the same year, she starred as Mother Ginger in Disney's adaptation of The Nutcracker, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston. In 2019, she appeared in the ensemble film Berlin, I Love You, the French crime thriller film Anna, directed and written by Luc Besson, and co-starred in the Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. In March 2021, she was cast as the villain Hespera in the upcoming superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Mirren is set to portray Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel 1969–1974, in a biopic entitled Golda. As at April 2021 the film was in production.
Television career
Prime Suspect
Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama series that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994 (making her one of four actors to have received three consecutive BAFTA TV Awards for a role, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Michael Gambon). Primarily due to Prime Suspect, in 2006 Mirren came 29th on ITV’s poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars voted by the British public.
Other roles
Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her an Emmy; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series. She also played Queen Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006. Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.
Personal life
Mirren lived with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson during the early 1980s; they met while working on Excalibur (1981). When interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors Studio, Neeson said Mirren was instrumental in him getting an agent.
Mirren began dating American director Taylor Hackford in 1986. They were married on 31 December 1997 at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The couple met on the set of White Nights (1985). It is her first marriage and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children, stating she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever".
Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."
In 1990, Mirren stated in an interview that she is an atheist. In the August 2011 issue of Esquire, Mirren said, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."
In a 2008 interview with GQ, Mirren revealed she was date raped as a student, and had often taken cocaine at parties in her twenties and until the 1980s. She stopped using the drug after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.
On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London. In 2012, she was among the British cultural icons selected by the artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires. In 2010, she was named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire, and in a 2011 photo shoot for the magazine she stripped down and then covered up with the Union Jack.
In 2013, Mirren was announced as one of several new models for Marks & Spencer's "Womanism" campaign. Subtitled "Britain's leading ladies", the campaign saw Mirren appear alongside British women from various fields, including pop singer Ellie Goulding, double Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams, and writer Monica Ali. In March 2013, The Guardian listed Mirren as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50.
She told the Radio Times, "I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly people, beautiful people, old people, whatever. It's so unisexual and so liberating." In 2004, she was named "Naturist of the Year" by British Naturism. She said: "Many thanks to British Naturism for this great honour. I do believe in naturism and am my happiest on a nude beach with people of all ages and races!"
Mirren became a U.S. citizen in 2017 and voted in her first U.S. election in 2020.
In April 2021, she took part in the music video "La Vacinada" (meaning the vaccinated woman in broken Spanish language) of Italian comedian and singer Checco Zalone.
In said song and video, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of Covid-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and as the elderly get vaccinated first, a higher-aged partner (played by Mirren in the video) is now the best choice.
Acting credits
Awards and honours
Among her major competitive awards, Mirren has won one Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award. Her numerous honorary awards include the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Gala Tribute presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace in December. In January 2009, Mirren was named on The Times''' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. The list included Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench and Audrey Hepburn.
See also
List of British actors
List of British Academy Award nominees and winners
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Bibliography
Ward, Philip (2019). Becoming Helen Mirren. Troubador Press. . A survey of the actress's early career.
External links
Interviews:''
1945 births
Living people
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actresses awarded British damehoods
Actresses from Essex
Alumni of Middlesex University
Audiobook narrators
BAFTA fellows
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
British naturists
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English atheists
English film actresses
English people of Russian descent
English radio actresses
English Shakespearean actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
English voice actresses
European Film Award for Best Actress winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Golden Orange Honorary Award winners
Honorary Golden Bear recipients
Laurence Olivier Award winners
National Youth Theatre members
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People from Hammersmith
People from Westcliff-on-Sea
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Tony Award winners
Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners
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[
"Sophea Duch ( pronounced ) is a popular Karaoke song artist. She was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She is currently very popular among the younger generation in Phnom Penh, the rest of Cambodia and in other South Eastern Asian countries.\n\nWhile there are numerous sites mentioning her music and personal life, the information at these sites is still rather sketchy at best.\n \nIt is known that she was born in 1986, to a family that eventually grew into one with nine children. She started singing at very early age. Later she was discovered by the manager of a local band and started appearing on Cambodian television as a child singing starlet in the same year.\n\nShe either sang or took minor supporting roles in 20 Khmer movies, mostly as guest to her friends who worked in the movie industry.\n\nIt is believed there are currently at least 500 Khmer music CD titles with her name on the list of artists.\n\nShe has an elder sister, whose name is Somphors Duch. She is also a popular actress currently working for a Cambodian television network.\n\nMovies\nHer name appeared in the cast for 20 or so Khmer language titles.\n\nMusic\n <<Sexy Baby>> - Karaoke CD (1996)\n <<Dalama 1, 2, 3>> - Khmer language Karaoke titles\n up to 500 other solo or joint CD titles in English and Khmer language\n\nExternal links\n Recent news about Sophea Duch\n Unofficial profile by Angkorthom\n\nLiving people\n21st-century Cambodian women singers\n20th-century Cambodian women singers\nPeople from Phnom Penh\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"Kim Gook-hee is a South Korean actress and model. She is best known for her roles in dramas such as Hospital Playlist and she is also known for her roles in movies such as Microbabitat, Kim Ji-young: Born 1982 and 1987: When the Day Comes. She is best known for her role as Eun-ja in movie, Tune in for Love.\n\nPersonal life\nKim Gook-hee is married to Ryu Kyung-hwan.\n\nFilmography\n\nTelevision series\n\nWeb series\n\nFilm\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n \n \n\n1985 births\nLiving people\n21st-century South Korean actresses\nSouth Korean female models\nSouth Korean television actresses\nSouth Korean film actresses"
] |
[
"Helen Mirren",
"2000-2009",
"Was she acting in 2000?",
"Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000),",
"Did she receive positive reviews?",
"The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics,",
"Were their any more movies in 2000?",
"The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge,",
"Did she receive any reviews for either one in 2000?",
"A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office.",
"Did she have any box office hits?",
"Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park.",
"Did she win an award for that movie?",
"Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award",
"Are there any other movies she is best known in?",
"In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls,"
] |
C_aaa4e21dc2e84349b08163dfce1fb19a_1
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Was there an awards for this movie?
| 8 |
Was there an award for Calendar Girls?
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Helen Mirren
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Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the award-winning prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics, who felt that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films. The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, actor Sean Penn's second directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also the year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics. Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. An homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren was initially resistant to join the project, at first dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, and grossed $96,000,000 worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams. CANNOTANSWER
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In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren.
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren (; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.
Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Early life and education
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London on 26 July 1945, to an English mother and Russian father. Her mother, Kathleen "Kitty" Alexandrina Eva Matilda (née Rogers; 1909–1996), was a working-class woman from West Ham, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility; he had been taken to England at age two by his father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov. Pyotr, who owned a family estate near Gzhatsk (now Gagarin), was part of the Russian aristocracy. Pyotr's mother, Mirren's great-grandmother, was Countess Lydia Andreevna Kamenskaya, aristocrat and a descendant of Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, a prominent Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars. Pyotr served as a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded by the Russian Revolution in 1917. The former diplomat settled down in England, and became a London cab driver to support his family.
Vasily also worked as a cab driver and then played the viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before World War II. During the war, he worked as an ambulance driver and served in the East End of London during the Blitz. He and Kathleen married in Hammersmith in 1938, and at some point before 1951 he anglicised his name to Basil. After the birth of Helen, Basil left the orchestra and returned to cab-driving in order to support the family. He later worked as a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. In 1951, Basil changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist". She was the second of three children, born between older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942) and younger brother Peter Basil (1947–2002). Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Mirren attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she had the lead role in a school production of Hansel and Gretel, and St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she also acted in school productions. She then attended a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on North End Road, which runs from Hampstead to Golders Green. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and was accepted. At twenty, she played Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, a role which Mirren says "launched my career", and led to her signing with agent Al Parker.
Theatre career
Early years
As a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). While with the RSC, she played Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (1967), Cressida in Troilus and Cressida (1968), Rosalind in As You Like It (1968), Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970), Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych (1971), and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place (1971). She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, between 1965 and 1967.
In 1970, the director and producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made for ATV, it was shown on the ITV network in the UK. In 1972 and 1973, Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US, during which they created The Conference of the Birds. She then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975.
Sally Beauman reported, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren — while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a letter to The Guardian newspaper — had sharply criticised both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre", and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." This started a big debate, and led to a question in parliament. There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.
West End and RSC
At the West End's Royal Court Theatre in September 1975, she played the role of a rock star named Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare; she reprised the role the following year in a revival of the play at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976.
Beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers's new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace', and winning acclaim for her performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios.
In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. That same year she also won acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which was later transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story." In her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl—at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre in April 1983—she was described as having "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.
At the beginning of 1989, Mirren co-starred with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions. British actors like to speak. In London, there’s a much more open-hearted kind of exchange between stage and audience" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989). In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).
On 15 February 2013, at the West End's Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience. The show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role.
Broadway debut
A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev.
Prior to 2015, Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001.
On 7 June 2015‚ Mirren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play‚ for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience (a performance which also won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Her Tony Award win made her one of the few actors to achieve the US “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of acclaimed performers including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino.
National Theatre
In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; The Guardian called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while The Daily Telegraph said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."
At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies. "This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better." She played the title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the Epidaurus amphitheatre on 11 and 12 July 2009.
Film career
Mirren has appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film appearances include roles in Herostratus (1967) Dir. Don Levy, Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Age of Consent (1969), O Lucky Man! (1973), Caligula (1979), The Long Good Friday (1980)—co-starring with Bob Hoskins in what was her breakthrough film role, Excalibur (1981), 2010 (1984), White Nights (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988) and When the Whales Came (1989). She appeared in The Madness of King George (1994), Some Mother's Son (1996), Painted Lady (1997) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In Peter Greenaway's colorful The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Mirren plays the wife opposite Michael Gambon. In Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), she plays sadistic history teacher Mrs Eve Tingle.
In 2007, she claimed that the director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a casting call in 1964. Asked about the incident, Winner told The Guardian: "I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious. I was only doing what the [casting] agent asked me – and for this I get reviled! Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actress and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."
Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in Gosford Park (2001) with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls (2003) with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing (2004), Pride (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Shadowboxer (2005). Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
2000–2009
Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison, who won gardening awards. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project received lukewarm reviews, which suggested that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films.
The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, Sean Penn's third directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also that year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics.
Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. A homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. It received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins.
In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren initially was reluctant to join the project, dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film was generally well received by critics, and grossed $96 million worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams.
2010–2014
In 2010, Mirren appeared in five films. In Love Ranch, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, she portrayed Sally Conforte, one half of a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the US, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada. Mirren starred in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, in Julie Taymor's The Tempest. This was based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare; Taymor changed the original character's gender to cast Mirren as her lead. While the actor garnered strong reviews for her portrayal, the film itself was largely panned by critics.
Mirren played a gutsy tea-shop owner who tries to save one of her young employees from marrying a teenage killer in Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, a crime film loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel. The film noir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, where it received mixed reviews. Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success of the year was Robert Schwentke's ensemble action comedy Red, based on Warren Ellis’s graphic novel, in which she portrayed Victoria, an ex-MI6 assassin. Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis' involvement. Released to positive reviews, it grossed $186.5 million worldwide. Also in 2010, the actor lent her voice to Zack Snyder's computer-animated fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, voicing antagonist Nyra, a leader of a group of owls. The film grossed $140.1 million on an $80 million budget.
Mirren's next film was the comedy film Arthur, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, starring Russell Brand in the lead role. Arthur received generally negative reviews from critics, who declared it an "irritating, unnecessary remake." In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name.
In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection." Mirren was universally praised, however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective." Her other film that year was The Door, a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things [she has] ever done."
The following year, Mirren replaced Bette Midler in David Mamet's biographical television film Phil Spector about the American musician. The HBO film focuses on the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Mirren, during the first of his two murder trials for the death in 2003 of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector received largely mixed to positive reviews from critics, particularly for Mirren and co-star Al Pacino's performances, and was nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, also winning Mirren a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 20th awards ceremony. The film drew criticism both from Clarkson's family and friends, who charged that the suicide defense was given more merit than it deserved, and from Spector's wife, who argued that Spector was portrayed as a "foul-mouthed megalomaniac" and a "minotaur". Also in 2013, Mirren voiced the character of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Pixar's computer-animated comedy film Monsters University, which grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million, and reprised her role in the sequel film Red 2. The action comedy received a mixed reviews from film critics, who called it a "lackadaisical sequel", but became another commercial success, making over $140 million worldwide.
Mirren's only film of 2014 was the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey opposite the Indian actor Om Puri. Directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film is based on Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel with the same name and tells the story of a feud between two adjacent restaurants in a French town. Mirren garnered largely positive reviews for her performance of a snobby restaurateur, a role which she accepted as she was keen to play a French character, reflecting her "pathetic attempt at being a French actress." The film earned her another Golden Globe nomination and became a modest commercial success, grossing $88.9 million worldwide.
2015–present
In 2015, Mirren reunited with her former assistant Simon Curtis on Woman in Gold, co-starring Ryan Reynolds. The film was based on the true story of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann, who, together with her young lawyer Randy Schoenberg, fought the Austrian government to be reunited with Gustav Klimt's painting of her aunt, the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although Mirren and Reynold's performances were widely praised. A commercial success, Woman in Gold became one of the highest-grossing specialty films of the year. The same year, Mirren appeared in Gavin Hood's thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), in which she played as a military intelligence officer who leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in Nairobi, Kenya. Mirren's last film that year was Jay Roach's biographical drama Trumbo, co-starring Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane. The actor played Hedda Hopper, the famous actor and gossip columnist, in the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics and garnered her a 14th Golden Globe nomination.
Mirren's only film of 2016 was Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel. Co-Starring Will Smith, Keira Knightley, and Kate Winslet, the ensemble drama follows a man who copes with his daughter's death by writing letters to time, death, and love. The film earned largely negative reviews from critics, who called it "well-meaning but fundamentally flawed." In 2017, Mirren narrated Cries from Syria, a documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. Also that year, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious, the eighth instalment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, playing Magdalene, the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw. Mirren had a larger role in director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut The Leisure Seeker, based on the 2009 novel of the same name. On set, she was reunited with Donald Sutherland with whom she had not worked again since Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990), portraying a terminally ill couple who escape from their retirement home and take one last cross-country adventure in a vintage van. At the 75th awards ceremony, Mirren received her 15th Golden Globe nomination.
In 2018, Mirren portrayed heiress Sarah Winchester in the supernatural horror film Winchester, directed by The Spierig Brothers. In the same year, she starred as Mother Ginger in Disney's adaptation of The Nutcracker, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston. In 2019, she appeared in the ensemble film Berlin, I Love You, the French crime thriller film Anna, directed and written by Luc Besson, and co-starred in the Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. In March 2021, she was cast as the villain Hespera in the upcoming superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Mirren is set to portray Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel 1969–1974, in a biopic entitled Golda. As at April 2021 the film was in production.
Television career
Prime Suspect
Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama series that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994 (making her one of four actors to have received three consecutive BAFTA TV Awards for a role, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Michael Gambon). Primarily due to Prime Suspect, in 2006 Mirren came 29th on ITV’s poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars voted by the British public.
Other roles
Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her an Emmy; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series. She also played Queen Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006. Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.
Personal life
Mirren lived with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson during the early 1980s; they met while working on Excalibur (1981). When interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors Studio, Neeson said Mirren was instrumental in him getting an agent.
Mirren began dating American director Taylor Hackford in 1986. They were married on 31 December 1997 at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The couple met on the set of White Nights (1985). It is her first marriage and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children, stating she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever".
Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."
In 1990, Mirren stated in an interview that she is an atheist. In the August 2011 issue of Esquire, Mirren said, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."
In a 2008 interview with GQ, Mirren revealed she was date raped as a student, and had often taken cocaine at parties in her twenties and until the 1980s. She stopped using the drug after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.
On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London. In 2012, she was among the British cultural icons selected by the artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires. In 2010, she was named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire, and in a 2011 photo shoot for the magazine she stripped down and then covered up with the Union Jack.
In 2013, Mirren was announced as one of several new models for Marks & Spencer's "Womanism" campaign. Subtitled "Britain's leading ladies", the campaign saw Mirren appear alongside British women from various fields, including pop singer Ellie Goulding, double Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams, and writer Monica Ali. In March 2013, The Guardian listed Mirren as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50.
She told the Radio Times, "I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly people, beautiful people, old people, whatever. It's so unisexual and so liberating." In 2004, she was named "Naturist of the Year" by British Naturism. She said: "Many thanks to British Naturism for this great honour. I do believe in naturism and am my happiest on a nude beach with people of all ages and races!"
Mirren became a U.S. citizen in 2017 and voted in her first U.S. election in 2020.
In April 2021, she took part in the music video "La Vacinada" (meaning the vaccinated woman in broken Spanish language) of Italian comedian and singer Checco Zalone.
In said song and video, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of Covid-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and as the elderly get vaccinated first, a higher-aged partner (played by Mirren in the video) is now the best choice.
Acting credits
Awards and honours
Among her major competitive awards, Mirren has won one Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award. Her numerous honorary awards include the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Gala Tribute presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace in December. In January 2009, Mirren was named on The Times''' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. The list included Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench and Audrey Hepburn.
See also
List of British actors
List of British Academy Award nominees and winners
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Bibliography
Ward, Philip (2019). Becoming Helen Mirren. Troubador Press. . A survey of the actress's early career.
External links
Interviews:''
1945 births
Living people
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actresses awarded British damehoods
Actresses from Essex
Alumni of Middlesex University
Audiobook narrators
BAFTA fellows
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
British naturists
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English atheists
English film actresses
English people of Russian descent
English radio actresses
English Shakespearean actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
English voice actresses
European Film Award for Best Actress winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Golden Orange Honorary Award winners
Honorary Golden Bear recipients
Laurence Olivier Award winners
National Youth Theatre members
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People from Hammersmith
People from Westcliff-on-Sea
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Tony Award winners
Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners
| true |
[
"The MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Transformation is an award presented to an actor/actress for transformation in films at the MTV Movie Awards, a ceremony established in 1992. The MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Transformation was first given out in 2012 for Elizabeth Banks's transformation in the film The Hunger Games.\n\nBest On-Screen Transformation\n\n2010s\n\nReferences\n\nMTV Movie & TV Awards",
"The 5th AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, presented by AARP the Magazine, honored films released in 2005 made by people over the age of 50. This was the first year that winners were announced at an in-person ceremony instead of being listed only in an issue of AARP the Magazine. The ceremony was hosted by Angela Lansbury and Shelley Berman at the Bel-Air Hotel in Los Angeles on February 7, 2006. Capote won Best Movie for Grownups, and David Strathairn won the award for Breakaway Accomplishment for Good Night, and Good Luck.\n\nThis was the last year that the AARP gave out awards for television (in the Best TV Movie category) until 2020. It was the first year an award was given for Best Comedy for Grownups.\n\nAwards\n\nWinners and nominees\n\nWinners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger ().\n\nBreakaway accomplishment\n David Strathairn: \"One of Hollywood's most reliable supporting actors is so good he's scary as Edward R. Murrow.\"\n\nRunners up\n Pierce Brosnan for The Matador\n Tommy Lee Jones for directing The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada\n Kate Montgomery for directing Christmas in the Clouds\n Susan Stroman for directing The Producers\n\nFilms with multiple nominations\n\nReferences\n\nAARP\n2005 film awards"
] |
[
"Helen Mirren",
"2000-2009",
"Was she acting in 2000?",
"Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000),",
"Did she receive positive reviews?",
"The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics,",
"Were their any more movies in 2000?",
"The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge,",
"Did she receive any reviews for either one in 2000?",
"A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office.",
"Did she have any box office hits?",
"Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park.",
"Did she win an award for that movie?",
"Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award",
"Are there any other movies she is best known in?",
"In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls,",
"Was there an awards for this movie?",
"In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren."
] |
C_aaa4e21dc2e84349b08163dfce1fb19a_1
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Did she have any other movies?
| 9 |
Did Mirren have any other movies aside from Godsford Park, Calendar Girls, Greendfingers and The Pledge?
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Helen Mirren
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Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the award-winning prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics, who felt that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films. The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, actor Sean Penn's second directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also the year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics. Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. An homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren was initially resistant to join the project, at first dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, and grossed $96,000,000 worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams. CANNOTANSWER
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Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren (; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.
Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Early life and education
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London on 26 July 1945, to an English mother and Russian father. Her mother, Kathleen "Kitty" Alexandrina Eva Matilda (née Rogers; 1909–1996), was a working-class woman from West Ham, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility; he had been taken to England at age two by his father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov. Pyotr, who owned a family estate near Gzhatsk (now Gagarin), was part of the Russian aristocracy. Pyotr's mother, Mirren's great-grandmother, was Countess Lydia Andreevna Kamenskaya, aristocrat and a descendant of Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, a prominent Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars. Pyotr served as a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded by the Russian Revolution in 1917. The former diplomat settled down in England, and became a London cab driver to support his family.
Vasily also worked as a cab driver and then played the viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before World War II. During the war, he worked as an ambulance driver and served in the East End of London during the Blitz. He and Kathleen married in Hammersmith in 1938, and at some point before 1951 he anglicised his name to Basil. After the birth of Helen, Basil left the orchestra and returned to cab-driving in order to support the family. He later worked as a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. In 1951, Basil changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist". She was the second of three children, born between older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942) and younger brother Peter Basil (1947–2002). Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Mirren attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she had the lead role in a school production of Hansel and Gretel, and St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she also acted in school productions. She then attended a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on North End Road, which runs from Hampstead to Golders Green. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and was accepted. At twenty, she played Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, a role which Mirren says "launched my career", and led to her signing with agent Al Parker.
Theatre career
Early years
As a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). While with the RSC, she played Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (1967), Cressida in Troilus and Cressida (1968), Rosalind in As You Like It (1968), Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970), Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych (1971), and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place (1971). She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, between 1965 and 1967.
In 1970, the director and producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made for ATV, it was shown on the ITV network in the UK. In 1972 and 1973, Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US, during which they created The Conference of the Birds. She then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975.
Sally Beauman reported, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren — while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a letter to The Guardian newspaper — had sharply criticised both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre", and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." This started a big debate, and led to a question in parliament. There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.
West End and RSC
At the West End's Royal Court Theatre in September 1975, she played the role of a rock star named Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare; she reprised the role the following year in a revival of the play at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976.
Beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers's new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace', and winning acclaim for her performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios.
In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. That same year she also won acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which was later transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story." In her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl—at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre in April 1983—she was described as having "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.
At the beginning of 1989, Mirren co-starred with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions. British actors like to speak. In London, there’s a much more open-hearted kind of exchange between stage and audience" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989). In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).
On 15 February 2013, at the West End's Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience. The show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role.
Broadway debut
A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev.
Prior to 2015, Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001.
On 7 June 2015‚ Mirren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play‚ for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience (a performance which also won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Her Tony Award win made her one of the few actors to achieve the US “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of acclaimed performers including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino.
National Theatre
In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; The Guardian called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while The Daily Telegraph said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."
At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies. "This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better." She played the title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the Epidaurus amphitheatre on 11 and 12 July 2009.
Film career
Mirren has appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film appearances include roles in Herostratus (1967) Dir. Don Levy, Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Age of Consent (1969), O Lucky Man! (1973), Caligula (1979), The Long Good Friday (1980)—co-starring with Bob Hoskins in what was her breakthrough film role, Excalibur (1981), 2010 (1984), White Nights (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988) and When the Whales Came (1989). She appeared in The Madness of King George (1994), Some Mother's Son (1996), Painted Lady (1997) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In Peter Greenaway's colorful The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Mirren plays the wife opposite Michael Gambon. In Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), she plays sadistic history teacher Mrs Eve Tingle.
In 2007, she claimed that the director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a casting call in 1964. Asked about the incident, Winner told The Guardian: "I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious. I was only doing what the [casting] agent asked me – and for this I get reviled! Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actress and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."
Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in Gosford Park (2001) with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls (2003) with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing (2004), Pride (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Shadowboxer (2005). Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
2000–2009
Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison, who won gardening awards. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project received lukewarm reviews, which suggested that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films.
The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, Sean Penn's third directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also that year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics.
Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. A homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. It received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins.
In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren initially was reluctant to join the project, dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film was generally well received by critics, and grossed $96 million worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams.
2010–2014
In 2010, Mirren appeared in five films. In Love Ranch, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, she portrayed Sally Conforte, one half of a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the US, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada. Mirren starred in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, in Julie Taymor's The Tempest. This was based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare; Taymor changed the original character's gender to cast Mirren as her lead. While the actor garnered strong reviews for her portrayal, the film itself was largely panned by critics.
Mirren played a gutsy tea-shop owner who tries to save one of her young employees from marrying a teenage killer in Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, a crime film loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel. The film noir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, where it received mixed reviews. Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success of the year was Robert Schwentke's ensemble action comedy Red, based on Warren Ellis’s graphic novel, in which she portrayed Victoria, an ex-MI6 assassin. Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis' involvement. Released to positive reviews, it grossed $186.5 million worldwide. Also in 2010, the actor lent her voice to Zack Snyder's computer-animated fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, voicing antagonist Nyra, a leader of a group of owls. The film grossed $140.1 million on an $80 million budget.
Mirren's next film was the comedy film Arthur, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, starring Russell Brand in the lead role. Arthur received generally negative reviews from critics, who declared it an "irritating, unnecessary remake." In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name.
In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection." Mirren was universally praised, however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective." Her other film that year was The Door, a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things [she has] ever done."
The following year, Mirren replaced Bette Midler in David Mamet's biographical television film Phil Spector about the American musician. The HBO film focuses on the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Mirren, during the first of his two murder trials for the death in 2003 of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector received largely mixed to positive reviews from critics, particularly for Mirren and co-star Al Pacino's performances, and was nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, also winning Mirren a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 20th awards ceremony. The film drew criticism both from Clarkson's family and friends, who charged that the suicide defense was given more merit than it deserved, and from Spector's wife, who argued that Spector was portrayed as a "foul-mouthed megalomaniac" and a "minotaur". Also in 2013, Mirren voiced the character of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Pixar's computer-animated comedy film Monsters University, which grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million, and reprised her role in the sequel film Red 2. The action comedy received a mixed reviews from film critics, who called it a "lackadaisical sequel", but became another commercial success, making over $140 million worldwide.
Mirren's only film of 2014 was the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey opposite the Indian actor Om Puri. Directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film is based on Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel with the same name and tells the story of a feud between two adjacent restaurants in a French town. Mirren garnered largely positive reviews for her performance of a snobby restaurateur, a role which she accepted as she was keen to play a French character, reflecting her "pathetic attempt at being a French actress." The film earned her another Golden Globe nomination and became a modest commercial success, grossing $88.9 million worldwide.
2015–present
In 2015, Mirren reunited with her former assistant Simon Curtis on Woman in Gold, co-starring Ryan Reynolds. The film was based on the true story of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann, who, together with her young lawyer Randy Schoenberg, fought the Austrian government to be reunited with Gustav Klimt's painting of her aunt, the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although Mirren and Reynold's performances were widely praised. A commercial success, Woman in Gold became one of the highest-grossing specialty films of the year. The same year, Mirren appeared in Gavin Hood's thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), in which she played as a military intelligence officer who leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in Nairobi, Kenya. Mirren's last film that year was Jay Roach's biographical drama Trumbo, co-starring Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane. The actor played Hedda Hopper, the famous actor and gossip columnist, in the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics and garnered her a 14th Golden Globe nomination.
Mirren's only film of 2016 was Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel. Co-Starring Will Smith, Keira Knightley, and Kate Winslet, the ensemble drama follows a man who copes with his daughter's death by writing letters to time, death, and love. The film earned largely negative reviews from critics, who called it "well-meaning but fundamentally flawed." In 2017, Mirren narrated Cries from Syria, a documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. Also that year, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious, the eighth instalment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, playing Magdalene, the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw. Mirren had a larger role in director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut The Leisure Seeker, based on the 2009 novel of the same name. On set, she was reunited with Donald Sutherland with whom she had not worked again since Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990), portraying a terminally ill couple who escape from their retirement home and take one last cross-country adventure in a vintage van. At the 75th awards ceremony, Mirren received her 15th Golden Globe nomination.
In 2018, Mirren portrayed heiress Sarah Winchester in the supernatural horror film Winchester, directed by The Spierig Brothers. In the same year, she starred as Mother Ginger in Disney's adaptation of The Nutcracker, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston. In 2019, she appeared in the ensemble film Berlin, I Love You, the French crime thriller film Anna, directed and written by Luc Besson, and co-starred in the Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. In March 2021, she was cast as the villain Hespera in the upcoming superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Mirren is set to portray Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel 1969–1974, in a biopic entitled Golda. As at April 2021 the film was in production.
Television career
Prime Suspect
Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama series that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994 (making her one of four actors to have received three consecutive BAFTA TV Awards for a role, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Michael Gambon). Primarily due to Prime Suspect, in 2006 Mirren came 29th on ITV’s poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars voted by the British public.
Other roles
Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her an Emmy; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series. She also played Queen Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006. Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.
Personal life
Mirren lived with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson during the early 1980s; they met while working on Excalibur (1981). When interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors Studio, Neeson said Mirren was instrumental in him getting an agent.
Mirren began dating American director Taylor Hackford in 1986. They were married on 31 December 1997 at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The couple met on the set of White Nights (1985). It is her first marriage and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children, stating she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever".
Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."
In 1990, Mirren stated in an interview that she is an atheist. In the August 2011 issue of Esquire, Mirren said, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."
In a 2008 interview with GQ, Mirren revealed she was date raped as a student, and had often taken cocaine at parties in her twenties and until the 1980s. She stopped using the drug after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.
On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London. In 2012, she was among the British cultural icons selected by the artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires. In 2010, she was named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire, and in a 2011 photo shoot for the magazine she stripped down and then covered up with the Union Jack.
In 2013, Mirren was announced as one of several new models for Marks & Spencer's "Womanism" campaign. Subtitled "Britain's leading ladies", the campaign saw Mirren appear alongside British women from various fields, including pop singer Ellie Goulding, double Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams, and writer Monica Ali. In March 2013, The Guardian listed Mirren as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50.
She told the Radio Times, "I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly people, beautiful people, old people, whatever. It's so unisexual and so liberating." In 2004, she was named "Naturist of the Year" by British Naturism. She said: "Many thanks to British Naturism for this great honour. I do believe in naturism and am my happiest on a nude beach with people of all ages and races!"
Mirren became a U.S. citizen in 2017 and voted in her first U.S. election in 2020.
In April 2021, she took part in the music video "La Vacinada" (meaning the vaccinated woman in broken Spanish language) of Italian comedian and singer Checco Zalone.
In said song and video, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of Covid-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and as the elderly get vaccinated first, a higher-aged partner (played by Mirren in the video) is now the best choice.
Acting credits
Awards and honours
Among her major competitive awards, Mirren has won one Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award. Her numerous honorary awards include the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Gala Tribute presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace in December. In January 2009, Mirren was named on The Times''' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. The list included Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench and Audrey Hepburn.
See also
List of British actors
List of British Academy Award nominees and winners
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Bibliography
Ward, Philip (2019). Becoming Helen Mirren. Troubador Press. . A survey of the actress's early career.
External links
Interviews:''
1945 births
Living people
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actresses awarded British damehoods
Actresses from Essex
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Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
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Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
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English atheists
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[
"The AARP Movies for Grownups Award for Best Buddy Picture is one of the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards presented annually by the AARP. The award honors the best film from a given year that is about friendship between people over the age of 50. The award for Best Buddy Picture was first given at the 7th AARP Movies for Grownups Awards. Other new awards that year were Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.\n\nNo award for Best Buddy Picture was given for movies premiering in 2011, 2017, or 2018. In 2020, AARP listed five nominees for Best Buddy Picture from 2019, but did not award any of them.\n\nWinners and Nominees\n\n2000s\n\n2010s\n\n2020s\n\nFootnotes\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican film awards\nAARP",
"Mark Buntzman (July 31, 1949 – June 8, 2018) was the film director, writer, producer and actor of the cult classic movie Exterminator 2. He was also the producer of its predecessor The Exterminator. Other than those two movies, he hasn't produced, directed, or written any other prominent films. He did, though, have a cameo in the 1993 movie Posse as Deputy Buntzman, as well as playing a reporter in the 1995 movie Panther. Both movies starred Mario Van Peebles, who also played a large role in Exterminator 2.\n\nFilmography\n Standing Knockdown (1999) [Producer]\n Love Kills (1998) [Producer] [Actor....The Accountant]\n Panther (1995) [Actor....Pushy reporter]\n Posse (1993) [Actor....Deputy Buntzman]\n Exterminator 2 (1984) [Producer] [Director] [Writer]\n The Exterminator (1980) [Producer] [Actor...Burping Ghoul]\n Suicide Cult (1975) [Producer] [Actor....Kajerste]\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1949 births\n2018 deaths\nAmerican film producers\nAmerican film directors\nAmerican male film actors\nAmerican male screenwriters"
] |
[
"Helen Mirren",
"2000-2009",
"Was she acting in 2000?",
"Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000),",
"Did she receive positive reviews?",
"The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics,",
"Were their any more movies in 2000?",
"The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge,",
"Did she receive any reviews for either one in 2000?",
"A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office.",
"Did she have any box office hits?",
"Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park.",
"Did she win an award for that movie?",
"Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award",
"Are there any other movies she is best known in?",
"In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls,",
"Was there an awards for this movie?",
"In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren.",
"Did she have any other movies?",
"Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone"
] |
C_aaa4e21dc2e84349b08163dfce1fb19a_1
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Did she do anything other than acting?
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Did Helen Mirren do anything other than acting?
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Helen Mirren
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Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the award-winning prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics, who felt that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films. The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, actor Sean Penn's second directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also the year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics. Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. An homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren was initially resistant to join the project, at first dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, and grossed $96,000,000 worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren (; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.
Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Early life and education
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London on 26 July 1945, to an English mother and Russian father. Her mother, Kathleen "Kitty" Alexandrina Eva Matilda (née Rogers; 1909–1996), was a working-class woman from West Ham, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility; he had been taken to England at age two by his father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov. Pyotr, who owned a family estate near Gzhatsk (now Gagarin), was part of the Russian aristocracy. Pyotr's mother, Mirren's great-grandmother, was Countess Lydia Andreevna Kamenskaya, aristocrat and a descendant of Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, a prominent Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars. Pyotr served as a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded by the Russian Revolution in 1917. The former diplomat settled down in England, and became a London cab driver to support his family.
Vasily also worked as a cab driver and then played the viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before World War II. During the war, he worked as an ambulance driver and served in the East End of London during the Blitz. He and Kathleen married in Hammersmith in 1938, and at some point before 1951 he anglicised his name to Basil. After the birth of Helen, Basil left the orchestra and returned to cab-driving in order to support the family. He later worked as a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. In 1951, Basil changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist". She was the second of three children, born between older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942) and younger brother Peter Basil (1947–2002). Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Mirren attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she had the lead role in a school production of Hansel and Gretel, and St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she also acted in school productions. She then attended a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on North End Road, which runs from Hampstead to Golders Green. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and was accepted. At twenty, she played Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, a role which Mirren says "launched my career", and led to her signing with agent Al Parker.
Theatre career
Early years
As a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). While with the RSC, she played Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (1967), Cressida in Troilus and Cressida (1968), Rosalind in As You Like It (1968), Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970), Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych (1971), and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place (1971). She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, between 1965 and 1967.
In 1970, the director and producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made for ATV, it was shown on the ITV network in the UK. In 1972 and 1973, Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US, during which they created The Conference of the Birds. She then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975.
Sally Beauman reported, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren — while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a letter to The Guardian newspaper — had sharply criticised both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre", and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." This started a big debate, and led to a question in parliament. There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.
West End and RSC
At the West End's Royal Court Theatre in September 1975, she played the role of a rock star named Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare; she reprised the role the following year in a revival of the play at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976.
Beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers's new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace', and winning acclaim for her performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios.
In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. That same year she also won acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which was later transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story." In her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl—at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre in April 1983—she was described as having "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.
At the beginning of 1989, Mirren co-starred with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions. British actors like to speak. In London, there’s a much more open-hearted kind of exchange between stage and audience" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989). In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).
On 15 February 2013, at the West End's Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience. The show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role.
Broadway debut
A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev.
Prior to 2015, Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001.
On 7 June 2015‚ Mirren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play‚ for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience (a performance which also won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Her Tony Award win made her one of the few actors to achieve the US “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of acclaimed performers including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino.
National Theatre
In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; The Guardian called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while The Daily Telegraph said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."
At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies. "This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better." She played the title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the Epidaurus amphitheatre on 11 and 12 July 2009.
Film career
Mirren has appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film appearances include roles in Herostratus (1967) Dir. Don Levy, Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Age of Consent (1969), O Lucky Man! (1973), Caligula (1979), The Long Good Friday (1980)—co-starring with Bob Hoskins in what was her breakthrough film role, Excalibur (1981), 2010 (1984), White Nights (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988) and When the Whales Came (1989). She appeared in The Madness of King George (1994), Some Mother's Son (1996), Painted Lady (1997) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In Peter Greenaway's colorful The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Mirren plays the wife opposite Michael Gambon. In Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), she plays sadistic history teacher Mrs Eve Tingle.
In 2007, she claimed that the director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a casting call in 1964. Asked about the incident, Winner told The Guardian: "I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious. I was only doing what the [casting] agent asked me – and for this I get reviled! Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actress and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."
Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in Gosford Park (2001) with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls (2003) with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing (2004), Pride (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Shadowboxer (2005). Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
2000–2009
Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison, who won gardening awards. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project received lukewarm reviews, which suggested that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films.
The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, Sean Penn's third directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also that year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics.
Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. A homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. It received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins.
In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren initially was reluctant to join the project, dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film was generally well received by critics, and grossed $96 million worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams.
2010–2014
In 2010, Mirren appeared in five films. In Love Ranch, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, she portrayed Sally Conforte, one half of a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the US, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada. Mirren starred in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, in Julie Taymor's The Tempest. This was based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare; Taymor changed the original character's gender to cast Mirren as her lead. While the actor garnered strong reviews for her portrayal, the film itself was largely panned by critics.
Mirren played a gutsy tea-shop owner who tries to save one of her young employees from marrying a teenage killer in Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, a crime film loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel. The film noir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, where it received mixed reviews. Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success of the year was Robert Schwentke's ensemble action comedy Red, based on Warren Ellis’s graphic novel, in which she portrayed Victoria, an ex-MI6 assassin. Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis' involvement. Released to positive reviews, it grossed $186.5 million worldwide. Also in 2010, the actor lent her voice to Zack Snyder's computer-animated fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, voicing antagonist Nyra, a leader of a group of owls. The film grossed $140.1 million on an $80 million budget.
Mirren's next film was the comedy film Arthur, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, starring Russell Brand in the lead role. Arthur received generally negative reviews from critics, who declared it an "irritating, unnecessary remake." In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name.
In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection." Mirren was universally praised, however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective." Her other film that year was The Door, a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things [she has] ever done."
The following year, Mirren replaced Bette Midler in David Mamet's biographical television film Phil Spector about the American musician. The HBO film focuses on the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Mirren, during the first of his two murder trials for the death in 2003 of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector received largely mixed to positive reviews from critics, particularly for Mirren and co-star Al Pacino's performances, and was nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, also winning Mirren a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 20th awards ceremony. The film drew criticism both from Clarkson's family and friends, who charged that the suicide defense was given more merit than it deserved, and from Spector's wife, who argued that Spector was portrayed as a "foul-mouthed megalomaniac" and a "minotaur". Also in 2013, Mirren voiced the character of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Pixar's computer-animated comedy film Monsters University, which grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million, and reprised her role in the sequel film Red 2. The action comedy received a mixed reviews from film critics, who called it a "lackadaisical sequel", but became another commercial success, making over $140 million worldwide.
Mirren's only film of 2014 was the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey opposite the Indian actor Om Puri. Directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film is based on Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel with the same name and tells the story of a feud between two adjacent restaurants in a French town. Mirren garnered largely positive reviews for her performance of a snobby restaurateur, a role which she accepted as she was keen to play a French character, reflecting her "pathetic attempt at being a French actress." The film earned her another Golden Globe nomination and became a modest commercial success, grossing $88.9 million worldwide.
2015–present
In 2015, Mirren reunited with her former assistant Simon Curtis on Woman in Gold, co-starring Ryan Reynolds. The film was based on the true story of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann, who, together with her young lawyer Randy Schoenberg, fought the Austrian government to be reunited with Gustav Klimt's painting of her aunt, the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although Mirren and Reynold's performances were widely praised. A commercial success, Woman in Gold became one of the highest-grossing specialty films of the year. The same year, Mirren appeared in Gavin Hood's thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), in which she played as a military intelligence officer who leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in Nairobi, Kenya. Mirren's last film that year was Jay Roach's biographical drama Trumbo, co-starring Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane. The actor played Hedda Hopper, the famous actor and gossip columnist, in the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics and garnered her a 14th Golden Globe nomination.
Mirren's only film of 2016 was Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel. Co-Starring Will Smith, Keira Knightley, and Kate Winslet, the ensemble drama follows a man who copes with his daughter's death by writing letters to time, death, and love. The film earned largely negative reviews from critics, who called it "well-meaning but fundamentally flawed." In 2017, Mirren narrated Cries from Syria, a documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. Also that year, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious, the eighth instalment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, playing Magdalene, the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw. Mirren had a larger role in director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut The Leisure Seeker, based on the 2009 novel of the same name. On set, she was reunited with Donald Sutherland with whom she had not worked again since Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990), portraying a terminally ill couple who escape from their retirement home and take one last cross-country adventure in a vintage van. At the 75th awards ceremony, Mirren received her 15th Golden Globe nomination.
In 2018, Mirren portrayed heiress Sarah Winchester in the supernatural horror film Winchester, directed by The Spierig Brothers. In the same year, she starred as Mother Ginger in Disney's adaptation of The Nutcracker, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston. In 2019, she appeared in the ensemble film Berlin, I Love You, the French crime thriller film Anna, directed and written by Luc Besson, and co-starred in the Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. In March 2021, she was cast as the villain Hespera in the upcoming superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Mirren is set to portray Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel 1969–1974, in a biopic entitled Golda. As at April 2021 the film was in production.
Television career
Prime Suspect
Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama series that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994 (making her one of four actors to have received three consecutive BAFTA TV Awards for a role, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Michael Gambon). Primarily due to Prime Suspect, in 2006 Mirren came 29th on ITV’s poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars voted by the British public.
Other roles
Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her an Emmy; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series. She also played Queen Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006. Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.
Personal life
Mirren lived with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson during the early 1980s; they met while working on Excalibur (1981). When interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors Studio, Neeson said Mirren was instrumental in him getting an agent.
Mirren began dating American director Taylor Hackford in 1986. They were married on 31 December 1997 at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The couple met on the set of White Nights (1985). It is her first marriage and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children, stating she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever".
Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."
In 1990, Mirren stated in an interview that she is an atheist. In the August 2011 issue of Esquire, Mirren said, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."
In a 2008 interview with GQ, Mirren revealed she was date raped as a student, and had often taken cocaine at parties in her twenties and until the 1980s. She stopped using the drug after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.
On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London. In 2012, she was among the British cultural icons selected by the artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires. In 2010, she was named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire, and in a 2011 photo shoot for the magazine she stripped down and then covered up with the Union Jack.
In 2013, Mirren was announced as one of several new models for Marks & Spencer's "Womanism" campaign. Subtitled "Britain's leading ladies", the campaign saw Mirren appear alongside British women from various fields, including pop singer Ellie Goulding, double Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams, and writer Monica Ali. In March 2013, The Guardian listed Mirren as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50.
She told the Radio Times, "I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly people, beautiful people, old people, whatever. It's so unisexual and so liberating." In 2004, she was named "Naturist of the Year" by British Naturism. She said: "Many thanks to British Naturism for this great honour. I do believe in naturism and am my happiest on a nude beach with people of all ages and races!"
Mirren became a U.S. citizen in 2017 and voted in her first U.S. election in 2020.
In April 2021, she took part in the music video "La Vacinada" (meaning the vaccinated woman in broken Spanish language) of Italian comedian and singer Checco Zalone.
In said song and video, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of Covid-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and as the elderly get vaccinated first, a higher-aged partner (played by Mirren in the video) is now the best choice.
Acting credits
Awards and honours
Among her major competitive awards, Mirren has won one Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award. Her numerous honorary awards include the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Gala Tribute presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace in December. In January 2009, Mirren was named on The Times''' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. The list included Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench and Audrey Hepburn.
See also
List of British actors
List of British Academy Award nominees and winners
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Bibliography
Ward, Philip (2019). Becoming Helen Mirren. Troubador Press. . A survey of the actress's early career.
External links
Interviews:''
1945 births
Living people
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actresses awarded British damehoods
Actresses from Essex
Alumni of Middlesex University
Audiobook narrators
BAFTA fellows
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
British naturists
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English atheists
English film actresses
English people of Russian descent
English radio actresses
English Shakespearean actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
English voice actresses
European Film Award for Best Actress winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Golden Orange Honorary Award winners
Honorary Golden Bear recipients
Laurence Olivier Award winners
National Youth Theatre members
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People from Hammersmith
People from Westcliff-on-Sea
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Tony Award winners
Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners
| false |
[
"There's a Girl in My Hammerlock is a 1991 young adult novel by Jerry Spinelli.\n\nPlot\nMaisie Potter tries out for the wrestling team in her junior high to get close to a boy she likes, but she soon finds out that what she really loves is the sport of wrestling.\n\nMaisie initially wants to be on the cheerleading squad, but she did not make the cut during tryouts. She is infatuated with a boy at her school, Eric Delong, and will do anything to be near him. Because he tries out for the wrestling team, Maisie decides to try out too. She makes the team but discovers that wrestling is a lot harder than she initially thought. She wins some of her matches but most of her opponents forfeit because they don't think it's right for a girl to wrestle a boy. She has to decide if she should do things that other people want her to do or things that she truly wants to do and is good at.\n\nExternal links\nAuthor Jerry Spinelli's homepage\n\n1991 American novels\nNovels by Jerry Spinelli\nAmerican sports novels\nAmerican young adult novels",
"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"
] |
[
"Helen Mirren",
"2000-2009",
"Was she acting in 2000?",
"Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000),",
"Did she receive positive reviews?",
"The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics,",
"Were their any more movies in 2000?",
"The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge,",
"Did she receive any reviews for either one in 2000?",
"A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office.",
"Did she have any box office hits?",
"Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park.",
"Did she win an award for that movie?",
"Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award",
"Are there any other movies she is best known in?",
"In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls,",
"Was there an awards for this movie?",
"In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren.",
"Did she have any other movies?",
"Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone",
"Did she do anything other than acting?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_aaa4e21dc2e84349b08163dfce1fb19a_1
|
How many movies between 2000-2009 did she act in?
| 11 |
How many movies between 2000-2009 did Mirren act in?
|
Helen Mirren
|
Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the award-winning prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project garnered largely lukewarm reviews from critics, who felt that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films. The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, actor Sean Penn's second directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also the year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics. Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. An homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. Widely acclaimed by critics, it received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren was initially resistant to join the project, at first dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, and grossed $96,000,000 worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren (; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.
Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Early life and education
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London on 26 July 1945, to an English mother and Russian father. Her mother, Kathleen "Kitty" Alexandrina Eva Matilda (née Rogers; 1909–1996), was a working-class woman from West Ham, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility; he had been taken to England at age two by his father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov. Pyotr, who owned a family estate near Gzhatsk (now Gagarin), was part of the Russian aristocracy. Pyotr's mother, Mirren's great-grandmother, was Countess Lydia Andreevna Kamenskaya, aristocrat and a descendant of Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, a prominent Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars. Pyotr served as a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded by the Russian Revolution in 1917. The former diplomat settled down in England, and became a London cab driver to support his family.
Vasily also worked as a cab driver and then played the viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before World War II. During the war, he worked as an ambulance driver and served in the East End of London during the Blitz. He and Kathleen married in Hammersmith in 1938, and at some point before 1951 he anglicised his name to Basil. After the birth of Helen, Basil left the orchestra and returned to cab-driving in order to support the family. He later worked as a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. In 1951, Basil changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist". She was the second of three children, born between older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942) and younger brother Peter Basil (1947–2002). Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Mirren attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she had the lead role in a school production of Hansel and Gretel, and St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she also acted in school productions. She then attended a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on North End Road, which runs from Hampstead to Golders Green. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and was accepted. At twenty, she played Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, a role which Mirren says "launched my career", and led to her signing with agent Al Parker.
Theatre career
Early years
As a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). While with the RSC, she played Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (1967), Cressida in Troilus and Cressida (1968), Rosalind in As You Like It (1968), Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970), Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych (1971), and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place (1971). She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, between 1965 and 1967.
In 1970, the director and producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made for ATV, it was shown on the ITV network in the UK. In 1972 and 1973, Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US, during which they created The Conference of the Birds. She then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975.
Sally Beauman reported, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren — while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a letter to The Guardian newspaper — had sharply criticised both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre", and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." This started a big debate, and led to a question in parliament. There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.
West End and RSC
At the West End's Royal Court Theatre in September 1975, she played the role of a rock star named Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare; she reprised the role the following year in a revival of the play at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976.
Beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers's new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace', and winning acclaim for her performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios.
In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. That same year she also won acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which was later transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story." In her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl—at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre in April 1983—she was described as having "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.
At the beginning of 1989, Mirren co-starred with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions. British actors like to speak. In London, there’s a much more open-hearted kind of exchange between stage and audience" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989). In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).
On 15 February 2013, at the West End's Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience. The show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role.
Broadway debut
A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev.
Prior to 2015, Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001.
On 7 June 2015‚ Mirren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play‚ for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience (a performance which also won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Her Tony Award win made her one of the few actors to achieve the US “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of acclaimed performers including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino.
National Theatre
In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; The Guardian called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while The Daily Telegraph said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."
At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies. "This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better." She played the title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the Epidaurus amphitheatre on 11 and 12 July 2009.
Film career
Mirren has appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film appearances include roles in Herostratus (1967) Dir. Don Levy, Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Age of Consent (1969), O Lucky Man! (1973), Caligula (1979), The Long Good Friday (1980)—co-starring with Bob Hoskins in what was her breakthrough film role, Excalibur (1981), 2010 (1984), White Nights (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988) and When the Whales Came (1989). She appeared in The Madness of King George (1994), Some Mother's Son (1996), Painted Lady (1997) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In Peter Greenaway's colorful The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Mirren plays the wife opposite Michael Gambon. In Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), she plays sadistic history teacher Mrs Eve Tingle.
In 2007, she claimed that the director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a casting call in 1964. Asked about the incident, Winner told The Guardian: "I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious. I was only doing what the [casting] agent asked me – and for this I get reviled! Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actress and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."
Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in Gosford Park (2001) with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls (2003) with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing (2004), Pride (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Shadowboxer (2005). Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
2000–2009
Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison, who won gardening awards. Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show. The project received lukewarm reviews, which suggested that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films.
The same year, she began work on the mystery film The Pledge, Sean Penn's third directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success, the ensemble film tanked at the box office. Also that year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics.
Her biggest critical and commercial success, released in 2001, became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park. A homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. It received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson. Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins.
In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. Mirren initially was reluctant to join the project, dismissing it as another middling British picture, but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film was generally well received by critics, and grossed $96 million worldwide. In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren. Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams.
2010–2014
In 2010, Mirren appeared in five films. In Love Ranch, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, she portrayed Sally Conforte, one half of a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the US, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada. Mirren starred in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, in Julie Taymor's The Tempest. This was based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare; Taymor changed the original character's gender to cast Mirren as her lead. While the actor garnered strong reviews for her portrayal, the film itself was largely panned by critics.
Mirren played a gutsy tea-shop owner who tries to save one of her young employees from marrying a teenage killer in Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, a crime film loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel. The film noir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, where it received mixed reviews. Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success of the year was Robert Schwentke's ensemble action comedy Red, based on Warren Ellis’s graphic novel, in which she portrayed Victoria, an ex-MI6 assassin. Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis' involvement. Released to positive reviews, it grossed $186.5 million worldwide. Also in 2010, the actor lent her voice to Zack Snyder's computer-animated fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, voicing antagonist Nyra, a leader of a group of owls. The film grossed $140.1 million on an $80 million budget.
Mirren's next film was the comedy film Arthur, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, starring Russell Brand in the lead role. Arthur received generally negative reviews from critics, who declared it an "irritating, unnecessary remake." In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name.
In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection." Mirren was universally praised, however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective." Her other film that year was The Door, a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things [she has] ever done."
The following year, Mirren replaced Bette Midler in David Mamet's biographical television film Phil Spector about the American musician. The HBO film focuses on the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Mirren, during the first of his two murder trials for the death in 2003 of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector received largely mixed to positive reviews from critics, particularly for Mirren and co-star Al Pacino's performances, and was nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, also winning Mirren a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 20th awards ceremony. The film drew criticism both from Clarkson's family and friends, who charged that the suicide defense was given more merit than it deserved, and from Spector's wife, who argued that Spector was portrayed as a "foul-mouthed megalomaniac" and a "minotaur". Also in 2013, Mirren voiced the character of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Pixar's computer-animated comedy film Monsters University, which grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million, and reprised her role in the sequel film Red 2. The action comedy received a mixed reviews from film critics, who called it a "lackadaisical sequel", but became another commercial success, making over $140 million worldwide.
Mirren's only film of 2014 was the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey opposite the Indian actor Om Puri. Directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film is based on Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel with the same name and tells the story of a feud between two adjacent restaurants in a French town. Mirren garnered largely positive reviews for her performance of a snobby restaurateur, a role which she accepted as she was keen to play a French character, reflecting her "pathetic attempt at being a French actress." The film earned her another Golden Globe nomination and became a modest commercial success, grossing $88.9 million worldwide.
2015–present
In 2015, Mirren reunited with her former assistant Simon Curtis on Woman in Gold, co-starring Ryan Reynolds. The film was based on the true story of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann, who, together with her young lawyer Randy Schoenberg, fought the Austrian government to be reunited with Gustav Klimt's painting of her aunt, the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although Mirren and Reynold's performances were widely praised. A commercial success, Woman in Gold became one of the highest-grossing specialty films of the year. The same year, Mirren appeared in Gavin Hood's thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), in which she played as a military intelligence officer who leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in Nairobi, Kenya. Mirren's last film that year was Jay Roach's biographical drama Trumbo, co-starring Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane. The actor played Hedda Hopper, the famous actor and gossip columnist, in the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics and garnered her a 14th Golden Globe nomination.
Mirren's only film of 2016 was Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel. Co-Starring Will Smith, Keira Knightley, and Kate Winslet, the ensemble drama follows a man who copes with his daughter's death by writing letters to time, death, and love. The film earned largely negative reviews from critics, who called it "well-meaning but fundamentally flawed." In 2017, Mirren narrated Cries from Syria, a documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. Also that year, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious, the eighth instalment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, playing Magdalene, the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw. Mirren had a larger role in director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut The Leisure Seeker, based on the 2009 novel of the same name. On set, she was reunited with Donald Sutherland with whom she had not worked again since Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990), portraying a terminally ill couple who escape from their retirement home and take one last cross-country adventure in a vintage van. At the 75th awards ceremony, Mirren received her 15th Golden Globe nomination.
In 2018, Mirren portrayed heiress Sarah Winchester in the supernatural horror film Winchester, directed by The Spierig Brothers. In the same year, she starred as Mother Ginger in Disney's adaptation of The Nutcracker, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston. In 2019, she appeared in the ensemble film Berlin, I Love You, the French crime thriller film Anna, directed and written by Luc Besson, and co-starred in the Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. In March 2021, she was cast as the villain Hespera in the upcoming superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Mirren is set to portray Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel 1969–1974, in a biopic entitled Golda. As at April 2021 the film was in production.
Television career
Prime Suspect
Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama series that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994 (making her one of four actors to have received three consecutive BAFTA TV Awards for a role, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Michael Gambon). Primarily due to Prime Suspect, in 2006 Mirren came 29th on ITV’s poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars voted by the British public.
Other roles
Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her an Emmy; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series. She also played Queen Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006. Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.
Personal life
Mirren lived with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson during the early 1980s; they met while working on Excalibur (1981). When interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors Studio, Neeson said Mirren was instrumental in him getting an agent.
Mirren began dating American director Taylor Hackford in 1986. They were married on 31 December 1997 at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The couple met on the set of White Nights (1985). It is her first marriage and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children, stating she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever".
Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."
In 1990, Mirren stated in an interview that she is an atheist. In the August 2011 issue of Esquire, Mirren said, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."
In a 2008 interview with GQ, Mirren revealed she was date raped as a student, and had often taken cocaine at parties in her twenties and until the 1980s. She stopped using the drug after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.
On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London. In 2012, she was among the British cultural icons selected by the artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires. In 2010, she was named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire, and in a 2011 photo shoot for the magazine she stripped down and then covered up with the Union Jack.
In 2013, Mirren was announced as one of several new models for Marks & Spencer's "Womanism" campaign. Subtitled "Britain's leading ladies", the campaign saw Mirren appear alongside British women from various fields, including pop singer Ellie Goulding, double Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams, and writer Monica Ali. In March 2013, The Guardian listed Mirren as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50.
She told the Radio Times, "I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly people, beautiful people, old people, whatever. It's so unisexual and so liberating." In 2004, she was named "Naturist of the Year" by British Naturism. She said: "Many thanks to British Naturism for this great honour. I do believe in naturism and am my happiest on a nude beach with people of all ages and races!"
Mirren became a U.S. citizen in 2017 and voted in her first U.S. election in 2020.
In April 2021, she took part in the music video "La Vacinada" (meaning the vaccinated woman in broken Spanish language) of Italian comedian and singer Checco Zalone.
In said song and video, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of Covid-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and as the elderly get vaccinated first, a higher-aged partner (played by Mirren in the video) is now the best choice.
Acting credits
Awards and honours
Among her major competitive awards, Mirren has won one Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award. Her numerous honorary awards include the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Gala Tribute presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace in December. In January 2009, Mirren was named on The Times''' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. The list included Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench and Audrey Hepburn.
See also
List of British actors
List of British Academy Award nominees and winners
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Bibliography
Ward, Philip (2019). Becoming Helen Mirren. Troubador Press. . A survey of the actress's early career.
External links
Interviews:''
1945 births
Living people
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actresses awarded British damehoods
Actresses from Essex
Alumni of Middlesex University
Audiobook narrators
BAFTA fellows
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
British naturists
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English atheists
English film actresses
English people of Russian descent
English radio actresses
English Shakespearean actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
English voice actresses
European Film Award for Best Actress winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Golden Orange Honorary Award winners
Honorary Golden Bear recipients
Laurence Olivier Award winners
National Youth Theatre members
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People from Hammersmith
People from Westcliff-on-Sea
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Tony Award winners
Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners
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[
"C. Shakeela, known mononymously as Shakeela, is an Indian actress and politician who predominantly acted in Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil language films. Now she is a member of Indian National Congress. Shakeela debuted in the film Playgirls (1995) at the age of 18 as an actress. She appeared in about 250 films, most of them softcore, which made her a major debut in the late 1990s and early 2000s.\n\nEarly life\nShakeela was born in a Muslim family based in Kodambakkam, Madras, India. Her mother Chan Begum was from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh and father Chan Basha was from Madras. She had six other siblings and did her school education from six different schools in Madras. She could not complete her school leaving certificate examination, eventually making her foray into films.\n\nCareer\nFrom the beginning of her career, she acted in many B grade movies and soft-porn movies. One of her big hits was Kinnarathumbikal, which brought her into limelight and resulted in an unheard-of craze for her from youngsters to the old. She did a few controversial topless scenes in her initial movies until she got noticed. Her B-Grade films were dubbed and released in almost all Indian languages. Her films were dubbed into foreign languages like Nepalese, Chinese, and Sinhala. After she acted in several movies, the soft-porn movies in India were colloquially called as \"shakeela films\". Shakeela hired a body double Surayya Banu to do her topless scenes.\n\nShakeela started appearing in family character roles in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada language movies since 2003. She wrote her autobiography in Malayalam, which covered her family, her background, as well as her acquaintance with notable film personalities, politicians and childhood friends.\n\nIn January 2018, she announced her 250th film as an actor, Sheelavathi, would begin production.\n\nPersonal life\nIn 2012, Shakeela announced that she will no longer act in B grade movies. Shakeela released her autobiography \"Shakeela: Aatmakatha\" in 2013. Shakeela has adopted a transgender daughter Mila.\n\nFilmography\n\nAs an actress\nShakeela has featured in over 250 in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Odia and Telugu Language films in various roles.\n\nTelevision\n\nIn popular culture\nIndrajit Lankesh directed her biopic Shakeela based on her life in which Richa Chadda portrays the title character.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \nShakeela biopic official website\n\nLiving people\nActresses from Chennai\nActresses in Tamil cinema\nActresses in Telugu cinema\nActresses in Malayalam cinema\nActresses in Kannada cinema\n20th-century Indian actresses\nIndian film actresses\n21st-century Indian actresses\nIndian female adult models\nActresses in Odia cinema\n21st-century Indian film directors\nIndian women film directors\nMalayalam film directors\nTelugu film directors\nBigg Boss Kannada contestants\nActresses from Andhra Pradesh\nPeople from Nellore district\nPeople from Nellore\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"Gianna Maria Canale (12 September 1927 – 13 February 2009) was an Italian film actress.\n\nBiography \nCanale was born in 1927 in Reggio Calabria. In 1947, she competed in the Miss Italia beauty contest, where she was runner-up to Lucia Bosè. Following this, she appeared in many Italian magazines, with her looks being compared to those of Ava Gardner.\n\nCanale was offered a role in a movie by Riccardo Freda, with whom she eventually fell in love. They moved to Brazil where they were married and worked together in two movies. As Canale did not enjoy living in South America, the couple returned to Italy where, often directed by her husband, she starred in many sword and hood movies, as well as horror and adventure ones. I vampiri was her last film with Freda.\n\nCanale retired from acting in 1964 at the age of 37. She died in Sutri, Viterbo in January 2009.\n\nFilmography\n\nExternal links\n\nGianna Maria Canale at MSN Movies\n\n1927 births\n2009 deaths\nPeople from Calabria\nPeople from Reggio Calabria\nItalian film actresses\n20th-century Italian actresses"
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"Thomas Mitchell (explorer)",
"Fourth expedition"
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C_21ced70edb4348dc931b813b1a4fa981_0
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What was the relation between Thomas Mitchell and Fourth expedtition?
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What was the relation between Thomas Mitchell and Fourth expedtition?
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Thomas Mitchell (explorer)
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Mitchell's fourth expedition was into Queensland in 1845-46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria, this being the main thrust of the endeavour. On 15 December 1845 Mitchell started from Boree (Buree in Mitchell's journal) with a large party including Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York). He struck the Darling River above Fort Bourke then continued to the Narran River, the Balonne, and the Culgoa. On 12 April 1846 he came to a natural bridge of rocks on the main branch of the Balonne which he called St.George Bridge, now the site of the town of St George. Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men. Mitchell followed the Balonne to the Maranoa, and the Cogoon (now called Muckadilla Creek, near Roma). This rivulet led him to a magnificent pastoral district in the midst of which stood a solitary hill that he named Mount Abundance. He then crossed a low watershed to the Maranoa and awaited Kennedy's arrival. Kennedy rejoined Mitchell on 1 June 1846. Leaving Kennedy for a second time, he set out on an extensive excursion of more than four months. Mitchell traversed the country at the head of the Maranoa and discovered the Warrago River. Keeping north over the watershed, he traversed the Claude and Nogoa rivers, then reached the Belyando River, an upper reach of the Burdekin River. This had already been discovered by Ludwig Leichhardt on his expedition to Port Essington on 2 April 1845. Intensely mortified to find that he was on a tributary of the Burdekin River, and approaching the ground already trodden by Leichhardt, he returned to the head of the Nogoa and struck west, after dividing his party and forming a stationary camp. He continued west, making a new discovery which he was certain was the fabled north-west river. In honour of the sovereign of the time he decided to call it Victoria River. Having run out of time, he turned back towards the main party. It was here that Mitchell first noticed the well known grass that bears his name. On the homeward journey he trekked along the Maranoa River to St.George Bridge, arriving in Sydney 20 January 1847. Later that year, Kennedy proved beyond doubt that the Victoria did not continue north-west, but turned south-west and joined Cooper Creek. He renamed the watercourse the Barcoo River from a name mentioned by local Aborigines. CANNOTANSWER
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Mitchell's fourth expedition was into Queensland in 1845-46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria,
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Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (15 June 1792 – 5 October 1855), surveyor and explorer of Southeastern Australia, was born at Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland. In 1827 he took up an appointment as Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales. The following year he became Surveyor General and remained in this position until his death. Mitchell was knighted in 1839 for his contribution to the surveying of Australia.
Early life
Born in Scotland on 15 June 1792, he was son of John Mitchell of Carron Works and was brought up from childhood by his uncle, Thomas Livingstone of Parkhall, Stirlingshire.
Peninsular War
On the death of his uncle, he joined the British army in Portugal as a volunteer in the Peninsular War, at the age of sixteen. On 24 June 1811, at the age of nineteen, he received his first commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion 95th Rifles (later the Rifle Brigade / Royal Green Jackets). Utilising his skills as a draughtsman of outstanding ability, he was occasionally employed in the Quartermaster-General's department under Sir George Murray. He was present at the storming of the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos and San Sebastian as well as the battles of Salamanca and the Pyrenees. Subsequently, he would receive the Military General Service Medal with bars for each of these engagements.
When the war was over, Mitchell was selected to reside in Spain and Portugal for four years to complete sketches of the battlefields for the Military Depot. His duties also included conducting several other important surveys which had been impossible to finish whilst operations were in progress in the field. On 10 June 1818, during this posting, Mitchell married Mary Blunt (daughter of General Richard Blunt) in Lisbon and gained promotion to a company in the 54th Regiment.
In the summer of 1819, he returned to Britain where he devoted himself to finishing the drawings, but with the cessation of the government allowances he had to stop this work. The reductions in the military establishment which followed the withdrawing of the Army of Occupation from France forced Mitchell on to half-pay. It was not until much later, while Mitchell was in London between 1838 and 1840, that the work was completed. The finished drawings were published by the London geographer James Wyld in 1841 under the title Atlas containing the principle battles, sieges and affairs of the Peninsular War. Of high quality, the drawings are the prime source for the topography of the war.
New South Wales
In 1827, with the support of Sir George Murray, Mitchell became Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales with the right to succeed John Oxley. Oxley died the following year, and on 27 May 1828, Mitchell became Surveyor General. In this post he did much to improve the quality and accuracy of surveying – a vital task in a colony where huge tracts of land were being opened up and sold to new settlers. One of the first roads surveyed under his leadership was the Great North Road, built by convict labour between 1826 and 1836 linking Sydney to the Hunter Region. The Great South Road (now replaced by the Hume Highway), also convict-built, linked Sydney and Goulburn. He kept a record of his 'Progress in roads and Public Works in New South Wales to 1855', including sketches and plans of Sydney, Emu Plains, the Blue Mountains, Victoria Pass, roads to Bathurst, Wiseman's Ferry, and indigenous Australians.
As Surveyor General, Mitchell also completed maps and plans of Sydney, including Darling Point, Point Piper, the city, and Port Jackson. In 1834 he was commissioned to survey a map of the Nineteen Counties. The map he produced was done with such skill and accuracy that he was awarded a knighthood. Around this time, a portrait of Mitchell was painted showing him in the uniform of Major of the 1st Rifle Brigade of the 95th Regiment, complete with whistle used to direct the movement of troops.
During his tenure in New South Wales, Mitchell led four extensive and historically significant surveying expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia.
First expedition
In 1831, a runaway convict named George "The Barber" Clarke (monument around Barbers Lagoon, Boggabri NSW), who had lived with the Kamilaroi people in the area for several years, claimed that a large river called Kindur flowed north-west from the Liverpool Ranges in New South Wales to the sea. Charles Sturt believed that the Murray-Darling system formed the main river system of New South Wales and Mitchell wanted to prove Sturt wrong. Mitchell formed an expedition consisting of himself, assistant surveyor George Boyle White and 15 convicts who were promised remission for good conduct. Mitchell took 20 bullocks, three heavy drays, three light carts and nine horses to carry supplies, and set out on 24 November 1831 to investigate the claim. On reaching Wollombi in the Hunter Valley, the local assistant surveyor, Heneage Finch, expressed a desire to join the expedition which Mitchell approved, provided he first obtain extra provisions and rendezvous later.
The expedition continued northward, and having climbed the Liverpool Range on 5 December, they found an Aboriginal tribe who had fled from their home in the Hunter Valley and were suffering from what appeared to be smallpox. On 8 December they arrived at Quirindi and by 11 December the expedition had reached Wallamoul Station near Tamworth, the northern extent of white settlement at the time.
Mitchell continued his northward push into uncolonised territory, guided by a local Gamilaraay man named "Mr. Brown". In mid-December, near to where Boggabri now stands, they located the remains of a stockyard and huts built by George Clarke and his Aboriginal colleagues. By early January 1832 Mitchell's group was travelling along the Namoi River, by which stage Mr Brown had left them. Mitchell's party then headed north unguided but managed to reach the Gwydir River in mid-January where they found a small Aboriginal village of conical-roofed huts. They followed the Gwydir west and made it to the Barwon River by the end of the month. Mitchell came to the correct conclusion that the Barwon flowed into the Darling River and decided not to proceed any further.
At this stage, Finch had finally caught up with the main group. Finch conveyed the news that the provisions he had obtained had been ransacked by Aboriginal people at Gorolei. Two men he had left to guard the supplies had also been killed. The immediate effect was that Mitchell decided to abandon the expedition and return south. The party retraced their path having tense but peaceful interactions with large groups of Gamilaraay people along the way. They reached Gorolei on 18 February where Mitchell buried the bodies of the two killed men and salvaged some equipment. Aboriginal people approached the group laying down their spears and offering females to Mitchell's men in an apparent attempt at appeasement for the killings. Mitchell refused the offer but accepted their guidance on an easy way back to the Namoi River. Once back at Wallamoul, Mitchell placed White in charge of the main party, while he returned hastily to Sydney. He was satisfied that there was no truth about the river Kindur claimed by Clarke. Fourteen years later, Mitchell revealed that the convicts had indulged in sexual relations with Aboriginal women.
Second expedition
Mitchell's next expedition was in 1835. The purpose was to explore the course of the Darling River from where Sturt had turned back in 1829, to where it joined the Murray River. There were 24 men in the party including Mitchell, James Larmer (assistant surveyor) as second in command, Richard Cunningham (colonial botanist) and 21 other men. The main party under Larmer left Parramatta on 9 March and rendezvoused with Mitchell at Boree near the township of Orange. From there, the expedition was guided through the Goobang Ranges by local Wiradjuri people toward the Bogan River. On 17 April 1835, Richard Cunningham wandered away from the party while looking for botanical specimens and went missing. The party, with the assistance of various local Aboriginal people, searched for him until 5 May, following Cunningham's tracks around the headwaters of the Bogan until they disappeared. Cunningham's dead horse, saddle, glove and fragments of his coat and map were all they found. Months later, a search party of military mounted police commanded by Lieutenant Henry Zouch of the first division, discovered that Cunningham had been killed by four Wiradjuri men and his bones were found and buried at Currindine.
After the fruitless search for Cunningham, Mitchell decided to continue the expedition. He was assisted by a local unnamed elder who provided a guide called Tackijally. This man led Mitchell downstream along the waterholes adjacent to the Bogan River as far as Nyngan. Tackijally left them at this point and the group was soon involved in a brief confrontation after they startled an Aboriginal man at a waterhole. The man, who was shot in the hand, had his wounds dressed by the group and later departed. They proceeded down the Bogan, encountering several gatherings of people to which Mitchell gave tomahawks and pieces of an old sword. On 25 May the junction with the Darling River was reached. Here, on a high point of land which bore many Aboriginal grave sites, Mitchell decided to build a fort as he realised that they "had not asked permission to come there" and he needed a stockade for "stout resistance against any number of natives." He named it Fort Bourke in honour of the Governor, Richard Bourke.
Two whale boats had been transported the whole distance on bullock drays and on 1 June Mitchell launched the boats on the Darling to transport the party downriver. However, the Darling became shallower and unnavigable resulting in the expedition resorting once again to overland progress. They encountered many tribes as they headed south, with Mitchell documenting the agricultural practices of some, such as the harvesting of Panicum decompositum, and the large permanent dwellings of others. One clan appeared more hostile than others, kicking up dust and spitting at party members. Mitchell acknowledged that his group were "rather unceremonious invaders of their country" but inflamed tensions by firing a pistol at a tree. Mitchell wrote that "the more they saw of our superior weapons...the more they shewed their hatred and tokens of defiance." The party continued downriver, meeting with friendlier locals, passing through villages and noting the construction of their tomb-sites.
Just north of the Menindee Lakes, the expedition came across a large congregation of several tribes and Mitchell decided that continuing the exploration would be too dangerous. On 11 July, just as Mitchell had resolved to return to Sydney, shots were heard from a forage party up the river. Mitchell sent a further three armed men to the scene of the shooting and the firing continued. After more than an hour, some members of the group returned reporting that a skirmish had occurred over the possession of a kettle and at least three Aboriginal people had been shot dead, including a woman and her child. One of Mitchell's men had been knocked unconscious. The party then commenced their return via the outbound route with Mitchell deciding to avoid contact with the various tribes as much as possible. The "spitting tribe" attempted to burn down their camp on this return journey which resulted in Mitchell ordering shots to be fired over their heads. They arrived at Fort Bourke on 10 August and continued back along the Bogan River. Near Nyngan they met again with members of Tackijally's tribe who allowed Mitchell to walk through their cemetery at Milmeridien. Mitchell soon tired of the clan asking for food and ordered some of his men to march at them with bayonets. On 9 September they came to the upper reaches of the Bogan where they found a cattle-station had already been formed along their route by William Lee. The expedition arrived back at their starting point of Boree on 14 September.
While Mitchell did not trace the Darling River to its junction with the Murray River, the course and terrain of the Bogan River and much of the Darling River had been charted. The places where this and other Mitchell expeditions were most assailed by Aboriginal Australians, including the location of Cunningham's killing, are marked on an 1836 map produced by Mitchell.
Third expedition
The goal of Mitchell's third expedition was to explore and survey the lower part of the Darling River, with instructions to head up the Murray River and then return to the settled areas around Yass. Second in command was assistant surveyor Granville Stapylton. A Wiradjuri man named John Piper was also recruited and 23 convicts and ticket of leave men made up the rest of the party. The group set out from a valley near Mount Canobolas on 17 March 1836, and made their way to Boree and the Bogan River as on previous journeys, then veered south to the Kalare or Lachlan River to approach the Darling from its southern end where it joined the Murray.
The party was guided by various Aboriginal people such as "Barney" along the Lachlan, passing Lake Cargelligo, as John Oxley did in 1817. At this place they met with a large clan from which a number of people joined the expedition and gave vital information about waterholes, as the Lachlan was drying out. Piper also obtained a "good, strong woman" from this tribe.
On 2 May they arrived at Combedyega where an Aboriginal widow named Turandurey with her four-year-old daughter Ballandella also joined the expedition as a guide. She remembered Oxley from nineteen years earlier and Sturt as well, and knew the lower Lachlan. The Murrumbidgee River was reached on 12 May, but at a point downstream from the junction with the Lachlan.
Mount Dispersion massacre
They continued down the Murrumbidgee until 21 May when they were close to the junction with the Murray River. A depot was established at this point, and Mitchell left Staplyton with eight men to guard the stock, while he ventured downstream with the rest of the group. According to the account given to a later enquiry by William Muirhead (bullock-driver and sergeant), Alexander Burnett (overseer) and Jemmy Piper (Aboriginal man accompanying the party): on 24 May Mitchell noticed that Barkindji tribesmen from the Darling River were gathering in large numbers, and by 27 May the hostile intentions of these men became known, when local Murray River people told Piper that the Barkindji were planning to kill Mitchell and his men. Mitchell had to decide whether to wait for an attack, or plan a pre-emptive manoeuvre. His numbers were reduced, as Staplyton and eight men were still at the depot. He split his party again, leaving half the men to hide in the scrub in ambush, while he continued ahead with the carts. When the armed Barkindji warriors approached, the convict Charles King, who was involved in the earlier killings, fired first without waiting for orders. The tribesmen fled into the river and Mitchell's two groups reunited on the shore and continued to shoot at the people for up to 15 minutes. Around 75 shots were fired with Piper later being told that seven Barkindji were killed and four wounded.
Mitchell wrote about the loss of life in his journal, describing the Barkindji as "treacherous savages", and detailing how his men had chased them away, "pursuing and shooting as many as they could". This section was withheld from Mitchell's report when it was released to the public in Sydney. Mitchell named the hill near to where the mass-shooting occurred Mount Dispersion and in May 2020 it was heritage-listed as the Mount Dispersion Massacre Site Aboriginal Place.
Onwards
The expedition continued down the Murray River, encountering a major Aboriginal grave-site at Red Cliffs. On 31 May they arrived close to the junction of the Murray with a "green and stagnant" waterway. Local people advised Piper that this was the Darling River. Mitchell did not believe it, and only when he travelled upstream for some distance, coming across the same type of burial mounds that he had seen in 1835, did he acknowledge that "this hopeless river" was the Darling. He turned back and headed upstream on the Murray to rejoin Stapylton at the depot. The reunited expedition now travelled south-east following the Murray. They passed Swan Hill on 21 June and encountered a group of native inhabitants at Lake Boga. These people were angry at Piper for "bringing whitefellows" to their country and threw spears at him. Piper shot one of them dead. Mitchell noted the local people's practice of making large nets that spanned above the river to catch waterfowl and also came across unusual animals such as the now extinct Southern pig-footed bandicoot.
At the end of June, Mitchell chose to leave the Murray to investigate better looking lands to the south-west. Mitchell was so impressed with the country he saw, he named it Australia Felix. In early July the party crossed the Loddon River, and made their way in a south-westerly direction which brought them to the Grampians and the Wimmera River. Confrontation with people in this region resulted in an Indigenous man being shot in the arm. They were guided by a local Aboriginal woman along part of the Nangeela (Glenelg River) with Mitchell constructing a fortified base on its banks which he named Fort O'Hare. From here Mitchell led part of the group in boats down the Glenelg to where it discharged into the ocean at a bay which Mitchell named Discovery Bay. Mitchell then returned to Fort O'Hare and altered direction towards Portland Bay to the east. When this was reached on 29 August, Mitchell was surprised to find an established farm and whaling station operated by the Henty brothers.
The expedition continued north-east with Mitchell spending a night in a "snug old hut of the natives" at Narrawong. On 17 September, in order to speed his return, Mitchell split the party in two, taking 14 men with him and leaving the remainder with Stapylton to follow with the bullocks and drays. The young girl Ballandella went with Mitchell, while her mother Turandurey remained behind. On the plains around the Hopkins River, Mitchell came across a community of Aboriginal people who cultivated and harvested murnong tubers with specialised tools. Mitchell was wary and when forty of them approached his camp, he ordered his men to charge at them. On 30 September, Mitchell climbed and named Mount Macedon, from the summit of which he had a view of Port Phillip. Progress was slowed due a member of the group, James "Tally-ho" Taylor, drowning while crossing the Broken River. Their return to the frontier of British colonisation on the Murrumbidgee was not completed until 24 October.
Enquiry
When Mitchell arrived in Sydney in early November he was received with great joy. However, when the remainder of his party arrived two weeks later, rumours circulated about the mass killing on the Murray. He subsequently faced a Legislative Council Inquiry in December 1836, receiving an official rebuke. Ballandella joined Mitchell's family of eight other children and learnt to read and write, but was left by Mitchell when he returned to England. Ballandella later married and raised a family at Sackville where she died around the age of thirty.
Fourth expedition
Mitchell's fourth expedition was into northern interior of the colony (a region now part of Queensland) in 1845–46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and finding this river was the main focus of the endeavour.
On 15 December 1845 Mitchell started from Boree near Orange with a large party of 32 people including Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York). The Wiradjuri man named Piper from his previous expedition was also a member. Yuranigh (also Wiradjuri) and a ten year old boy from the lower Bogan River named "Dicky" were also assigned as guides. The party travelled north along the Bogan where a war between the British and the Indigenous inhabitants was at that time occurring. Mitchell noted areas where the British had been pushed back, abandoning their farmhouses which were subsequently burnt down by the local people. Mitchell stated "All I could learn about the rest of the tribe was, that the men were almost all dead, and that their wives were chiefly servants at stock stations along the Macquarie."
In January 1846, they left the Bogan and started following the Macquarie River where Mitchell was informed of Pipers' intention to leave the expedition. Mitchell ordered him back to Bathurst, accompanied by Corporal Graham. Near the Macquarie Marshes the harvesting of native millet by Aboriginal people to make bread was recorded and a local man named Yulliyally guided the group to the Barwon River. From here two brothers from a nearby clan led Mitchell to vital waterholes near the Narran River. Mitchell "blushed inwardly for our pallid race" knowing that "white man's cattle would soon trample these holes into a quagmire of mud." More bundles of harvested millet lay for miles along their journey up the Narran. Mitchell then received a message from his son, Roderick Mitchell, a Crown Lands Commissioner who had previously been to the area, which recommended following the Balonne and the Culgoa rivers north. They encountered many Indigenous people who guided the group along the way. On 12 April 1846 Mitchell came to a natural bridge of rocks on the main branch of the Balonne which he called St. George Bridge, now the site of the town of St George. Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men. Mitchell followed the Balonne to the Maranoa, and the Cogoon (now called Muckadilla Creek, near Roma). This rivulet led him to an area with an "abundance of good pasturage" in which stood a solitary double topped hill that he named Mount Abundance, on which grew a species of bottle tree. He then crossed to the Maranoa and awaited Kennedy's arrival. Kennedy, who had trouble with local inhabitants trying to burn down his camp, rejoined Mitchell on 1 June 1846.
Leaving Kennedy for a second time, he set out on an extensive excursion of more than four months. Mitchell traversed the country at the head of the Maranoa, on one occasion discharging his rifle over the heads of the Indigenous people to gain "peaceful occupation of the ground." He sighted the headwaters of the Warrego and Nogoa Rivers, then came across the upper reaches of the Belyando River which they followed for a considerable distance. This river's name was given to Mitchell by Indigenous residents before the expedition's dogs chased them away, biting at their legs. Being a tributary of the Burdekin River, a waterway already visited by Ludwig Leichhardt on his expedition to Port Essington in 1845, Mitchell was dismayed to find that he was approaching ground already explored by Europeans. He returned to the head of the Nogoa and struck west, meeting with a tribe who caught emus with nets. He encountered a river which he was certain was the fabled waterway that would flow north-west to the Gulf of Carpentaria. He followed it until he came across a large clan of Aboriginal people living in permanent huts on the banks of a lagoon. He called this place Yuranigh Pond after his Wiradjuri guide and decided to return home. In honour of the British sovereign of the time, he named the waterway, Victoria River. On the homeward journey Mitchell noticed the well known grass that bears his name. They trekked back along the Maranoa River to St.George Bridge, arriving in Sydney 20 January 1847.
Later in 1847, Kennedy proved beyond doubt that the Victoria in fact did not continue north-west, but turned south-west and joined Cooper Creek. He renamed the watercourse the Barcoo River from a name mentioned by local Aboriginal people.
Later career
In 1837, Mitchell sought 18 months leave from his position and in May he left Sydney for London. During his leave, he published an account of his explorations called Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia: with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix, and of the present colony of New South Wales. Mitchell sought additional periods of leave and finally arrived back in Australia in 1841. Mitchell left Sydney again in March 1847 on another period of leave. By the time he arrived back in mid-1848, he had published his Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in search of a route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Mitchell's journals proved a rich source for historians and anthropologists, with their close and sympathetic observations of the Aboriginal peoples he had encountered. These publications made him the most celebrated Australian explorer of his day. But he was a difficult man to get on with, made evident by this passage made by Governor Charles Augustus FitzRoy:
"It is notorious that Sir Thomas Mitchell's unfortunate impracticability of temper and spirit of opposition of those in authority over him misled him into frequent collision with my predecessors."
In a by-election for the Electoral district of Port Phillip in April 1844, Mitchell was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council. He found it difficult to separate his roles of government employee and elected member of the legislature, and after only five months he resigned from the Legislative Council.
Duel
Mitchell is also remembered as the last person in Australia to challenge anyone to a duel. In September 1851, Mitchell issued a challenge to Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson (later Premier of New South Wales) because Donaldson had publicly criticised excessive spending by the Surveyor General's Department. The duel took place in Sydney on 27 September, with both duellists missing their marks; only Donaldson's hat was damaged. The French 50 calibre pistols used in the duel are in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.
Ophir gold fields
In 1851, Mitchell was instructed by Governor FitzRoy to make a report on, and survey of, 'the extent and productiveness of the goldfield reported to have been discovered in the County of Bathurst.' He travelled west during winter to visit the Ophir gold diggings, accompanied by his son, Roderick, and Samuel Stutchbury the government geologist.
In June 1851 Mitchell selected the site for the township of Ophir. W.R. Davidson plotted a survey of the ground and Mitchell planned the streets and allotments for the town.
Mitchell returned with a collection of specimens from the diggings, mostly quartz, with 48 of these stored in a wooden chest. His report of the goldfields was presented to the Legislative Council in February 1852.
Story of the "bomerang" propeller
The search for a method of screw propulsion of ships intrigued many inventors during the latter half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. An Englishman, K. P. Smith, patented a screw propeller in 1836, and shortly afterwards Captain John Ericsson, formerly an officer of the Swedish army, patented another.
On his travels, Mitchell must have been evolving the idea of his boomerang propeller—he spelled it "bomerang", while newspapers used "bomarang" and "boomerang." The first test was made in the Sydney Harbour in May 1852, an iron propeller being fitted to the "screw-steamer" Keera. The results of this trial were considered satisfactory, the ship's progress being calculated on two runs at 10 and a little over 12 knots, and Sir Thomas Mitchell took his Invention to England. In 1853 the propeller was fitted to the Genova, and a trial was conducted on the Mersey. Then the Admiralty gave it a test on . The Genova ran at 9.5 knots as against 8.5 with a screw propeller, and the Conflict 9.25 knots as against the screw propeller 8.75, and at a lower engine speed. The "boomerang" propeller can be simply described as a "screw" propeller with much of the blades close to the shaft, which contribute little to propulsion but much to drag, cut away, a principle which is well understood today.
Family life
Thomas Mitchell and Mary had twelve children: Livingstone, Roderick, Murray, Campbell, Thomas, Richard, Georgina, Maria, Emily, Camilla, Alicia, Blanche. Georgina and Maria died young, and Murray before 1847. Roderick became a Commissioner of Crown Lands and head of the Border Police in the Liverpool Plains district. Roderick was drowned and Campbell died during the last years of Mitchell's life.
His family enjoyed a privileged upbringing, and Blanche Mitchell, his youngest daughter, recorded her daily activities and social life in childhood diaries and notebooks. Her sister Emily married George Edward Thicknesse-Touchet, 21st Baron Audley.
In 1841, Mitchell completed his new Gothic home, Carthona, on the water's edge in Darling Point, Sydney. Following Mitchell's death, his family moved to Craigend Terrace in Woolloomooloo.
Death
In July 1855 a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the New South Wales Survey Department, but Mitchell did not live to see the report. While surveying the line of road between Nelligen and Braidwood, he developed a chill which led to a severe attack of bronchitis. He died a few days later at Carthona at Darling Point at 5:15 pm 5 October 1855. Newspapers of the day commented:"For a period of twenty-eight years Sir Thomas Mitchell had served the Colony, much of that service having been exceedingly arduous and difficult. Among the early explorers of Australia his name will occupy an honoured place in the estimation of posterity."
He is buried at Camperdown Cemetery, Newtown, with his grave being maintained by the Seniors Group of Surveyors.
Naming
Some of the places Mitchell named on his expeditions were: the Avoca River, Balonne River, Belyando River, Campaspe River, Cogoon River, Discovery Bay, Glenelg River, Grampians, Maranoa River, Mount Arapiles, Mount King, Mount Macedon, Mount Napier, Mount William, Nyngan, Pyramid Hill, St George, Swan Hill and Wimmera River.
Commemoration
Because of his contributions in the surveying and exploration of Australia, Mitchell is commemorated by having numerous localities or objects across Australia being named after him. These include:
The town of Mitchell in Queensland
The Mitchell River in Queensland
The Canberra suburb of Mitchell
The electorate of Mitchell
The Mitchell Highway
The Major Mitchell's cockatoo, a species of cockatoo
Mitchellstown in Victoria.
A local government area in Victoria, Shire of Mitchell
Steam locomotive number S 301 Sir Thomas Mitchell, a member of the Victorian Railways S class locomotives. In turn, Mitchell House at Seymour Technical High School, the town with the loco depot which serviced the famous four locos. Later, the name was carried by the diesel S301.
Mitchell grass, common name of the small genus of grass species dominant across much of the arid areas of the continent
Mitchell's hopping mouse, an Australian native rodent-like animal
Countless roadside locations in Victoria have a memorial erected 'Major Mitchell passed here'.
Sir Thomas Mitchell Road Villawood NSW
Sir Thomas Mitchell road in Bondi NSW
Sir Thomas Mitchell Drive Bowenfels (Lithgow) linking the Great Western Highway with the Cox River at a fitting memorial to colonial road builders.
Mitchell is also the namesake in the highest honor of the New South Wales Surveyors Awards, the Sir Thomas Mitchell Excellence in Surveying Award.
A map of the expedition of Major Sir Thomas Mitchell into the country between the Maranoa and Mount Mudge and the River Victoria, 1848 was ranked #38 in the ‘Top 150: Documenting Queensland’ exhibition when it toured to venues around Queensland from February 2009 to April 2010. The exhibition was part of Queensland State Archives’ events and exhibition program which contributed to the state’s Q150 celebrations, marking the 150th anniversary of the separation of Queensland from New South Wales.
Manuscript Collections
See also
:Category:Taxa named by Thomas Mitchell (explorer)
Charles Sturt
Great North Road (Australia)
History of New South Wales
New South Wales gold rush
Nineteen Counties
Surveyor General of New South Wales
References
External links
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 1, Volume 2
The Great North Road – Convict Trail Project
1792 births
1855 deaths
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Explorers of Australia
Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia
Scottish explorers
British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
Scottish surveyors
Royal Engineers officers
People from Grangemouth
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council
Rifle Brigade officers
Surveyors General of New South Wales
19th-century Australian politicians
Pre-Separation Queensland
Australian duellists
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[
"Margaret Julia Mitchell (June 2, 1832 – March 22, 1918) was an American actress, born in New York City. She made her speaking debut as Julia in The Soldier's Daughter at the Chambers Street Theatre in 1851. The parts in which she earned the greatest fame were Jane Eyre, Mignon, Little Barefoot, and Fanchon the Cricket.\n\nMitchell was at the outset of the Civil War a Confederate sympathizer, but later moderated her views. She reportedly danced on an American flag while performing in Montgomery, Alabama, but later denied doing so. Her southern sympathies, charismatic personality and profession made her a warm, close friend of John Wilkes Booth, but also earned her the admiration of Abraham Lincoln, who invited her to tea in the Executive Mansion and enjoyed her performances at Ford's Theatre.\n\nFamily \nShe was married to Henry Thomas Paddock (1836–1896), a Cleveland haberdasher who then became her manager, in 1868, and they had (i) a daughter, Fanchon Maria Paddock (1869–1940), who married Harry Paddock Mashey (1878–1960), and (ii) a son, Harry Mitchell Paddock (1872–1938). Maggie and Henry divorced twenty years later; and – on October 12, 1889, in Boston – she married her co-star Charles Abbott (stage name of Charles Abbott Mace; 1852–1927). She retired from the stage to live in New York in 1892. Maggie, by way of one of her half-sisters – Sophia Dodson Lomax (1826–1894) and husband, Charles Alfred Mitchell (1817–1864) – was an aunt of Julian Bugher Mitchell (1851–1926), a musical comedy director associated with Weber & Fields and Florenz Ziegfeld.\n\nMaggie's mother was Hannah Dodson (maiden; 1805–1869), born Knaresborough, Yorkshire. She married – on February 24, 1824, in Manchester – John Lomax (1803–1832), a native of Bolton, and emigrated to the US in 1830. In 1832, they were preparing to return to England to escape an epidemic of cholera, but Lomax died before they sailed. Hannah afterward married Maggie's father, Charles S. Mitchell (1805–1886), to whom Lomax's bookbinding business had been sold. Mitchell's 1st cousin, Joseph Dodson Greenhalgh (1821–1886), recalled stories that circulated in the English side of the family about the actress's salary, her servants, accouterments, and jewelry. The actor and author Dodson Mitchell was still another relation.\n\nMaggie's mother was a sister of Ann Dodson (maiden; 1788–1863), who, with her husband Thomas Greenhalge (1780–1859), was a grandmother of Frederic Thomas Greenhalge (1842–1896), the 38th Governor of Massachusetts. Maggie's maternal half-sister, Mary Mitchell (née Lomax; 1833–1908) – also an actress – was married to John William Albaugh, Sr. (1837–1909), an actor and theater operator, notably, from 1884 to 1894, proprietor of Albaugh's Grand Opera House (2,000 seats) in Washington, D.C.\n\nDeath \nAfter her death on March 22, 1918, in New York City, one of the wealthiest actresses in the world (primarily in Manhattan and Long Branch, New Jersey, real estate), Mitchell was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Maggie Mitchell memorial page on Findagrave.com\n\nMaggie Mitchell and her son Julian circa 1879\n\n19th-century American actresses\nAmerican stage actresses\n1832 births\n1918 deaths\nBurials at Green-Wood Cemetery",
"\"Hell No (Leave Home)\" is a song by American singer Monica featuring guest vocals by rapper Twista. It was written by Bryan Michael Cox, Sean Garrett, and Carl Mitchell and produced by former for her fourth studio album, The Makings of Me (2006), with additional production from Garrett. The song was released as the album's fourth and final single on May 14, 2007 in the United States, where it peaked at number 14 on the US Billboard Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.\n\nBackground\n\"Hell No (Leave Home)\" was written by Bryan Michael Cox, Sean Garrett, and Carl \"Twista\" Mitchell, while production was helmed by the former. Garrett received co-producer credit on the song. \"Hell No (Leave Home)\" has Monica trading verses with fast-paced rapper Twista. The singer called the recording of the rhymes \"comical,\" telling Ballerstatus in an interview: \"He [Twista] had so much patience with me and allowed me to learn his way of rapping. Of course, rapping isn't what I do, but I did enjoy the experience. The way I learned best was with him in the booth.\"\n\nTrack listings\n\nCredits and personnel\nCredits lifted from the liner notes of The Makings of Me.\n \n \n Monica Arnold – background vocals, vocals\nCandice Childress – production coordination\nBryan Michael Cox – instruments, producer, writer\nSean Garrett – co-producer, writer\n \nS. Vaughn Merrick – vocal recording\nCarl Mitchell – vocals, writer\nPhil Tan – mixing\nSam Thomas – additional re-recording, editing\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2006 songs\n2007 singles\nMonica (singer) songs\nSongs written by Sean Garrett\nSongs written by Bryan-Michael Cox\nSongs written by Twista\nSongs about infidelity"
] |
[
"Thomas Mitchell (explorer)",
"Fourth expedition",
"What was the relation between Thomas Mitchell and Fourth expedtition?",
"Mitchell's fourth expedition was into Queensland in 1845-46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria,"
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C_21ced70edb4348dc931b813b1a4fa981_0
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Where did the fourth expedition take place?
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Where did Thomas Mitchell's fourth expedition take place?
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Thomas Mitchell (explorer)
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Mitchell's fourth expedition was into Queensland in 1845-46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria, this being the main thrust of the endeavour. On 15 December 1845 Mitchell started from Boree (Buree in Mitchell's journal) with a large party including Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York). He struck the Darling River above Fort Bourke then continued to the Narran River, the Balonne, and the Culgoa. On 12 April 1846 he came to a natural bridge of rocks on the main branch of the Balonne which he called St.George Bridge, now the site of the town of St George. Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men. Mitchell followed the Balonne to the Maranoa, and the Cogoon (now called Muckadilla Creek, near Roma). This rivulet led him to a magnificent pastoral district in the midst of which stood a solitary hill that he named Mount Abundance. He then crossed a low watershed to the Maranoa and awaited Kennedy's arrival. Kennedy rejoined Mitchell on 1 June 1846. Leaving Kennedy for a second time, he set out on an extensive excursion of more than four months. Mitchell traversed the country at the head of the Maranoa and discovered the Warrago River. Keeping north over the watershed, he traversed the Claude and Nogoa rivers, then reached the Belyando River, an upper reach of the Burdekin River. This had already been discovered by Ludwig Leichhardt on his expedition to Port Essington on 2 April 1845. Intensely mortified to find that he was on a tributary of the Burdekin River, and approaching the ground already trodden by Leichhardt, he returned to the head of the Nogoa and struck west, after dividing his party and forming a stationary camp. He continued west, making a new discovery which he was certain was the fabled north-west river. In honour of the sovereign of the time he decided to call it Victoria River. Having run out of time, he turned back towards the main party. It was here that Mitchell first noticed the well known grass that bears his name. On the homeward journey he trekked along the Maranoa River to St.George Bridge, arriving in Sydney 20 January 1847. Later that year, Kennedy proved beyond doubt that the Victoria did not continue north-west, but turned south-west and joined Cooper Creek. He renamed the watercourse the Barcoo River from a name mentioned by local Aborigines. CANNOTANSWER
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Mitchell started from Boree (Buree in Mitchell's journal) with a large party including Edmund Kennedy as second in command
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Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (15 June 1792 – 5 October 1855), surveyor and explorer of Southeastern Australia, was born at Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland. In 1827 he took up an appointment as Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales. The following year he became Surveyor General and remained in this position until his death. Mitchell was knighted in 1839 for his contribution to the surveying of Australia.
Early life
Born in Scotland on 15 June 1792, he was son of John Mitchell of Carron Works and was brought up from childhood by his uncle, Thomas Livingstone of Parkhall, Stirlingshire.
Peninsular War
On the death of his uncle, he joined the British army in Portugal as a volunteer in the Peninsular War, at the age of sixteen. On 24 June 1811, at the age of nineteen, he received his first commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion 95th Rifles (later the Rifle Brigade / Royal Green Jackets). Utilising his skills as a draughtsman of outstanding ability, he was occasionally employed in the Quartermaster-General's department under Sir George Murray. He was present at the storming of the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos and San Sebastian as well as the battles of Salamanca and the Pyrenees. Subsequently, he would receive the Military General Service Medal with bars for each of these engagements.
When the war was over, Mitchell was selected to reside in Spain and Portugal for four years to complete sketches of the battlefields for the Military Depot. His duties also included conducting several other important surveys which had been impossible to finish whilst operations were in progress in the field. On 10 June 1818, during this posting, Mitchell married Mary Blunt (daughter of General Richard Blunt) in Lisbon and gained promotion to a company in the 54th Regiment.
In the summer of 1819, he returned to Britain where he devoted himself to finishing the drawings, but with the cessation of the government allowances he had to stop this work. The reductions in the military establishment which followed the withdrawing of the Army of Occupation from France forced Mitchell on to half-pay. It was not until much later, while Mitchell was in London between 1838 and 1840, that the work was completed. The finished drawings were published by the London geographer James Wyld in 1841 under the title Atlas containing the principle battles, sieges and affairs of the Peninsular War. Of high quality, the drawings are the prime source for the topography of the war.
New South Wales
In 1827, with the support of Sir George Murray, Mitchell became Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales with the right to succeed John Oxley. Oxley died the following year, and on 27 May 1828, Mitchell became Surveyor General. In this post he did much to improve the quality and accuracy of surveying – a vital task in a colony where huge tracts of land were being opened up and sold to new settlers. One of the first roads surveyed under his leadership was the Great North Road, built by convict labour between 1826 and 1836 linking Sydney to the Hunter Region. The Great South Road (now replaced by the Hume Highway), also convict-built, linked Sydney and Goulburn. He kept a record of his 'Progress in roads and Public Works in New South Wales to 1855', including sketches and plans of Sydney, Emu Plains, the Blue Mountains, Victoria Pass, roads to Bathurst, Wiseman's Ferry, and indigenous Australians.
As Surveyor General, Mitchell also completed maps and plans of Sydney, including Darling Point, Point Piper, the city, and Port Jackson. In 1834 he was commissioned to survey a map of the Nineteen Counties. The map he produced was done with such skill and accuracy that he was awarded a knighthood. Around this time, a portrait of Mitchell was painted showing him in the uniform of Major of the 1st Rifle Brigade of the 95th Regiment, complete with whistle used to direct the movement of troops.
During his tenure in New South Wales, Mitchell led four extensive and historically significant surveying expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia.
First expedition
In 1831, a runaway convict named George "The Barber" Clarke (monument around Barbers Lagoon, Boggabri NSW), who had lived with the Kamilaroi people in the area for several years, claimed that a large river called Kindur flowed north-west from the Liverpool Ranges in New South Wales to the sea. Charles Sturt believed that the Murray-Darling system formed the main river system of New South Wales and Mitchell wanted to prove Sturt wrong. Mitchell formed an expedition consisting of himself, assistant surveyor George Boyle White and 15 convicts who were promised remission for good conduct. Mitchell took 20 bullocks, three heavy drays, three light carts and nine horses to carry supplies, and set out on 24 November 1831 to investigate the claim. On reaching Wollombi in the Hunter Valley, the local assistant surveyor, Heneage Finch, expressed a desire to join the expedition which Mitchell approved, provided he first obtain extra provisions and rendezvous later.
The expedition continued northward, and having climbed the Liverpool Range on 5 December, they found an Aboriginal tribe who had fled from their home in the Hunter Valley and were suffering from what appeared to be smallpox. On 8 December they arrived at Quirindi and by 11 December the expedition had reached Wallamoul Station near Tamworth, the northern extent of white settlement at the time.
Mitchell continued his northward push into uncolonised territory, guided by a local Gamilaraay man named "Mr. Brown". In mid-December, near to where Boggabri now stands, they located the remains of a stockyard and huts built by George Clarke and his Aboriginal colleagues. By early January 1832 Mitchell's group was travelling along the Namoi River, by which stage Mr Brown had left them. Mitchell's party then headed north unguided but managed to reach the Gwydir River in mid-January where they found a small Aboriginal village of conical-roofed huts. They followed the Gwydir west and made it to the Barwon River by the end of the month. Mitchell came to the correct conclusion that the Barwon flowed into the Darling River and decided not to proceed any further.
At this stage, Finch had finally caught up with the main group. Finch conveyed the news that the provisions he had obtained had been ransacked by Aboriginal people at Gorolei. Two men he had left to guard the supplies had also been killed. The immediate effect was that Mitchell decided to abandon the expedition and return south. The party retraced their path having tense but peaceful interactions with large groups of Gamilaraay people along the way. They reached Gorolei on 18 February where Mitchell buried the bodies of the two killed men and salvaged some equipment. Aboriginal people approached the group laying down their spears and offering females to Mitchell's men in an apparent attempt at appeasement for the killings. Mitchell refused the offer but accepted their guidance on an easy way back to the Namoi River. Once back at Wallamoul, Mitchell placed White in charge of the main party, while he returned hastily to Sydney. He was satisfied that there was no truth about the river Kindur claimed by Clarke. Fourteen years later, Mitchell revealed that the convicts had indulged in sexual relations with Aboriginal women.
Second expedition
Mitchell's next expedition was in 1835. The purpose was to explore the course of the Darling River from where Sturt had turned back in 1829, to where it joined the Murray River. There were 24 men in the party including Mitchell, James Larmer (assistant surveyor) as second in command, Richard Cunningham (colonial botanist) and 21 other men. The main party under Larmer left Parramatta on 9 March and rendezvoused with Mitchell at Boree near the township of Orange. From there, the expedition was guided through the Goobang Ranges by local Wiradjuri people toward the Bogan River. On 17 April 1835, Richard Cunningham wandered away from the party while looking for botanical specimens and went missing. The party, with the assistance of various local Aboriginal people, searched for him until 5 May, following Cunningham's tracks around the headwaters of the Bogan until they disappeared. Cunningham's dead horse, saddle, glove and fragments of his coat and map were all they found. Months later, a search party of military mounted police commanded by Lieutenant Henry Zouch of the first division, discovered that Cunningham had been killed by four Wiradjuri men and his bones were found and buried at Currindine.
After the fruitless search for Cunningham, Mitchell decided to continue the expedition. He was assisted by a local unnamed elder who provided a guide called Tackijally. This man led Mitchell downstream along the waterholes adjacent to the Bogan River as far as Nyngan. Tackijally left them at this point and the group was soon involved in a brief confrontation after they startled an Aboriginal man at a waterhole. The man, who was shot in the hand, had his wounds dressed by the group and later departed. They proceeded down the Bogan, encountering several gatherings of people to which Mitchell gave tomahawks and pieces of an old sword. On 25 May the junction with the Darling River was reached. Here, on a high point of land which bore many Aboriginal grave sites, Mitchell decided to build a fort as he realised that they "had not asked permission to come there" and he needed a stockade for "stout resistance against any number of natives." He named it Fort Bourke in honour of the Governor, Richard Bourke.
Two whale boats had been transported the whole distance on bullock drays and on 1 June Mitchell launched the boats on the Darling to transport the party downriver. However, the Darling became shallower and unnavigable resulting in the expedition resorting once again to overland progress. They encountered many tribes as they headed south, with Mitchell documenting the agricultural practices of some, such as the harvesting of Panicum decompositum, and the large permanent dwellings of others. One clan appeared more hostile than others, kicking up dust and spitting at party members. Mitchell acknowledged that his group were "rather unceremonious invaders of their country" but inflamed tensions by firing a pistol at a tree. Mitchell wrote that "the more they saw of our superior weapons...the more they shewed their hatred and tokens of defiance." The party continued downriver, meeting with friendlier locals, passing through villages and noting the construction of their tomb-sites.
Just north of the Menindee Lakes, the expedition came across a large congregation of several tribes and Mitchell decided that continuing the exploration would be too dangerous. On 11 July, just as Mitchell had resolved to return to Sydney, shots were heard from a forage party up the river. Mitchell sent a further three armed men to the scene of the shooting and the firing continued. After more than an hour, some members of the group returned reporting that a skirmish had occurred over the possession of a kettle and at least three Aboriginal people had been shot dead, including a woman and her child. One of Mitchell's men had been knocked unconscious. The party then commenced their return via the outbound route with Mitchell deciding to avoid contact with the various tribes as much as possible. The "spitting tribe" attempted to burn down their camp on this return journey which resulted in Mitchell ordering shots to be fired over their heads. They arrived at Fort Bourke on 10 August and continued back along the Bogan River. Near Nyngan they met again with members of Tackijally's tribe who allowed Mitchell to walk through their cemetery at Milmeridien. Mitchell soon tired of the clan asking for food and ordered some of his men to march at them with bayonets. On 9 September they came to the upper reaches of the Bogan where they found a cattle-station had already been formed along their route by William Lee. The expedition arrived back at their starting point of Boree on 14 September.
While Mitchell did not trace the Darling River to its junction with the Murray River, the course and terrain of the Bogan River and much of the Darling River had been charted. The places where this and other Mitchell expeditions were most assailed by Aboriginal Australians, including the location of Cunningham's killing, are marked on an 1836 map produced by Mitchell.
Third expedition
The goal of Mitchell's third expedition was to explore and survey the lower part of the Darling River, with instructions to head up the Murray River and then return to the settled areas around Yass. Second in command was assistant surveyor Granville Stapylton. A Wiradjuri man named John Piper was also recruited and 23 convicts and ticket of leave men made up the rest of the party. The group set out from a valley near Mount Canobolas on 17 March 1836, and made their way to Boree and the Bogan River as on previous journeys, then veered south to the Kalare or Lachlan River to approach the Darling from its southern end where it joined the Murray.
The party was guided by various Aboriginal people such as "Barney" along the Lachlan, passing Lake Cargelligo, as John Oxley did in 1817. At this place they met with a large clan from which a number of people joined the expedition and gave vital information about waterholes, as the Lachlan was drying out. Piper also obtained a "good, strong woman" from this tribe.
On 2 May they arrived at Combedyega where an Aboriginal widow named Turandurey with her four-year-old daughter Ballandella also joined the expedition as a guide. She remembered Oxley from nineteen years earlier and Sturt as well, and knew the lower Lachlan. The Murrumbidgee River was reached on 12 May, but at a point downstream from the junction with the Lachlan.
Mount Dispersion massacre
They continued down the Murrumbidgee until 21 May when they were close to the junction with the Murray River. A depot was established at this point, and Mitchell left Staplyton with eight men to guard the stock, while he ventured downstream with the rest of the group. According to the account given to a later enquiry by William Muirhead (bullock-driver and sergeant), Alexander Burnett (overseer) and Jemmy Piper (Aboriginal man accompanying the party): on 24 May Mitchell noticed that Barkindji tribesmen from the Darling River were gathering in large numbers, and by 27 May the hostile intentions of these men became known, when local Murray River people told Piper that the Barkindji were planning to kill Mitchell and his men. Mitchell had to decide whether to wait for an attack, or plan a pre-emptive manoeuvre. His numbers were reduced, as Staplyton and eight men were still at the depot. He split his party again, leaving half the men to hide in the scrub in ambush, while he continued ahead with the carts. When the armed Barkindji warriors approached, the convict Charles King, who was involved in the earlier killings, fired first without waiting for orders. The tribesmen fled into the river and Mitchell's two groups reunited on the shore and continued to shoot at the people for up to 15 minutes. Around 75 shots were fired with Piper later being told that seven Barkindji were killed and four wounded.
Mitchell wrote about the loss of life in his journal, describing the Barkindji as "treacherous savages", and detailing how his men had chased them away, "pursuing and shooting as many as they could". This section was withheld from Mitchell's report when it was released to the public in Sydney. Mitchell named the hill near to where the mass-shooting occurred Mount Dispersion and in May 2020 it was heritage-listed as the Mount Dispersion Massacre Site Aboriginal Place.
Onwards
The expedition continued down the Murray River, encountering a major Aboriginal grave-site at Red Cliffs. On 31 May they arrived close to the junction of the Murray with a "green and stagnant" waterway. Local people advised Piper that this was the Darling River. Mitchell did not believe it, and only when he travelled upstream for some distance, coming across the same type of burial mounds that he had seen in 1835, did he acknowledge that "this hopeless river" was the Darling. He turned back and headed upstream on the Murray to rejoin Stapylton at the depot. The reunited expedition now travelled south-east following the Murray. They passed Swan Hill on 21 June and encountered a group of native inhabitants at Lake Boga. These people were angry at Piper for "bringing whitefellows" to their country and threw spears at him. Piper shot one of them dead. Mitchell noted the local people's practice of making large nets that spanned above the river to catch waterfowl and also came across unusual animals such as the now extinct Southern pig-footed bandicoot.
At the end of June, Mitchell chose to leave the Murray to investigate better looking lands to the south-west. Mitchell was so impressed with the country he saw, he named it Australia Felix. In early July the party crossed the Loddon River, and made their way in a south-westerly direction which brought them to the Grampians and the Wimmera River. Confrontation with people in this region resulted in an Indigenous man being shot in the arm. They were guided by a local Aboriginal woman along part of the Nangeela (Glenelg River) with Mitchell constructing a fortified base on its banks which he named Fort O'Hare. From here Mitchell led part of the group in boats down the Glenelg to where it discharged into the ocean at a bay which Mitchell named Discovery Bay. Mitchell then returned to Fort O'Hare and altered direction towards Portland Bay to the east. When this was reached on 29 August, Mitchell was surprised to find an established farm and whaling station operated by the Henty brothers.
The expedition continued north-east with Mitchell spending a night in a "snug old hut of the natives" at Narrawong. On 17 September, in order to speed his return, Mitchell split the party in two, taking 14 men with him and leaving the remainder with Stapylton to follow with the bullocks and drays. The young girl Ballandella went with Mitchell, while her mother Turandurey remained behind. On the plains around the Hopkins River, Mitchell came across a community of Aboriginal people who cultivated and harvested murnong tubers with specialised tools. Mitchell was wary and when forty of them approached his camp, he ordered his men to charge at them. On 30 September, Mitchell climbed and named Mount Macedon, from the summit of which he had a view of Port Phillip. Progress was slowed due a member of the group, James "Tally-ho" Taylor, drowning while crossing the Broken River. Their return to the frontier of British colonisation on the Murrumbidgee was not completed until 24 October.
Enquiry
When Mitchell arrived in Sydney in early November he was received with great joy. However, when the remainder of his party arrived two weeks later, rumours circulated about the mass killing on the Murray. He subsequently faced a Legislative Council Inquiry in December 1836, receiving an official rebuke. Ballandella joined Mitchell's family of eight other children and learnt to read and write, but was left by Mitchell when he returned to England. Ballandella later married and raised a family at Sackville where she died around the age of thirty.
Fourth expedition
Mitchell's fourth expedition was into northern interior of the colony (a region now part of Queensland) in 1845–46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and finding this river was the main focus of the endeavour.
On 15 December 1845 Mitchell started from Boree near Orange with a large party of 32 people including Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York). The Wiradjuri man named Piper from his previous expedition was also a member. Yuranigh (also Wiradjuri) and a ten year old boy from the lower Bogan River named "Dicky" were also assigned as guides. The party travelled north along the Bogan where a war between the British and the Indigenous inhabitants was at that time occurring. Mitchell noted areas where the British had been pushed back, abandoning their farmhouses which were subsequently burnt down by the local people. Mitchell stated "All I could learn about the rest of the tribe was, that the men were almost all dead, and that their wives were chiefly servants at stock stations along the Macquarie."
In January 1846, they left the Bogan and started following the Macquarie River where Mitchell was informed of Pipers' intention to leave the expedition. Mitchell ordered him back to Bathurst, accompanied by Corporal Graham. Near the Macquarie Marshes the harvesting of native millet by Aboriginal people to make bread was recorded and a local man named Yulliyally guided the group to the Barwon River. From here two brothers from a nearby clan led Mitchell to vital waterholes near the Narran River. Mitchell "blushed inwardly for our pallid race" knowing that "white man's cattle would soon trample these holes into a quagmire of mud." More bundles of harvested millet lay for miles along their journey up the Narran. Mitchell then received a message from his son, Roderick Mitchell, a Crown Lands Commissioner who had previously been to the area, which recommended following the Balonne and the Culgoa rivers north. They encountered many Indigenous people who guided the group along the way. On 12 April 1846 Mitchell came to a natural bridge of rocks on the main branch of the Balonne which he called St. George Bridge, now the site of the town of St George. Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men. Mitchell followed the Balonne to the Maranoa, and the Cogoon (now called Muckadilla Creek, near Roma). This rivulet led him to an area with an "abundance of good pasturage" in which stood a solitary double topped hill that he named Mount Abundance, on which grew a species of bottle tree. He then crossed to the Maranoa and awaited Kennedy's arrival. Kennedy, who had trouble with local inhabitants trying to burn down his camp, rejoined Mitchell on 1 June 1846.
Leaving Kennedy for a second time, he set out on an extensive excursion of more than four months. Mitchell traversed the country at the head of the Maranoa, on one occasion discharging his rifle over the heads of the Indigenous people to gain "peaceful occupation of the ground." He sighted the headwaters of the Warrego and Nogoa Rivers, then came across the upper reaches of the Belyando River which they followed for a considerable distance. This river's name was given to Mitchell by Indigenous residents before the expedition's dogs chased them away, biting at their legs. Being a tributary of the Burdekin River, a waterway already visited by Ludwig Leichhardt on his expedition to Port Essington in 1845, Mitchell was dismayed to find that he was approaching ground already explored by Europeans. He returned to the head of the Nogoa and struck west, meeting with a tribe who caught emus with nets. He encountered a river which he was certain was the fabled waterway that would flow north-west to the Gulf of Carpentaria. He followed it until he came across a large clan of Aboriginal people living in permanent huts on the banks of a lagoon. He called this place Yuranigh Pond after his Wiradjuri guide and decided to return home. In honour of the British sovereign of the time, he named the waterway, Victoria River. On the homeward journey Mitchell noticed the well known grass that bears his name. They trekked back along the Maranoa River to St.George Bridge, arriving in Sydney 20 January 1847.
Later in 1847, Kennedy proved beyond doubt that the Victoria in fact did not continue north-west, but turned south-west and joined Cooper Creek. He renamed the watercourse the Barcoo River from a name mentioned by local Aboriginal people.
Later career
In 1837, Mitchell sought 18 months leave from his position and in May he left Sydney for London. During his leave, he published an account of his explorations called Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia: with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix, and of the present colony of New South Wales. Mitchell sought additional periods of leave and finally arrived back in Australia in 1841. Mitchell left Sydney again in March 1847 on another period of leave. By the time he arrived back in mid-1848, he had published his Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in search of a route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Mitchell's journals proved a rich source for historians and anthropologists, with their close and sympathetic observations of the Aboriginal peoples he had encountered. These publications made him the most celebrated Australian explorer of his day. But he was a difficult man to get on with, made evident by this passage made by Governor Charles Augustus FitzRoy:
"It is notorious that Sir Thomas Mitchell's unfortunate impracticability of temper and spirit of opposition of those in authority over him misled him into frequent collision with my predecessors."
In a by-election for the Electoral district of Port Phillip in April 1844, Mitchell was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council. He found it difficult to separate his roles of government employee and elected member of the legislature, and after only five months he resigned from the Legislative Council.
Duel
Mitchell is also remembered as the last person in Australia to challenge anyone to a duel. In September 1851, Mitchell issued a challenge to Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson (later Premier of New South Wales) because Donaldson had publicly criticised excessive spending by the Surveyor General's Department. The duel took place in Sydney on 27 September, with both duellists missing their marks; only Donaldson's hat was damaged. The French 50 calibre pistols used in the duel are in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.
Ophir gold fields
In 1851, Mitchell was instructed by Governor FitzRoy to make a report on, and survey of, 'the extent and productiveness of the goldfield reported to have been discovered in the County of Bathurst.' He travelled west during winter to visit the Ophir gold diggings, accompanied by his son, Roderick, and Samuel Stutchbury the government geologist.
In June 1851 Mitchell selected the site for the township of Ophir. W.R. Davidson plotted a survey of the ground and Mitchell planned the streets and allotments for the town.
Mitchell returned with a collection of specimens from the diggings, mostly quartz, with 48 of these stored in a wooden chest. His report of the goldfields was presented to the Legislative Council in February 1852.
Story of the "bomerang" propeller
The search for a method of screw propulsion of ships intrigued many inventors during the latter half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. An Englishman, K. P. Smith, patented a screw propeller in 1836, and shortly afterwards Captain John Ericsson, formerly an officer of the Swedish army, patented another.
On his travels, Mitchell must have been evolving the idea of his boomerang propeller—he spelled it "bomerang", while newspapers used "bomarang" and "boomerang." The first test was made in the Sydney Harbour in May 1852, an iron propeller being fitted to the "screw-steamer" Keera. The results of this trial were considered satisfactory, the ship's progress being calculated on two runs at 10 and a little over 12 knots, and Sir Thomas Mitchell took his Invention to England. In 1853 the propeller was fitted to the Genova, and a trial was conducted on the Mersey. Then the Admiralty gave it a test on . The Genova ran at 9.5 knots as against 8.5 with a screw propeller, and the Conflict 9.25 knots as against the screw propeller 8.75, and at a lower engine speed. The "boomerang" propeller can be simply described as a "screw" propeller with much of the blades close to the shaft, which contribute little to propulsion but much to drag, cut away, a principle which is well understood today.
Family life
Thomas Mitchell and Mary had twelve children: Livingstone, Roderick, Murray, Campbell, Thomas, Richard, Georgina, Maria, Emily, Camilla, Alicia, Blanche. Georgina and Maria died young, and Murray before 1847. Roderick became a Commissioner of Crown Lands and head of the Border Police in the Liverpool Plains district. Roderick was drowned and Campbell died during the last years of Mitchell's life.
His family enjoyed a privileged upbringing, and Blanche Mitchell, his youngest daughter, recorded her daily activities and social life in childhood diaries and notebooks. Her sister Emily married George Edward Thicknesse-Touchet, 21st Baron Audley.
In 1841, Mitchell completed his new Gothic home, Carthona, on the water's edge in Darling Point, Sydney. Following Mitchell's death, his family moved to Craigend Terrace in Woolloomooloo.
Death
In July 1855 a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the New South Wales Survey Department, but Mitchell did not live to see the report. While surveying the line of road between Nelligen and Braidwood, he developed a chill which led to a severe attack of bronchitis. He died a few days later at Carthona at Darling Point at 5:15 pm 5 October 1855. Newspapers of the day commented:"For a period of twenty-eight years Sir Thomas Mitchell had served the Colony, much of that service having been exceedingly arduous and difficult. Among the early explorers of Australia his name will occupy an honoured place in the estimation of posterity."
He is buried at Camperdown Cemetery, Newtown, with his grave being maintained by the Seniors Group of Surveyors.
Naming
Some of the places Mitchell named on his expeditions were: the Avoca River, Balonne River, Belyando River, Campaspe River, Cogoon River, Discovery Bay, Glenelg River, Grampians, Maranoa River, Mount Arapiles, Mount King, Mount Macedon, Mount Napier, Mount William, Nyngan, Pyramid Hill, St George, Swan Hill and Wimmera River.
Commemoration
Because of his contributions in the surveying and exploration of Australia, Mitchell is commemorated by having numerous localities or objects across Australia being named after him. These include:
The town of Mitchell in Queensland
The Mitchell River in Queensland
The Canberra suburb of Mitchell
The electorate of Mitchell
The Mitchell Highway
The Major Mitchell's cockatoo, a species of cockatoo
Mitchellstown in Victoria.
A local government area in Victoria, Shire of Mitchell
Steam locomotive number S 301 Sir Thomas Mitchell, a member of the Victorian Railways S class locomotives. In turn, Mitchell House at Seymour Technical High School, the town with the loco depot which serviced the famous four locos. Later, the name was carried by the diesel S301.
Mitchell grass, common name of the small genus of grass species dominant across much of the arid areas of the continent
Mitchell's hopping mouse, an Australian native rodent-like animal
Countless roadside locations in Victoria have a memorial erected 'Major Mitchell passed here'.
Sir Thomas Mitchell Road Villawood NSW
Sir Thomas Mitchell road in Bondi NSW
Sir Thomas Mitchell Drive Bowenfels (Lithgow) linking the Great Western Highway with the Cox River at a fitting memorial to colonial road builders.
Mitchell is also the namesake in the highest honor of the New South Wales Surveyors Awards, the Sir Thomas Mitchell Excellence in Surveying Award.
A map of the expedition of Major Sir Thomas Mitchell into the country between the Maranoa and Mount Mudge and the River Victoria, 1848 was ranked #38 in the ‘Top 150: Documenting Queensland’ exhibition when it toured to venues around Queensland from February 2009 to April 2010. The exhibition was part of Queensland State Archives’ events and exhibition program which contributed to the state’s Q150 celebrations, marking the 150th anniversary of the separation of Queensland from New South Wales.
Manuscript Collections
See also
:Category:Taxa named by Thomas Mitchell (explorer)
Charles Sturt
Great North Road (Australia)
History of New South Wales
New South Wales gold rush
Nineteen Counties
Surveyor General of New South Wales
References
External links
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 1, Volume 2
The Great North Road – Convict Trail Project
1792 births
1855 deaths
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Explorers of Australia
Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia
Scottish explorers
British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
Scottish surveyors
Royal Engineers officers
People from Grangemouth
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council
Rifle Brigade officers
Surveyors General of New South Wales
19th-century Australian politicians
Pre-Separation Queensland
Australian duellists
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[
"Juan de Agramonte (fl. 1511) (in Catalan, Joan d'Agramunt) was a sailor from Catalonia thought to have possibly travelled to Newfoundland, Canada in 1511.\n\nBecause of England's ever increasing voyages to the New World, Spain became concerned by English intrusions into her territories, and planned to explore the north Atlantic coast in order to take possession of it. Juan de Dornelos was placed in command of an expedition in 1500 which never did happen as the expedition was never put to sea.\n\nAfter the failed attempt in 1500, Agramonte, a sailor and native of Lleida, signed a contract with the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon on October 29, 1511 to lead an expedition of discovery and exploration to Terra Nova in the years following the voyages of John Cabot. The expedition, which was to comprise two ships, had orders not to land on soil under the jurisdiction of the kingdom of Portugal. \n\nIt has been speculated that this expedition also did not take place. The fact that these expeditions were contemplated furthers the notion that the shores of Newfoundland had previously been visited by the Bretons and that a part of the Newfoundland territory had been discovered by Portugal.\n\nExternal links\n \n\nSpanish explorers of North America \nExplorers of Canada\nPeople from Lleida",
"Thomas C Clissold was the cook on the Terra Nova expedition of 1910–1913.\n\nBiography \nHe joined the Terra Nova expedition after service on . He did not take part in the expedition's main attempt to reach the pole, however he was one of four men who hauled provisions to One Ton Depot in December 1911 and January 1912. He sustained a severe concussion when he fell off an iceberg, while posing for the expedition's photographer Herbert Ponting during the summer of 1911–1912, and was consequently replaced as the shore party's cook for the following year by Walter Archer.\n\nAfter returning from the Antarctic and subsequent to service in the First World War, Clissold emigrated to New Zealand where he took a job as a vehicle inspector in Napier.\n\nReferences \n\nBritish polar explorers\nRoyal Navy personnel of World War I\nTerra Nova expedition"
] |
[
"Thomas Mitchell (explorer)",
"Fourth expedition",
"What was the relation between Thomas Mitchell and Fourth expedtition?",
"Mitchell's fourth expedition was into Queensland in 1845-46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria,",
"Where did the fourth expedition take place?",
"Mitchell started from Boree (Buree in Mitchell's journal) with a large party including Edmund Kennedy as second in command"
] |
C_21ced70edb4348dc931b813b1a4fa981_0
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Which other people were there with him?
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Which other people were on the fourth expedition with Thomas Mitchell?
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Thomas Mitchell (explorer)
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Mitchell's fourth expedition was into Queensland in 1845-46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria, this being the main thrust of the endeavour. On 15 December 1845 Mitchell started from Boree (Buree in Mitchell's journal) with a large party including Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York). He struck the Darling River above Fort Bourke then continued to the Narran River, the Balonne, and the Culgoa. On 12 April 1846 he came to a natural bridge of rocks on the main branch of the Balonne which he called St.George Bridge, now the site of the town of St George. Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men. Mitchell followed the Balonne to the Maranoa, and the Cogoon (now called Muckadilla Creek, near Roma). This rivulet led him to a magnificent pastoral district in the midst of which stood a solitary hill that he named Mount Abundance. He then crossed a low watershed to the Maranoa and awaited Kennedy's arrival. Kennedy rejoined Mitchell on 1 June 1846. Leaving Kennedy for a second time, he set out on an extensive excursion of more than four months. Mitchell traversed the country at the head of the Maranoa and discovered the Warrago River. Keeping north over the watershed, he traversed the Claude and Nogoa rivers, then reached the Belyando River, an upper reach of the Burdekin River. This had already been discovered by Ludwig Leichhardt on his expedition to Port Essington on 2 April 1845. Intensely mortified to find that he was on a tributary of the Burdekin River, and approaching the ground already trodden by Leichhardt, he returned to the head of the Nogoa and struck west, after dividing his party and forming a stationary camp. He continued west, making a new discovery which he was certain was the fabled north-west river. In honour of the sovereign of the time he decided to call it Victoria River. Having run out of time, he turned back towards the main party. It was here that Mitchell first noticed the well known grass that bears his name. On the homeward journey he trekked along the Maranoa River to St.George Bridge, arriving in Sydney 20 January 1847. Later that year, Kennedy proved beyond doubt that the Victoria did not continue north-west, but turned south-west and joined Cooper Creek. He renamed the watercourse the Barcoo River from a name mentioned by local Aborigines. CANNOTANSWER
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Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men.
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Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (15 June 1792 – 5 October 1855), surveyor and explorer of Southeastern Australia, was born at Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland. In 1827 he took up an appointment as Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales. The following year he became Surveyor General and remained in this position until his death. Mitchell was knighted in 1839 for his contribution to the surveying of Australia.
Early life
Born in Scotland on 15 June 1792, he was son of John Mitchell of Carron Works and was brought up from childhood by his uncle, Thomas Livingstone of Parkhall, Stirlingshire.
Peninsular War
On the death of his uncle, he joined the British army in Portugal as a volunteer in the Peninsular War, at the age of sixteen. On 24 June 1811, at the age of nineteen, he received his first commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion 95th Rifles (later the Rifle Brigade / Royal Green Jackets). Utilising his skills as a draughtsman of outstanding ability, he was occasionally employed in the Quartermaster-General's department under Sir George Murray. He was present at the storming of the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos and San Sebastian as well as the battles of Salamanca and the Pyrenees. Subsequently, he would receive the Military General Service Medal with bars for each of these engagements.
When the war was over, Mitchell was selected to reside in Spain and Portugal for four years to complete sketches of the battlefields for the Military Depot. His duties also included conducting several other important surveys which had been impossible to finish whilst operations were in progress in the field. On 10 June 1818, during this posting, Mitchell married Mary Blunt (daughter of General Richard Blunt) in Lisbon and gained promotion to a company in the 54th Regiment.
In the summer of 1819, he returned to Britain where he devoted himself to finishing the drawings, but with the cessation of the government allowances he had to stop this work. The reductions in the military establishment which followed the withdrawing of the Army of Occupation from France forced Mitchell on to half-pay. It was not until much later, while Mitchell was in London between 1838 and 1840, that the work was completed. The finished drawings were published by the London geographer James Wyld in 1841 under the title Atlas containing the principle battles, sieges and affairs of the Peninsular War. Of high quality, the drawings are the prime source for the topography of the war.
New South Wales
In 1827, with the support of Sir George Murray, Mitchell became Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales with the right to succeed John Oxley. Oxley died the following year, and on 27 May 1828, Mitchell became Surveyor General. In this post he did much to improve the quality and accuracy of surveying – a vital task in a colony where huge tracts of land were being opened up and sold to new settlers. One of the first roads surveyed under his leadership was the Great North Road, built by convict labour between 1826 and 1836 linking Sydney to the Hunter Region. The Great South Road (now replaced by the Hume Highway), also convict-built, linked Sydney and Goulburn. He kept a record of his 'Progress in roads and Public Works in New South Wales to 1855', including sketches and plans of Sydney, Emu Plains, the Blue Mountains, Victoria Pass, roads to Bathurst, Wiseman's Ferry, and indigenous Australians.
As Surveyor General, Mitchell also completed maps and plans of Sydney, including Darling Point, Point Piper, the city, and Port Jackson. In 1834 he was commissioned to survey a map of the Nineteen Counties. The map he produced was done with such skill and accuracy that he was awarded a knighthood. Around this time, a portrait of Mitchell was painted showing him in the uniform of Major of the 1st Rifle Brigade of the 95th Regiment, complete with whistle used to direct the movement of troops.
During his tenure in New South Wales, Mitchell led four extensive and historically significant surveying expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia.
First expedition
In 1831, a runaway convict named George "The Barber" Clarke (monument around Barbers Lagoon, Boggabri NSW), who had lived with the Kamilaroi people in the area for several years, claimed that a large river called Kindur flowed north-west from the Liverpool Ranges in New South Wales to the sea. Charles Sturt believed that the Murray-Darling system formed the main river system of New South Wales and Mitchell wanted to prove Sturt wrong. Mitchell formed an expedition consisting of himself, assistant surveyor George Boyle White and 15 convicts who were promised remission for good conduct. Mitchell took 20 bullocks, three heavy drays, three light carts and nine horses to carry supplies, and set out on 24 November 1831 to investigate the claim. On reaching Wollombi in the Hunter Valley, the local assistant surveyor, Heneage Finch, expressed a desire to join the expedition which Mitchell approved, provided he first obtain extra provisions and rendezvous later.
The expedition continued northward, and having climbed the Liverpool Range on 5 December, they found an Aboriginal tribe who had fled from their home in the Hunter Valley and were suffering from what appeared to be smallpox. On 8 December they arrived at Quirindi and by 11 December the expedition had reached Wallamoul Station near Tamworth, the northern extent of white settlement at the time.
Mitchell continued his northward push into uncolonised territory, guided by a local Gamilaraay man named "Mr. Brown". In mid-December, near to where Boggabri now stands, they located the remains of a stockyard and huts built by George Clarke and his Aboriginal colleagues. By early January 1832 Mitchell's group was travelling along the Namoi River, by which stage Mr Brown had left them. Mitchell's party then headed north unguided but managed to reach the Gwydir River in mid-January where they found a small Aboriginal village of conical-roofed huts. They followed the Gwydir west and made it to the Barwon River by the end of the month. Mitchell came to the correct conclusion that the Barwon flowed into the Darling River and decided not to proceed any further.
At this stage, Finch had finally caught up with the main group. Finch conveyed the news that the provisions he had obtained had been ransacked by Aboriginal people at Gorolei. Two men he had left to guard the supplies had also been killed. The immediate effect was that Mitchell decided to abandon the expedition and return south. The party retraced their path having tense but peaceful interactions with large groups of Gamilaraay people along the way. They reached Gorolei on 18 February where Mitchell buried the bodies of the two killed men and salvaged some equipment. Aboriginal people approached the group laying down their spears and offering females to Mitchell's men in an apparent attempt at appeasement for the killings. Mitchell refused the offer but accepted their guidance on an easy way back to the Namoi River. Once back at Wallamoul, Mitchell placed White in charge of the main party, while he returned hastily to Sydney. He was satisfied that there was no truth about the river Kindur claimed by Clarke. Fourteen years later, Mitchell revealed that the convicts had indulged in sexual relations with Aboriginal women.
Second expedition
Mitchell's next expedition was in 1835. The purpose was to explore the course of the Darling River from where Sturt had turned back in 1829, to where it joined the Murray River. There were 24 men in the party including Mitchell, James Larmer (assistant surveyor) as second in command, Richard Cunningham (colonial botanist) and 21 other men. The main party under Larmer left Parramatta on 9 March and rendezvoused with Mitchell at Boree near the township of Orange. From there, the expedition was guided through the Goobang Ranges by local Wiradjuri people toward the Bogan River. On 17 April 1835, Richard Cunningham wandered away from the party while looking for botanical specimens and went missing. The party, with the assistance of various local Aboriginal people, searched for him until 5 May, following Cunningham's tracks around the headwaters of the Bogan until they disappeared. Cunningham's dead horse, saddle, glove and fragments of his coat and map were all they found. Months later, a search party of military mounted police commanded by Lieutenant Henry Zouch of the first division, discovered that Cunningham had been killed by four Wiradjuri men and his bones were found and buried at Currindine.
After the fruitless search for Cunningham, Mitchell decided to continue the expedition. He was assisted by a local unnamed elder who provided a guide called Tackijally. This man led Mitchell downstream along the waterholes adjacent to the Bogan River as far as Nyngan. Tackijally left them at this point and the group was soon involved in a brief confrontation after they startled an Aboriginal man at a waterhole. The man, who was shot in the hand, had his wounds dressed by the group and later departed. They proceeded down the Bogan, encountering several gatherings of people to which Mitchell gave tomahawks and pieces of an old sword. On 25 May the junction with the Darling River was reached. Here, on a high point of land which bore many Aboriginal grave sites, Mitchell decided to build a fort as he realised that they "had not asked permission to come there" and he needed a stockade for "stout resistance against any number of natives." He named it Fort Bourke in honour of the Governor, Richard Bourke.
Two whale boats had been transported the whole distance on bullock drays and on 1 June Mitchell launched the boats on the Darling to transport the party downriver. However, the Darling became shallower and unnavigable resulting in the expedition resorting once again to overland progress. They encountered many tribes as they headed south, with Mitchell documenting the agricultural practices of some, such as the harvesting of Panicum decompositum, and the large permanent dwellings of others. One clan appeared more hostile than others, kicking up dust and spitting at party members. Mitchell acknowledged that his group were "rather unceremonious invaders of their country" but inflamed tensions by firing a pistol at a tree. Mitchell wrote that "the more they saw of our superior weapons...the more they shewed their hatred and tokens of defiance." The party continued downriver, meeting with friendlier locals, passing through villages and noting the construction of their tomb-sites.
Just north of the Menindee Lakes, the expedition came across a large congregation of several tribes and Mitchell decided that continuing the exploration would be too dangerous. On 11 July, just as Mitchell had resolved to return to Sydney, shots were heard from a forage party up the river. Mitchell sent a further three armed men to the scene of the shooting and the firing continued. After more than an hour, some members of the group returned reporting that a skirmish had occurred over the possession of a kettle and at least three Aboriginal people had been shot dead, including a woman and her child. One of Mitchell's men had been knocked unconscious. The party then commenced their return via the outbound route with Mitchell deciding to avoid contact with the various tribes as much as possible. The "spitting tribe" attempted to burn down their camp on this return journey which resulted in Mitchell ordering shots to be fired over their heads. They arrived at Fort Bourke on 10 August and continued back along the Bogan River. Near Nyngan they met again with members of Tackijally's tribe who allowed Mitchell to walk through their cemetery at Milmeridien. Mitchell soon tired of the clan asking for food and ordered some of his men to march at them with bayonets. On 9 September they came to the upper reaches of the Bogan where they found a cattle-station had already been formed along their route by William Lee. The expedition arrived back at their starting point of Boree on 14 September.
While Mitchell did not trace the Darling River to its junction with the Murray River, the course and terrain of the Bogan River and much of the Darling River had been charted. The places where this and other Mitchell expeditions were most assailed by Aboriginal Australians, including the location of Cunningham's killing, are marked on an 1836 map produced by Mitchell.
Third expedition
The goal of Mitchell's third expedition was to explore and survey the lower part of the Darling River, with instructions to head up the Murray River and then return to the settled areas around Yass. Second in command was assistant surveyor Granville Stapylton. A Wiradjuri man named John Piper was also recruited and 23 convicts and ticket of leave men made up the rest of the party. The group set out from a valley near Mount Canobolas on 17 March 1836, and made their way to Boree and the Bogan River as on previous journeys, then veered south to the Kalare or Lachlan River to approach the Darling from its southern end where it joined the Murray.
The party was guided by various Aboriginal people such as "Barney" along the Lachlan, passing Lake Cargelligo, as John Oxley did in 1817. At this place they met with a large clan from which a number of people joined the expedition and gave vital information about waterholes, as the Lachlan was drying out. Piper also obtained a "good, strong woman" from this tribe.
On 2 May they arrived at Combedyega where an Aboriginal widow named Turandurey with her four-year-old daughter Ballandella also joined the expedition as a guide. She remembered Oxley from nineteen years earlier and Sturt as well, and knew the lower Lachlan. The Murrumbidgee River was reached on 12 May, but at a point downstream from the junction with the Lachlan.
Mount Dispersion massacre
They continued down the Murrumbidgee until 21 May when they were close to the junction with the Murray River. A depot was established at this point, and Mitchell left Staplyton with eight men to guard the stock, while he ventured downstream with the rest of the group. According to the account given to a later enquiry by William Muirhead (bullock-driver and sergeant), Alexander Burnett (overseer) and Jemmy Piper (Aboriginal man accompanying the party): on 24 May Mitchell noticed that Barkindji tribesmen from the Darling River were gathering in large numbers, and by 27 May the hostile intentions of these men became known, when local Murray River people told Piper that the Barkindji were planning to kill Mitchell and his men. Mitchell had to decide whether to wait for an attack, or plan a pre-emptive manoeuvre. His numbers were reduced, as Staplyton and eight men were still at the depot. He split his party again, leaving half the men to hide in the scrub in ambush, while he continued ahead with the carts. When the armed Barkindji warriors approached, the convict Charles King, who was involved in the earlier killings, fired first without waiting for orders. The tribesmen fled into the river and Mitchell's two groups reunited on the shore and continued to shoot at the people for up to 15 minutes. Around 75 shots were fired with Piper later being told that seven Barkindji were killed and four wounded.
Mitchell wrote about the loss of life in his journal, describing the Barkindji as "treacherous savages", and detailing how his men had chased them away, "pursuing and shooting as many as they could". This section was withheld from Mitchell's report when it was released to the public in Sydney. Mitchell named the hill near to where the mass-shooting occurred Mount Dispersion and in May 2020 it was heritage-listed as the Mount Dispersion Massacre Site Aboriginal Place.
Onwards
The expedition continued down the Murray River, encountering a major Aboriginal grave-site at Red Cliffs. On 31 May they arrived close to the junction of the Murray with a "green and stagnant" waterway. Local people advised Piper that this was the Darling River. Mitchell did not believe it, and only when he travelled upstream for some distance, coming across the same type of burial mounds that he had seen in 1835, did he acknowledge that "this hopeless river" was the Darling. He turned back and headed upstream on the Murray to rejoin Stapylton at the depot. The reunited expedition now travelled south-east following the Murray. They passed Swan Hill on 21 June and encountered a group of native inhabitants at Lake Boga. These people were angry at Piper for "bringing whitefellows" to their country and threw spears at him. Piper shot one of them dead. Mitchell noted the local people's practice of making large nets that spanned above the river to catch waterfowl and also came across unusual animals such as the now extinct Southern pig-footed bandicoot.
At the end of June, Mitchell chose to leave the Murray to investigate better looking lands to the south-west. Mitchell was so impressed with the country he saw, he named it Australia Felix. In early July the party crossed the Loddon River, and made their way in a south-westerly direction which brought them to the Grampians and the Wimmera River. Confrontation with people in this region resulted in an Indigenous man being shot in the arm. They were guided by a local Aboriginal woman along part of the Nangeela (Glenelg River) with Mitchell constructing a fortified base on its banks which he named Fort O'Hare. From here Mitchell led part of the group in boats down the Glenelg to where it discharged into the ocean at a bay which Mitchell named Discovery Bay. Mitchell then returned to Fort O'Hare and altered direction towards Portland Bay to the east. When this was reached on 29 August, Mitchell was surprised to find an established farm and whaling station operated by the Henty brothers.
The expedition continued north-east with Mitchell spending a night in a "snug old hut of the natives" at Narrawong. On 17 September, in order to speed his return, Mitchell split the party in two, taking 14 men with him and leaving the remainder with Stapylton to follow with the bullocks and drays. The young girl Ballandella went with Mitchell, while her mother Turandurey remained behind. On the plains around the Hopkins River, Mitchell came across a community of Aboriginal people who cultivated and harvested murnong tubers with specialised tools. Mitchell was wary and when forty of them approached his camp, he ordered his men to charge at them. On 30 September, Mitchell climbed and named Mount Macedon, from the summit of which he had a view of Port Phillip. Progress was slowed due a member of the group, James "Tally-ho" Taylor, drowning while crossing the Broken River. Their return to the frontier of British colonisation on the Murrumbidgee was not completed until 24 October.
Enquiry
When Mitchell arrived in Sydney in early November he was received with great joy. However, when the remainder of his party arrived two weeks later, rumours circulated about the mass killing on the Murray. He subsequently faced a Legislative Council Inquiry in December 1836, receiving an official rebuke. Ballandella joined Mitchell's family of eight other children and learnt to read and write, but was left by Mitchell when he returned to England. Ballandella later married and raised a family at Sackville where she died around the age of thirty.
Fourth expedition
Mitchell's fourth expedition was into northern interior of the colony (a region now part of Queensland) in 1845–46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and finding this river was the main focus of the endeavour.
On 15 December 1845 Mitchell started from Boree near Orange with a large party of 32 people including Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York). The Wiradjuri man named Piper from his previous expedition was also a member. Yuranigh (also Wiradjuri) and a ten year old boy from the lower Bogan River named "Dicky" were also assigned as guides. The party travelled north along the Bogan where a war between the British and the Indigenous inhabitants was at that time occurring. Mitchell noted areas where the British had been pushed back, abandoning their farmhouses which were subsequently burnt down by the local people. Mitchell stated "All I could learn about the rest of the tribe was, that the men were almost all dead, and that their wives were chiefly servants at stock stations along the Macquarie."
In January 1846, they left the Bogan and started following the Macquarie River where Mitchell was informed of Pipers' intention to leave the expedition. Mitchell ordered him back to Bathurst, accompanied by Corporal Graham. Near the Macquarie Marshes the harvesting of native millet by Aboriginal people to make bread was recorded and a local man named Yulliyally guided the group to the Barwon River. From here two brothers from a nearby clan led Mitchell to vital waterholes near the Narran River. Mitchell "blushed inwardly for our pallid race" knowing that "white man's cattle would soon trample these holes into a quagmire of mud." More bundles of harvested millet lay for miles along their journey up the Narran. Mitchell then received a message from his son, Roderick Mitchell, a Crown Lands Commissioner who had previously been to the area, which recommended following the Balonne and the Culgoa rivers north. They encountered many Indigenous people who guided the group along the way. On 12 April 1846 Mitchell came to a natural bridge of rocks on the main branch of the Balonne which he called St. George Bridge, now the site of the town of St George. Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men. Mitchell followed the Balonne to the Maranoa, and the Cogoon (now called Muckadilla Creek, near Roma). This rivulet led him to an area with an "abundance of good pasturage" in which stood a solitary double topped hill that he named Mount Abundance, on which grew a species of bottle tree. He then crossed to the Maranoa and awaited Kennedy's arrival. Kennedy, who had trouble with local inhabitants trying to burn down his camp, rejoined Mitchell on 1 June 1846.
Leaving Kennedy for a second time, he set out on an extensive excursion of more than four months. Mitchell traversed the country at the head of the Maranoa, on one occasion discharging his rifle over the heads of the Indigenous people to gain "peaceful occupation of the ground." He sighted the headwaters of the Warrego and Nogoa Rivers, then came across the upper reaches of the Belyando River which they followed for a considerable distance. This river's name was given to Mitchell by Indigenous residents before the expedition's dogs chased them away, biting at their legs. Being a tributary of the Burdekin River, a waterway already visited by Ludwig Leichhardt on his expedition to Port Essington in 1845, Mitchell was dismayed to find that he was approaching ground already explored by Europeans. He returned to the head of the Nogoa and struck west, meeting with a tribe who caught emus with nets. He encountered a river which he was certain was the fabled waterway that would flow north-west to the Gulf of Carpentaria. He followed it until he came across a large clan of Aboriginal people living in permanent huts on the banks of a lagoon. He called this place Yuranigh Pond after his Wiradjuri guide and decided to return home. In honour of the British sovereign of the time, he named the waterway, Victoria River. On the homeward journey Mitchell noticed the well known grass that bears his name. They trekked back along the Maranoa River to St.George Bridge, arriving in Sydney 20 January 1847.
Later in 1847, Kennedy proved beyond doubt that the Victoria in fact did not continue north-west, but turned south-west and joined Cooper Creek. He renamed the watercourse the Barcoo River from a name mentioned by local Aboriginal people.
Later career
In 1837, Mitchell sought 18 months leave from his position and in May he left Sydney for London. During his leave, he published an account of his explorations called Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia: with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix, and of the present colony of New South Wales. Mitchell sought additional periods of leave and finally arrived back in Australia in 1841. Mitchell left Sydney again in March 1847 on another period of leave. By the time he arrived back in mid-1848, he had published his Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in search of a route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Mitchell's journals proved a rich source for historians and anthropologists, with their close and sympathetic observations of the Aboriginal peoples he had encountered. These publications made him the most celebrated Australian explorer of his day. But he was a difficult man to get on with, made evident by this passage made by Governor Charles Augustus FitzRoy:
"It is notorious that Sir Thomas Mitchell's unfortunate impracticability of temper and spirit of opposition of those in authority over him misled him into frequent collision with my predecessors."
In a by-election for the Electoral district of Port Phillip in April 1844, Mitchell was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council. He found it difficult to separate his roles of government employee and elected member of the legislature, and after only five months he resigned from the Legislative Council.
Duel
Mitchell is also remembered as the last person in Australia to challenge anyone to a duel. In September 1851, Mitchell issued a challenge to Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson (later Premier of New South Wales) because Donaldson had publicly criticised excessive spending by the Surveyor General's Department. The duel took place in Sydney on 27 September, with both duellists missing their marks; only Donaldson's hat was damaged. The French 50 calibre pistols used in the duel are in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.
Ophir gold fields
In 1851, Mitchell was instructed by Governor FitzRoy to make a report on, and survey of, 'the extent and productiveness of the goldfield reported to have been discovered in the County of Bathurst.' He travelled west during winter to visit the Ophir gold diggings, accompanied by his son, Roderick, and Samuel Stutchbury the government geologist.
In June 1851 Mitchell selected the site for the township of Ophir. W.R. Davidson plotted a survey of the ground and Mitchell planned the streets and allotments for the town.
Mitchell returned with a collection of specimens from the diggings, mostly quartz, with 48 of these stored in a wooden chest. His report of the goldfields was presented to the Legislative Council in February 1852.
Story of the "bomerang" propeller
The search for a method of screw propulsion of ships intrigued many inventors during the latter half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. An Englishman, K. P. Smith, patented a screw propeller in 1836, and shortly afterwards Captain John Ericsson, formerly an officer of the Swedish army, patented another.
On his travels, Mitchell must have been evolving the idea of his boomerang propeller—he spelled it "bomerang", while newspapers used "bomarang" and "boomerang." The first test was made in the Sydney Harbour in May 1852, an iron propeller being fitted to the "screw-steamer" Keera. The results of this trial were considered satisfactory, the ship's progress being calculated on two runs at 10 and a little over 12 knots, and Sir Thomas Mitchell took his Invention to England. In 1853 the propeller was fitted to the Genova, and a trial was conducted on the Mersey. Then the Admiralty gave it a test on . The Genova ran at 9.5 knots as against 8.5 with a screw propeller, and the Conflict 9.25 knots as against the screw propeller 8.75, and at a lower engine speed. The "boomerang" propeller can be simply described as a "screw" propeller with much of the blades close to the shaft, which contribute little to propulsion but much to drag, cut away, a principle which is well understood today.
Family life
Thomas Mitchell and Mary had twelve children: Livingstone, Roderick, Murray, Campbell, Thomas, Richard, Georgina, Maria, Emily, Camilla, Alicia, Blanche. Georgina and Maria died young, and Murray before 1847. Roderick became a Commissioner of Crown Lands and head of the Border Police in the Liverpool Plains district. Roderick was drowned and Campbell died during the last years of Mitchell's life.
His family enjoyed a privileged upbringing, and Blanche Mitchell, his youngest daughter, recorded her daily activities and social life in childhood diaries and notebooks. Her sister Emily married George Edward Thicknesse-Touchet, 21st Baron Audley.
In 1841, Mitchell completed his new Gothic home, Carthona, on the water's edge in Darling Point, Sydney. Following Mitchell's death, his family moved to Craigend Terrace in Woolloomooloo.
Death
In July 1855 a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the New South Wales Survey Department, but Mitchell did not live to see the report. While surveying the line of road between Nelligen and Braidwood, he developed a chill which led to a severe attack of bronchitis. He died a few days later at Carthona at Darling Point at 5:15 pm 5 October 1855. Newspapers of the day commented:"For a period of twenty-eight years Sir Thomas Mitchell had served the Colony, much of that service having been exceedingly arduous and difficult. Among the early explorers of Australia his name will occupy an honoured place in the estimation of posterity."
He is buried at Camperdown Cemetery, Newtown, with his grave being maintained by the Seniors Group of Surveyors.
Naming
Some of the places Mitchell named on his expeditions were: the Avoca River, Balonne River, Belyando River, Campaspe River, Cogoon River, Discovery Bay, Glenelg River, Grampians, Maranoa River, Mount Arapiles, Mount King, Mount Macedon, Mount Napier, Mount William, Nyngan, Pyramid Hill, St George, Swan Hill and Wimmera River.
Commemoration
Because of his contributions in the surveying and exploration of Australia, Mitchell is commemorated by having numerous localities or objects across Australia being named after him. These include:
The town of Mitchell in Queensland
The Mitchell River in Queensland
The Canberra suburb of Mitchell
The electorate of Mitchell
The Mitchell Highway
The Major Mitchell's cockatoo, a species of cockatoo
Mitchellstown in Victoria.
A local government area in Victoria, Shire of Mitchell
Steam locomotive number S 301 Sir Thomas Mitchell, a member of the Victorian Railways S class locomotives. In turn, Mitchell House at Seymour Technical High School, the town with the loco depot which serviced the famous four locos. Later, the name was carried by the diesel S301.
Mitchell grass, common name of the small genus of grass species dominant across much of the arid areas of the continent
Mitchell's hopping mouse, an Australian native rodent-like animal
Countless roadside locations in Victoria have a memorial erected 'Major Mitchell passed here'.
Sir Thomas Mitchell Road Villawood NSW
Sir Thomas Mitchell road in Bondi NSW
Sir Thomas Mitchell Drive Bowenfels (Lithgow) linking the Great Western Highway with the Cox River at a fitting memorial to colonial road builders.
Mitchell is also the namesake in the highest honor of the New South Wales Surveyors Awards, the Sir Thomas Mitchell Excellence in Surveying Award.
A map of the expedition of Major Sir Thomas Mitchell into the country between the Maranoa and Mount Mudge and the River Victoria, 1848 was ranked #38 in the ‘Top 150: Documenting Queensland’ exhibition when it toured to venues around Queensland from February 2009 to April 2010. The exhibition was part of Queensland State Archives’ events and exhibition program which contributed to the state’s Q150 celebrations, marking the 150th anniversary of the separation of Queensland from New South Wales.
Manuscript Collections
See also
:Category:Taxa named by Thomas Mitchell (explorer)
Charles Sturt
Great North Road (Australia)
History of New South Wales
New South Wales gold rush
Nineteen Counties
Surveyor General of New South Wales
References
External links
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 1, Volume 2
The Great North Road – Convict Trail Project
1792 births
1855 deaths
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Explorers of Australia
Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia
Scottish explorers
British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
Scottish surveyors
Royal Engineers officers
People from Grangemouth
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council
Rifle Brigade officers
Surveyors General of New South Wales
19th-century Australian politicians
Pre-Separation Queensland
Australian duellists
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"Konrad Schmid (died 1368) was the leader of a group of flagellants and millenarians in Thuringia.\n\nSchmid educated himself in the library of Walkenried Abbey, 20 km northwest of Nordhausen in Thuringia. He was also familiar with the traditions of the flagellants; these had flourished throughout Europe in 1348–9, during the Black Death, until they were condemned by a papal bull in 1349. Schmid first appeared about 1360, reviving the flagellant sect in Thuringia and proclaiming himself its leader. He claimed for himself both ecclesiastical and secular power. He asserted that the prophecies of Isaiah referred to him, not to Jesus. According to him, the flagellation of Christ was only a foreshadowing of his movement of flagellants. And he styled himself King of Thuringia, thus identifying himself with both Frederick I, the late landgrave of Thuringia, and Frederick's grandfather, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, who were associated in people's minds with the Emperor of the Last Days. Local people referred to him as Emperor Frederick.\n\nSchmid preached that the millennium would begin in 1369. He had calculated the date from a study of the Book of Revelation, the prophecies of Hildegard of Bingen, the Sibyl, and other sources. Rejection of worldly pleasures and self-flagellation were, according to him, the only way to reconcile oneself with God. He also rejected the sacraments and other teachings, which led him into conflict with the Church. He required his followers to confess to him, allow him to beat them, and follow his will unquestioningly. His movement was closely associated with the Brethren of the Free Spirit, which were also active in the area at the time.\n\nIn the late 1360s, the inquisitor Walther Kerlinger turned his attention to Thuringia. In 1368, 40 flagellants were arrested in Nordhausen and seven were burned, one of whom appears to have been Schmid. His movement, however, continued for another century. His followers associated Schmid and an associate who died with him with Elijah and Enoch, two \"witnesses\" who, according to the Book of Revelation, would preach against Antichrist (the Roman Church), be put to death, and rise again. They expected him to return at any moment as both Emperor of the Last Days and divine being. Flagellants continued to be active in the area, and there were burnings in 1414, 1416, 1446, and 1454, in Nordhausen, Sangerhausen, Sonderhausen and elsewhere.\n\nReferences\n\n1368 deaths\nYear of birth unknown\n14th-century German people\n14th-century Christianity\nMillenarianism\nPeople from Nordhausen",
"Paraite is a rural community in the New Plymouth District and Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island. The area is east of New Plymouth and south of Bell Block. The Marton–New Plymouth line separates Paraite from the industrial area of Bell Block.\n\nAround 1860, during the First Taranaki War, a Māori chief named Aporo or Aparo confronted Charles Everett, a farmer at Paraite. Instead of shooting him, he removed Everett's tie and told him to leave. This was an unusual act of mercy for the time.\n\nThe area was divided into allotments for sale in 1867.\n\nDemographics\n\nThe Paraite statistical area covers . It had a population of 765 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 66 people (9.4%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 204 people (36.4%) since the 2006 census. There were 276 households. There were 390 males and 375 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.04 males per female. The median age was 45.3 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 135 people (17.6%) aged under 15 years, 126 (16.5%) aged 15 to 29, 378 (49.4%) aged 30 to 64, and 126 (16.5%) aged 65 or older.\n\nEthnicities were 92.2% European/Pākehā, 14.1% Māori, 2.0% Pacific peoples, 1.6% Asian, and 1.6% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities).\n\nThe proportion of people born overseas was 8.6%, compared with 27.1% nationally.\n\nAlthough some people objected to giving their religion, 56.9% had no religion, 33.7% were Christian, 0.4% were Muslim, 0.4% were Buddhist and 1.2% had other religions.\n\nOf those at least 15 years old, 87 (13.8%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 135 (21.4%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $37,700, compared with $31,800 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 345 (54.8%) people were employed full-time, 114 (18.1%) were part-time, and 18 (2.9%) were unemployed.\n\nReferences\n\nNew Plymouth District\nPopulated places in Taranaki"
] |
[
"Thomas Mitchell (explorer)",
"Fourth expedition",
"What was the relation between Thomas Mitchell and Fourth expedtition?",
"Mitchell's fourth expedition was into Queensland in 1845-46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria,",
"Where did the fourth expedition take place?",
"Mitchell started from Boree (Buree in Mitchell's journal) with a large party including Edmund Kennedy as second in command",
"Which other people were there with him?",
"Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men."
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C_21ced70edb4348dc931b813b1a4fa981_0
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Do they face any difficulty on their way?
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Do Thomas Mitchell and Kennedy face any difficulty on their way during the fourth expedition?
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Thomas Mitchell (explorer)
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Mitchell's fourth expedition was into Queensland in 1845-46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria, this being the main thrust of the endeavour. On 15 December 1845 Mitchell started from Boree (Buree in Mitchell's journal) with a large party including Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York). He struck the Darling River above Fort Bourke then continued to the Narran River, the Balonne, and the Culgoa. On 12 April 1846 he came to a natural bridge of rocks on the main branch of the Balonne which he called St.George Bridge, now the site of the town of St George. Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men. Mitchell followed the Balonne to the Maranoa, and the Cogoon (now called Muckadilla Creek, near Roma). This rivulet led him to a magnificent pastoral district in the midst of which stood a solitary hill that he named Mount Abundance. He then crossed a low watershed to the Maranoa and awaited Kennedy's arrival. Kennedy rejoined Mitchell on 1 June 1846. Leaving Kennedy for a second time, he set out on an extensive excursion of more than four months. Mitchell traversed the country at the head of the Maranoa and discovered the Warrago River. Keeping north over the watershed, he traversed the Claude and Nogoa rivers, then reached the Belyando River, an upper reach of the Burdekin River. This had already been discovered by Ludwig Leichhardt on his expedition to Port Essington on 2 April 1845. Intensely mortified to find that he was on a tributary of the Burdekin River, and approaching the ground already trodden by Leichhardt, he returned to the head of the Nogoa and struck west, after dividing his party and forming a stationary camp. He continued west, making a new discovery which he was certain was the fabled north-west river. In honour of the sovereign of the time he decided to call it Victoria River. Having run out of time, he turned back towards the main party. It was here that Mitchell first noticed the well known grass that bears his name. On the homeward journey he trekked along the Maranoa River to St.George Bridge, arriving in Sydney 20 January 1847. Later that year, Kennedy proved beyond doubt that the Victoria did not continue north-west, but turned south-west and joined Cooper Creek. He renamed the watercourse the Barcoo River from a name mentioned by local Aborigines. CANNOTANSWER
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Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York).
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Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (15 June 1792 – 5 October 1855), surveyor and explorer of Southeastern Australia, was born at Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland. In 1827 he took up an appointment as Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales. The following year he became Surveyor General and remained in this position until his death. Mitchell was knighted in 1839 for his contribution to the surveying of Australia.
Early life
Born in Scotland on 15 June 1792, he was son of John Mitchell of Carron Works and was brought up from childhood by his uncle, Thomas Livingstone of Parkhall, Stirlingshire.
Peninsular War
On the death of his uncle, he joined the British army in Portugal as a volunteer in the Peninsular War, at the age of sixteen. On 24 June 1811, at the age of nineteen, he received his first commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion 95th Rifles (later the Rifle Brigade / Royal Green Jackets). Utilising his skills as a draughtsman of outstanding ability, he was occasionally employed in the Quartermaster-General's department under Sir George Murray. He was present at the storming of the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos and San Sebastian as well as the battles of Salamanca and the Pyrenees. Subsequently, he would receive the Military General Service Medal with bars for each of these engagements.
When the war was over, Mitchell was selected to reside in Spain and Portugal for four years to complete sketches of the battlefields for the Military Depot. His duties also included conducting several other important surveys which had been impossible to finish whilst operations were in progress in the field. On 10 June 1818, during this posting, Mitchell married Mary Blunt (daughter of General Richard Blunt) in Lisbon and gained promotion to a company in the 54th Regiment.
In the summer of 1819, he returned to Britain where he devoted himself to finishing the drawings, but with the cessation of the government allowances he had to stop this work. The reductions in the military establishment which followed the withdrawing of the Army of Occupation from France forced Mitchell on to half-pay. It was not until much later, while Mitchell was in London between 1838 and 1840, that the work was completed. The finished drawings were published by the London geographer James Wyld in 1841 under the title Atlas containing the principle battles, sieges and affairs of the Peninsular War. Of high quality, the drawings are the prime source for the topography of the war.
New South Wales
In 1827, with the support of Sir George Murray, Mitchell became Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales with the right to succeed John Oxley. Oxley died the following year, and on 27 May 1828, Mitchell became Surveyor General. In this post he did much to improve the quality and accuracy of surveying – a vital task in a colony where huge tracts of land were being opened up and sold to new settlers. One of the first roads surveyed under his leadership was the Great North Road, built by convict labour between 1826 and 1836 linking Sydney to the Hunter Region. The Great South Road (now replaced by the Hume Highway), also convict-built, linked Sydney and Goulburn. He kept a record of his 'Progress in roads and Public Works in New South Wales to 1855', including sketches and plans of Sydney, Emu Plains, the Blue Mountains, Victoria Pass, roads to Bathurst, Wiseman's Ferry, and indigenous Australians.
As Surveyor General, Mitchell also completed maps and plans of Sydney, including Darling Point, Point Piper, the city, and Port Jackson. In 1834 he was commissioned to survey a map of the Nineteen Counties. The map he produced was done with such skill and accuracy that he was awarded a knighthood. Around this time, a portrait of Mitchell was painted showing him in the uniform of Major of the 1st Rifle Brigade of the 95th Regiment, complete with whistle used to direct the movement of troops.
During his tenure in New South Wales, Mitchell led four extensive and historically significant surveying expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia.
First expedition
In 1831, a runaway convict named George "The Barber" Clarke (monument around Barbers Lagoon, Boggabri NSW), who had lived with the Kamilaroi people in the area for several years, claimed that a large river called Kindur flowed north-west from the Liverpool Ranges in New South Wales to the sea. Charles Sturt believed that the Murray-Darling system formed the main river system of New South Wales and Mitchell wanted to prove Sturt wrong. Mitchell formed an expedition consisting of himself, assistant surveyor George Boyle White and 15 convicts who were promised remission for good conduct. Mitchell took 20 bullocks, three heavy drays, three light carts and nine horses to carry supplies, and set out on 24 November 1831 to investigate the claim. On reaching Wollombi in the Hunter Valley, the local assistant surveyor, Heneage Finch, expressed a desire to join the expedition which Mitchell approved, provided he first obtain extra provisions and rendezvous later.
The expedition continued northward, and having climbed the Liverpool Range on 5 December, they found an Aboriginal tribe who had fled from their home in the Hunter Valley and were suffering from what appeared to be smallpox. On 8 December they arrived at Quirindi and by 11 December the expedition had reached Wallamoul Station near Tamworth, the northern extent of white settlement at the time.
Mitchell continued his northward push into uncolonised territory, guided by a local Gamilaraay man named "Mr. Brown". In mid-December, near to where Boggabri now stands, they located the remains of a stockyard and huts built by George Clarke and his Aboriginal colleagues. By early January 1832 Mitchell's group was travelling along the Namoi River, by which stage Mr Brown had left them. Mitchell's party then headed north unguided but managed to reach the Gwydir River in mid-January where they found a small Aboriginal village of conical-roofed huts. They followed the Gwydir west and made it to the Barwon River by the end of the month. Mitchell came to the correct conclusion that the Barwon flowed into the Darling River and decided not to proceed any further.
At this stage, Finch had finally caught up with the main group. Finch conveyed the news that the provisions he had obtained had been ransacked by Aboriginal people at Gorolei. Two men he had left to guard the supplies had also been killed. The immediate effect was that Mitchell decided to abandon the expedition and return south. The party retraced their path having tense but peaceful interactions with large groups of Gamilaraay people along the way. They reached Gorolei on 18 February where Mitchell buried the bodies of the two killed men and salvaged some equipment. Aboriginal people approached the group laying down their spears and offering females to Mitchell's men in an apparent attempt at appeasement for the killings. Mitchell refused the offer but accepted their guidance on an easy way back to the Namoi River. Once back at Wallamoul, Mitchell placed White in charge of the main party, while he returned hastily to Sydney. He was satisfied that there was no truth about the river Kindur claimed by Clarke. Fourteen years later, Mitchell revealed that the convicts had indulged in sexual relations with Aboriginal women.
Second expedition
Mitchell's next expedition was in 1835. The purpose was to explore the course of the Darling River from where Sturt had turned back in 1829, to where it joined the Murray River. There were 24 men in the party including Mitchell, James Larmer (assistant surveyor) as second in command, Richard Cunningham (colonial botanist) and 21 other men. The main party under Larmer left Parramatta on 9 March and rendezvoused with Mitchell at Boree near the township of Orange. From there, the expedition was guided through the Goobang Ranges by local Wiradjuri people toward the Bogan River. On 17 April 1835, Richard Cunningham wandered away from the party while looking for botanical specimens and went missing. The party, with the assistance of various local Aboriginal people, searched for him until 5 May, following Cunningham's tracks around the headwaters of the Bogan until they disappeared. Cunningham's dead horse, saddle, glove and fragments of his coat and map were all they found. Months later, a search party of military mounted police commanded by Lieutenant Henry Zouch of the first division, discovered that Cunningham had been killed by four Wiradjuri men and his bones were found and buried at Currindine.
After the fruitless search for Cunningham, Mitchell decided to continue the expedition. He was assisted by a local unnamed elder who provided a guide called Tackijally. This man led Mitchell downstream along the waterholes adjacent to the Bogan River as far as Nyngan. Tackijally left them at this point and the group was soon involved in a brief confrontation after they startled an Aboriginal man at a waterhole. The man, who was shot in the hand, had his wounds dressed by the group and later departed. They proceeded down the Bogan, encountering several gatherings of people to which Mitchell gave tomahawks and pieces of an old sword. On 25 May the junction with the Darling River was reached. Here, on a high point of land which bore many Aboriginal grave sites, Mitchell decided to build a fort as he realised that they "had not asked permission to come there" and he needed a stockade for "stout resistance against any number of natives." He named it Fort Bourke in honour of the Governor, Richard Bourke.
Two whale boats had been transported the whole distance on bullock drays and on 1 June Mitchell launched the boats on the Darling to transport the party downriver. However, the Darling became shallower and unnavigable resulting in the expedition resorting once again to overland progress. They encountered many tribes as they headed south, with Mitchell documenting the agricultural practices of some, such as the harvesting of Panicum decompositum, and the large permanent dwellings of others. One clan appeared more hostile than others, kicking up dust and spitting at party members. Mitchell acknowledged that his group were "rather unceremonious invaders of their country" but inflamed tensions by firing a pistol at a tree. Mitchell wrote that "the more they saw of our superior weapons...the more they shewed their hatred and tokens of defiance." The party continued downriver, meeting with friendlier locals, passing through villages and noting the construction of their tomb-sites.
Just north of the Menindee Lakes, the expedition came across a large congregation of several tribes and Mitchell decided that continuing the exploration would be too dangerous. On 11 July, just as Mitchell had resolved to return to Sydney, shots were heard from a forage party up the river. Mitchell sent a further three armed men to the scene of the shooting and the firing continued. After more than an hour, some members of the group returned reporting that a skirmish had occurred over the possession of a kettle and at least three Aboriginal people had been shot dead, including a woman and her child. One of Mitchell's men had been knocked unconscious. The party then commenced their return via the outbound route with Mitchell deciding to avoid contact with the various tribes as much as possible. The "spitting tribe" attempted to burn down their camp on this return journey which resulted in Mitchell ordering shots to be fired over their heads. They arrived at Fort Bourke on 10 August and continued back along the Bogan River. Near Nyngan they met again with members of Tackijally's tribe who allowed Mitchell to walk through their cemetery at Milmeridien. Mitchell soon tired of the clan asking for food and ordered some of his men to march at them with bayonets. On 9 September they came to the upper reaches of the Bogan where they found a cattle-station had already been formed along their route by William Lee. The expedition arrived back at their starting point of Boree on 14 September.
While Mitchell did not trace the Darling River to its junction with the Murray River, the course and terrain of the Bogan River and much of the Darling River had been charted. The places where this and other Mitchell expeditions were most assailed by Aboriginal Australians, including the location of Cunningham's killing, are marked on an 1836 map produced by Mitchell.
Third expedition
The goal of Mitchell's third expedition was to explore and survey the lower part of the Darling River, with instructions to head up the Murray River and then return to the settled areas around Yass. Second in command was assistant surveyor Granville Stapylton. A Wiradjuri man named John Piper was also recruited and 23 convicts and ticket of leave men made up the rest of the party. The group set out from a valley near Mount Canobolas on 17 March 1836, and made their way to Boree and the Bogan River as on previous journeys, then veered south to the Kalare or Lachlan River to approach the Darling from its southern end where it joined the Murray.
The party was guided by various Aboriginal people such as "Barney" along the Lachlan, passing Lake Cargelligo, as John Oxley did in 1817. At this place they met with a large clan from which a number of people joined the expedition and gave vital information about waterholes, as the Lachlan was drying out. Piper also obtained a "good, strong woman" from this tribe.
On 2 May they arrived at Combedyega where an Aboriginal widow named Turandurey with her four-year-old daughter Ballandella also joined the expedition as a guide. She remembered Oxley from nineteen years earlier and Sturt as well, and knew the lower Lachlan. The Murrumbidgee River was reached on 12 May, but at a point downstream from the junction with the Lachlan.
Mount Dispersion massacre
They continued down the Murrumbidgee until 21 May when they were close to the junction with the Murray River. A depot was established at this point, and Mitchell left Staplyton with eight men to guard the stock, while he ventured downstream with the rest of the group. According to the account given to a later enquiry by William Muirhead (bullock-driver and sergeant), Alexander Burnett (overseer) and Jemmy Piper (Aboriginal man accompanying the party): on 24 May Mitchell noticed that Barkindji tribesmen from the Darling River were gathering in large numbers, and by 27 May the hostile intentions of these men became known, when local Murray River people told Piper that the Barkindji were planning to kill Mitchell and his men. Mitchell had to decide whether to wait for an attack, or plan a pre-emptive manoeuvre. His numbers were reduced, as Staplyton and eight men were still at the depot. He split his party again, leaving half the men to hide in the scrub in ambush, while he continued ahead with the carts. When the armed Barkindji warriors approached, the convict Charles King, who was involved in the earlier killings, fired first without waiting for orders. The tribesmen fled into the river and Mitchell's two groups reunited on the shore and continued to shoot at the people for up to 15 minutes. Around 75 shots were fired with Piper later being told that seven Barkindji were killed and four wounded.
Mitchell wrote about the loss of life in his journal, describing the Barkindji as "treacherous savages", and detailing how his men had chased them away, "pursuing and shooting as many as they could". This section was withheld from Mitchell's report when it was released to the public in Sydney. Mitchell named the hill near to where the mass-shooting occurred Mount Dispersion and in May 2020 it was heritage-listed as the Mount Dispersion Massacre Site Aboriginal Place.
Onwards
The expedition continued down the Murray River, encountering a major Aboriginal grave-site at Red Cliffs. On 31 May they arrived close to the junction of the Murray with a "green and stagnant" waterway. Local people advised Piper that this was the Darling River. Mitchell did not believe it, and only when he travelled upstream for some distance, coming across the same type of burial mounds that he had seen in 1835, did he acknowledge that "this hopeless river" was the Darling. He turned back and headed upstream on the Murray to rejoin Stapylton at the depot. The reunited expedition now travelled south-east following the Murray. They passed Swan Hill on 21 June and encountered a group of native inhabitants at Lake Boga. These people were angry at Piper for "bringing whitefellows" to their country and threw spears at him. Piper shot one of them dead. Mitchell noted the local people's practice of making large nets that spanned above the river to catch waterfowl and also came across unusual animals such as the now extinct Southern pig-footed bandicoot.
At the end of June, Mitchell chose to leave the Murray to investigate better looking lands to the south-west. Mitchell was so impressed with the country he saw, he named it Australia Felix. In early July the party crossed the Loddon River, and made their way in a south-westerly direction which brought them to the Grampians and the Wimmera River. Confrontation with people in this region resulted in an Indigenous man being shot in the arm. They were guided by a local Aboriginal woman along part of the Nangeela (Glenelg River) with Mitchell constructing a fortified base on its banks which he named Fort O'Hare. From here Mitchell led part of the group in boats down the Glenelg to where it discharged into the ocean at a bay which Mitchell named Discovery Bay. Mitchell then returned to Fort O'Hare and altered direction towards Portland Bay to the east. When this was reached on 29 August, Mitchell was surprised to find an established farm and whaling station operated by the Henty brothers.
The expedition continued north-east with Mitchell spending a night in a "snug old hut of the natives" at Narrawong. On 17 September, in order to speed his return, Mitchell split the party in two, taking 14 men with him and leaving the remainder with Stapylton to follow with the bullocks and drays. The young girl Ballandella went with Mitchell, while her mother Turandurey remained behind. On the plains around the Hopkins River, Mitchell came across a community of Aboriginal people who cultivated and harvested murnong tubers with specialised tools. Mitchell was wary and when forty of them approached his camp, he ordered his men to charge at them. On 30 September, Mitchell climbed and named Mount Macedon, from the summit of which he had a view of Port Phillip. Progress was slowed due a member of the group, James "Tally-ho" Taylor, drowning while crossing the Broken River. Their return to the frontier of British colonisation on the Murrumbidgee was not completed until 24 October.
Enquiry
When Mitchell arrived in Sydney in early November he was received with great joy. However, when the remainder of his party arrived two weeks later, rumours circulated about the mass killing on the Murray. He subsequently faced a Legislative Council Inquiry in December 1836, receiving an official rebuke. Ballandella joined Mitchell's family of eight other children and learnt to read and write, but was left by Mitchell when he returned to England. Ballandella later married and raised a family at Sackville where she died around the age of thirty.
Fourth expedition
Mitchell's fourth expedition was into northern interior of the colony (a region now part of Queensland) in 1845–46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and finding this river was the main focus of the endeavour.
On 15 December 1845 Mitchell started from Boree near Orange with a large party of 32 people including Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York). The Wiradjuri man named Piper from his previous expedition was also a member. Yuranigh (also Wiradjuri) and a ten year old boy from the lower Bogan River named "Dicky" were also assigned as guides. The party travelled north along the Bogan where a war between the British and the Indigenous inhabitants was at that time occurring. Mitchell noted areas where the British had been pushed back, abandoning their farmhouses which were subsequently burnt down by the local people. Mitchell stated "All I could learn about the rest of the tribe was, that the men were almost all dead, and that their wives were chiefly servants at stock stations along the Macquarie."
In January 1846, they left the Bogan and started following the Macquarie River where Mitchell was informed of Pipers' intention to leave the expedition. Mitchell ordered him back to Bathurst, accompanied by Corporal Graham. Near the Macquarie Marshes the harvesting of native millet by Aboriginal people to make bread was recorded and a local man named Yulliyally guided the group to the Barwon River. From here two brothers from a nearby clan led Mitchell to vital waterholes near the Narran River. Mitchell "blushed inwardly for our pallid race" knowing that "white man's cattle would soon trample these holes into a quagmire of mud." More bundles of harvested millet lay for miles along their journey up the Narran. Mitchell then received a message from his son, Roderick Mitchell, a Crown Lands Commissioner who had previously been to the area, which recommended following the Balonne and the Culgoa rivers north. They encountered many Indigenous people who guided the group along the way. On 12 April 1846 Mitchell came to a natural bridge of rocks on the main branch of the Balonne which he called St. George Bridge, now the site of the town of St George. Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men. Mitchell followed the Balonne to the Maranoa, and the Cogoon (now called Muckadilla Creek, near Roma). This rivulet led him to an area with an "abundance of good pasturage" in which stood a solitary double topped hill that he named Mount Abundance, on which grew a species of bottle tree. He then crossed to the Maranoa and awaited Kennedy's arrival. Kennedy, who had trouble with local inhabitants trying to burn down his camp, rejoined Mitchell on 1 June 1846.
Leaving Kennedy for a second time, he set out on an extensive excursion of more than four months. Mitchell traversed the country at the head of the Maranoa, on one occasion discharging his rifle over the heads of the Indigenous people to gain "peaceful occupation of the ground." He sighted the headwaters of the Warrego and Nogoa Rivers, then came across the upper reaches of the Belyando River which they followed for a considerable distance. This river's name was given to Mitchell by Indigenous residents before the expedition's dogs chased them away, biting at their legs. Being a tributary of the Burdekin River, a waterway already visited by Ludwig Leichhardt on his expedition to Port Essington in 1845, Mitchell was dismayed to find that he was approaching ground already explored by Europeans. He returned to the head of the Nogoa and struck west, meeting with a tribe who caught emus with nets. He encountered a river which he was certain was the fabled waterway that would flow north-west to the Gulf of Carpentaria. He followed it until he came across a large clan of Aboriginal people living in permanent huts on the banks of a lagoon. He called this place Yuranigh Pond after his Wiradjuri guide and decided to return home. In honour of the British sovereign of the time, he named the waterway, Victoria River. On the homeward journey Mitchell noticed the well known grass that bears his name. They trekked back along the Maranoa River to St.George Bridge, arriving in Sydney 20 January 1847.
Later in 1847, Kennedy proved beyond doubt that the Victoria in fact did not continue north-west, but turned south-west and joined Cooper Creek. He renamed the watercourse the Barcoo River from a name mentioned by local Aboriginal people.
Later career
In 1837, Mitchell sought 18 months leave from his position and in May he left Sydney for London. During his leave, he published an account of his explorations called Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia: with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix, and of the present colony of New South Wales. Mitchell sought additional periods of leave and finally arrived back in Australia in 1841. Mitchell left Sydney again in March 1847 on another period of leave. By the time he arrived back in mid-1848, he had published his Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in search of a route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Mitchell's journals proved a rich source for historians and anthropologists, with their close and sympathetic observations of the Aboriginal peoples he had encountered. These publications made him the most celebrated Australian explorer of his day. But he was a difficult man to get on with, made evident by this passage made by Governor Charles Augustus FitzRoy:
"It is notorious that Sir Thomas Mitchell's unfortunate impracticability of temper and spirit of opposition of those in authority over him misled him into frequent collision with my predecessors."
In a by-election for the Electoral district of Port Phillip in April 1844, Mitchell was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council. He found it difficult to separate his roles of government employee and elected member of the legislature, and after only five months he resigned from the Legislative Council.
Duel
Mitchell is also remembered as the last person in Australia to challenge anyone to a duel. In September 1851, Mitchell issued a challenge to Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson (later Premier of New South Wales) because Donaldson had publicly criticised excessive spending by the Surveyor General's Department. The duel took place in Sydney on 27 September, with both duellists missing their marks; only Donaldson's hat was damaged. The French 50 calibre pistols used in the duel are in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.
Ophir gold fields
In 1851, Mitchell was instructed by Governor FitzRoy to make a report on, and survey of, 'the extent and productiveness of the goldfield reported to have been discovered in the County of Bathurst.' He travelled west during winter to visit the Ophir gold diggings, accompanied by his son, Roderick, and Samuel Stutchbury the government geologist.
In June 1851 Mitchell selected the site for the township of Ophir. W.R. Davidson plotted a survey of the ground and Mitchell planned the streets and allotments for the town.
Mitchell returned with a collection of specimens from the diggings, mostly quartz, with 48 of these stored in a wooden chest. His report of the goldfields was presented to the Legislative Council in February 1852.
Story of the "bomerang" propeller
The search for a method of screw propulsion of ships intrigued many inventors during the latter half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. An Englishman, K. P. Smith, patented a screw propeller in 1836, and shortly afterwards Captain John Ericsson, formerly an officer of the Swedish army, patented another.
On his travels, Mitchell must have been evolving the idea of his boomerang propeller—he spelled it "bomerang", while newspapers used "bomarang" and "boomerang." The first test was made in the Sydney Harbour in May 1852, an iron propeller being fitted to the "screw-steamer" Keera. The results of this trial were considered satisfactory, the ship's progress being calculated on two runs at 10 and a little over 12 knots, and Sir Thomas Mitchell took his Invention to England. In 1853 the propeller was fitted to the Genova, and a trial was conducted on the Mersey. Then the Admiralty gave it a test on . The Genova ran at 9.5 knots as against 8.5 with a screw propeller, and the Conflict 9.25 knots as against the screw propeller 8.75, and at a lower engine speed. The "boomerang" propeller can be simply described as a "screw" propeller with much of the blades close to the shaft, which contribute little to propulsion but much to drag, cut away, a principle which is well understood today.
Family life
Thomas Mitchell and Mary had twelve children: Livingstone, Roderick, Murray, Campbell, Thomas, Richard, Georgina, Maria, Emily, Camilla, Alicia, Blanche. Georgina and Maria died young, and Murray before 1847. Roderick became a Commissioner of Crown Lands and head of the Border Police in the Liverpool Plains district. Roderick was drowned and Campbell died during the last years of Mitchell's life.
His family enjoyed a privileged upbringing, and Blanche Mitchell, his youngest daughter, recorded her daily activities and social life in childhood diaries and notebooks. Her sister Emily married George Edward Thicknesse-Touchet, 21st Baron Audley.
In 1841, Mitchell completed his new Gothic home, Carthona, on the water's edge in Darling Point, Sydney. Following Mitchell's death, his family moved to Craigend Terrace in Woolloomooloo.
Death
In July 1855 a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the New South Wales Survey Department, but Mitchell did not live to see the report. While surveying the line of road between Nelligen and Braidwood, he developed a chill which led to a severe attack of bronchitis. He died a few days later at Carthona at Darling Point at 5:15 pm 5 October 1855. Newspapers of the day commented:"For a period of twenty-eight years Sir Thomas Mitchell had served the Colony, much of that service having been exceedingly arduous and difficult. Among the early explorers of Australia his name will occupy an honoured place in the estimation of posterity."
He is buried at Camperdown Cemetery, Newtown, with his grave being maintained by the Seniors Group of Surveyors.
Naming
Some of the places Mitchell named on his expeditions were: the Avoca River, Balonne River, Belyando River, Campaspe River, Cogoon River, Discovery Bay, Glenelg River, Grampians, Maranoa River, Mount Arapiles, Mount King, Mount Macedon, Mount Napier, Mount William, Nyngan, Pyramid Hill, St George, Swan Hill and Wimmera River.
Commemoration
Because of his contributions in the surveying and exploration of Australia, Mitchell is commemorated by having numerous localities or objects across Australia being named after him. These include:
The town of Mitchell in Queensland
The Mitchell River in Queensland
The Canberra suburb of Mitchell
The electorate of Mitchell
The Mitchell Highway
The Major Mitchell's cockatoo, a species of cockatoo
Mitchellstown in Victoria.
A local government area in Victoria, Shire of Mitchell
Steam locomotive number S 301 Sir Thomas Mitchell, a member of the Victorian Railways S class locomotives. In turn, Mitchell House at Seymour Technical High School, the town with the loco depot which serviced the famous four locos. Later, the name was carried by the diesel S301.
Mitchell grass, common name of the small genus of grass species dominant across much of the arid areas of the continent
Mitchell's hopping mouse, an Australian native rodent-like animal
Countless roadside locations in Victoria have a memorial erected 'Major Mitchell passed here'.
Sir Thomas Mitchell Road Villawood NSW
Sir Thomas Mitchell road in Bondi NSW
Sir Thomas Mitchell Drive Bowenfels (Lithgow) linking the Great Western Highway with the Cox River at a fitting memorial to colonial road builders.
Mitchell is also the namesake in the highest honor of the New South Wales Surveyors Awards, the Sir Thomas Mitchell Excellence in Surveying Award.
A map of the expedition of Major Sir Thomas Mitchell into the country between the Maranoa and Mount Mudge and the River Victoria, 1848 was ranked #38 in the ‘Top 150: Documenting Queensland’ exhibition when it toured to venues around Queensland from February 2009 to April 2010. The exhibition was part of Queensland State Archives’ events and exhibition program which contributed to the state’s Q150 celebrations, marking the 150th anniversary of the separation of Queensland from New South Wales.
Manuscript Collections
See also
:Category:Taxa named by Thomas Mitchell (explorer)
Charles Sturt
Great North Road (Australia)
History of New South Wales
New South Wales gold rush
Nineteen Counties
Surveyor General of New South Wales
References
External links
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 1, Volume 2
The Great North Road – Convict Trail Project
1792 births
1855 deaths
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Explorers of Australia
Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia
Scottish explorers
British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
Scottish surveyors
Royal Engineers officers
People from Grangemouth
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council
Rifle Brigade officers
Surveyors General of New South Wales
19th-century Australian politicians
Pre-Separation Queensland
Australian duellists
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"Trust is a television game show which offers large cash prizes for correctly answering a series of randomized questions of varying difficulty. The format based on preconceptions, cooperation, knowledge, strategy and mutual confidence. The format created by Banijay Entertainment/Air Productions and aired in many countries around the world. The first adaptation is the French version in September 2012.\n\nRules of the game\nTwo candidates not knowing must meet together on issues of general culture to win up the jackpot. However, only one of these candidates will walk away with the money accumulated by deciding to \"volte-face\" then it should only respond to one question to pocket the winnings.\n\nFor each question, candidates choose (without being able to see) the level of difficulty of the question proposed to them. They have an early question, the wording of which is common to the three difficulty levels offered, and discover the end of the question after choosing the difficulty level they want. If both candidates have chosen different levels of difficulty, this is the question at the higher of the two is asked.\n\nThree difficulty levels are named Basic, Medium and Master. The master level is the most difficulty level, the higher the value of the question is important: a question Medium is 50% of the Master a question, a question Basic, 20%. The scale of earnings are as follows (based in the French version):\n\nOnce fully raised the issue, both candidates may consult and exchange views. They have a limited time, indicated by a count of 10 seconds timeout. Exhibitors must formulate a common response in the form of a sentence beginning: \"Our answer is ...\". \n In case of right answer, the money is added to a pot and candidates spend the next question. \n In case of wrong answer, the candidates do not win money and receive a warning in the form of a red cross. However, they go to the next question.\n\nAfter three errors, the duo is removed and leaves no earnings.\n\nFace to face\nAt any point in the game, an alarm may sound just after the beginning of the statement a question. Both candidates chairs, which together formed a bench, separate and automatically join the four members of their \"clan\" (family, friends, colleagues ...) for advice. Example, they may try to guess the question to be asked, or construct a strategy to turn around and win the pot.\n\nOnce the time of consultation is complete, the chairs of the two candidates turn and face. Then they move towards each other, very gradually. It was during this journey that either candidate has the opportunity to do an about-face. More candidates are approaching one another, the more money available to volte-face and the greater the level of difficulty of the question is raised, reaching all the gains accumulated so far Master for a question.\n\nIf neither candidate does volte-face, the game returns to normal. However, if a candidate decides to play alone, he should press the buzzer in front of him. It must then respond and only 10 seconds for the sum announced at the time of reversal, the question which the statement was started before the alarm sounds. The end of the question (Basic, Medium or Master) is a function of when the candidate buzzed more he waited longer, the question is difficult. \n In case of right answer, he won the sum and the other candidate restarts empty handed. \n In case of wrong answer, it is eliminated and the other candidate can try his luck. \n If two candidates are wrong, they are both removed and leave no earnings.\n\nIf, after 11 questions, no volte-face took place, a 12th question is asked. This is immediately followed by an alarm, mean turnaround required for either of the candidates.\n\nInternational versions\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nTrust page on Banijay group website\n\nFrench game shows\nFrench-language television programming in Belgium\nQuiz shows\n2012 French television series debuts\n2010s Belgian game shows",
"Xeno Crisis is a 2019 homebrew twin-stick shooter developed by indie game studio Bitmap Bureau for the Sega Mega Drive, with releases for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Sega Dreamcast, Evercade, and Neo Geo. The game was fully funded on Kickstarter on January 10, 2018, with a release on October 28, 2019.\n\nGameplay\nXeno Crisis is inspired by similar arcade shooters like Smash TV and Shock Troopers, with art direction inspired by the Alien movie franchise. Featuring single or cooperative gameplay, one or two players play as unnamed space marines and work their way through seven levels in a scientific facility featuring procedurally generated rooms and levels, with a number of enemies of various difficulty in each room, concluding with a final boss battle at the end of most levels. After a player kills enemies on screen, a chance of an item, a weapon drop, health, or dogtags are dropped to aid the player. Dogtags are used as an in-game currency to help purchase upgrades like additional health or player speed. To increase the challenge to players, the starting machine gun has a limited amount of ammunition, and weapon pickups have a limited number of uses, requiring players to stay on the move and on the lookout for ammunition boxes.\n\nPlot\nThe game begins with Commander Darius receiving a distress signal from Outpost 88, a scientific research facility. The two controllable space marines are sent on a drop ship to the facility, where they begin to work their way through each level of the facility, where they face off against aliens, robot defenses, and even Cthulhu, on their way to figure out what is going on. Along the way the two space marines find survivors of the facility that they are able to rescue and release to safety. When the space marines reach the final stage, they are confronted by Dr. Herzog, where he reveals that he was behind the various horrors the space marines battled up to this point. If either space marines drank any \"elixers\" (the continue feature in the game), or if the player used any cheat codes, Dr. Herzog reveals to them that these elixers were designed by himself and they contained nanomachines that will kill the player characters and the game will end with the \"bad\" ending. If the player did not use any elixers before confronting Dr. Herzog, he will attack the player as the game's final boss where he reveals himself to be a creature like the creatures battled up to this point. When they players defeat Dr. Herzog, the \"good\" ending will be revealed with the two space marines evacuating the facility.\n\nReception\nReception to Xeno Crisis was generally positive. Nintendo Life praised the game's design and gameplay, but criticized the difficulty as being off-putting for inexperienced players. Wireframe also praised the game's polish and gameplay, but criticized some design decisions like the weapon upgrades and the melee attack feature.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Bitmap Bureau\n Development Blog\n\n2019 video games\nHomebrew software\nIndie video games\nNeo Geo games\nLinux games\nMacOS games\nSega Genesis games\nNintendo Switch games\nPlayStation 4 games\nXbox Cloud Gaming games\nXbox One games\nVideo games about extraterrestrial life\nVideo games developed in the United Kingdom\nWindows games\nDreamcast homebrew games\nKickstarter-funded video games\nSingle-player video games\nCooperative video games"
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"Thomas Mitchell (explorer)",
"Fourth expedition",
"What was the relation between Thomas Mitchell and Fourth expedtition?",
"Mitchell's fourth expedition was into Queensland in 1845-46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria,",
"Where did the fourth expedition take place?",
"Mitchell started from Boree (Buree in Mitchell's journal) with a large party including Edmund Kennedy as second in command",
"Which other people were there with him?",
"Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men.",
"Do they face any difficulty on their way?",
"Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York)."
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article aside from Thomas Mitchell being joined by a large party with Edmund Kennedy as second in command ?
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Thomas Mitchell (explorer)
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Mitchell's fourth expedition was into Queensland in 1845-46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria, this being the main thrust of the endeavour. On 15 December 1845 Mitchell started from Boree (Buree in Mitchell's journal) with a large party including Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York). He struck the Darling River above Fort Bourke then continued to the Narran River, the Balonne, and the Culgoa. On 12 April 1846 he came to a natural bridge of rocks on the main branch of the Balonne which he called St.George Bridge, now the site of the town of St George. Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men. Mitchell followed the Balonne to the Maranoa, and the Cogoon (now called Muckadilla Creek, near Roma). This rivulet led him to a magnificent pastoral district in the midst of which stood a solitary hill that he named Mount Abundance. He then crossed a low watershed to the Maranoa and awaited Kennedy's arrival. Kennedy rejoined Mitchell on 1 June 1846. Leaving Kennedy for a second time, he set out on an extensive excursion of more than four months. Mitchell traversed the country at the head of the Maranoa and discovered the Warrago River. Keeping north over the watershed, he traversed the Claude and Nogoa rivers, then reached the Belyando River, an upper reach of the Burdekin River. This had already been discovered by Ludwig Leichhardt on his expedition to Port Essington on 2 April 1845. Intensely mortified to find that he was on a tributary of the Burdekin River, and approaching the ground already trodden by Leichhardt, he returned to the head of the Nogoa and struck west, after dividing his party and forming a stationary camp. He continued west, making a new discovery which he was certain was the fabled north-west river. In honour of the sovereign of the time he decided to call it Victoria River. Having run out of time, he turned back towards the main party. It was here that Mitchell first noticed the well known grass that bears his name. On the homeward journey he trekked along the Maranoa River to St.George Bridge, arriving in Sydney 20 January 1847. Later that year, Kennedy proved beyond doubt that the Victoria did not continue north-west, but turned south-west and joined Cooper Creek. He renamed the watercourse the Barcoo River from a name mentioned by local Aborigines. CANNOTANSWER
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he set out on an extensive excursion of more than four months. Mitchell traversed the country at the head of the Maranoa and discovered the Warrago River.
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Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (15 June 1792 – 5 October 1855), surveyor and explorer of Southeastern Australia, was born at Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland. In 1827 he took up an appointment as Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales. The following year he became Surveyor General and remained in this position until his death. Mitchell was knighted in 1839 for his contribution to the surveying of Australia.
Early life
Born in Scotland on 15 June 1792, he was son of John Mitchell of Carron Works and was brought up from childhood by his uncle, Thomas Livingstone of Parkhall, Stirlingshire.
Peninsular War
On the death of his uncle, he joined the British army in Portugal as a volunteer in the Peninsular War, at the age of sixteen. On 24 June 1811, at the age of nineteen, he received his first commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion 95th Rifles (later the Rifle Brigade / Royal Green Jackets). Utilising his skills as a draughtsman of outstanding ability, he was occasionally employed in the Quartermaster-General's department under Sir George Murray. He was present at the storming of the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos and San Sebastian as well as the battles of Salamanca and the Pyrenees. Subsequently, he would receive the Military General Service Medal with bars for each of these engagements.
When the war was over, Mitchell was selected to reside in Spain and Portugal for four years to complete sketches of the battlefields for the Military Depot. His duties also included conducting several other important surveys which had been impossible to finish whilst operations were in progress in the field. On 10 June 1818, during this posting, Mitchell married Mary Blunt (daughter of General Richard Blunt) in Lisbon and gained promotion to a company in the 54th Regiment.
In the summer of 1819, he returned to Britain where he devoted himself to finishing the drawings, but with the cessation of the government allowances he had to stop this work. The reductions in the military establishment which followed the withdrawing of the Army of Occupation from France forced Mitchell on to half-pay. It was not until much later, while Mitchell was in London between 1838 and 1840, that the work was completed. The finished drawings were published by the London geographer James Wyld in 1841 under the title Atlas containing the principle battles, sieges and affairs of the Peninsular War. Of high quality, the drawings are the prime source for the topography of the war.
New South Wales
In 1827, with the support of Sir George Murray, Mitchell became Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales with the right to succeed John Oxley. Oxley died the following year, and on 27 May 1828, Mitchell became Surveyor General. In this post he did much to improve the quality and accuracy of surveying – a vital task in a colony where huge tracts of land were being opened up and sold to new settlers. One of the first roads surveyed under his leadership was the Great North Road, built by convict labour between 1826 and 1836 linking Sydney to the Hunter Region. The Great South Road (now replaced by the Hume Highway), also convict-built, linked Sydney and Goulburn. He kept a record of his 'Progress in roads and Public Works in New South Wales to 1855', including sketches and plans of Sydney, Emu Plains, the Blue Mountains, Victoria Pass, roads to Bathurst, Wiseman's Ferry, and indigenous Australians.
As Surveyor General, Mitchell also completed maps and plans of Sydney, including Darling Point, Point Piper, the city, and Port Jackson. In 1834 he was commissioned to survey a map of the Nineteen Counties. The map he produced was done with such skill and accuracy that he was awarded a knighthood. Around this time, a portrait of Mitchell was painted showing him in the uniform of Major of the 1st Rifle Brigade of the 95th Regiment, complete with whistle used to direct the movement of troops.
During his tenure in New South Wales, Mitchell led four extensive and historically significant surveying expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia.
First expedition
In 1831, a runaway convict named George "The Barber" Clarke (monument around Barbers Lagoon, Boggabri NSW), who had lived with the Kamilaroi people in the area for several years, claimed that a large river called Kindur flowed north-west from the Liverpool Ranges in New South Wales to the sea. Charles Sturt believed that the Murray-Darling system formed the main river system of New South Wales and Mitchell wanted to prove Sturt wrong. Mitchell formed an expedition consisting of himself, assistant surveyor George Boyle White and 15 convicts who were promised remission for good conduct. Mitchell took 20 bullocks, three heavy drays, three light carts and nine horses to carry supplies, and set out on 24 November 1831 to investigate the claim. On reaching Wollombi in the Hunter Valley, the local assistant surveyor, Heneage Finch, expressed a desire to join the expedition which Mitchell approved, provided he first obtain extra provisions and rendezvous later.
The expedition continued northward, and having climbed the Liverpool Range on 5 December, they found an Aboriginal tribe who had fled from their home in the Hunter Valley and were suffering from what appeared to be smallpox. On 8 December they arrived at Quirindi and by 11 December the expedition had reached Wallamoul Station near Tamworth, the northern extent of white settlement at the time.
Mitchell continued his northward push into uncolonised territory, guided by a local Gamilaraay man named "Mr. Brown". In mid-December, near to where Boggabri now stands, they located the remains of a stockyard and huts built by George Clarke and his Aboriginal colleagues. By early January 1832 Mitchell's group was travelling along the Namoi River, by which stage Mr Brown had left them. Mitchell's party then headed north unguided but managed to reach the Gwydir River in mid-January where they found a small Aboriginal village of conical-roofed huts. They followed the Gwydir west and made it to the Barwon River by the end of the month. Mitchell came to the correct conclusion that the Barwon flowed into the Darling River and decided not to proceed any further.
At this stage, Finch had finally caught up with the main group. Finch conveyed the news that the provisions he had obtained had been ransacked by Aboriginal people at Gorolei. Two men he had left to guard the supplies had also been killed. The immediate effect was that Mitchell decided to abandon the expedition and return south. The party retraced their path having tense but peaceful interactions with large groups of Gamilaraay people along the way. They reached Gorolei on 18 February where Mitchell buried the bodies of the two killed men and salvaged some equipment. Aboriginal people approached the group laying down their spears and offering females to Mitchell's men in an apparent attempt at appeasement for the killings. Mitchell refused the offer but accepted their guidance on an easy way back to the Namoi River. Once back at Wallamoul, Mitchell placed White in charge of the main party, while he returned hastily to Sydney. He was satisfied that there was no truth about the river Kindur claimed by Clarke. Fourteen years later, Mitchell revealed that the convicts had indulged in sexual relations with Aboriginal women.
Second expedition
Mitchell's next expedition was in 1835. The purpose was to explore the course of the Darling River from where Sturt had turned back in 1829, to where it joined the Murray River. There were 24 men in the party including Mitchell, James Larmer (assistant surveyor) as second in command, Richard Cunningham (colonial botanist) and 21 other men. The main party under Larmer left Parramatta on 9 March and rendezvoused with Mitchell at Boree near the township of Orange. From there, the expedition was guided through the Goobang Ranges by local Wiradjuri people toward the Bogan River. On 17 April 1835, Richard Cunningham wandered away from the party while looking for botanical specimens and went missing. The party, with the assistance of various local Aboriginal people, searched for him until 5 May, following Cunningham's tracks around the headwaters of the Bogan until they disappeared. Cunningham's dead horse, saddle, glove and fragments of his coat and map were all they found. Months later, a search party of military mounted police commanded by Lieutenant Henry Zouch of the first division, discovered that Cunningham had been killed by four Wiradjuri men and his bones were found and buried at Currindine.
After the fruitless search for Cunningham, Mitchell decided to continue the expedition. He was assisted by a local unnamed elder who provided a guide called Tackijally. This man led Mitchell downstream along the waterholes adjacent to the Bogan River as far as Nyngan. Tackijally left them at this point and the group was soon involved in a brief confrontation after they startled an Aboriginal man at a waterhole. The man, who was shot in the hand, had his wounds dressed by the group and later departed. They proceeded down the Bogan, encountering several gatherings of people to which Mitchell gave tomahawks and pieces of an old sword. On 25 May the junction with the Darling River was reached. Here, on a high point of land which bore many Aboriginal grave sites, Mitchell decided to build a fort as he realised that they "had not asked permission to come there" and he needed a stockade for "stout resistance against any number of natives." He named it Fort Bourke in honour of the Governor, Richard Bourke.
Two whale boats had been transported the whole distance on bullock drays and on 1 June Mitchell launched the boats on the Darling to transport the party downriver. However, the Darling became shallower and unnavigable resulting in the expedition resorting once again to overland progress. They encountered many tribes as they headed south, with Mitchell documenting the agricultural practices of some, such as the harvesting of Panicum decompositum, and the large permanent dwellings of others. One clan appeared more hostile than others, kicking up dust and spitting at party members. Mitchell acknowledged that his group were "rather unceremonious invaders of their country" but inflamed tensions by firing a pistol at a tree. Mitchell wrote that "the more they saw of our superior weapons...the more they shewed their hatred and tokens of defiance." The party continued downriver, meeting with friendlier locals, passing through villages and noting the construction of their tomb-sites.
Just north of the Menindee Lakes, the expedition came across a large congregation of several tribes and Mitchell decided that continuing the exploration would be too dangerous. On 11 July, just as Mitchell had resolved to return to Sydney, shots were heard from a forage party up the river. Mitchell sent a further three armed men to the scene of the shooting and the firing continued. After more than an hour, some members of the group returned reporting that a skirmish had occurred over the possession of a kettle and at least three Aboriginal people had been shot dead, including a woman and her child. One of Mitchell's men had been knocked unconscious. The party then commenced their return via the outbound route with Mitchell deciding to avoid contact with the various tribes as much as possible. The "spitting tribe" attempted to burn down their camp on this return journey which resulted in Mitchell ordering shots to be fired over their heads. They arrived at Fort Bourke on 10 August and continued back along the Bogan River. Near Nyngan they met again with members of Tackijally's tribe who allowed Mitchell to walk through their cemetery at Milmeridien. Mitchell soon tired of the clan asking for food and ordered some of his men to march at them with bayonets. On 9 September they came to the upper reaches of the Bogan where they found a cattle-station had already been formed along their route by William Lee. The expedition arrived back at their starting point of Boree on 14 September.
While Mitchell did not trace the Darling River to its junction with the Murray River, the course and terrain of the Bogan River and much of the Darling River had been charted. The places where this and other Mitchell expeditions were most assailed by Aboriginal Australians, including the location of Cunningham's killing, are marked on an 1836 map produced by Mitchell.
Third expedition
The goal of Mitchell's third expedition was to explore and survey the lower part of the Darling River, with instructions to head up the Murray River and then return to the settled areas around Yass. Second in command was assistant surveyor Granville Stapylton. A Wiradjuri man named John Piper was also recruited and 23 convicts and ticket of leave men made up the rest of the party. The group set out from a valley near Mount Canobolas on 17 March 1836, and made their way to Boree and the Bogan River as on previous journeys, then veered south to the Kalare or Lachlan River to approach the Darling from its southern end where it joined the Murray.
The party was guided by various Aboriginal people such as "Barney" along the Lachlan, passing Lake Cargelligo, as John Oxley did in 1817. At this place they met with a large clan from which a number of people joined the expedition and gave vital information about waterholes, as the Lachlan was drying out. Piper also obtained a "good, strong woman" from this tribe.
On 2 May they arrived at Combedyega where an Aboriginal widow named Turandurey with her four-year-old daughter Ballandella also joined the expedition as a guide. She remembered Oxley from nineteen years earlier and Sturt as well, and knew the lower Lachlan. The Murrumbidgee River was reached on 12 May, but at a point downstream from the junction with the Lachlan.
Mount Dispersion massacre
They continued down the Murrumbidgee until 21 May when they were close to the junction with the Murray River. A depot was established at this point, and Mitchell left Staplyton with eight men to guard the stock, while he ventured downstream with the rest of the group. According to the account given to a later enquiry by William Muirhead (bullock-driver and sergeant), Alexander Burnett (overseer) and Jemmy Piper (Aboriginal man accompanying the party): on 24 May Mitchell noticed that Barkindji tribesmen from the Darling River were gathering in large numbers, and by 27 May the hostile intentions of these men became known, when local Murray River people told Piper that the Barkindji were planning to kill Mitchell and his men. Mitchell had to decide whether to wait for an attack, or plan a pre-emptive manoeuvre. His numbers were reduced, as Staplyton and eight men were still at the depot. He split his party again, leaving half the men to hide in the scrub in ambush, while he continued ahead with the carts. When the armed Barkindji warriors approached, the convict Charles King, who was involved in the earlier killings, fired first without waiting for orders. The tribesmen fled into the river and Mitchell's two groups reunited on the shore and continued to shoot at the people for up to 15 minutes. Around 75 shots were fired with Piper later being told that seven Barkindji were killed and four wounded.
Mitchell wrote about the loss of life in his journal, describing the Barkindji as "treacherous savages", and detailing how his men had chased them away, "pursuing and shooting as many as they could". This section was withheld from Mitchell's report when it was released to the public in Sydney. Mitchell named the hill near to where the mass-shooting occurred Mount Dispersion and in May 2020 it was heritage-listed as the Mount Dispersion Massacre Site Aboriginal Place.
Onwards
The expedition continued down the Murray River, encountering a major Aboriginal grave-site at Red Cliffs. On 31 May they arrived close to the junction of the Murray with a "green and stagnant" waterway. Local people advised Piper that this was the Darling River. Mitchell did not believe it, and only when he travelled upstream for some distance, coming across the same type of burial mounds that he had seen in 1835, did he acknowledge that "this hopeless river" was the Darling. He turned back and headed upstream on the Murray to rejoin Stapylton at the depot. The reunited expedition now travelled south-east following the Murray. They passed Swan Hill on 21 June and encountered a group of native inhabitants at Lake Boga. These people were angry at Piper for "bringing whitefellows" to their country and threw spears at him. Piper shot one of them dead. Mitchell noted the local people's practice of making large nets that spanned above the river to catch waterfowl and also came across unusual animals such as the now extinct Southern pig-footed bandicoot.
At the end of June, Mitchell chose to leave the Murray to investigate better looking lands to the south-west. Mitchell was so impressed with the country he saw, he named it Australia Felix. In early July the party crossed the Loddon River, and made their way in a south-westerly direction which brought them to the Grampians and the Wimmera River. Confrontation with people in this region resulted in an Indigenous man being shot in the arm. They were guided by a local Aboriginal woman along part of the Nangeela (Glenelg River) with Mitchell constructing a fortified base on its banks which he named Fort O'Hare. From here Mitchell led part of the group in boats down the Glenelg to where it discharged into the ocean at a bay which Mitchell named Discovery Bay. Mitchell then returned to Fort O'Hare and altered direction towards Portland Bay to the east. When this was reached on 29 August, Mitchell was surprised to find an established farm and whaling station operated by the Henty brothers.
The expedition continued north-east with Mitchell spending a night in a "snug old hut of the natives" at Narrawong. On 17 September, in order to speed his return, Mitchell split the party in two, taking 14 men with him and leaving the remainder with Stapylton to follow with the bullocks and drays. The young girl Ballandella went with Mitchell, while her mother Turandurey remained behind. On the plains around the Hopkins River, Mitchell came across a community of Aboriginal people who cultivated and harvested murnong tubers with specialised tools. Mitchell was wary and when forty of them approached his camp, he ordered his men to charge at them. On 30 September, Mitchell climbed and named Mount Macedon, from the summit of which he had a view of Port Phillip. Progress was slowed due a member of the group, James "Tally-ho" Taylor, drowning while crossing the Broken River. Their return to the frontier of British colonisation on the Murrumbidgee was not completed until 24 October.
Enquiry
When Mitchell arrived in Sydney in early November he was received with great joy. However, when the remainder of his party arrived two weeks later, rumours circulated about the mass killing on the Murray. He subsequently faced a Legislative Council Inquiry in December 1836, receiving an official rebuke. Ballandella joined Mitchell's family of eight other children and learnt to read and write, but was left by Mitchell when he returned to England. Ballandella later married and raised a family at Sackville where she died around the age of thirty.
Fourth expedition
Mitchell's fourth expedition was into northern interior of the colony (a region now part of Queensland) in 1845–46. He was convinced that a significant river must flow north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and finding this river was the main focus of the endeavour.
On 15 December 1845 Mitchell started from Boree near Orange with a large party of 32 people including Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York). The Wiradjuri man named Piper from his previous expedition was also a member. Yuranigh (also Wiradjuri) and a ten year old boy from the lower Bogan River named "Dicky" were also assigned as guides. The party travelled north along the Bogan where a war between the British and the Indigenous inhabitants was at that time occurring. Mitchell noted areas where the British had been pushed back, abandoning their farmhouses which were subsequently burnt down by the local people. Mitchell stated "All I could learn about the rest of the tribe was, that the men were almost all dead, and that their wives were chiefly servants at stock stations along the Macquarie."
In January 1846, they left the Bogan and started following the Macquarie River where Mitchell was informed of Pipers' intention to leave the expedition. Mitchell ordered him back to Bathurst, accompanied by Corporal Graham. Near the Macquarie Marshes the harvesting of native millet by Aboriginal people to make bread was recorded and a local man named Yulliyally guided the group to the Barwon River. From here two brothers from a nearby clan led Mitchell to vital waterholes near the Narran River. Mitchell "blushed inwardly for our pallid race" knowing that "white man's cattle would soon trample these holes into a quagmire of mud." More bundles of harvested millet lay for miles along their journey up the Narran. Mitchell then received a message from his son, Roderick Mitchell, a Crown Lands Commissioner who had previously been to the area, which recommended following the Balonne and the Culgoa rivers north. They encountered many Indigenous people who guided the group along the way. On 12 April 1846 Mitchell came to a natural bridge of rocks on the main branch of the Balonne which he called St. George Bridge, now the site of the town of St George. Kennedy was left in charge of the main body here, and was instructed to follow on slowly while Mitchell pushed ahead with a few men. Mitchell followed the Balonne to the Maranoa, and the Cogoon (now called Muckadilla Creek, near Roma). This rivulet led him to an area with an "abundance of good pasturage" in which stood a solitary double topped hill that he named Mount Abundance, on which grew a species of bottle tree. He then crossed to the Maranoa and awaited Kennedy's arrival. Kennedy, who had trouble with local inhabitants trying to burn down his camp, rejoined Mitchell on 1 June 1846.
Leaving Kennedy for a second time, he set out on an extensive excursion of more than four months. Mitchell traversed the country at the head of the Maranoa, on one occasion discharging his rifle over the heads of the Indigenous people to gain "peaceful occupation of the ground." He sighted the headwaters of the Warrego and Nogoa Rivers, then came across the upper reaches of the Belyando River which they followed for a considerable distance. This river's name was given to Mitchell by Indigenous residents before the expedition's dogs chased them away, biting at their legs. Being a tributary of the Burdekin River, a waterway already visited by Ludwig Leichhardt on his expedition to Port Essington in 1845, Mitchell was dismayed to find that he was approaching ground already explored by Europeans. He returned to the head of the Nogoa and struck west, meeting with a tribe who caught emus with nets. He encountered a river which he was certain was the fabled waterway that would flow north-west to the Gulf of Carpentaria. He followed it until he came across a large clan of Aboriginal people living in permanent huts on the banks of a lagoon. He called this place Yuranigh Pond after his Wiradjuri guide and decided to return home. In honour of the British sovereign of the time, he named the waterway, Victoria River. On the homeward journey Mitchell noticed the well known grass that bears his name. They trekked back along the Maranoa River to St.George Bridge, arriving in Sydney 20 January 1847.
Later in 1847, Kennedy proved beyond doubt that the Victoria in fact did not continue north-west, but turned south-west and joined Cooper Creek. He renamed the watercourse the Barcoo River from a name mentioned by local Aboriginal people.
Later career
In 1837, Mitchell sought 18 months leave from his position and in May he left Sydney for London. During his leave, he published an account of his explorations called Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia: with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix, and of the present colony of New South Wales. Mitchell sought additional periods of leave and finally arrived back in Australia in 1841. Mitchell left Sydney again in March 1847 on another period of leave. By the time he arrived back in mid-1848, he had published his Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in search of a route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Mitchell's journals proved a rich source for historians and anthropologists, with their close and sympathetic observations of the Aboriginal peoples he had encountered. These publications made him the most celebrated Australian explorer of his day. But he was a difficult man to get on with, made evident by this passage made by Governor Charles Augustus FitzRoy:
"It is notorious that Sir Thomas Mitchell's unfortunate impracticability of temper and spirit of opposition of those in authority over him misled him into frequent collision with my predecessors."
In a by-election for the Electoral district of Port Phillip in April 1844, Mitchell was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council. He found it difficult to separate his roles of government employee and elected member of the legislature, and after only five months he resigned from the Legislative Council.
Duel
Mitchell is also remembered as the last person in Australia to challenge anyone to a duel. In September 1851, Mitchell issued a challenge to Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson (later Premier of New South Wales) because Donaldson had publicly criticised excessive spending by the Surveyor General's Department. The duel took place in Sydney on 27 September, with both duellists missing their marks; only Donaldson's hat was damaged. The French 50 calibre pistols used in the duel are in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.
Ophir gold fields
In 1851, Mitchell was instructed by Governor FitzRoy to make a report on, and survey of, 'the extent and productiveness of the goldfield reported to have been discovered in the County of Bathurst.' He travelled west during winter to visit the Ophir gold diggings, accompanied by his son, Roderick, and Samuel Stutchbury the government geologist.
In June 1851 Mitchell selected the site for the township of Ophir. W.R. Davidson plotted a survey of the ground and Mitchell planned the streets and allotments for the town.
Mitchell returned with a collection of specimens from the diggings, mostly quartz, with 48 of these stored in a wooden chest. His report of the goldfields was presented to the Legislative Council in February 1852.
Story of the "bomerang" propeller
The search for a method of screw propulsion of ships intrigued many inventors during the latter half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. An Englishman, K. P. Smith, patented a screw propeller in 1836, and shortly afterwards Captain John Ericsson, formerly an officer of the Swedish army, patented another.
On his travels, Mitchell must have been evolving the idea of his boomerang propeller—he spelled it "bomerang", while newspapers used "bomarang" and "boomerang." The first test was made in the Sydney Harbour in May 1852, an iron propeller being fitted to the "screw-steamer" Keera. The results of this trial were considered satisfactory, the ship's progress being calculated on two runs at 10 and a little over 12 knots, and Sir Thomas Mitchell took his Invention to England. In 1853 the propeller was fitted to the Genova, and a trial was conducted on the Mersey. Then the Admiralty gave it a test on . The Genova ran at 9.5 knots as against 8.5 with a screw propeller, and the Conflict 9.25 knots as against the screw propeller 8.75, and at a lower engine speed. The "boomerang" propeller can be simply described as a "screw" propeller with much of the blades close to the shaft, which contribute little to propulsion but much to drag, cut away, a principle which is well understood today.
Family life
Thomas Mitchell and Mary had twelve children: Livingstone, Roderick, Murray, Campbell, Thomas, Richard, Georgina, Maria, Emily, Camilla, Alicia, Blanche. Georgina and Maria died young, and Murray before 1847. Roderick became a Commissioner of Crown Lands and head of the Border Police in the Liverpool Plains district. Roderick was drowned and Campbell died during the last years of Mitchell's life.
His family enjoyed a privileged upbringing, and Blanche Mitchell, his youngest daughter, recorded her daily activities and social life in childhood diaries and notebooks. Her sister Emily married George Edward Thicknesse-Touchet, 21st Baron Audley.
In 1841, Mitchell completed his new Gothic home, Carthona, on the water's edge in Darling Point, Sydney. Following Mitchell's death, his family moved to Craigend Terrace in Woolloomooloo.
Death
In July 1855 a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the New South Wales Survey Department, but Mitchell did not live to see the report. While surveying the line of road between Nelligen and Braidwood, he developed a chill which led to a severe attack of bronchitis. He died a few days later at Carthona at Darling Point at 5:15 pm 5 October 1855. Newspapers of the day commented:"For a period of twenty-eight years Sir Thomas Mitchell had served the Colony, much of that service having been exceedingly arduous and difficult. Among the early explorers of Australia his name will occupy an honoured place in the estimation of posterity."
He is buried at Camperdown Cemetery, Newtown, with his grave being maintained by the Seniors Group of Surveyors.
Naming
Some of the places Mitchell named on his expeditions were: the Avoca River, Balonne River, Belyando River, Campaspe River, Cogoon River, Discovery Bay, Glenelg River, Grampians, Maranoa River, Mount Arapiles, Mount King, Mount Macedon, Mount Napier, Mount William, Nyngan, Pyramid Hill, St George, Swan Hill and Wimmera River.
Commemoration
Because of his contributions in the surveying and exploration of Australia, Mitchell is commemorated by having numerous localities or objects across Australia being named after him. These include:
The town of Mitchell in Queensland
The Mitchell River in Queensland
The Canberra suburb of Mitchell
The electorate of Mitchell
The Mitchell Highway
The Major Mitchell's cockatoo, a species of cockatoo
Mitchellstown in Victoria.
A local government area in Victoria, Shire of Mitchell
Steam locomotive number S 301 Sir Thomas Mitchell, a member of the Victorian Railways S class locomotives. In turn, Mitchell House at Seymour Technical High School, the town with the loco depot which serviced the famous four locos. Later, the name was carried by the diesel S301.
Mitchell grass, common name of the small genus of grass species dominant across much of the arid areas of the continent
Mitchell's hopping mouse, an Australian native rodent-like animal
Countless roadside locations in Victoria have a memorial erected 'Major Mitchell passed here'.
Sir Thomas Mitchell Road Villawood NSW
Sir Thomas Mitchell road in Bondi NSW
Sir Thomas Mitchell Drive Bowenfels (Lithgow) linking the Great Western Highway with the Cox River at a fitting memorial to colonial road builders.
Mitchell is also the namesake in the highest honor of the New South Wales Surveyors Awards, the Sir Thomas Mitchell Excellence in Surveying Award.
A map of the expedition of Major Sir Thomas Mitchell into the country between the Maranoa and Mount Mudge and the River Victoria, 1848 was ranked #38 in the ‘Top 150: Documenting Queensland’ exhibition when it toured to venues around Queensland from February 2009 to April 2010. The exhibition was part of Queensland State Archives’ events and exhibition program which contributed to the state’s Q150 celebrations, marking the 150th anniversary of the separation of Queensland from New South Wales.
Manuscript Collections
See also
:Category:Taxa named by Thomas Mitchell (explorer)
Charles Sturt
Great North Road (Australia)
History of New South Wales
New South Wales gold rush
Nineteen Counties
Surveyor General of New South Wales
References
External links
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 1, Volume 2
The Great North Road – Convict Trail Project
1792 births
1855 deaths
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Explorers of Australia
Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia
Scottish explorers
British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
Scottish surveyors
Royal Engineers officers
People from Grangemouth
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council
Rifle Brigade officers
Surveyors General of New South Wales
19th-century Australian politicians
Pre-Separation Queensland
Australian duellists
| 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"
] |
[
"Charles Kuralt",
"\"On the Road\""
] |
C_4de582934a6e4ca0a79fbdde4baffdfa_0
|
When did Charles Kuralt start working at On the Road?
| 1 |
When did Charles Kuralt start working at On the Road?
|
Charles Kuralt
|
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats: "I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back -- and of course, he was! -- getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News." When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything". According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody awards and ten Emmy awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Award in 1980 for National Television Reporting. CANNOTANSWER
|
When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road
|
Charles Bishop Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American journalist. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.
Kuralt's "On the Road" segments were recognized twice with personal Peabody Awards. The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and "nostalgic vignettes"; in 1975, the award was for his work as a U.S. "bicentennial historian"; his work "capture[d] the individuality of the people, the dynamic growth inherent in the area, and ... the rich heritage of this great nation." He shared in a third Peabody awarded to CBS News Sunday Morning.
Early life and career
Kuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a boy, he won a children's sports writing contest for a local newspaper by writing about a dog that got loose on the field during a baseball game. Charles' father, Wallace H. Kuralt. Sr., moved his family to Charlotte in 1945, when he became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Their house off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area. During the years he lived in that house, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country. Later, at Charlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." in his graduating class of 1951. In 1948, he was named one of four National Voice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship.
After graduation he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he became editor of The Daily Tar Heel and joined St. Anthony Hall. While there, he appeared in a starring role in a radio program called American Adventure: A Study of Man in The New World in the episode titled "Hearth Fire", which aired on August 4, 1955. It is a telling of the advent of TVA's building lakes written by John Ehle and directed by John Clayton.
After graduating from UNC, Kuralt worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote "Charles Kuralt's People," a column that won him an Ernie Pyle Award. He moved to CBS in 1957 as a writer, where he became well known as the host of the Eyewitness to History series. He traveled around the world as a journalist for the network, including stints as CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent and then as Chief West Coast Correspondent.
In 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew accompanied Ralph Plaisted in his first attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name.
"On the Road"
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats:
"I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back — and of course, he was! — getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News."
When he finally persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything".
According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody Awards and ten Emmy Awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Awards in 1980 for National Television Reporting.
Since 2011, Kuralt's format was revived by CBS News, with Steve Hartman taking Kuralt's space.
CBS Sunday Morning anchor
On January 28, 1979, CBS launched CBS News Sunday Morning with Kuralt as host. On October 27, 1980, he was added as host of the weekday broadcasts of CBS' Morning show as well, joined with Diane Sawyer as weekday co-host on September 28, 1981. Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchor the Sunday morning program until April 3, 1994, when he retired after 15 years as host and was succeeded by Charles Osgood.
Retirement and death
At age 60, Kuralt surprised many by retiring from CBS News. At the time, he was the longest tenured on-air personality in the News Division. However, he hinted that his retirement might not be complete. In 1995, he narrated the TLC documentary The Revolutionary War, and in early 1997, he signed on to host a syndicated, thrice-weekly, ninety-second broadcast, "An American Moment", presenting what CNN called "slices of Americana". Then, Kuralt also agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show, I Remember, designed as a weekly, hour-long review of significant news from the three previous decades.
He was hospitalized and died of complications from systemic lupus erythematosus at the age of 62 at New York–Presbyterian Hospital.
One of Kuralt's books was titled North Carolina Is My Home. Kuralt's younger brother Wallace, who died in December 2003, was also well-known in his home state, having been the owner of The Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill for many years. In addition, a portion of land along the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear Ecosystem, so named for the rivers that flow into the Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds, has been named for Kuralt, honoring his having given as much time to nature and wildlife as to people in his "On the Road" and Sunday Morning stories.
By request in his will, Kuralt was buried on the UNC grounds in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. The university uses a Kuralt speech in its television commercials, and it displays many of his awards and a re-creation of his office in its Journalism School. Petie Baird Kuralt, who died in 1999, was buried right next to him.
Accolades
1993: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
1994: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association
1996: Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism
Posthumous controversy
Two years after his death, Kuralt's decades-long companionship with a Montana woman named Patricia Shannon was made public. Kuralt apparently had a second, "shadow" family with Shannon while his wife lived in Manhattan and his daughters from a previous marriage lived on the eastern seaboard. Shannon asserted that the house in Montana had been willed to her, a position upheld by the Montana Supreme Court. According to court testimony, Kuralt had met Shannon while doing a story on Pat Baker Park in Reno, Nevada, which Shannon had promoted and volunteered to build in 1968. The park was in a low-income area of Reno that had no parks until Shannon promoted her plan. Kuralt mentions Pat Shannon and the building of the park—but not the nature of their relationship together—in his autobiography.
References
External links
Charles Kuralt Collection, 1935–1997 in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ralph Grizzle, Remembering Charles Kuralt. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2000. ()
Charles Kuralt's People. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2005. A collection of his award-winning Charlotte News columns.
, a CNN obituary
In re Estate of Kuralt, 15 P.3d 931 (2000)
1934 births
1997 deaths
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
21st-century American journalists
60 Minutes correspondents
American television news anchors
American television reporters and correspondents
American war correspondents of the Vietnam War
American war correspondents
Burials at Old Chapel Hill Cemetery
CBS News people
Deaths from lupus
Grammy Award winners
Journalists from North Carolina
National Humanities Medal recipients
Peabody Award winners
People with lupus
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
Writers from New York City
Writers from Wilmington, North Carolina
| false |
[
"Charles Bishop Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American journalist. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his \"On the Road\" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.\n\nKuralt's \"On the Road\" segments were recognized twice with personal Peabody Awards. The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and \"nostalgic vignettes\"; in 1975, the award was for his work as a U.S. \"bicentennial historian\"; his work \"capture[d] the individuality of the people, the dynamic growth inherent in the area, and ... the rich heritage of this great nation.\" He shared in a third Peabody awarded to CBS News Sunday Morning.\n\nEarly life and career\nKuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a boy, he won a children's sports writing contest for a local newspaper by writing about a dog that got loose on the field during a baseball game. Charles' father, Wallace H. Kuralt. Sr., moved his family to Charlotte in 1945, when he became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Their house off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area. During the years he lived in that house, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country. Later, at Charlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted \"Most Likely to Succeed.\" in his graduating class of 1951. In 1948, he was named one of four National Voice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship.\n\nAfter graduation he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he became editor of The Daily Tar Heel and joined St. Anthony Hall. While there, he appeared in a starring role in a radio program called American Adventure: A Study of Man in The New World in the episode titled \"Hearth Fire\", which aired on August 4, 1955. It is a telling of the advent of TVA's building lakes written by John Ehle and directed by John Clayton.\n\nAfter graduating from UNC, Kuralt worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote \"Charles Kuralt's People,\" a column that won him an Ernie Pyle Award. He moved to CBS in 1957 as a writer, where he became well known as the host of the Eyewitness to History series. He traveled around the world as a journalist for the network, including stints as CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent and then as Chief West Coast Correspondent.\n\nIn 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew accompanied Ralph Plaisted in his first attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name.\n\n\"On the Road\"\nKuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats:\n\n\"I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure,\" he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. \"I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back — and of course, he was! — getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News.\"\n\nWhen he finally persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. \"On the Road\" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, \"Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything\".\n\nAccording to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for \"On the Road\" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody Awards and ten Emmy Awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Awards in 1980 for National Television Reporting.\n\nSince 2011, Kuralt's format was revived by CBS News, with Steve Hartman taking Kuralt's space.\n\nCBS Sunday Morning anchor\nOn January 28, 1979, CBS launched CBS News Sunday Morning with Kuralt as host. On October 27, 1980, he was added as host of the weekday broadcasts of CBS' Morning show as well, joined with Diane Sawyer as weekday co-host on September 28, 1981. Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchor the Sunday morning program until April 3, 1994, when he retired after 15 years as host and was succeeded by Charles Osgood.\n\nRetirement and death\n\nAt age 60, Kuralt surprised many by retiring from CBS News. At the time, he was the longest tenured on-air personality in the News Division. However, he hinted that his retirement might not be complete. In 1995, he narrated the TLC documentary The Revolutionary War, and in early 1997, he signed on to host a syndicated, thrice-weekly, ninety-second broadcast, \"An American Moment\", presenting what CNN called \"slices of Americana\". Then, Kuralt also agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show, I Remember, designed as a weekly, hour-long review of significant news from the three previous decades.\n\nHe was hospitalized and died of complications from systemic lupus erythematosus at the age of 62 at New York–Presbyterian Hospital.\n\nOne of Kuralt's books was titled North Carolina Is My Home. Kuralt's younger brother Wallace, who died in December 2003, was also well-known in his home state, having been the owner of The Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill for many years. In addition, a portion of land along the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear Ecosystem, so named for the rivers that flow into the Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds, has been named for Kuralt, honoring his having given as much time to nature and wildlife as to people in his \"On the Road\" and Sunday Morning stories.\n\nBy request in his will, Kuralt was buried on the UNC grounds in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. The university uses a Kuralt speech in its television commercials, and it displays many of his awards and a re-creation of his office in its Journalism School. Petie Baird Kuralt, who died in 1999, was buried right next to him.\n\nAccolades\n 1993: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement\n 1994: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association\n 1996: Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism\n\nPosthumous controversy\nTwo years after his death, Kuralt's decades-long companionship with a Montana woman named Patricia Shannon was made public. Kuralt apparently had a second, \"shadow\" family with Shannon while his wife lived in Manhattan and his daughters from a previous marriage lived on the eastern seaboard. Shannon asserted that the house in Montana had been willed to her, a position upheld by the Montana Supreme Court. According to court testimony, Kuralt had met Shannon while doing a story on Pat Baker Park in Reno, Nevada, which Shannon had promoted and volunteered to build in 1968. The park was in a low-income area of Reno that had no parks until Shannon promoted her plan. Kuralt mentions Pat Shannon and the building of the park—but not the nature of their relationship together—in his autobiography.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Charles Kuralt Collection, 1935–1997 in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.\n Ralph Grizzle, Remembering Charles Kuralt. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2000. ()\n Charles Kuralt's People. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2005. A collection of his award-winning Charlotte News columns.\n \n , a CNN obituary\n In re Estate of Kuralt, 15 P.3d 931 (2000)\n\n1934 births\n1997 deaths\n20th-century American journalists\nAmerican male journalists\n21st-century American journalists\n60 Minutes correspondents\nAmerican television news anchors\nAmerican television reporters and correspondents\nAmerican war correspondents of the Vietnam War\nAmerican war correspondents\nBurials at Old Chapel Hill Cemetery\nCBS News people\nDeaths from lupus\nGrammy Award winners\nJournalists from North Carolina\nNational Humanities Medal recipients\nPeabody Award winners\nPeople with lupus\nUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni\nWriters from New York City\nWriters from Wilmington, North Carolina",
"An American Moment was a syndicated short-form television series, created by Dr. Prentice Meador, James R. Kirk and Neal Spelce, initially hosted by newsman Charles Kuralt and later by actor James Earl Jones.\n\nThe show consisted of 90-second vignettes, generally intended for use as inserts during local news programs, and focused on \"small town America\" and overlooked news stories. It was produced by an Austin, Texas based production company headed by Spelce, a longtime local newsman, based on an earlier similar program called Breakthrough that featured Prentice Meador, a Dallas minister and professor. \nIt was carried by more than 70 stations throughout the United States. Kuralt, the series's first host, came out of retirement to take on the series. Kuralt described the program's content as \"New England stone walls, cowboy hats, the birth of a foal on a ranch, totem poles and barber poles.\"\n\nKuralt died in 1997. He was replaced by James Earl Jones, who continued as host of the program until production ended in 1999. Charles Kuralt's American Moments , a compilation of vignettes from the series, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1998. Kirkus Reviews described the book as \"[j]ust as hokey and sentimental as Kuralt’s broadcasts.\" \n\nThe Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin holds an archive of materials relating to the series.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nFirst-run syndicated television programs in the United States\n1990s American documentary television series\n1996 American television series debuts\n1999 American television series endings"
] |
[
"Charles Kuralt",
"\"On the Road\"",
"When did Charles Kuralt start working at On the Road?",
"When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. \"On the Road"
] |
C_4de582934a6e4ca0a79fbdde4baffdfa_0
|
What was Kuralt's idea for On the Road?
| 2 |
What was Kuralt's idea for On the Road?
|
Charles Kuralt
|
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats: "I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back -- and of course, he was! -- getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News." When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything". According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody awards and ten Emmy awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Award in 1980 for National Television Reporting. CANNOTANSWER
|
small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings.
|
Charles Bishop Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American journalist. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.
Kuralt's "On the Road" segments were recognized twice with personal Peabody Awards. The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and "nostalgic vignettes"; in 1975, the award was for his work as a U.S. "bicentennial historian"; his work "capture[d] the individuality of the people, the dynamic growth inherent in the area, and ... the rich heritage of this great nation." He shared in a third Peabody awarded to CBS News Sunday Morning.
Early life and career
Kuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a boy, he won a children's sports writing contest for a local newspaper by writing about a dog that got loose on the field during a baseball game. Charles' father, Wallace H. Kuralt. Sr., moved his family to Charlotte in 1945, when he became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Their house off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area. During the years he lived in that house, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country. Later, at Charlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." in his graduating class of 1951. In 1948, he was named one of four National Voice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship.
After graduation he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he became editor of The Daily Tar Heel and joined St. Anthony Hall. While there, he appeared in a starring role in a radio program called American Adventure: A Study of Man in The New World in the episode titled "Hearth Fire", which aired on August 4, 1955. It is a telling of the advent of TVA's building lakes written by John Ehle and directed by John Clayton.
After graduating from UNC, Kuralt worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote "Charles Kuralt's People," a column that won him an Ernie Pyle Award. He moved to CBS in 1957 as a writer, where he became well known as the host of the Eyewitness to History series. He traveled around the world as a journalist for the network, including stints as CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent and then as Chief West Coast Correspondent.
In 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew accompanied Ralph Plaisted in his first attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name.
"On the Road"
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats:
"I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back — and of course, he was! — getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News."
When he finally persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything".
According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody Awards and ten Emmy Awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Awards in 1980 for National Television Reporting.
Since 2011, Kuralt's format was revived by CBS News, with Steve Hartman taking Kuralt's space.
CBS Sunday Morning anchor
On January 28, 1979, CBS launched CBS News Sunday Morning with Kuralt as host. On October 27, 1980, he was added as host of the weekday broadcasts of CBS' Morning show as well, joined with Diane Sawyer as weekday co-host on September 28, 1981. Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchor the Sunday morning program until April 3, 1994, when he retired after 15 years as host and was succeeded by Charles Osgood.
Retirement and death
At age 60, Kuralt surprised many by retiring from CBS News. At the time, he was the longest tenured on-air personality in the News Division. However, he hinted that his retirement might not be complete. In 1995, he narrated the TLC documentary The Revolutionary War, and in early 1997, he signed on to host a syndicated, thrice-weekly, ninety-second broadcast, "An American Moment", presenting what CNN called "slices of Americana". Then, Kuralt also agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show, I Remember, designed as a weekly, hour-long review of significant news from the three previous decades.
He was hospitalized and died of complications from systemic lupus erythematosus at the age of 62 at New York–Presbyterian Hospital.
One of Kuralt's books was titled North Carolina Is My Home. Kuralt's younger brother Wallace, who died in December 2003, was also well-known in his home state, having been the owner of The Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill for many years. In addition, a portion of land along the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear Ecosystem, so named for the rivers that flow into the Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds, has been named for Kuralt, honoring his having given as much time to nature and wildlife as to people in his "On the Road" and Sunday Morning stories.
By request in his will, Kuralt was buried on the UNC grounds in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. The university uses a Kuralt speech in its television commercials, and it displays many of his awards and a re-creation of his office in its Journalism School. Petie Baird Kuralt, who died in 1999, was buried right next to him.
Accolades
1993: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
1994: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association
1996: Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism
Posthumous controversy
Two years after his death, Kuralt's decades-long companionship with a Montana woman named Patricia Shannon was made public. Kuralt apparently had a second, "shadow" family with Shannon while his wife lived in Manhattan and his daughters from a previous marriage lived on the eastern seaboard. Shannon asserted that the house in Montana had been willed to her, a position upheld by the Montana Supreme Court. According to court testimony, Kuralt had met Shannon while doing a story on Pat Baker Park in Reno, Nevada, which Shannon had promoted and volunteered to build in 1968. The park was in a low-income area of Reno that had no parks until Shannon promoted her plan. Kuralt mentions Pat Shannon and the building of the park—but not the nature of their relationship together—in his autobiography.
References
External links
Charles Kuralt Collection, 1935–1997 in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ralph Grizzle, Remembering Charles Kuralt. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2000. ()
Charles Kuralt's People. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2005. A collection of his award-winning Charlotte News columns.
, a CNN obituary
In re Estate of Kuralt, 15 P.3d 931 (2000)
1934 births
1997 deaths
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
21st-century American journalists
60 Minutes correspondents
American television news anchors
American television reporters and correspondents
American war correspondents of the Vietnam War
American war correspondents
Burials at Old Chapel Hill Cemetery
CBS News people
Deaths from lupus
Grammy Award winners
Journalists from North Carolina
National Humanities Medal recipients
Peabody Award winners
People with lupus
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
Writers from New York City
Writers from Wilmington, North Carolina
| true |
[
"An American Moment was a syndicated short-form television series, created by Dr. Prentice Meador, James R. Kirk and Neal Spelce, initially hosted by newsman Charles Kuralt and later by actor James Earl Jones.\n\nThe show consisted of 90-second vignettes, generally intended for use as inserts during local news programs, and focused on \"small town America\" and overlooked news stories. It was produced by an Austin, Texas based production company headed by Spelce, a longtime local newsman, based on an earlier similar program called Breakthrough that featured Prentice Meador, a Dallas minister and professor. \nIt was carried by more than 70 stations throughout the United States. Kuralt, the series's first host, came out of retirement to take on the series. Kuralt described the program's content as \"New England stone walls, cowboy hats, the birth of a foal on a ranch, totem poles and barber poles.\"\n\nKuralt died in 1997. He was replaced by James Earl Jones, who continued as host of the program until production ended in 1999. Charles Kuralt's American Moments , a compilation of vignettes from the series, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1998. Kirkus Reviews described the book as \"[j]ust as hokey and sentimental as Kuralt’s broadcasts.\" \n\nThe Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin holds an archive of materials relating to the series.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nFirst-run syndicated television programs in the United States\n1990s American documentary television series\n1996 American television series debuts\n1999 American television series endings",
"The Big Fish is a roadside attraction located three miles west of Bena, Minnesota in the unorganized territory of North Cass. The 65-foot-long wooden structure takes the form of a muskie fish. The Big Fish was built as a drive-in restaurant in 1958, though it only operated as a restaurant for a few years. The Big Fish Supper Club, located next to the fish-shaped building, was opened in 1972. The Big Fish and the Big Fish Supper Club are located near the south shore of Lake Winnibigoshish, known locally as Lake Winnie.\n\nMidwestern United States cultural historian Eric Dregni described The Big Fish as \"uniquely Minnesota\" and named it one the state's seven wonders, along with sites such as the Kensington Runestone and the Darwin twine ball. It is a popular spot for photographs for tourists to the area.\n\nStructure\n\nThe Big Fish is 65 feet long and 15 feet wide (, respectively). The structure was built using white ash beams for a skeletal structure, covered with roofing paper and painted with stripes to resemble a muskie. The fish's red eyes were originally fashioned out of round Coca Cola signs.\n\nHistory\n\nThe idea of constructing a large fish to act as an attraction for tourists was conceived by Wayne Kumpula, owner of a bar on busy U.S. Route 2. Kumpula designed and built the Big Muskie Drive-In in 1958; the restaurant originally served hamburgers and ice cream. Patrons would enter the fish through the open mouth and sit to eat their meal at a counter in the fish's belly. Exposed wall studs mimicked the curving ribs of a fish. There was also a walk-up window in the side of the structure for take-out ordering. In 1963 the restaurant was converted into a souvenir stand. A log building was constructed next door and in 1972 both buildings became the Big Fish Supper Club. After 1972, the fish building was used only as storage space.\n\nThe structure was listed on Preservation Alliance of Minnesota's annual list of 10 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2009 after it fell into disrepair and its frame was in danger of rotting. The Preservation Alliance referred to the fish as \"the superlative example of Minnesota's biggest aquatic life form, the muskie.\" Within months of being listed as endangered, funds were raised for the fish to be repaired and repainted.\n\nThe Big Fish appeared on Charles Kuralt's On the Road television feature; Kuralt called it his favorite building in America. A postcard image of the fish also appears in the opening credits of the 1983 film National Lampoon's Vacation.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \"Finding Minnesota: Big Fish in Bena\" 3-minute video segment from WCCO-TV news, featuring information on the 2009 renovation\n\nRoadside attractions in Minnesota\n1958 establishments in Minnesota"
] |
[
"Charles Kuralt",
"\"On the Road\"",
"When did Charles Kuralt start working at On the Road?",
"When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. \"On the Road",
"What was Kuralt's idea for On the Road?",
"small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings."
] |
C_4de582934a6e4ca0a79fbdde4baffdfa_0
|
What was a story Kuralt covered on On the Road?
| 3 |
What was a story Kuralt covered on On the Road?
|
Charles Kuralt
|
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats: "I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back -- and of course, he was! -- getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News." When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything". According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody awards and ten Emmy awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Award in 1980 for National Television Reporting. CANNOTANSWER
|
America's people and their doings.
|
Charles Bishop Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American journalist. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.
Kuralt's "On the Road" segments were recognized twice with personal Peabody Awards. The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and "nostalgic vignettes"; in 1975, the award was for his work as a U.S. "bicentennial historian"; his work "capture[d] the individuality of the people, the dynamic growth inherent in the area, and ... the rich heritage of this great nation." He shared in a third Peabody awarded to CBS News Sunday Morning.
Early life and career
Kuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a boy, he won a children's sports writing contest for a local newspaper by writing about a dog that got loose on the field during a baseball game. Charles' father, Wallace H. Kuralt. Sr., moved his family to Charlotte in 1945, when he became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Their house off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area. During the years he lived in that house, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country. Later, at Charlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." in his graduating class of 1951. In 1948, he was named one of four National Voice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship.
After graduation he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he became editor of The Daily Tar Heel and joined St. Anthony Hall. While there, he appeared in a starring role in a radio program called American Adventure: A Study of Man in The New World in the episode titled "Hearth Fire", which aired on August 4, 1955. It is a telling of the advent of TVA's building lakes written by John Ehle and directed by John Clayton.
After graduating from UNC, Kuralt worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote "Charles Kuralt's People," a column that won him an Ernie Pyle Award. He moved to CBS in 1957 as a writer, where he became well known as the host of the Eyewitness to History series. He traveled around the world as a journalist for the network, including stints as CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent and then as Chief West Coast Correspondent.
In 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew accompanied Ralph Plaisted in his first attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name.
"On the Road"
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats:
"I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back — and of course, he was! — getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News."
When he finally persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything".
According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody Awards and ten Emmy Awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Awards in 1980 for National Television Reporting.
Since 2011, Kuralt's format was revived by CBS News, with Steve Hartman taking Kuralt's space.
CBS Sunday Morning anchor
On January 28, 1979, CBS launched CBS News Sunday Morning with Kuralt as host. On October 27, 1980, he was added as host of the weekday broadcasts of CBS' Morning show as well, joined with Diane Sawyer as weekday co-host on September 28, 1981. Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchor the Sunday morning program until April 3, 1994, when he retired after 15 years as host and was succeeded by Charles Osgood.
Retirement and death
At age 60, Kuralt surprised many by retiring from CBS News. At the time, he was the longest tenured on-air personality in the News Division. However, he hinted that his retirement might not be complete. In 1995, he narrated the TLC documentary The Revolutionary War, and in early 1997, he signed on to host a syndicated, thrice-weekly, ninety-second broadcast, "An American Moment", presenting what CNN called "slices of Americana". Then, Kuralt also agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show, I Remember, designed as a weekly, hour-long review of significant news from the three previous decades.
He was hospitalized and died of complications from systemic lupus erythematosus at the age of 62 at New York–Presbyterian Hospital.
One of Kuralt's books was titled North Carolina Is My Home. Kuralt's younger brother Wallace, who died in December 2003, was also well-known in his home state, having been the owner of The Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill for many years. In addition, a portion of land along the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear Ecosystem, so named for the rivers that flow into the Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds, has been named for Kuralt, honoring his having given as much time to nature and wildlife as to people in his "On the Road" and Sunday Morning stories.
By request in his will, Kuralt was buried on the UNC grounds in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. The university uses a Kuralt speech in its television commercials, and it displays many of his awards and a re-creation of his office in its Journalism School. Petie Baird Kuralt, who died in 1999, was buried right next to him.
Accolades
1993: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
1994: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association
1996: Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism
Posthumous controversy
Two years after his death, Kuralt's decades-long companionship with a Montana woman named Patricia Shannon was made public. Kuralt apparently had a second, "shadow" family with Shannon while his wife lived in Manhattan and his daughters from a previous marriage lived on the eastern seaboard. Shannon asserted that the house in Montana had been willed to her, a position upheld by the Montana Supreme Court. According to court testimony, Kuralt had met Shannon while doing a story on Pat Baker Park in Reno, Nevada, which Shannon had promoted and volunteered to build in 1968. The park was in a low-income area of Reno that had no parks until Shannon promoted her plan. Kuralt mentions Pat Shannon and the building of the park—but not the nature of their relationship together—in his autobiography.
References
External links
Charles Kuralt Collection, 1935–1997 in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ralph Grizzle, Remembering Charles Kuralt. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2000. ()
Charles Kuralt's People. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2005. A collection of his award-winning Charlotte News columns.
, a CNN obituary
In re Estate of Kuralt, 15 P.3d 931 (2000)
1934 births
1997 deaths
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
21st-century American journalists
60 Minutes correspondents
American television news anchors
American television reporters and correspondents
American war correspondents of the Vietnam War
American war correspondents
Burials at Old Chapel Hill Cemetery
CBS News people
Deaths from lupus
Grammy Award winners
Journalists from North Carolina
National Humanities Medal recipients
Peabody Award winners
People with lupus
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
Writers from New York City
Writers from Wilmington, North Carolina
| true |
[
"An American Moment was a syndicated short-form television series, created by Dr. Prentice Meador, James R. Kirk and Neal Spelce, initially hosted by newsman Charles Kuralt and later by actor James Earl Jones.\n\nThe show consisted of 90-second vignettes, generally intended for use as inserts during local news programs, and focused on \"small town America\" and overlooked news stories. It was produced by an Austin, Texas based production company headed by Spelce, a longtime local newsman, based on an earlier similar program called Breakthrough that featured Prentice Meador, a Dallas minister and professor. \nIt was carried by more than 70 stations throughout the United States. Kuralt, the series's first host, came out of retirement to take on the series. Kuralt described the program's content as \"New England stone walls, cowboy hats, the birth of a foal on a ranch, totem poles and barber poles.\"\n\nKuralt died in 1997. He was replaced by James Earl Jones, who continued as host of the program until production ended in 1999. Charles Kuralt's American Moments , a compilation of vignettes from the series, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1998. Kirkus Reviews described the book as \"[j]ust as hokey and sentimental as Kuralt’s broadcasts.\" \n\nThe Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin holds an archive of materials relating to the series.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nFirst-run syndicated television programs in the United States\n1990s American documentary television series\n1996 American television series debuts\n1999 American television series endings",
"WELY/1450 AM and WELY-FM/94.5 are a pair of simulcast radio stations based in the small tourist destination town of Ely, Minnesota, United States. WELY serves the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Surrounding towns and areas of northeastern Minnesota.\n\nWELY (AM) was founded in 1954. The \"front porch\" studio is downtown, on E. Chapman Street. Both stations share a transmitter site south of town.\n\nHistory\n\nWELY (AM)\nWELY signed on the air on October 2, 1954. WELY's first owner was Charles B. Pearson, who sold the station to WELY Corporation in 1959, and it would be operated as a side business by Vincent T. Hallett for the next 17 years. WELY changed hands again in 1963 when WELY Corporation sold the station to North Central Video, which sold the station to Northern Lakes Corporation in 1967. WELY's next owner would come in 1976, when the Northern Lakes Corporation sold it to BJL Broadcasting Corporation. In 1987, WELY suspended operations for a time due to financial difficulty, which was featured as a news story on KSTP-TV.\n\nWELY-FM\nWELY-FM signed on the air on July 25, 1992. The original callsign was KQEK, as issued on January 17, 1992, but was changed to WELY-FM on June 5, 1992.\n\nAs a pair\nWELY was owned by retired CBS broadcaster Charles Kuralt from 1995 until his death on July 4, 1997. In 1999, WELY-AM-FM transferred from the estate of Suzanna Baird Kuralt to her estate's executors, Susan Bowers & Lisa Bowers White, who sold the stations to Alice L. Hill & Janice Nagel Erickson, a Twin Cities transplant. In 2005, it was purchased by the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa.\n\nSee also\nList of community radio stations in the United States\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nCommunity radio stations in the United States\nRadio stations in Minnesota\nSt. Louis County, Minnesota"
] |
[
"Charles Kuralt",
"\"On the Road\"",
"When did Charles Kuralt start working at On the Road?",
"When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. \"On the Road",
"What was Kuralt's idea for On the Road?",
"small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings.",
"What was a story Kuralt covered on On the Road?",
"America's people and their doings."
] |
C_4de582934a6e4ca0a79fbdde4baffdfa_0
|
Did Kuralt earn any awards for On the Road?
| 4 |
Did Kuralt earn any awards for On the Road?
|
Charles Kuralt
|
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats: "I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back -- and of course, he was! -- getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News." When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything". According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody awards and ten Emmy awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Award in 1980 for National Television Reporting. CANNOTANSWER
|
career, he won three Peabody awards and ten Emmy awards for journalism.
|
Charles Bishop Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American journalist. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.
Kuralt's "On the Road" segments were recognized twice with personal Peabody Awards. The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and "nostalgic vignettes"; in 1975, the award was for his work as a U.S. "bicentennial historian"; his work "capture[d] the individuality of the people, the dynamic growth inherent in the area, and ... the rich heritage of this great nation." He shared in a third Peabody awarded to CBS News Sunday Morning.
Early life and career
Kuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a boy, he won a children's sports writing contest for a local newspaper by writing about a dog that got loose on the field during a baseball game. Charles' father, Wallace H. Kuralt. Sr., moved his family to Charlotte in 1945, when he became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Their house off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area. During the years he lived in that house, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country. Later, at Charlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." in his graduating class of 1951. In 1948, he was named one of four National Voice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship.
After graduation he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he became editor of The Daily Tar Heel and joined St. Anthony Hall. While there, he appeared in a starring role in a radio program called American Adventure: A Study of Man in The New World in the episode titled "Hearth Fire", which aired on August 4, 1955. It is a telling of the advent of TVA's building lakes written by John Ehle and directed by John Clayton.
After graduating from UNC, Kuralt worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote "Charles Kuralt's People," a column that won him an Ernie Pyle Award. He moved to CBS in 1957 as a writer, where he became well known as the host of the Eyewitness to History series. He traveled around the world as a journalist for the network, including stints as CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent and then as Chief West Coast Correspondent.
In 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew accompanied Ralph Plaisted in his first attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name.
"On the Road"
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats:
"I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back — and of course, he was! — getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News."
When he finally persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything".
According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody Awards and ten Emmy Awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Awards in 1980 for National Television Reporting.
Since 2011, Kuralt's format was revived by CBS News, with Steve Hartman taking Kuralt's space.
CBS Sunday Morning anchor
On January 28, 1979, CBS launched CBS News Sunday Morning with Kuralt as host. On October 27, 1980, he was added as host of the weekday broadcasts of CBS' Morning show as well, joined with Diane Sawyer as weekday co-host on September 28, 1981. Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchor the Sunday morning program until April 3, 1994, when he retired after 15 years as host and was succeeded by Charles Osgood.
Retirement and death
At age 60, Kuralt surprised many by retiring from CBS News. At the time, he was the longest tenured on-air personality in the News Division. However, he hinted that his retirement might not be complete. In 1995, he narrated the TLC documentary The Revolutionary War, and in early 1997, he signed on to host a syndicated, thrice-weekly, ninety-second broadcast, "An American Moment", presenting what CNN called "slices of Americana". Then, Kuralt also agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show, I Remember, designed as a weekly, hour-long review of significant news from the three previous decades.
He was hospitalized and died of complications from systemic lupus erythematosus at the age of 62 at New York–Presbyterian Hospital.
One of Kuralt's books was titled North Carolina Is My Home. Kuralt's younger brother Wallace, who died in December 2003, was also well-known in his home state, having been the owner of The Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill for many years. In addition, a portion of land along the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear Ecosystem, so named for the rivers that flow into the Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds, has been named for Kuralt, honoring his having given as much time to nature and wildlife as to people in his "On the Road" and Sunday Morning stories.
By request in his will, Kuralt was buried on the UNC grounds in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. The university uses a Kuralt speech in its television commercials, and it displays many of his awards and a re-creation of his office in its Journalism School. Petie Baird Kuralt, who died in 1999, was buried right next to him.
Accolades
1993: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
1994: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association
1996: Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism
Posthumous controversy
Two years after his death, Kuralt's decades-long companionship with a Montana woman named Patricia Shannon was made public. Kuralt apparently had a second, "shadow" family with Shannon while his wife lived in Manhattan and his daughters from a previous marriage lived on the eastern seaboard. Shannon asserted that the house in Montana had been willed to her, a position upheld by the Montana Supreme Court. According to court testimony, Kuralt had met Shannon while doing a story on Pat Baker Park in Reno, Nevada, which Shannon had promoted and volunteered to build in 1968. The park was in a low-income area of Reno that had no parks until Shannon promoted her plan. Kuralt mentions Pat Shannon and the building of the park—but not the nature of their relationship together—in his autobiography.
References
External links
Charles Kuralt Collection, 1935–1997 in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ralph Grizzle, Remembering Charles Kuralt. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2000. ()
Charles Kuralt's People. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2005. A collection of his award-winning Charlotte News columns.
, a CNN obituary
In re Estate of Kuralt, 15 P.3d 931 (2000)
1934 births
1997 deaths
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
21st-century American journalists
60 Minutes correspondents
American television news anchors
American television reporters and correspondents
American war correspondents of the Vietnam War
American war correspondents
Burials at Old Chapel Hill Cemetery
CBS News people
Deaths from lupus
Grammy Award winners
Journalists from North Carolina
National Humanities Medal recipients
Peabody Award winners
People with lupus
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
Writers from New York City
Writers from Wilmington, North Carolina
| true |
[
"Charles Bishop Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American journalist. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his \"On the Road\" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.\n\nKuralt's \"On the Road\" segments were recognized twice with personal Peabody Awards. The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and \"nostalgic vignettes\"; in 1975, the award was for his work as a U.S. \"bicentennial historian\"; his work \"capture[d] the individuality of the people, the dynamic growth inherent in the area, and ... the rich heritage of this great nation.\" He shared in a third Peabody awarded to CBS News Sunday Morning.\n\nEarly life and career\nKuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a boy, he won a children's sports writing contest for a local newspaper by writing about a dog that got loose on the field during a baseball game. Charles' father, Wallace H. Kuralt. Sr., moved his family to Charlotte in 1945, when he became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Their house off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area. During the years he lived in that house, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country. Later, at Charlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted \"Most Likely to Succeed.\" in his graduating class of 1951. In 1948, he was named one of four National Voice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship.\n\nAfter graduation he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he became editor of The Daily Tar Heel and joined St. Anthony Hall. While there, he appeared in a starring role in a radio program called American Adventure: A Study of Man in The New World in the episode titled \"Hearth Fire\", which aired on August 4, 1955. It is a telling of the advent of TVA's building lakes written by John Ehle and directed by John Clayton.\n\nAfter graduating from UNC, Kuralt worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote \"Charles Kuralt's People,\" a column that won him an Ernie Pyle Award. He moved to CBS in 1957 as a writer, where he became well known as the host of the Eyewitness to History series. He traveled around the world as a journalist for the network, including stints as CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent and then as Chief West Coast Correspondent.\n\nIn 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew accompanied Ralph Plaisted in his first attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name.\n\n\"On the Road\"\nKuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats:\n\n\"I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure,\" he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. \"I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back — and of course, he was! — getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News.\"\n\nWhen he finally persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. \"On the Road\" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, \"Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything\".\n\nAccording to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for \"On the Road\" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody Awards and ten Emmy Awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Awards in 1980 for National Television Reporting.\n\nSince 2011, Kuralt's format was revived by CBS News, with Steve Hartman taking Kuralt's space.\n\nCBS Sunday Morning anchor\nOn January 28, 1979, CBS launched CBS News Sunday Morning with Kuralt as host. On October 27, 1980, he was added as host of the weekday broadcasts of CBS' Morning show as well, joined with Diane Sawyer as weekday co-host on September 28, 1981. Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchor the Sunday morning program until April 3, 1994, when he retired after 15 years as host and was succeeded by Charles Osgood.\n\nRetirement and death\n\nAt age 60, Kuralt surprised many by retiring from CBS News. At the time, he was the longest tenured on-air personality in the News Division. However, he hinted that his retirement might not be complete. In 1995, he narrated the TLC documentary The Revolutionary War, and in early 1997, he signed on to host a syndicated, thrice-weekly, ninety-second broadcast, \"An American Moment\", presenting what CNN called \"slices of Americana\". Then, Kuralt also agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show, I Remember, designed as a weekly, hour-long review of significant news from the three previous decades.\n\nHe was hospitalized and died of complications from systemic lupus erythematosus at the age of 62 at New York–Presbyterian Hospital.\n\nOne of Kuralt's books was titled North Carolina Is My Home. Kuralt's younger brother Wallace, who died in December 2003, was also well-known in his home state, having been the owner of The Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill for many years. In addition, a portion of land along the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear Ecosystem, so named for the rivers that flow into the Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds, has been named for Kuralt, honoring his having given as much time to nature and wildlife as to people in his \"On the Road\" and Sunday Morning stories.\n\nBy request in his will, Kuralt was buried on the UNC grounds in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. The university uses a Kuralt speech in its television commercials, and it displays many of his awards and a re-creation of his office in its Journalism School. Petie Baird Kuralt, who died in 1999, was buried right next to him.\n\nAccolades\n 1993: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement\n 1994: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association\n 1996: Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism\n\nPosthumous controversy\nTwo years after his death, Kuralt's decades-long companionship with a Montana woman named Patricia Shannon was made public. Kuralt apparently had a second, \"shadow\" family with Shannon while his wife lived in Manhattan and his daughters from a previous marriage lived on the eastern seaboard. Shannon asserted that the house in Montana had been willed to her, a position upheld by the Montana Supreme Court. According to court testimony, Kuralt had met Shannon while doing a story on Pat Baker Park in Reno, Nevada, which Shannon had promoted and volunteered to build in 1968. The park was in a low-income area of Reno that had no parks until Shannon promoted her plan. Kuralt mentions Pat Shannon and the building of the park—but not the nature of their relationship together—in his autobiography.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Charles Kuralt Collection, 1935–1997 in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.\n Ralph Grizzle, Remembering Charles Kuralt. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2000. ()\n Charles Kuralt's People. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2005. A collection of his award-winning Charlotte News columns.\n \n , a CNN obituary\n In re Estate of Kuralt, 15 P.3d 931 (2000)\n\n1934 births\n1997 deaths\n20th-century American journalists\nAmerican male journalists\n21st-century American journalists\n60 Minutes correspondents\nAmerican television news anchors\nAmerican television reporters and correspondents\nAmerican war correspondents of the Vietnam War\nAmerican war correspondents\nBurials at Old Chapel Hill Cemetery\nCBS News people\nDeaths from lupus\nGrammy Award winners\nJournalists from North Carolina\nNational Humanities Medal recipients\nPeabody Award winners\nPeople with lupus\nUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni\nWriters from New York City\nWriters from Wilmington, North Carolina",
"An American Moment was a syndicated short-form television series, created by Dr. Prentice Meador, James R. Kirk and Neal Spelce, initially hosted by newsman Charles Kuralt and later by actor James Earl Jones.\n\nThe show consisted of 90-second vignettes, generally intended for use as inserts during local news programs, and focused on \"small town America\" and overlooked news stories. It was produced by an Austin, Texas based production company headed by Spelce, a longtime local newsman, based on an earlier similar program called Breakthrough that featured Prentice Meador, a Dallas minister and professor. \nIt was carried by more than 70 stations throughout the United States. Kuralt, the series's first host, came out of retirement to take on the series. Kuralt described the program's content as \"New England stone walls, cowboy hats, the birth of a foal on a ranch, totem poles and barber poles.\"\n\nKuralt died in 1997. He was replaced by James Earl Jones, who continued as host of the program until production ended in 1999. Charles Kuralt's American Moments , a compilation of vignettes from the series, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1998. Kirkus Reviews described the book as \"[j]ust as hokey and sentimental as Kuralt’s broadcasts.\" \n\nThe Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin holds an archive of materials relating to the series.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nFirst-run syndicated television programs in the United States\n1990s American documentary television series\n1996 American television series debuts\n1999 American television series endings"
] |
[
"Charles Kuralt",
"\"On the Road\"",
"When did Charles Kuralt start working at On the Road?",
"When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. \"On the Road",
"What was Kuralt's idea for On the Road?",
"small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings.",
"What was a story Kuralt covered on On the Road?",
"America's people and their doings.",
"Did Kuralt earn any awards for On the Road?",
"career, he won three Peabody awards and ten Emmy awards for journalism."
] |
C_4de582934a6e4ca0a79fbdde4baffdfa_0
|
When did Kuralt earn his first Peabody award?
| 5 |
When did Kuralt earn the first Peabody award?
|
Charles Kuralt
|
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats: "I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back -- and of course, he was! -- getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News." When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything". According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody awards and ten Emmy awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Award in 1980 for National Television Reporting. CANNOTANSWER
|
1980 for National Television Reporting.
|
Charles Bishop Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American journalist. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.
Kuralt's "On the Road" segments were recognized twice with personal Peabody Awards. The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and "nostalgic vignettes"; in 1975, the award was for his work as a U.S. "bicentennial historian"; his work "capture[d] the individuality of the people, the dynamic growth inherent in the area, and ... the rich heritage of this great nation." He shared in a third Peabody awarded to CBS News Sunday Morning.
Early life and career
Kuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a boy, he won a children's sports writing contest for a local newspaper by writing about a dog that got loose on the field during a baseball game. Charles' father, Wallace H. Kuralt. Sr., moved his family to Charlotte in 1945, when he became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Their house off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area. During the years he lived in that house, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country. Later, at Charlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." in his graduating class of 1951. In 1948, he was named one of four National Voice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship.
After graduation he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he became editor of The Daily Tar Heel and joined St. Anthony Hall. While there, he appeared in a starring role in a radio program called American Adventure: A Study of Man in The New World in the episode titled "Hearth Fire", which aired on August 4, 1955. It is a telling of the advent of TVA's building lakes written by John Ehle and directed by John Clayton.
After graduating from UNC, Kuralt worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote "Charles Kuralt's People," a column that won him an Ernie Pyle Award. He moved to CBS in 1957 as a writer, where he became well known as the host of the Eyewitness to History series. He traveled around the world as a journalist for the network, including stints as CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent and then as Chief West Coast Correspondent.
In 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew accompanied Ralph Plaisted in his first attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name.
"On the Road"
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats:
"I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back — and of course, he was! — getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News."
When he finally persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything".
According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody Awards and ten Emmy Awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Awards in 1980 for National Television Reporting.
Since 2011, Kuralt's format was revived by CBS News, with Steve Hartman taking Kuralt's space.
CBS Sunday Morning anchor
On January 28, 1979, CBS launched CBS News Sunday Morning with Kuralt as host. On October 27, 1980, he was added as host of the weekday broadcasts of CBS' Morning show as well, joined with Diane Sawyer as weekday co-host on September 28, 1981. Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchor the Sunday morning program until April 3, 1994, when he retired after 15 years as host and was succeeded by Charles Osgood.
Retirement and death
At age 60, Kuralt surprised many by retiring from CBS News. At the time, he was the longest tenured on-air personality in the News Division. However, he hinted that his retirement might not be complete. In 1995, he narrated the TLC documentary The Revolutionary War, and in early 1997, he signed on to host a syndicated, thrice-weekly, ninety-second broadcast, "An American Moment", presenting what CNN called "slices of Americana". Then, Kuralt also agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show, I Remember, designed as a weekly, hour-long review of significant news from the three previous decades.
He was hospitalized and died of complications from systemic lupus erythematosus at the age of 62 at New York–Presbyterian Hospital.
One of Kuralt's books was titled North Carolina Is My Home. Kuralt's younger brother Wallace, who died in December 2003, was also well-known in his home state, having been the owner of The Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill for many years. In addition, a portion of land along the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear Ecosystem, so named for the rivers that flow into the Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds, has been named for Kuralt, honoring his having given as much time to nature and wildlife as to people in his "On the Road" and Sunday Morning stories.
By request in his will, Kuralt was buried on the UNC grounds in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. The university uses a Kuralt speech in its television commercials, and it displays many of his awards and a re-creation of his office in its Journalism School. Petie Baird Kuralt, who died in 1999, was buried right next to him.
Accolades
1993: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
1994: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association
1996: Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism
Posthumous controversy
Two years after his death, Kuralt's decades-long companionship with a Montana woman named Patricia Shannon was made public. Kuralt apparently had a second, "shadow" family with Shannon while his wife lived in Manhattan and his daughters from a previous marriage lived on the eastern seaboard. Shannon asserted that the house in Montana had been willed to her, a position upheld by the Montana Supreme Court. According to court testimony, Kuralt had met Shannon while doing a story on Pat Baker Park in Reno, Nevada, which Shannon had promoted and volunteered to build in 1968. The park was in a low-income area of Reno that had no parks until Shannon promoted her plan. Kuralt mentions Pat Shannon and the building of the park—but not the nature of their relationship together—in his autobiography.
References
External links
Charles Kuralt Collection, 1935–1997 in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ralph Grizzle, Remembering Charles Kuralt. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2000. ()
Charles Kuralt's People. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2005. A collection of his award-winning Charlotte News columns.
, a CNN obituary
In re Estate of Kuralt, 15 P.3d 931 (2000)
1934 births
1997 deaths
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
21st-century American journalists
60 Minutes correspondents
American television news anchors
American television reporters and correspondents
American war correspondents of the Vietnam War
American war correspondents
Burials at Old Chapel Hill Cemetery
CBS News people
Deaths from lupus
Grammy Award winners
Journalists from North Carolina
National Humanities Medal recipients
Peabody Award winners
People with lupus
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
Writers from New York City
Writers from Wilmington, North Carolina
| true |
[
"The following is a list of Peabody Award winners and honorable mentions from the years 1990 to 1999.\n\n1990\n\n1991\n\n1992\n\n1993\n\n1994\n\n1995\n\n1996\n\n1997\n\n1998\n\n1999\n\nNotes\n1.Nightline's 1997 award for \"The Trial of Pol Pot\" was offered in part to Nate Thayer, who found Pol Pot and filmed his trial. Thayer declined the Peabody (the first to ever do so) as he did not want to share it with ABC News, whom he believed acted unethically when using his footage for pre-broadcast publicity.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nList of Peabody Award winners (1990-1999) from PeabodyAwards.com\n\n List1990",
"Kuralt is surname of several people:\n Anže Kuralt (born 1991), a Slovenian ice hockey player;\n Charles Kuralt (1934 – 1997), an American journalist;\n Jože Kuralt (1956 – 1986), a Slovene alpine skier;\n Wallace Hamilton Kuralt (1908-1994), an American government bureaucrat from North Carolina."
] |
[
"Eleanor of Aquitaine",
"First marriage"
] |
C_303f8b49f620446b944741385de7fc82_0
|
Who did she marry?
| 1 |
Who did Eleanor of Aquitaine marry first?
|
Eleanor of Aquitaine
|
On 25 July 1137 Louis VII of France and Eleanor were married in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux by the Archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine. However, there was a catch: the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both King of the Franks and Duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives. Louis's tenure as Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while Prince Louis and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. Thus he became King Louis VII of France. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned King and Queen of the Franks on Christmas Day of the same year. Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provencal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticized by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behavior baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cite Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake. CANNOTANSWER
|
Louis VII of France
|
Eleanor of Aquitaine ( – 1 April 1204; , ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1137 until her death in 1204. As the heir of the House of Poitiers, rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. She was patron of literary figures such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. She was also known to have led armies several times in her life and was a key leading figure of the unsuccessful Second Crusade.
Eleanor was the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine. She became duchess upon her father's death in April 1137, and three months later she married Louis, son of her guardian King Louis VI of France. A few weeks later, Prince Louis became the French king. They had two daughters, Marie and Alix. As queen of France, Eleanor participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. Soon afterwards, she sought an annulment of her marriage, but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III. Eventually, Louis agreed to an annulment, as 15 years of marriage had not produced a son. The marriage was annulled on 21 March 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate, custody was awarded to Louis, and Eleanor's lands were restored to her.
As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to her third cousin Henry, Duke of Normandy. The couple married on Whitsun, 18 May 1152. Henry and Eleanor became king and queen of England in 1154. They had five sons and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting the revolt of their eldest son, Henry, against him. She was not released until 6 July 1189, when her husband died and their third son, Richard I, ascended the throne. As queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade. She lived well into the reign of her youngest son, John.
Early life
Eleanor's year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124. On the other hand, some chronicles mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor's fourteenth birthday in 1136. This, and her known age of 82 at her death make 1122 the most likely year of her birth. Her parents almost certainly married in 1121. Her birthplace may have been Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l'Autise, where her mother and brother died when Eleanor was 6 or 8.
Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l'Isle Bouchard, who was William IX's longtime mistress as well as Eleanor's maternal grandmother. Her parents' marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather WilliamIX.
Eleanor is said to have been named for her mother Aenor and called Aliénor from the Latin Alia Aenor, which means the other Aenor. It became Eléanor in the langues d'oïl of northern France and Eleanor in English. There was, however, another prominent Eleanor before her—Eleanor of Normandy, an aunt of William the Conqueror, who lived a century earlier than Eleanor of Aquitaine. In Paris as the queen of France, she was called Helienordis, her honorific name as written in the Latin epistles.
By all accounts, Eleanor's father ensured that she had the best possible education. Eleanor came to learn arithmetic, the constellations, and history. She also learned domestic skills such as household management and the needle arts of embroidery, needlepoint, sewing, spinning, and weaving. Eleanor developed skills in conversation, dancing, games such as backgammon, checkers, and chess, playing the harp, and singing. Although her native tongue was Poitevin, she was taught to read and speak Latin, was well versed in music and literature, and schooled in riding, hawking, and hunting. Eleanor was extroverted, lively, intelligent, and strong-willed. Her four-year-old brother William Aigret and their mother died at the castle of Talmont on Aquitaine's Atlantic coast in the spring of 1130. Eleanor became the heir presumptive to her father's domains. The Duchy of Aquitaine was the largest and richest province of France. Poitou, where Eleanor spent most of her childhood, and Aquitaine together was almost one-third the size of modern France. Eleanor had only one other legitimate sibling, a younger sister named Aelith (also called Petronilla). Her half-brother Joscelin was acknowledged by WilliamX as a son, but not as his heir. The notion that she had another half-brother, William, has been discredited. Later, during the first four years of HenryII's reign, her siblings joined Eleanor's royal household.
Inheritance
In 1137 Duke William X left Poitiers for Bordeaux and took his daughters with him. Upon reaching Bordeaux, he left them in the charge of the archbishop of Bordeaux, one of his few loyal vassals. The duke then set out for the Shrine of Saint James of Compostela in the company of other pilgrims. However, he died on Good Friday of that year (9April).
Eleanor, aged 12 to 15, then became the duchess of Aquitaine, and thus the most eligible heiress in Europe. As these were the days when kidnapping an heiress was seen as a viable option for obtaining a title, William dictated a will on the very day he died that bequeathed his domains to Eleanor and appointed King Louis VI of France as her guardian. William requested of the king that he take care of both the lands and the duchess, and find her a suitable husband. However, until a husband was found, the king had the legal right to Eleanor's lands. The duke also insisted to his companions that his death be kept a secret until Louis was informed; the men were to journey from Saint James of Compostela across the Pyrenees as quickly as possible to call at Bordeaux to notify the archbishop, then to make all speed to Paris to inform the king.
The king of France, known as Louis the Fat, was also gravely ill at that time, suffering from a bout of dysentery from which he appeared unlikely to recover. Yet despite his impending death, Louis's mind remained clear. His eldest surviving son, Louis, had originally been destined for monastic life, but had become the heir apparent when the firstborn, Philip, died in a riding accident in 1131.
The death of William, one of the king's most powerful vassals, made available the most desirable duchy in France. While presenting a solemn and dignified face to the grieving Aquitainian messengers, Louis exulted when they departed. Rather than act as guardian to the duchess and duchy, he decided to marry the duchess to his 17-year-old heir and bring Aquitaine under the control of the French crown, thereby greatly increasing the power and prominence of France and its ruling family, the House of Capet. Within hours, the king had arranged for his son Louis to be married to Eleanor, with Abbot Suger in charge of the wedding arrangements. Louis was sent to Bordeaux with an escort of 500 knights, along with Abbot Suger, Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Count Ralph.
First marriage
On 25 July 1137, Eleanor and Louis were married in the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux by the archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as duke and duchess of Aquitaine. It was agreed that the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both king of France and duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase {fr}, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives.
Louis's tenure as count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while he and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned king and queen of France on Christmas Day of the same year.
Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provençal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticised by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behaviour baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cité Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake.
Conflict
Louis soon came into violent conflict with Pope Innocent II. In 1141, the Archbishopric of Bourges became vacant, and the king put forward as a candidate one of his chancellors, Cadurc, while vetoing the one suitable candidate, Pierre de la Chatre, who was promptly elected by the canons of Bourges and consecrated by the Pope. Louis accordingly bolted the gates of Bourges against the new bishop. The Pope, recalling similar attempts by William X to exile supporters of Innocent from Poitou and replace them with priests loyal to himself, blamed Eleanor, saying that Louis was only a child and should be taught manners. Outraged, Louis swore upon relics that so long as he lived Pierre should never enter Bourges. An interdict was thereupon imposed upon the king's lands, and Pierre was given refuge by Theobald II, Count of Champagne.
Louis became involved in a war with Count Theobald by permitting Raoul I, Count of Vermandois and seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife Eleanor of Blois, Theobald's sister, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, Eleanor's sister. Eleanor urged Louis to support her sister's marriage to Count Raoul. Theobald had also offended Louis by siding with the Pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (1142–44) and ended with the occupation of Champagne by the royal army. Louis was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of Vitry. More than a thousand people who sought refuge in the church there died in the flames. Horrified, and desiring an end to the war, Louis attempted to make peace with Theobald in exchange for his support in lifting the interdict on Raoul and Petronilla. This was duly lifted for long enough to allow Theobald's lands to be restored; it was then lowered once more when Raoul refused to repudiate Petronilla, prompting Louis to return to Champagne and ravage it once more.
In June 1144, the king and queen visited the newly built monastic church at Saint-Denis. While there, the queen met with Bernard of Clairvaux, demanding that he use his influence with the Pope to have the excommunication of Petronilla and Raoul lifted, in exchange for which King Louis would make concessions in Champagne and recognise Pierre de la Chatre as archbishop of Bourges. Dismayed at her attitude, Bernard scolded Eleanor for her lack of penitence and interference in matters of state. In response, Eleanor broke down and meekly excused her behaviour, claiming to be bitter because of her lack of children (her only recorded pregnancy at that time was in about 1138, but she miscarried). In response, Bernard became more kindly towards her: "My child, seek those things which make for peace. Cease to stir up the king against the Church, and urge upon him a better course of action. If you will promise to do this, I in return promise to entreat the merciful Lord to grant you offspring." In a matter of weeks, peace had returned to France: Theobald's provinces were returned and Pierre de la Chatre was installed as archbishop of Bourges. In April 1145, Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, Marie.
Louis, however, still burned with guilt over the massacre at Vitry and wished to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sins. In autumn 1145, Pope Eugene III requested that Louis lead a Crusade to the Middle East to rescue the Frankish states there from disaster. Accordingly, Louis declared on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges his intention of going on a crusade.
Crusade
Eleanor of Aquitaine also formally took up the cross symbolic of the Second Crusade during a sermon preached by Bernard of Clairvaux. In addition, she had been corresponding with her uncle Raymond, Prince of Antioch, who was seeking further protection from the French crown against the Saracens. Eleanor recruited some of her royal ladies-in-waiting for the campaign as well as 300 non-noble Aquitainian vassals. She insisted on taking part in the Crusades as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. The story that she and her ladies dressed as Amazons is disputed by historians, sometimes confused with the account of King Conrad's train of ladies during this campaign in Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. She left for the Second Crusade from Vézelay, the rumoured location of Mary Magdalene's grave, in June 1147.
The Crusade itself achieved little. Louis was a weak and ineffectual military leader with no skill for maintaining troop discipline or morale, or of making informed and logical tactical decisions. In eastern Europe, the French army was at times hindered by Manuel I Comnenus, the Byzantine Emperor, who feared that the Crusade would jeopardise the tenuous safety of his empire. Notwithstanding, during their three-week stay at Constantinople, Louis was fêted and Eleanor was much admired. She was compared with Penthesilea, mythical queen of the Amazons, by the Greek historian Nicetas Choniates. He added that she gained the epithet chrysopous (golden-foot) from the cloth of gold that decorated and fringed her robe. Louis and Eleanor stayed in the Philopation palace just outside the city walls.
From the moment the Crusaders entered Asia Minor, things began to go badly. The king and queen were still optimistic—the Byzantine Emperor had told them that King Conrad III of Germany had won a great victory against a Turkish army when in fact the German army had been almost completely destroyed at Dorylaeum. However, while camping near Nicea, the remnants of the German army, including a dazed and sick Conrad III, staggered past the French camp, bringing news of their disaster. The French, with what remained of the Germans, then began to march in increasingly disorganised fashion towards Antioch. They were in high spirits on Christmas Eve, when they chose to camp in a lush valley near Ephesus. Here they were ambushed by a Turkish detachment, but the French proceeded to slaughter this detachment and appropriate their camp.
Louis then decided to cross the Phrygian mountains directly in the hope of reaching Raymond of Poitiers in Antioch more quickly. As they ascended the mountains, however, the army and the king and queen were horrified to discover the unburied corpses of the Germans killed earlier.
On the day set for the crossing of Mount Cadmus, Louis chose to take charge of the rear of the column, where the unarmed pilgrims and the baggage trains marched. The vanguard, with which Queen Eleanor marched, was commanded by her Aquitainian vassal, Geoffrey de Rancon. Unencumbered by baggage, they reached the summit of Cadmus, where Rancon had been ordered to make camp for the night. Rancon, however, chose to continue on, deciding in concert with Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, Louis's uncle, that a nearby plateau would make a better campsite. Such disobedience was reportedly common.
Accordingly, by mid-afternoon, the rear of the column—believing the day's march to be nearly at an end—was dawdling. This resulted in the army becoming separated, with some having already crossed the summit and others still approaching it. In the ensuing Battle of Mount Cadmus, the Turks, who had been following and feinting for many days, seized their opportunity and attacked those who had not yet crossed the summit. The French, both soldiers and pilgrims, taken by surprise, were trapped. Those who tried to escape were caught and killed. Many men, horses, and much of the baggage were cast into the canyon below. The chronicler William of Tyre, writing between 1170 and 1184 and thus perhaps too long after the event to be considered historically accurate, placed the blame for this disaster firmly on the amount of baggage being carried, much of it reputedly belonging to Eleanor and her ladies, and the presence of non-combatants.
The king, having scorned royal apparel in favour of a simple pilgrim's tunic, escaped notice, unlike his bodyguards, whose skulls were brutally smashed and limbs severed. He reportedly "nimbly and bravely scaled a rock by making use of some tree roots which God had provided for his safety" and managed to survive the attack. Others were not so fortunate: "No aid came from Heaven, except that night fell."
Official blame for the disaster was placed on Geoffrey de Rancon, who had made the decision to continue, and it was suggested that he be hanged, a suggestion which the king ignored. Since Geoffrey was Eleanor's vassal, many believed that it was she who had been ultimately responsible for the change in plan, and thus the massacre. This suspicion of responsibility did nothing for her popularity in Christendom. She was also blamed for the size of the baggage train and the fact that her Aquitanian soldiers had marched at the front and thus were not involved in the fight. Continuing on, the army became split, with the commoners marching towards Antioch and the royalty travelling by sea. When most of the land army arrived, the king and queen had a dispute. Some, such as John of Salisbury and William of Tyre, say Eleanor's reputation was sullied by rumours of an affair with her uncle Raymond. However, this rumour may have been a ruse, as Raymond, through Eleanor, had been trying to induce Louis to use his army to attack the actual Muslim encampment at nearby Aleppo, gateway to retaking Edessa, which had all along, by papal decree, been the main objective of the Crusade. Although this was perhaps a better military plan, Louis was not keen to fight in northern Syria. One of Louis's avowed Crusade goals was to journey in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and he stated his intention to continue. Reputedly Eleanor then requested to stay with Raymond and brought up the matter of consanguinity—the fact that she and her husband, King Louis, were perhaps too closely related. Consanguinity was grounds for annulment in the medieval period. But rather than allowing her to stay, Louis took Eleanor from Antioch against her will and continued on to Jerusalem with his dwindling army.
Louis's refusal and his forcing her to accompany him humiliated Eleanor, and she maintained a low profile for the rest of the crusade. Louis's subsequent siege of Damascus in 1148 with his remaining army, reinforced by Conrad and Baldwin III of Jerusalem, achieved little. Damascus was a major wealthy trading centre and was under normal circumstances a potential threat, but the rulers of Jerusalem had recently entered into a truce with the city, which they then forswore. It was a gamble that did not pay off, and whether through military error or betrayal, the Damascus campaign was a failure. Louis's long march to Jerusalem and back north, which Eleanor was forced to join, debilitated his army and disheartened her knights; the divided Crusade armies could not overcome the Muslim forces, and the royal couple had to return home. The French royal family retreated to Jerusalem and then sailed to Rome and made their way back to Paris.
While in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor learned about maritime conventions developing there, which were the beginnings of what would become admiralty law. She introduced those conventions in her own lands on the island of Oléron in 1160 (with the "Rolls of Oléron") and later in England as well. She was also instrumental in developing trade agreements with Constantinople and ports of trade in the Holy Lands.
Annulment
Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged, and their differences were only exacerbated while they were abroad. Eleanor's purported relationship with her uncle Raymond, the ruler of Antioch, was a major source of discord. Eleanor supported her uncle's desire to re-capture the nearby County of Edessa, the objective of the Crusade. In addition, having been close to him in their youth, she now showed what was considered to be "excessive affection" towards her uncle. Raymond had plans to abduct Eleanor, to which she consented.
Home, however, was not easily reached. Louis and Eleanor, on separate ships due to their disagreements, were first attacked in May 1149 by Byzantine ships. Although they escaped this attempt unharmed, stormy weather drove Eleanor's ship far to the south to the Barbary Coast and caused her to lose track of her husband. Neither was heard of for over two months. In mid-July, Eleanor's ship finally reached Palermo in Sicily, where she discovered that she and her husband had both been given up for dead. She was given shelter and food by servants of King Roger II of Sicily, until the king eventually reached Calabria, and she set out to meet him there. Later, at King Roger's court in Potenza, she learned of the death of her uncle Raymond, who had been beheaded by Muslim forces in the Holy Land. This news appears to have forced a change of plans, for instead of returning to France from Marseilles, they went to see Pope Eugene III in Tusculum, where he had been driven five months before by a revolt of the Commune of Rome.
Eugene did not, as Eleanor had hoped, grant an annulment. Instead, he attempted to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, confirming the legality of their marriage. He proclaimed that no word could be spoken against it, and that it might not be dissolved under any pretext. He even arranged for Eleanor and Louis to sleep in the same bed. Thus was conceived their second child—not a son, but another daughter, Alix of France.
The marriage was now doomed. Still without a son and in danger of being left with no male heir, as well as facing substantial opposition to Eleanor from many of his barons and her own desire for annulment, Louis bowed to the inevitable. On 11 March 1152, they met at the royal castle of Beaugency to dissolve the marriage. Hugues de Toucy, archbishop of Sens, presided, and Louis and Eleanor were both present, as were the archbishop of Bordeaux and Rouen. Archbishop Samson of Reims acted for Eleanor.
On 21 March, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis' third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France. Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. Children born to a marriage that was later annulled were not at risk of being "bastardised," because "[w]here parties married in good faith, without knowledge of an impediment, ... children of the marriage were legitimate." [Berman 228.] ) Custody of them was awarded to King Louis. Archbishop Samson received assurances from Louis that Eleanor's lands would be restored to her.
Second marriage
As Eleanor travelled to Poitiers, two lords—Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, brother of Henry II, Duke of Normandy—tried to kidnap and marry her to claim her lands. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to Henry, Duke of Normandy and future king of England, asking him to come at once to marry her. On 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry "without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank."
Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou, wife of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais, and they were also descended from King Robert II of France. A marriage between Henry and Eleanor's daughter Marie had earlier been declared impossible due to their status as third cousins once removed. It was rumoured by some that Eleanor had had an affair with Henry's own father, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, who had advised his son to avoid any involvement with her.
On 25 October 1154, Henry became king of England. A now heavily pregnant Eleanor, was crowned queen of England by Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 19 December 1154. She may not have been anointed on this occasion, however, because she had already been anointed in 1137. Over the next 13 years, she bore Henry five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan. John Speed, in his 1611 work History of Great Britain, mentions the possibility that Eleanor had a son named Philip, who died young. His sources no longer exist, and he alone mentions this birth.
Eleanor's marriage to Henry was reputed to be tumultuous and argumentative, although sufficiently cooperative to produce at least eight pregnancies. Henry was by no means faithful to his wife and had a reputation for philandering. Henry fathered other, illegitimate children throughout the marriage. Eleanor appears to have taken an ambivalent attitude towards these affairs. Geoffrey of York, for example, was an illegitimate son of Henry, but acknowledged by Henry as his child and raised at Westminster in the care of the queen.
During the period from Henry's accession to the birth of Eleanor's youngest son John, affairs in the kingdom were turbulent: Aquitaine, as was the norm, defied the authority of Henry as Eleanor's husband and answered only to their duchess. Attempts were made to claim Toulouse, the rightful inheritance of Eleanor's grandmother Philippa of Toulouse, but they ended in failure. A bitter feud arose between the king and Thomas Becket, initially his chancellor and closest adviser and later the archbishop of Canterbury. Louis of France had remarried and been widowed; he married for the third time and finally fathered a long-hoped-for son, Philip Augustus, also known as Dieudonné—God-given). "Young Henry," son of Henry and Eleanor, wed Margaret, daughter of Louis from his second marriage. Little is known of Eleanor's involvement in these events. It is certain that by late 1166, Henry's notorious affair with Rosamund Clifford had become known, and Eleanor's marriage to Henry appears to have become terminally strained.
In 1167, Eleanor's third daughter, Matilda, married Henry the Lion of Saxony. Eleanor remained in England with her daughter for the year prior to Matilda's departure for Normandy in September. In December, Eleanor gathered her movable possessions in England and transported them on several ships to Argentan. Christmas was celebrated at the royal court there, and she appears to have agreed to a separation from Henry. She certainly left for her own city of Poitiers immediately after Christmas. Henry did not stop her; on the contrary, he and his army personally escorted her there before attacking a castle belonging to the rebellious Lusignan family. Henry then went about his own business outside Aquitaine, leaving Earl Patrick, his regional military commander, as her protective custodian. When Patrick was killed in a skirmish, Eleanor, who proceeded to ransom his captured nephew, the young William Marshal, was left in control of her lands.
The Court of Love in Poitiers
Of all her influence on culture, Eleanor's time in Poitiers between 1168 and 1173 was perhaps the most critical, yet very little is known about it. Henry II was elsewhere, attending to his own affairs after escorting Eleanor there. Some believe that Eleanor's court in Poitiers was the "Court of Love" where Eleanor and her daughter Marie meshed and encouraged the ideas of troubadours, chivalry, and courtly love into a single court. It may have been largely to teach manners, something the French courts would be known for in later generations. Yet the existence and reasons for this court are debated.
In The Art of Courtly Love, Andreas Capellanus, Andrew the chaplain, refers to the court of Poitiers. He claims that Eleanor, her daughter Marie, Ermengarde, Viscountess of Narbonne, and Isabelle of Flanders would sit and listen to the quarrels of lovers and act as a jury to the questions of the court that revolved around acts of romantic love. He records some twenty-one cases, the most famous of them being a problem posed to the women about whether true love can exist in marriage. According to Capellanus, the women decided that it was not at all likely.
Some scholars believe that the "court of love" probably never existed since the only evidence for it is Andreas Capellanus' book. To strengthen their argument, they state that there is no other evidence that Marie ever stayed with her mother in Poitiers. Andreas wrote for the court of the king of France, where Eleanor was not held in esteem. Polly Schroyer Brooks, the author of a non-academic biography of Eleanor, suggests that the court did exist, but that it was not taken very seriously, and that acts of courtly love were just a "parlour game" made up by Eleanor and Marie in order to place some order over the young courtiers living there.
There is no claim that Eleanor invented courtly love, for it was a concept that had begun to grow before Eleanor's court arose. All that can be said is that her court at Poitiers was most likely a catalyst for the increased popularity of courtly love literature in the Western European regions. Amy Kelly, in her article, "Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Courts of Love," gives a very plausible description of the origins of the rules of Eleanor's court: "In the Poitevin code, man is the property, the very thing of woman; whereas a precisely contrary state of things existed in the adjacent realms of the two kings from whom the reigning duchess of Aquitaine was estranged."
Revolt and capture
In March 1173, aggrieved at his lack of power and egged on by Henry's enemies, his son by the same name, the younger Henry, launched the Revolt of 1173–1174. He fled to Paris. From there, "the younger Henry, devising evil against his father from every side by the advice of the French king, went secretly into Aquitaine where his two youthful brothers, Richard and Geoffrey, were living with their mother, and with her connivance, so it is said, he incited them to join him." One source claimed that the queen sent her younger sons to France "to join with him against their father the king." Once her sons had left for Paris, Eleanor may have encouraged the lords of the south to rise up and support them.
Sometime between the end of March and the beginning of May, Eleanor left Poitiers, but was arrested and sent to the king at Rouen. The king did not announce the arrest publicly; for the next year, the queen's whereabouts were unknown. On 8 July 1174, Henry and Eleanor took ship for England from Barfleur. As soon as they disembarked at Southampton, Eleanor was taken either to Winchester Castle or Sarum Castle and held there.
Years of imprisonment 1173–1189
Eleanor was imprisoned for the next 16 years, much of the time in various locations in England. During her imprisonment, Eleanor became more and more distant from her sons, especially from Richard, who had always been her favourite. She did not have the opportunity to see her sons very often during her imprisonment, though she was released for special occasions such as Christmas. About four miles from Shrewsbury and close by Haughmond Abbey is "Queen Eleanor's Bower", the remains of a triangular castle which is believed to have been one of her prisons.
Henry lost the woman reputed to be his great love, Rosamund Clifford, in 1176. He had met her in 1166 and had begun their liaison in 1173, supposedly contemplating divorce from Eleanor. This notorious affair caused a monkish scribe to transcribe Rosamund's name in Latin to "Rosa Immundi", or "Rose of Unchastity". The king had many mistresses, but although he treated earlier liaisons discreetly, he flaunted Rosamund. He may have done so to provoke Eleanor into seeking an annulment, but if so, the queen disappointed him. Nevertheless, rumours persisted, perhaps assisted by Henry's camp, that Eleanor had poisoned Rosamund. It is also speculated that Eleanor placed Rosamund in a bathtub and had an old woman cut Rosamund's arms. Henry donated much money to Godstow Nunnery in Oxfordshire, where Rosamund was buried.
In 1183, the young King Henry tried again to force his father to hand over some of his patrimony. In debt and refused control of Normandy, he tried to ambush his father at Limoges. He was joined by troops sent by his brother Geoffrey and Philip II of France. Henry II's troops besieged the town, forcing his son to flee. After wandering aimlessly through Aquitaine, Henry the Younger caught dysentery. On Saturday, 11 June 1183, the young king realized he was dying and was overcome with remorse for his sins. When his father's ring was sent to him, he begged that his father would show mercy to his mother, and that all his companions would plead with Henry to set her free. Henry II sent Thomas of Earley, Archdeacon of Wells, to break the news to Eleanor at Sarum. Eleanor reputedly had a dream in which she foresaw her son Henry's death. In 1193, she would tell Pope Celestine III that she was tortured by his memory.
King Philip II of France claimed that certain properties in Normandy belonged to his half-sister Margaret, widow of the young Henry, but Henry insisted that they had once belonged to Eleanor and would revert to her upon her son's death. For this reason Henry summoned Eleanor to Normandy in the late summer of 1183. She stayed in Normandy for six months. This was the beginning of a period of greater freedom for the still-supervised Eleanor. Eleanor went back to England probably early in 1184. Over the next few years Eleanor often travelled with her husband and was sometimes associated with him in the government of the realm, but still had a custodian so that she was not free.
Widowhood
Upon the death of her husband Henry II on 6 July 1189, Richard I was the undisputed heir. One of his first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders to release Eleanor from prison; he found upon his arrival that her custodians had already released her. Eleanor rode to Westminster and received the oaths of fealty from many lords and prelates on behalf of the king. She ruled England in Richard's name, signing herself "Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England." On 13August 1189, Richard sailed from Barfleur to Portsmouth and was received with enthusiasm. Between 1190 and 1194, Richard was absent from England, engaged in the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1192, and then held in captivity by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
During Richard's absence, royal authority in England was represented by a Council of Regency in conjunction with a succession of chief justiciars—William de Longchamp (1190–1191), Walter deCoutances (1191–1193), and finally Hubert Walter. Although Eleanor held no formal office in England during this period, she arrived in England in the company of Coutances in June 1191, and for the remainder of Richard's absence, she exercised a considerable degree of influence over the affairs of England as well as the conduct of Prince John. Eleanor played a key role in raising the ransom demanded from England by HenryVI and in the negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor that eventually secured Richard's release. Evidence of the influence she wielded can also be found within the numerous letters she wrote to Pope Celestine III regarding Richard's captivity. Her letter dated 1193, presents her strong expressions of personal suffering as a result of Richard's captivity and informs the Pope that in her grief she is "wasted away by sorrow".
Eleanor survived Richard and lived well into the reign of her youngest son, King John. In 1199, under the terms of a truce between King PhilipII and King John, it was agreed that Philip's 12-year-old heir-apparent Louis would be married to one of John's nieces, daughters of his sister Eleanor of England, queen of Castile. John instructed his mother to travel to Castile to select one of the princesses. Now 77, Eleanor set out from Poitiers. Just outside Poitiers she was ambushed and held captive by Hugh IX of Lusignan, whose lands had been sold to HenryII by his forebears. Eleanor secured her freedom by agreeing to his demands. She continued south, crossed the Pyrenees, and travelled through the kingdoms of Navarre and Castile, arriving in Castile before the end of January 1200.
Eleanor's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Castile, had two remaining unmarried daughters, Urraca and Blanche. Eleanor selected the younger daughter, Blanche. She stayed for two months at the Castilian court, then late in March journeyed with granddaughter Blanche back across the Pyrenees. She celebrated Easter in Bordeaux, where the famous warrior Mercadier came to her court. It was decided that he would escort the queen and princess north. "On the second day in Easter week, he was slain in the city by a man-at-arms in the service of Brandin," a rival mercenary captain. This tragedy was too much for the elderly queen, who was fatigued and unable to continue to Normandy. She and Blanche rode in easy stages to the valley of the Loire, and she entrusted Blanche to the archbishop of Bordeaux, who took over as her escort. The exhausted Eleanor went to Fontevraud, where she remained. In early summer, Eleanor was ill, and John visited her at Fontevraud.
Eleanor was again unwell in early 1201. When war broke out between John and Philip, Eleanor declared her support for John and set out from Fontevraud to her capital Poitiers to prevent her grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, posthumous son of Eleanor's son Geoffrey and John's rival for the English throne, from taking control. Arthur learned of her whereabouts and besieged her in the castle of Mirebeau. As soon as John heard of this, he marched south, overcame the besiegers, and captured the 15-year-old Arthur, and probably his sister Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany, whom Eleanor had raised with Richard. Eleanor then returned to Fontevraud where she took the veil as a nun.
Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey next to her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible and is decorated with representations of magnificent jewellery; such effigies were rare, and Eleanor's is one of the finest of the few that survive from this period. However, during the French Revolution the abbey of Fontevraud was sacked and the tombs were disturbed and vandalised - consequently the bones of Eleanor, Henry, Richard, Joana and Isabella of Angoulême were exhumed and scattered, never to be recovered. By the time of her death she had outlived all of her children except for King John of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile.
Appearance
Contemporary sources praise Eleanor's beauty. Even in an era when ladies of the nobility were excessively praised, their praise of her was undoubtedly sincere. When she was young, she was described as perpulchra—more than beautiful. When she was around 30, Bernard de Ventadour, a noted troubadour, called her "gracious, lovely, the embodiment of charm," extolling her "lovely eyes and noble countenance" and declaring that she was "one meet to crown the state of any king." William of Newburgh emphasised the charms of her person, and even in her old age Richard of Devizes described her as beautiful, while Matthew Paris, writing in the 13thcentury, recalled her "admirable beauty."
In spite of all these words of praise, no one left a more detailed description of Eleanor; the colour of her hair and eyes, for example, are unknown. The effigy on her tomb shows a tall and large-boned woman with brown skin, though this may not be an accurate representation. Her seal of shows a woman with a slender figure, but this is probably an impersonal image.
Popular culture
Art
Judy Chicago's artistic installation The Dinner Party features a place setting for Eleanor, and she was portrayed by Frederick Sandys in his 1858 painting, Queen Eleanor.
Books and dramas
Henry and Eleanor are the main characters in James Goldman's 1966 play The Lion in Winter, which was made into a film in 1968 starring Peter O'Toole as Henry and Katharine Hepburn in the role of Eleanor, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama.
Jean Plaidy's novel The Courts of Love, fifth in the 'Queens of England' series, is a fictionalised autobiography of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Norah Lofts wrote a fictionalized biography of her, entitled in various editions Queen in Waiting or Eleanor the Queen, and including some romanticized episodes—starting off with the young Eleanor planning to elope with a young knight, who is killed out of hand by her guardian, in order to facilitate her marriage to the King's son.
The character Queen Elinor appears in William Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John, with other members of the family. On television, she has been portrayed in this play by Una Venning in the BBC Sunday Night Theatre version (1952) and by Mary Morris in the BBC Shakespeare version (1984).
Eleanor features in the novel Via Crucis (1899) by F. Marion Crawford.
Eleanor serves as an important allegorical figure in Ezra Pound's early Cantos.
In Sharon Kay Penman's Plantagenet novels, she figures prominently in When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance, and Devil's Brood, and also appears in Lionheart and A King's Ransom, both of which focus on the reign of her son, Richard, as king of England. Eleanor also appears briefly in the first novel of Penman's Welsh trilogy, Here Be Dragons. In Penman's historical mysteries, Eleanor, as Richard's regent, sends squire Justin de Quincy on various missions, often an investigation of a situation involving Prince John. The four published mysteries are the Queen's Man, Cruel as the Grave, Dragon's Lair, and Prince of Darkness.
Eleanor is the subject of A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, a children's novel by E.L. Konigsburg.
Historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick wrote a three-volume series about Eleanor: The Summer Queen (2013), The Winter Crown (2014) and The Autumn Throne (2016).
In The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle, retelling the ballad Robin Hood and Queen Katherine, made the queen Queen Eleanor to fit historically with the rest of the work.
She has also been introduced in The Royal Diaries series in the book "Crown Jewel of Aquitaine" by Kristiana Gregory.
She is a supporting character in Matrix by Lauren Groff.
Film, radio and television
Eleanor has featured in a number of screen versions of the Ivanhoe and Robin Hood stories. She has been played by Martita Hunt in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), Jill Esmond in the British TV adventure series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955–1960), Phyllis Neilson-Terry in the British TV adventure series Ivanhoe (1958), Yvonne Mitchell in the BBC TV drama series The Legend of Robin Hood (1975), Siân Phillips in the TV series Ivanhoe (1997), and Tusse Silberg in the TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood (1997). She was portrayed by Lynda Bellingham in the BBC series Robin Hood. Most recently, she was portrayed by Eileen Atkins in Robin Hood (2010).
In the 1964 film Becket, Eleanor is briefly played by Pamela Brown to Peter O'Toole's first performance as a young Henry II.
In the 1968 film The Lion in Winter, Eleanor is played by Katharine Hepburn, who won the third of her four Academy Awards for Best Actress for her portrayal, and Henry again is portrayed by O'Toole. The film is about the difficult relationship between them and the struggle of their three sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John for their father's favour and the succession. In the 2003 television film version, Eleanor was played by Glenn Close alongside Patrick Stewart as Henry.
She was portrayed by Mary Clare in the silent film Becket (1923), by Prudence Hyman in Richard the Lionheart (1962), and twice by Jane Lapotaire in the BBC TV drama series The Devil's Crown (1978) and again in Mike Walker's BBC Radio 4 series Plantagenet (2010). In the 2014 film Richard the Lionheart: Rebellion, Eleanor is played by Debbie Rochon.
Her life was portrayed on BBC Radio 4 in the drama series Eleanor Rising, with Rose Basista as Eleanor and Joel MacCormack as King Louis. The first series of five 15-minute episodes was broadcast in November 2020 and the second series in April 2021.
Music
Eleanor and Rosamund Clifford, as well as Henry IIand Rosamund's father, appear in Gaetano Donizetti's opera Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (libretto by Felice Romani), which was premiered in Florence, at the Teatro Pergola, in 1834.
Eleanor of Aquitaine is thought to be the queen of England mentioned in the poem "Were diu werlt alle min," used as the tenth movement of Carl Orff's famous cantata, Carmina Burana.
Flower and Hawk is a monodrama for soprano and orchestra, written by American composer, Carlisle Floyd that premiered in 1972, in which the soprano (Eleanor of Aquitaine) relives past memories of her time as queen, and at the end of the monodrama, hears the bells that toll for Henry II's death, and in turn, her freedom.
Queen Elanor's Confession, or Queen Eleanor's Confession, is Child ballad 156. Although the figures are intended as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, and William Marshall, the story is an entire invention.
Video games
In the 2019 video game expansion Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, Eleanor is a playable leader for the English and French civilizations.
Issue
See also
List of longest-reigning monarchs
Grandmother of Europe, sobriquet of Eleanor of Aquitaine and others
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
(for young readers)
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Further reading
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External links
The Eleanor Vase preserved at the Louvre
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1122 births
1204 deaths
12th-century French people
13th-century French people
12th-century English people
13th-century English people
12th-century French women
13th-century French women
12th-century English women
13th-century English women
12th-century viceregal rulers
12th-century women rulers
13th-century women rulers
Women in 12th-century warfare
French queens consort
English royal consorts
Countesses of Anjou
Countesses of Maine
Counts of Poitiers
Duchesses of Normandy
Dukes of Gascony
Duchesses of Aquitaine
House of Poitiers
French patrons of literature
Christians of the Second Crusade
People from Aquitaine
Regents of England
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Remarried royal consorts
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"I Told You So is a 1970 Ghanaian movie. The movie portrays Ghanaians and their way of life in a satirical style. It also gives insight into the life of a young lady who did not take the advice of her father when about to marry a man, she did not know anything about the man she was going to marry, but rather took her mother's and uncle's advice because of the wealth and power the man has.\n\nThe young lady later finds out that the man she is supposed to marry was an armed robber. She was unhappy of the whole incident. When her dad ask what had happened, she replied that the man she was supposed to marry is an armed robber; her father ended by saying \"I told you so\".\n\nCast\nBobe Cole\nMargret Quainoo (Araba Stamp)\nKweku Crankson (Osuo Abrobor)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n I TOLD YOU SO GHANAIAN MOVIE\n\n1970 films\nGhanaian films",
"Lucia Rosa was a girl from the 19th century who wanted to marry a poor farmer and instead was forced by her father to marry a wealthy man she did not want. In despair, she threw herself into the Tyrrhenian Sea on the northwest side of the island of Ponza, Italy. She is viewed by some women as a martyr for women's rights and a symbol for human rights. A beach and a group of tall rock stacks (the 'faraglioni di Lucia Rossa') are named after her, at the place where she died.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nLucia Rosa Stacks Google Maps\nPicture and description of Lucia Rosa beach\n\nItalian children\nPeople from the Province of Latina\nSuicides by drowning\n19th-century deaths\nSuicides in Italy\nYear of birth unknown"
] |
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"Eleanor of Aquitaine",
"First marriage",
"Who did she marry?",
"Louis VII of France"
] |
C_303f8b49f620446b944741385de7fc82_0
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When did they get married?
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When did Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France get married?
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Eleanor of Aquitaine
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On 25 July 1137 Louis VII of France and Eleanor were married in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux by the Archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine. However, there was a catch: the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both King of the Franks and Duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives. Louis's tenure as Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while Prince Louis and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. Thus he became King Louis VII of France. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned King and Queen of the Franks on Christmas Day of the same year. Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provencal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticized by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behavior baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cite Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake. CANNOTANSWER
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On 25 July 1137
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Eleanor of Aquitaine ( – 1 April 1204; , ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1137 until her death in 1204. As the heir of the House of Poitiers, rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. She was patron of literary figures such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. She was also known to have led armies several times in her life and was a key leading figure of the unsuccessful Second Crusade.
Eleanor was the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine. She became duchess upon her father's death in April 1137, and three months later she married Louis, son of her guardian King Louis VI of France. A few weeks later, Prince Louis became the French king. They had two daughters, Marie and Alix. As queen of France, Eleanor participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. Soon afterwards, she sought an annulment of her marriage, but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III. Eventually, Louis agreed to an annulment, as 15 years of marriage had not produced a son. The marriage was annulled on 21 March 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate, custody was awarded to Louis, and Eleanor's lands were restored to her.
As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to her third cousin Henry, Duke of Normandy. The couple married on Whitsun, 18 May 1152. Henry and Eleanor became king and queen of England in 1154. They had five sons and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting the revolt of their eldest son, Henry, against him. She was not released until 6 July 1189, when her husband died and their third son, Richard I, ascended the throne. As queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade. She lived well into the reign of her youngest son, John.
Early life
Eleanor's year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124. On the other hand, some chronicles mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor's fourteenth birthday in 1136. This, and her known age of 82 at her death make 1122 the most likely year of her birth. Her parents almost certainly married in 1121. Her birthplace may have been Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l'Autise, where her mother and brother died when Eleanor was 6 or 8.
Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l'Isle Bouchard, who was William IX's longtime mistress as well as Eleanor's maternal grandmother. Her parents' marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather WilliamIX.
Eleanor is said to have been named for her mother Aenor and called Aliénor from the Latin Alia Aenor, which means the other Aenor. It became Eléanor in the langues d'oïl of northern France and Eleanor in English. There was, however, another prominent Eleanor before her—Eleanor of Normandy, an aunt of William the Conqueror, who lived a century earlier than Eleanor of Aquitaine. In Paris as the queen of France, she was called Helienordis, her honorific name as written in the Latin epistles.
By all accounts, Eleanor's father ensured that she had the best possible education. Eleanor came to learn arithmetic, the constellations, and history. She also learned domestic skills such as household management and the needle arts of embroidery, needlepoint, sewing, spinning, and weaving. Eleanor developed skills in conversation, dancing, games such as backgammon, checkers, and chess, playing the harp, and singing. Although her native tongue was Poitevin, she was taught to read and speak Latin, was well versed in music and literature, and schooled in riding, hawking, and hunting. Eleanor was extroverted, lively, intelligent, and strong-willed. Her four-year-old brother William Aigret and their mother died at the castle of Talmont on Aquitaine's Atlantic coast in the spring of 1130. Eleanor became the heir presumptive to her father's domains. The Duchy of Aquitaine was the largest and richest province of France. Poitou, where Eleanor spent most of her childhood, and Aquitaine together was almost one-third the size of modern France. Eleanor had only one other legitimate sibling, a younger sister named Aelith (also called Petronilla). Her half-brother Joscelin was acknowledged by WilliamX as a son, but not as his heir. The notion that she had another half-brother, William, has been discredited. Later, during the first four years of HenryII's reign, her siblings joined Eleanor's royal household.
Inheritance
In 1137 Duke William X left Poitiers for Bordeaux and took his daughters with him. Upon reaching Bordeaux, he left them in the charge of the archbishop of Bordeaux, one of his few loyal vassals. The duke then set out for the Shrine of Saint James of Compostela in the company of other pilgrims. However, he died on Good Friday of that year (9April).
Eleanor, aged 12 to 15, then became the duchess of Aquitaine, and thus the most eligible heiress in Europe. As these were the days when kidnapping an heiress was seen as a viable option for obtaining a title, William dictated a will on the very day he died that bequeathed his domains to Eleanor and appointed King Louis VI of France as her guardian. William requested of the king that he take care of both the lands and the duchess, and find her a suitable husband. However, until a husband was found, the king had the legal right to Eleanor's lands. The duke also insisted to his companions that his death be kept a secret until Louis was informed; the men were to journey from Saint James of Compostela across the Pyrenees as quickly as possible to call at Bordeaux to notify the archbishop, then to make all speed to Paris to inform the king.
The king of France, known as Louis the Fat, was also gravely ill at that time, suffering from a bout of dysentery from which he appeared unlikely to recover. Yet despite his impending death, Louis's mind remained clear. His eldest surviving son, Louis, had originally been destined for monastic life, but had become the heir apparent when the firstborn, Philip, died in a riding accident in 1131.
The death of William, one of the king's most powerful vassals, made available the most desirable duchy in France. While presenting a solemn and dignified face to the grieving Aquitainian messengers, Louis exulted when they departed. Rather than act as guardian to the duchess and duchy, he decided to marry the duchess to his 17-year-old heir and bring Aquitaine under the control of the French crown, thereby greatly increasing the power and prominence of France and its ruling family, the House of Capet. Within hours, the king had arranged for his son Louis to be married to Eleanor, with Abbot Suger in charge of the wedding arrangements. Louis was sent to Bordeaux with an escort of 500 knights, along with Abbot Suger, Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Count Ralph.
First marriage
On 25 July 1137, Eleanor and Louis were married in the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux by the archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as duke and duchess of Aquitaine. It was agreed that the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both king of France and duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase {fr}, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives.
Louis's tenure as count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while he and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned king and queen of France on Christmas Day of the same year.
Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provençal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticised by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behaviour baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cité Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake.
Conflict
Louis soon came into violent conflict with Pope Innocent II. In 1141, the Archbishopric of Bourges became vacant, and the king put forward as a candidate one of his chancellors, Cadurc, while vetoing the one suitable candidate, Pierre de la Chatre, who was promptly elected by the canons of Bourges and consecrated by the Pope. Louis accordingly bolted the gates of Bourges against the new bishop. The Pope, recalling similar attempts by William X to exile supporters of Innocent from Poitou and replace them with priests loyal to himself, blamed Eleanor, saying that Louis was only a child and should be taught manners. Outraged, Louis swore upon relics that so long as he lived Pierre should never enter Bourges. An interdict was thereupon imposed upon the king's lands, and Pierre was given refuge by Theobald II, Count of Champagne.
Louis became involved in a war with Count Theobald by permitting Raoul I, Count of Vermandois and seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife Eleanor of Blois, Theobald's sister, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, Eleanor's sister. Eleanor urged Louis to support her sister's marriage to Count Raoul. Theobald had also offended Louis by siding with the Pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (1142–44) and ended with the occupation of Champagne by the royal army. Louis was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of Vitry. More than a thousand people who sought refuge in the church there died in the flames. Horrified, and desiring an end to the war, Louis attempted to make peace with Theobald in exchange for his support in lifting the interdict on Raoul and Petronilla. This was duly lifted for long enough to allow Theobald's lands to be restored; it was then lowered once more when Raoul refused to repudiate Petronilla, prompting Louis to return to Champagne and ravage it once more.
In June 1144, the king and queen visited the newly built monastic church at Saint-Denis. While there, the queen met with Bernard of Clairvaux, demanding that he use his influence with the Pope to have the excommunication of Petronilla and Raoul lifted, in exchange for which King Louis would make concessions in Champagne and recognise Pierre de la Chatre as archbishop of Bourges. Dismayed at her attitude, Bernard scolded Eleanor for her lack of penitence and interference in matters of state. In response, Eleanor broke down and meekly excused her behaviour, claiming to be bitter because of her lack of children (her only recorded pregnancy at that time was in about 1138, but she miscarried). In response, Bernard became more kindly towards her: "My child, seek those things which make for peace. Cease to stir up the king against the Church, and urge upon him a better course of action. If you will promise to do this, I in return promise to entreat the merciful Lord to grant you offspring." In a matter of weeks, peace had returned to France: Theobald's provinces were returned and Pierre de la Chatre was installed as archbishop of Bourges. In April 1145, Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, Marie.
Louis, however, still burned with guilt over the massacre at Vitry and wished to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sins. In autumn 1145, Pope Eugene III requested that Louis lead a Crusade to the Middle East to rescue the Frankish states there from disaster. Accordingly, Louis declared on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges his intention of going on a crusade.
Crusade
Eleanor of Aquitaine also formally took up the cross symbolic of the Second Crusade during a sermon preached by Bernard of Clairvaux. In addition, she had been corresponding with her uncle Raymond, Prince of Antioch, who was seeking further protection from the French crown against the Saracens. Eleanor recruited some of her royal ladies-in-waiting for the campaign as well as 300 non-noble Aquitainian vassals. She insisted on taking part in the Crusades as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. The story that she and her ladies dressed as Amazons is disputed by historians, sometimes confused with the account of King Conrad's train of ladies during this campaign in Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. She left for the Second Crusade from Vézelay, the rumoured location of Mary Magdalene's grave, in June 1147.
The Crusade itself achieved little. Louis was a weak and ineffectual military leader with no skill for maintaining troop discipline or morale, or of making informed and logical tactical decisions. In eastern Europe, the French army was at times hindered by Manuel I Comnenus, the Byzantine Emperor, who feared that the Crusade would jeopardise the tenuous safety of his empire. Notwithstanding, during their three-week stay at Constantinople, Louis was fêted and Eleanor was much admired. She was compared with Penthesilea, mythical queen of the Amazons, by the Greek historian Nicetas Choniates. He added that she gained the epithet chrysopous (golden-foot) from the cloth of gold that decorated and fringed her robe. Louis and Eleanor stayed in the Philopation palace just outside the city walls.
From the moment the Crusaders entered Asia Minor, things began to go badly. The king and queen were still optimistic—the Byzantine Emperor had told them that King Conrad III of Germany had won a great victory against a Turkish army when in fact the German army had been almost completely destroyed at Dorylaeum. However, while camping near Nicea, the remnants of the German army, including a dazed and sick Conrad III, staggered past the French camp, bringing news of their disaster. The French, with what remained of the Germans, then began to march in increasingly disorganised fashion towards Antioch. They were in high spirits on Christmas Eve, when they chose to camp in a lush valley near Ephesus. Here they were ambushed by a Turkish detachment, but the French proceeded to slaughter this detachment and appropriate their camp.
Louis then decided to cross the Phrygian mountains directly in the hope of reaching Raymond of Poitiers in Antioch more quickly. As they ascended the mountains, however, the army and the king and queen were horrified to discover the unburied corpses of the Germans killed earlier.
On the day set for the crossing of Mount Cadmus, Louis chose to take charge of the rear of the column, where the unarmed pilgrims and the baggage trains marched. The vanguard, with which Queen Eleanor marched, was commanded by her Aquitainian vassal, Geoffrey de Rancon. Unencumbered by baggage, they reached the summit of Cadmus, where Rancon had been ordered to make camp for the night. Rancon, however, chose to continue on, deciding in concert with Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, Louis's uncle, that a nearby plateau would make a better campsite. Such disobedience was reportedly common.
Accordingly, by mid-afternoon, the rear of the column—believing the day's march to be nearly at an end—was dawdling. This resulted in the army becoming separated, with some having already crossed the summit and others still approaching it. In the ensuing Battle of Mount Cadmus, the Turks, who had been following and feinting for many days, seized their opportunity and attacked those who had not yet crossed the summit. The French, both soldiers and pilgrims, taken by surprise, were trapped. Those who tried to escape were caught and killed. Many men, horses, and much of the baggage were cast into the canyon below. The chronicler William of Tyre, writing between 1170 and 1184 and thus perhaps too long after the event to be considered historically accurate, placed the blame for this disaster firmly on the amount of baggage being carried, much of it reputedly belonging to Eleanor and her ladies, and the presence of non-combatants.
The king, having scorned royal apparel in favour of a simple pilgrim's tunic, escaped notice, unlike his bodyguards, whose skulls were brutally smashed and limbs severed. He reportedly "nimbly and bravely scaled a rock by making use of some tree roots which God had provided for his safety" and managed to survive the attack. Others were not so fortunate: "No aid came from Heaven, except that night fell."
Official blame for the disaster was placed on Geoffrey de Rancon, who had made the decision to continue, and it was suggested that he be hanged, a suggestion which the king ignored. Since Geoffrey was Eleanor's vassal, many believed that it was she who had been ultimately responsible for the change in plan, and thus the massacre. This suspicion of responsibility did nothing for her popularity in Christendom. She was also blamed for the size of the baggage train and the fact that her Aquitanian soldiers had marched at the front and thus were not involved in the fight. Continuing on, the army became split, with the commoners marching towards Antioch and the royalty travelling by sea. When most of the land army arrived, the king and queen had a dispute. Some, such as John of Salisbury and William of Tyre, say Eleanor's reputation was sullied by rumours of an affair with her uncle Raymond. However, this rumour may have been a ruse, as Raymond, through Eleanor, had been trying to induce Louis to use his army to attack the actual Muslim encampment at nearby Aleppo, gateway to retaking Edessa, which had all along, by papal decree, been the main objective of the Crusade. Although this was perhaps a better military plan, Louis was not keen to fight in northern Syria. One of Louis's avowed Crusade goals was to journey in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and he stated his intention to continue. Reputedly Eleanor then requested to stay with Raymond and brought up the matter of consanguinity—the fact that she and her husband, King Louis, were perhaps too closely related. Consanguinity was grounds for annulment in the medieval period. But rather than allowing her to stay, Louis took Eleanor from Antioch against her will and continued on to Jerusalem with his dwindling army.
Louis's refusal and his forcing her to accompany him humiliated Eleanor, and she maintained a low profile for the rest of the crusade. Louis's subsequent siege of Damascus in 1148 with his remaining army, reinforced by Conrad and Baldwin III of Jerusalem, achieved little. Damascus was a major wealthy trading centre and was under normal circumstances a potential threat, but the rulers of Jerusalem had recently entered into a truce with the city, which they then forswore. It was a gamble that did not pay off, and whether through military error or betrayal, the Damascus campaign was a failure. Louis's long march to Jerusalem and back north, which Eleanor was forced to join, debilitated his army and disheartened her knights; the divided Crusade armies could not overcome the Muslim forces, and the royal couple had to return home. The French royal family retreated to Jerusalem and then sailed to Rome and made their way back to Paris.
While in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor learned about maritime conventions developing there, which were the beginnings of what would become admiralty law. She introduced those conventions in her own lands on the island of Oléron in 1160 (with the "Rolls of Oléron") and later in England as well. She was also instrumental in developing trade agreements with Constantinople and ports of trade in the Holy Lands.
Annulment
Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged, and their differences were only exacerbated while they were abroad. Eleanor's purported relationship with her uncle Raymond, the ruler of Antioch, was a major source of discord. Eleanor supported her uncle's desire to re-capture the nearby County of Edessa, the objective of the Crusade. In addition, having been close to him in their youth, she now showed what was considered to be "excessive affection" towards her uncle. Raymond had plans to abduct Eleanor, to which she consented.
Home, however, was not easily reached. Louis and Eleanor, on separate ships due to their disagreements, were first attacked in May 1149 by Byzantine ships. Although they escaped this attempt unharmed, stormy weather drove Eleanor's ship far to the south to the Barbary Coast and caused her to lose track of her husband. Neither was heard of for over two months. In mid-July, Eleanor's ship finally reached Palermo in Sicily, where she discovered that she and her husband had both been given up for dead. She was given shelter and food by servants of King Roger II of Sicily, until the king eventually reached Calabria, and she set out to meet him there. Later, at King Roger's court in Potenza, she learned of the death of her uncle Raymond, who had been beheaded by Muslim forces in the Holy Land. This news appears to have forced a change of plans, for instead of returning to France from Marseilles, they went to see Pope Eugene III in Tusculum, where he had been driven five months before by a revolt of the Commune of Rome.
Eugene did not, as Eleanor had hoped, grant an annulment. Instead, he attempted to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, confirming the legality of their marriage. He proclaimed that no word could be spoken against it, and that it might not be dissolved under any pretext. He even arranged for Eleanor and Louis to sleep in the same bed. Thus was conceived their second child—not a son, but another daughter, Alix of France.
The marriage was now doomed. Still without a son and in danger of being left with no male heir, as well as facing substantial opposition to Eleanor from many of his barons and her own desire for annulment, Louis bowed to the inevitable. On 11 March 1152, they met at the royal castle of Beaugency to dissolve the marriage. Hugues de Toucy, archbishop of Sens, presided, and Louis and Eleanor were both present, as were the archbishop of Bordeaux and Rouen. Archbishop Samson of Reims acted for Eleanor.
On 21 March, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis' third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France. Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. Children born to a marriage that was later annulled were not at risk of being "bastardised," because "[w]here parties married in good faith, without knowledge of an impediment, ... children of the marriage were legitimate." [Berman 228.] ) Custody of them was awarded to King Louis. Archbishop Samson received assurances from Louis that Eleanor's lands would be restored to her.
Second marriage
As Eleanor travelled to Poitiers, two lords—Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, brother of Henry II, Duke of Normandy—tried to kidnap and marry her to claim her lands. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to Henry, Duke of Normandy and future king of England, asking him to come at once to marry her. On 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry "without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank."
Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou, wife of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais, and they were also descended from King Robert II of France. A marriage between Henry and Eleanor's daughter Marie had earlier been declared impossible due to their status as third cousins once removed. It was rumoured by some that Eleanor had had an affair with Henry's own father, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, who had advised his son to avoid any involvement with her.
On 25 October 1154, Henry became king of England. A now heavily pregnant Eleanor, was crowned queen of England by Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 19 December 1154. She may not have been anointed on this occasion, however, because she had already been anointed in 1137. Over the next 13 years, she bore Henry five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan. John Speed, in his 1611 work History of Great Britain, mentions the possibility that Eleanor had a son named Philip, who died young. His sources no longer exist, and he alone mentions this birth.
Eleanor's marriage to Henry was reputed to be tumultuous and argumentative, although sufficiently cooperative to produce at least eight pregnancies. Henry was by no means faithful to his wife and had a reputation for philandering. Henry fathered other, illegitimate children throughout the marriage. Eleanor appears to have taken an ambivalent attitude towards these affairs. Geoffrey of York, for example, was an illegitimate son of Henry, but acknowledged by Henry as his child and raised at Westminster in the care of the queen.
During the period from Henry's accession to the birth of Eleanor's youngest son John, affairs in the kingdom were turbulent: Aquitaine, as was the norm, defied the authority of Henry as Eleanor's husband and answered only to their duchess. Attempts were made to claim Toulouse, the rightful inheritance of Eleanor's grandmother Philippa of Toulouse, but they ended in failure. A bitter feud arose between the king and Thomas Becket, initially his chancellor and closest adviser and later the archbishop of Canterbury. Louis of France had remarried and been widowed; he married for the third time and finally fathered a long-hoped-for son, Philip Augustus, also known as Dieudonné—God-given). "Young Henry," son of Henry and Eleanor, wed Margaret, daughter of Louis from his second marriage. Little is known of Eleanor's involvement in these events. It is certain that by late 1166, Henry's notorious affair with Rosamund Clifford had become known, and Eleanor's marriage to Henry appears to have become terminally strained.
In 1167, Eleanor's third daughter, Matilda, married Henry the Lion of Saxony. Eleanor remained in England with her daughter for the year prior to Matilda's departure for Normandy in September. In December, Eleanor gathered her movable possessions in England and transported them on several ships to Argentan. Christmas was celebrated at the royal court there, and she appears to have agreed to a separation from Henry. She certainly left for her own city of Poitiers immediately after Christmas. Henry did not stop her; on the contrary, he and his army personally escorted her there before attacking a castle belonging to the rebellious Lusignan family. Henry then went about his own business outside Aquitaine, leaving Earl Patrick, his regional military commander, as her protective custodian. When Patrick was killed in a skirmish, Eleanor, who proceeded to ransom his captured nephew, the young William Marshal, was left in control of her lands.
The Court of Love in Poitiers
Of all her influence on culture, Eleanor's time in Poitiers between 1168 and 1173 was perhaps the most critical, yet very little is known about it. Henry II was elsewhere, attending to his own affairs after escorting Eleanor there. Some believe that Eleanor's court in Poitiers was the "Court of Love" where Eleanor and her daughter Marie meshed and encouraged the ideas of troubadours, chivalry, and courtly love into a single court. It may have been largely to teach manners, something the French courts would be known for in later generations. Yet the existence and reasons for this court are debated.
In The Art of Courtly Love, Andreas Capellanus, Andrew the chaplain, refers to the court of Poitiers. He claims that Eleanor, her daughter Marie, Ermengarde, Viscountess of Narbonne, and Isabelle of Flanders would sit and listen to the quarrels of lovers and act as a jury to the questions of the court that revolved around acts of romantic love. He records some twenty-one cases, the most famous of them being a problem posed to the women about whether true love can exist in marriage. According to Capellanus, the women decided that it was not at all likely.
Some scholars believe that the "court of love" probably never existed since the only evidence for it is Andreas Capellanus' book. To strengthen their argument, they state that there is no other evidence that Marie ever stayed with her mother in Poitiers. Andreas wrote for the court of the king of France, where Eleanor was not held in esteem. Polly Schroyer Brooks, the author of a non-academic biography of Eleanor, suggests that the court did exist, but that it was not taken very seriously, and that acts of courtly love were just a "parlour game" made up by Eleanor and Marie in order to place some order over the young courtiers living there.
There is no claim that Eleanor invented courtly love, for it was a concept that had begun to grow before Eleanor's court arose. All that can be said is that her court at Poitiers was most likely a catalyst for the increased popularity of courtly love literature in the Western European regions. Amy Kelly, in her article, "Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Courts of Love," gives a very plausible description of the origins of the rules of Eleanor's court: "In the Poitevin code, man is the property, the very thing of woman; whereas a precisely contrary state of things existed in the adjacent realms of the two kings from whom the reigning duchess of Aquitaine was estranged."
Revolt and capture
In March 1173, aggrieved at his lack of power and egged on by Henry's enemies, his son by the same name, the younger Henry, launched the Revolt of 1173–1174. He fled to Paris. From there, "the younger Henry, devising evil against his father from every side by the advice of the French king, went secretly into Aquitaine where his two youthful brothers, Richard and Geoffrey, were living with their mother, and with her connivance, so it is said, he incited them to join him." One source claimed that the queen sent her younger sons to France "to join with him against their father the king." Once her sons had left for Paris, Eleanor may have encouraged the lords of the south to rise up and support them.
Sometime between the end of March and the beginning of May, Eleanor left Poitiers, but was arrested and sent to the king at Rouen. The king did not announce the arrest publicly; for the next year, the queen's whereabouts were unknown. On 8 July 1174, Henry and Eleanor took ship for England from Barfleur. As soon as they disembarked at Southampton, Eleanor was taken either to Winchester Castle or Sarum Castle and held there.
Years of imprisonment 1173–1189
Eleanor was imprisoned for the next 16 years, much of the time in various locations in England. During her imprisonment, Eleanor became more and more distant from her sons, especially from Richard, who had always been her favourite. She did not have the opportunity to see her sons very often during her imprisonment, though she was released for special occasions such as Christmas. About four miles from Shrewsbury and close by Haughmond Abbey is "Queen Eleanor's Bower", the remains of a triangular castle which is believed to have been one of her prisons.
Henry lost the woman reputed to be his great love, Rosamund Clifford, in 1176. He had met her in 1166 and had begun their liaison in 1173, supposedly contemplating divorce from Eleanor. This notorious affair caused a monkish scribe to transcribe Rosamund's name in Latin to "Rosa Immundi", or "Rose of Unchastity". The king had many mistresses, but although he treated earlier liaisons discreetly, he flaunted Rosamund. He may have done so to provoke Eleanor into seeking an annulment, but if so, the queen disappointed him. Nevertheless, rumours persisted, perhaps assisted by Henry's camp, that Eleanor had poisoned Rosamund. It is also speculated that Eleanor placed Rosamund in a bathtub and had an old woman cut Rosamund's arms. Henry donated much money to Godstow Nunnery in Oxfordshire, where Rosamund was buried.
In 1183, the young King Henry tried again to force his father to hand over some of his patrimony. In debt and refused control of Normandy, he tried to ambush his father at Limoges. He was joined by troops sent by his brother Geoffrey and Philip II of France. Henry II's troops besieged the town, forcing his son to flee. After wandering aimlessly through Aquitaine, Henry the Younger caught dysentery. On Saturday, 11 June 1183, the young king realized he was dying and was overcome with remorse for his sins. When his father's ring was sent to him, he begged that his father would show mercy to his mother, and that all his companions would plead with Henry to set her free. Henry II sent Thomas of Earley, Archdeacon of Wells, to break the news to Eleanor at Sarum. Eleanor reputedly had a dream in which she foresaw her son Henry's death. In 1193, she would tell Pope Celestine III that she was tortured by his memory.
King Philip II of France claimed that certain properties in Normandy belonged to his half-sister Margaret, widow of the young Henry, but Henry insisted that they had once belonged to Eleanor and would revert to her upon her son's death. For this reason Henry summoned Eleanor to Normandy in the late summer of 1183. She stayed in Normandy for six months. This was the beginning of a period of greater freedom for the still-supervised Eleanor. Eleanor went back to England probably early in 1184. Over the next few years Eleanor often travelled with her husband and was sometimes associated with him in the government of the realm, but still had a custodian so that she was not free.
Widowhood
Upon the death of her husband Henry II on 6 July 1189, Richard I was the undisputed heir. One of his first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders to release Eleanor from prison; he found upon his arrival that her custodians had already released her. Eleanor rode to Westminster and received the oaths of fealty from many lords and prelates on behalf of the king. She ruled England in Richard's name, signing herself "Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England." On 13August 1189, Richard sailed from Barfleur to Portsmouth and was received with enthusiasm. Between 1190 and 1194, Richard was absent from England, engaged in the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1192, and then held in captivity by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
During Richard's absence, royal authority in England was represented by a Council of Regency in conjunction with a succession of chief justiciars—William de Longchamp (1190–1191), Walter deCoutances (1191–1193), and finally Hubert Walter. Although Eleanor held no formal office in England during this period, she arrived in England in the company of Coutances in June 1191, and for the remainder of Richard's absence, she exercised a considerable degree of influence over the affairs of England as well as the conduct of Prince John. Eleanor played a key role in raising the ransom demanded from England by HenryVI and in the negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor that eventually secured Richard's release. Evidence of the influence she wielded can also be found within the numerous letters she wrote to Pope Celestine III regarding Richard's captivity. Her letter dated 1193, presents her strong expressions of personal suffering as a result of Richard's captivity and informs the Pope that in her grief she is "wasted away by sorrow".
Eleanor survived Richard and lived well into the reign of her youngest son, King John. In 1199, under the terms of a truce between King PhilipII and King John, it was agreed that Philip's 12-year-old heir-apparent Louis would be married to one of John's nieces, daughters of his sister Eleanor of England, queen of Castile. John instructed his mother to travel to Castile to select one of the princesses. Now 77, Eleanor set out from Poitiers. Just outside Poitiers she was ambushed and held captive by Hugh IX of Lusignan, whose lands had been sold to HenryII by his forebears. Eleanor secured her freedom by agreeing to his demands. She continued south, crossed the Pyrenees, and travelled through the kingdoms of Navarre and Castile, arriving in Castile before the end of January 1200.
Eleanor's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Castile, had two remaining unmarried daughters, Urraca and Blanche. Eleanor selected the younger daughter, Blanche. She stayed for two months at the Castilian court, then late in March journeyed with granddaughter Blanche back across the Pyrenees. She celebrated Easter in Bordeaux, where the famous warrior Mercadier came to her court. It was decided that he would escort the queen and princess north. "On the second day in Easter week, he was slain in the city by a man-at-arms in the service of Brandin," a rival mercenary captain. This tragedy was too much for the elderly queen, who was fatigued and unable to continue to Normandy. She and Blanche rode in easy stages to the valley of the Loire, and she entrusted Blanche to the archbishop of Bordeaux, who took over as her escort. The exhausted Eleanor went to Fontevraud, where she remained. In early summer, Eleanor was ill, and John visited her at Fontevraud.
Eleanor was again unwell in early 1201. When war broke out between John and Philip, Eleanor declared her support for John and set out from Fontevraud to her capital Poitiers to prevent her grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, posthumous son of Eleanor's son Geoffrey and John's rival for the English throne, from taking control. Arthur learned of her whereabouts and besieged her in the castle of Mirebeau. As soon as John heard of this, he marched south, overcame the besiegers, and captured the 15-year-old Arthur, and probably his sister Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany, whom Eleanor had raised with Richard. Eleanor then returned to Fontevraud where she took the veil as a nun.
Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey next to her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible and is decorated with representations of magnificent jewellery; such effigies were rare, and Eleanor's is one of the finest of the few that survive from this period. However, during the French Revolution the abbey of Fontevraud was sacked and the tombs were disturbed and vandalised - consequently the bones of Eleanor, Henry, Richard, Joana and Isabella of Angoulême were exhumed and scattered, never to be recovered. By the time of her death she had outlived all of her children except for King John of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile.
Appearance
Contemporary sources praise Eleanor's beauty. Even in an era when ladies of the nobility were excessively praised, their praise of her was undoubtedly sincere. When she was young, she was described as perpulchra—more than beautiful. When she was around 30, Bernard de Ventadour, a noted troubadour, called her "gracious, lovely, the embodiment of charm," extolling her "lovely eyes and noble countenance" and declaring that she was "one meet to crown the state of any king." William of Newburgh emphasised the charms of her person, and even in her old age Richard of Devizes described her as beautiful, while Matthew Paris, writing in the 13thcentury, recalled her "admirable beauty."
In spite of all these words of praise, no one left a more detailed description of Eleanor; the colour of her hair and eyes, for example, are unknown. The effigy on her tomb shows a tall and large-boned woman with brown skin, though this may not be an accurate representation. Her seal of shows a woman with a slender figure, but this is probably an impersonal image.
Popular culture
Art
Judy Chicago's artistic installation The Dinner Party features a place setting for Eleanor, and she was portrayed by Frederick Sandys in his 1858 painting, Queen Eleanor.
Books and dramas
Henry and Eleanor are the main characters in James Goldman's 1966 play The Lion in Winter, which was made into a film in 1968 starring Peter O'Toole as Henry and Katharine Hepburn in the role of Eleanor, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama.
Jean Plaidy's novel The Courts of Love, fifth in the 'Queens of England' series, is a fictionalised autobiography of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Norah Lofts wrote a fictionalized biography of her, entitled in various editions Queen in Waiting or Eleanor the Queen, and including some romanticized episodes—starting off with the young Eleanor planning to elope with a young knight, who is killed out of hand by her guardian, in order to facilitate her marriage to the King's son.
The character Queen Elinor appears in William Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John, with other members of the family. On television, she has been portrayed in this play by Una Venning in the BBC Sunday Night Theatre version (1952) and by Mary Morris in the BBC Shakespeare version (1984).
Eleanor features in the novel Via Crucis (1899) by F. Marion Crawford.
Eleanor serves as an important allegorical figure in Ezra Pound's early Cantos.
In Sharon Kay Penman's Plantagenet novels, she figures prominently in When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance, and Devil's Brood, and also appears in Lionheart and A King's Ransom, both of which focus on the reign of her son, Richard, as king of England. Eleanor also appears briefly in the first novel of Penman's Welsh trilogy, Here Be Dragons. In Penman's historical mysteries, Eleanor, as Richard's regent, sends squire Justin de Quincy on various missions, often an investigation of a situation involving Prince John. The four published mysteries are the Queen's Man, Cruel as the Grave, Dragon's Lair, and Prince of Darkness.
Eleanor is the subject of A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, a children's novel by E.L. Konigsburg.
Historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick wrote a three-volume series about Eleanor: The Summer Queen (2013), The Winter Crown (2014) and The Autumn Throne (2016).
In The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle, retelling the ballad Robin Hood and Queen Katherine, made the queen Queen Eleanor to fit historically with the rest of the work.
She has also been introduced in The Royal Diaries series in the book "Crown Jewel of Aquitaine" by Kristiana Gregory.
She is a supporting character in Matrix by Lauren Groff.
Film, radio and television
Eleanor has featured in a number of screen versions of the Ivanhoe and Robin Hood stories. She has been played by Martita Hunt in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), Jill Esmond in the British TV adventure series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955–1960), Phyllis Neilson-Terry in the British TV adventure series Ivanhoe (1958), Yvonne Mitchell in the BBC TV drama series The Legend of Robin Hood (1975), Siân Phillips in the TV series Ivanhoe (1997), and Tusse Silberg in the TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood (1997). She was portrayed by Lynda Bellingham in the BBC series Robin Hood. Most recently, she was portrayed by Eileen Atkins in Robin Hood (2010).
In the 1964 film Becket, Eleanor is briefly played by Pamela Brown to Peter O'Toole's first performance as a young Henry II.
In the 1968 film The Lion in Winter, Eleanor is played by Katharine Hepburn, who won the third of her four Academy Awards for Best Actress for her portrayal, and Henry again is portrayed by O'Toole. The film is about the difficult relationship between them and the struggle of their three sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John for their father's favour and the succession. In the 2003 television film version, Eleanor was played by Glenn Close alongside Patrick Stewart as Henry.
She was portrayed by Mary Clare in the silent film Becket (1923), by Prudence Hyman in Richard the Lionheart (1962), and twice by Jane Lapotaire in the BBC TV drama series The Devil's Crown (1978) and again in Mike Walker's BBC Radio 4 series Plantagenet (2010). In the 2014 film Richard the Lionheart: Rebellion, Eleanor is played by Debbie Rochon.
Her life was portrayed on BBC Radio 4 in the drama series Eleanor Rising, with Rose Basista as Eleanor and Joel MacCormack as King Louis. The first series of five 15-minute episodes was broadcast in November 2020 and the second series in April 2021.
Music
Eleanor and Rosamund Clifford, as well as Henry IIand Rosamund's father, appear in Gaetano Donizetti's opera Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (libretto by Felice Romani), which was premiered in Florence, at the Teatro Pergola, in 1834.
Eleanor of Aquitaine is thought to be the queen of England mentioned in the poem "Were diu werlt alle min," used as the tenth movement of Carl Orff's famous cantata, Carmina Burana.
Flower and Hawk is a monodrama for soprano and orchestra, written by American composer, Carlisle Floyd that premiered in 1972, in which the soprano (Eleanor of Aquitaine) relives past memories of her time as queen, and at the end of the monodrama, hears the bells that toll for Henry II's death, and in turn, her freedom.
Queen Elanor's Confession, or Queen Eleanor's Confession, is Child ballad 156. Although the figures are intended as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, and William Marshall, the story is an entire invention.
Video games
In the 2019 video game expansion Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, Eleanor is a playable leader for the English and French civilizations.
Issue
See also
List of longest-reigning monarchs
Grandmother of Europe, sobriquet of Eleanor of Aquitaine and others
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
(for young readers)
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Further reading
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External links
The Eleanor Vase preserved at the Louvre
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1122 births
1204 deaths
12th-century French people
13th-century French people
12th-century English people
13th-century English people
12th-century French women
13th-century French women
12th-century English women
13th-century English women
12th-century viceregal rulers
12th-century women rulers
13th-century women rulers
Women in 12th-century warfare
French queens consort
English royal consorts
Countesses of Anjou
Countesses of Maine
Counts of Poitiers
Duchesses of Normandy
Dukes of Gascony
Duchesses of Aquitaine
House of Poitiers
French patrons of literature
Christians of the Second Crusade
People from Aquitaine
Regents of England
Burials at Fontevraud Abbey
Henry II of England
Women in medieval European warfare
Robin Hood characters
Women in war in the Middle East
Remarried royal consorts
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[
"Marriage leave is the legal right to enjoy leave of absence by an employee due to them getting married without loss of wages. Irish civil servants are entitled 5 days. In Malta, every employee is entitled to 2 days' marriage leave. In Vietnam, according to the Labor Code, an employee is entitled to 3 days of paid leave when they get married, and 1 day of paid leave when a child of theirs get married. They are also entitled to 1 day of unpaid leave when their father, mother, natural brother or sister gets married.\n\nSee also\nHoneymoon\n\nReferences\n\nMarriage\nIntimate relationships\nLabor\nHolidays\nSocial programs\nDemography\nFamily\nFamily law\nMarriage law",
"Get Married 2 is a 2009 Indonesian romantic comedy directed by Hanung Bramantyo and starring Nirina Zubir and Nino Fernandez. A sequel to the 2007 hit Get Married, it details the efforts of Mae and Rendy to have children.\n\nAlthough Bramantyo initially did not intend to make a sequel, he was convinced after reading the treatment by Cassandra Massardi. The film, in which most of the original cast returned, was released on 18 September and viewed by 1.2 million persons. Critical reception was mixed, although the film did receive an award at the 2010 Bandung Film Festival. Another sequel, Get Married 3, was released in 2011.\n\nPlot\nAfter four years of marriage, Mae (Nirina Zubir) and Rendy (Nino Fernandez) are childless. Meanwhile, her best friends Eman (Aming), Guntoro (Deddy Mahendra Desta) and Beni (Ringgo Agus Rahman) have already married and had children. This makes Mae feel pressured to quickly have a child and stresses her greatly. When Rendy forgets to come to a dinner celebrating their wedding anniversary, Mae is fed up and moves in with her parents, who try and convince her to leave Rendy.\n\nMae decides to try and work out her issues with Rendy, and the two begin working incessantly towards having a child. When that is unsuccessful, Mae decides that her tomboyish appearance is causing Rendy to be infertile. As such, she decides to surprise him by visiting his office after putting on make-up. However, she sees Rendy together with another woman, Vivi (Marissa Nasution) and walks out, saying that she wants a divorce. Rendy asks his mother (Ira Wibowo) to bring Mae back. However, both families fight, leaving Mae and Rendy separated.\n\nMae feels distraught without Rendy and often cries when she thinks nobody is watching. Eman, Guntoro, and Beni unsuccessfully try to cheer her up. Mae, trying to live independently, takes a job as a valet but faints at work; she discovers that she is pregnant. Rendy, not allowed to come near her, tasks the trio with watching over her. As Mae is very demanding and watching over her is very time consuming, Eman, Guntoro, and Beni are almost divorced by their wives. Mae furtively begins meeting with Rendy, as her parents still want her to divorce him. She discovers that he has not been having an affair, and they reunite. Mae later gives birth to triplets, as both families look on happily.\n\nProduction\nThe film was directed by Hanung Bramantyo, a Yogyakarta-born director who had recently directed numerous Islamic-themed films, including the blockbuster Ayat-Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love) the previous year. Bramantyo's betrothed, Zaskia Adya Mecca, worked part-time as a casting director. Bramantyo later stated that he was interested in comedies about marriage, generally considered a serious subject in Indonesia, as \"nobody understood marriage\", from the President to a pedicab driver.\n\nGet Married 2 was a sequel to Bramantyo's 2007 film, Get Married, which detailed how Mae and Rendy fell in love. The film had been a critical and commercial success, being viewed by 1.4 million people and winning Bramantyo a Citra Award for Best Director at the 2007 Indonesian Film Festival. Initially, Bramantyo did not want to make a sequel. However, when he read Cassandra Massardi's treatment, he agreed. Most of the main cast from the first film – Nirina Zubir, Ringgo Agus Rahman, Aming, and Deddy Mahendra Desta – reprised their original roles. However, the Indo actor Nino Fernandez replaced Richard Kevin as Rendy.\n\nThe rock band Slank was contracted to provide the soundtrack. Although the band had previously had negative experiences when acting in Generasi Biru (The Blue Generation; 2009), they agreed to work on Get Married 2 as they were not required to act. They recorded a total of twelve songs for the film, including two new ones.\n\nRelease and reception\nGet Married 2 was released on 18 September 2009, four days after Bramantyo's marriage with Mecca and towards the Eid ul-Fitr holidays. It was one of four Indonesian films released before the holidays, the others being Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 2 (When Love Prays 2), Preman in Love and the animated Meraih Mimpi (Chasing Dreams). Get Married 2 was a commercial success, being viewed by 1.2 million persons; it was the fourth best-selling Indonesian film of 2009, behind Ketika Cinta Bertasbih, Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 2, and Garuda di Dadaku (Garuda on My Chest). The film won Best Poster at the 2010 Bandung Film Festival.\n\nThe reviewer for the Bali Post found the film enjoyable and praised the cast's performances. The review in Suara Pembaruan found the film very similar to the first, and complained that the comedy trio of Rahman, Aming, and Desta – major characters in the first film – were underdeveloped in the sequel.\n\nGet Married 2 was followed by Get Married 3, directed by Monty Tiwa and released in 2011. It followed Mae and Rendy's struggle to raise their triplets, with both families attempting to exert control. In the third instalment, a Pribumi actor, Fedi Nuril, played Rendy.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links\n\n2009 romantic comedy films\n2009 films\nFilms directed by Hanung Bramantyo\nIndonesian films\nIndonesian sequel films\nIndonesian romantic comedy films"
] |
[
"Eleanor of Aquitaine",
"First marriage",
"Who did she marry?",
"Louis VII of France",
"When did they get married?",
"On 25 July 1137"
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C_303f8b49f620446b944741385de7fc82_0
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Where did they get married?
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Where did Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France get married?
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Eleanor of Aquitaine
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On 25 July 1137 Louis VII of France and Eleanor were married in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux by the Archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine. However, there was a catch: the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both King of the Franks and Duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives. Louis's tenure as Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while Prince Louis and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. Thus he became King Louis VII of France. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned King and Queen of the Franks on Christmas Day of the same year. Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provencal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticized by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behavior baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cite Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake. CANNOTANSWER
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in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux
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Eleanor of Aquitaine ( – 1 April 1204; , ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1137 until her death in 1204. As the heir of the House of Poitiers, rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. She was patron of literary figures such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. She was also known to have led armies several times in her life and was a key leading figure of the unsuccessful Second Crusade.
Eleanor was the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine. She became duchess upon her father's death in April 1137, and three months later she married Louis, son of her guardian King Louis VI of France. A few weeks later, Prince Louis became the French king. They had two daughters, Marie and Alix. As queen of France, Eleanor participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. Soon afterwards, she sought an annulment of her marriage, but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III. Eventually, Louis agreed to an annulment, as 15 years of marriage had not produced a son. The marriage was annulled on 21 March 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate, custody was awarded to Louis, and Eleanor's lands were restored to her.
As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to her third cousin Henry, Duke of Normandy. The couple married on Whitsun, 18 May 1152. Henry and Eleanor became king and queen of England in 1154. They had five sons and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting the revolt of their eldest son, Henry, against him. She was not released until 6 July 1189, when her husband died and their third son, Richard I, ascended the throne. As queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade. She lived well into the reign of her youngest son, John.
Early life
Eleanor's year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124. On the other hand, some chronicles mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor's fourteenth birthday in 1136. This, and her known age of 82 at her death make 1122 the most likely year of her birth. Her parents almost certainly married in 1121. Her birthplace may have been Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l'Autise, where her mother and brother died when Eleanor was 6 or 8.
Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l'Isle Bouchard, who was William IX's longtime mistress as well as Eleanor's maternal grandmother. Her parents' marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather WilliamIX.
Eleanor is said to have been named for her mother Aenor and called Aliénor from the Latin Alia Aenor, which means the other Aenor. It became Eléanor in the langues d'oïl of northern France and Eleanor in English. There was, however, another prominent Eleanor before her—Eleanor of Normandy, an aunt of William the Conqueror, who lived a century earlier than Eleanor of Aquitaine. In Paris as the queen of France, she was called Helienordis, her honorific name as written in the Latin epistles.
By all accounts, Eleanor's father ensured that she had the best possible education. Eleanor came to learn arithmetic, the constellations, and history. She also learned domestic skills such as household management and the needle arts of embroidery, needlepoint, sewing, spinning, and weaving. Eleanor developed skills in conversation, dancing, games such as backgammon, checkers, and chess, playing the harp, and singing. Although her native tongue was Poitevin, she was taught to read and speak Latin, was well versed in music and literature, and schooled in riding, hawking, and hunting. Eleanor was extroverted, lively, intelligent, and strong-willed. Her four-year-old brother William Aigret and their mother died at the castle of Talmont on Aquitaine's Atlantic coast in the spring of 1130. Eleanor became the heir presumptive to her father's domains. The Duchy of Aquitaine was the largest and richest province of France. Poitou, where Eleanor spent most of her childhood, and Aquitaine together was almost one-third the size of modern France. Eleanor had only one other legitimate sibling, a younger sister named Aelith (also called Petronilla). Her half-brother Joscelin was acknowledged by WilliamX as a son, but not as his heir. The notion that she had another half-brother, William, has been discredited. Later, during the first four years of HenryII's reign, her siblings joined Eleanor's royal household.
Inheritance
In 1137 Duke William X left Poitiers for Bordeaux and took his daughters with him. Upon reaching Bordeaux, he left them in the charge of the archbishop of Bordeaux, one of his few loyal vassals. The duke then set out for the Shrine of Saint James of Compostela in the company of other pilgrims. However, he died on Good Friday of that year (9April).
Eleanor, aged 12 to 15, then became the duchess of Aquitaine, and thus the most eligible heiress in Europe. As these were the days when kidnapping an heiress was seen as a viable option for obtaining a title, William dictated a will on the very day he died that bequeathed his domains to Eleanor and appointed King Louis VI of France as her guardian. William requested of the king that he take care of both the lands and the duchess, and find her a suitable husband. However, until a husband was found, the king had the legal right to Eleanor's lands. The duke also insisted to his companions that his death be kept a secret until Louis was informed; the men were to journey from Saint James of Compostela across the Pyrenees as quickly as possible to call at Bordeaux to notify the archbishop, then to make all speed to Paris to inform the king.
The king of France, known as Louis the Fat, was also gravely ill at that time, suffering from a bout of dysentery from which he appeared unlikely to recover. Yet despite his impending death, Louis's mind remained clear. His eldest surviving son, Louis, had originally been destined for monastic life, but had become the heir apparent when the firstborn, Philip, died in a riding accident in 1131.
The death of William, one of the king's most powerful vassals, made available the most desirable duchy in France. While presenting a solemn and dignified face to the grieving Aquitainian messengers, Louis exulted when they departed. Rather than act as guardian to the duchess and duchy, he decided to marry the duchess to his 17-year-old heir and bring Aquitaine under the control of the French crown, thereby greatly increasing the power and prominence of France and its ruling family, the House of Capet. Within hours, the king had arranged for his son Louis to be married to Eleanor, with Abbot Suger in charge of the wedding arrangements. Louis was sent to Bordeaux with an escort of 500 knights, along with Abbot Suger, Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Count Ralph.
First marriage
On 25 July 1137, Eleanor and Louis were married in the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux by the archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as duke and duchess of Aquitaine. It was agreed that the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both king of France and duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase {fr}, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives.
Louis's tenure as count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while he and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned king and queen of France on Christmas Day of the same year.
Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provençal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticised by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behaviour baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cité Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake.
Conflict
Louis soon came into violent conflict with Pope Innocent II. In 1141, the Archbishopric of Bourges became vacant, and the king put forward as a candidate one of his chancellors, Cadurc, while vetoing the one suitable candidate, Pierre de la Chatre, who was promptly elected by the canons of Bourges and consecrated by the Pope. Louis accordingly bolted the gates of Bourges against the new bishop. The Pope, recalling similar attempts by William X to exile supporters of Innocent from Poitou and replace them with priests loyal to himself, blamed Eleanor, saying that Louis was only a child and should be taught manners. Outraged, Louis swore upon relics that so long as he lived Pierre should never enter Bourges. An interdict was thereupon imposed upon the king's lands, and Pierre was given refuge by Theobald II, Count of Champagne.
Louis became involved in a war with Count Theobald by permitting Raoul I, Count of Vermandois and seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife Eleanor of Blois, Theobald's sister, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, Eleanor's sister. Eleanor urged Louis to support her sister's marriage to Count Raoul. Theobald had also offended Louis by siding with the Pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (1142–44) and ended with the occupation of Champagne by the royal army. Louis was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of Vitry. More than a thousand people who sought refuge in the church there died in the flames. Horrified, and desiring an end to the war, Louis attempted to make peace with Theobald in exchange for his support in lifting the interdict on Raoul and Petronilla. This was duly lifted for long enough to allow Theobald's lands to be restored; it was then lowered once more when Raoul refused to repudiate Petronilla, prompting Louis to return to Champagne and ravage it once more.
In June 1144, the king and queen visited the newly built monastic church at Saint-Denis. While there, the queen met with Bernard of Clairvaux, demanding that he use his influence with the Pope to have the excommunication of Petronilla and Raoul lifted, in exchange for which King Louis would make concessions in Champagne and recognise Pierre de la Chatre as archbishop of Bourges. Dismayed at her attitude, Bernard scolded Eleanor for her lack of penitence and interference in matters of state. In response, Eleanor broke down and meekly excused her behaviour, claiming to be bitter because of her lack of children (her only recorded pregnancy at that time was in about 1138, but she miscarried). In response, Bernard became more kindly towards her: "My child, seek those things which make for peace. Cease to stir up the king against the Church, and urge upon him a better course of action. If you will promise to do this, I in return promise to entreat the merciful Lord to grant you offspring." In a matter of weeks, peace had returned to France: Theobald's provinces were returned and Pierre de la Chatre was installed as archbishop of Bourges. In April 1145, Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, Marie.
Louis, however, still burned with guilt over the massacre at Vitry and wished to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sins. In autumn 1145, Pope Eugene III requested that Louis lead a Crusade to the Middle East to rescue the Frankish states there from disaster. Accordingly, Louis declared on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges his intention of going on a crusade.
Crusade
Eleanor of Aquitaine also formally took up the cross symbolic of the Second Crusade during a sermon preached by Bernard of Clairvaux. In addition, she had been corresponding with her uncle Raymond, Prince of Antioch, who was seeking further protection from the French crown against the Saracens. Eleanor recruited some of her royal ladies-in-waiting for the campaign as well as 300 non-noble Aquitainian vassals. She insisted on taking part in the Crusades as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. The story that she and her ladies dressed as Amazons is disputed by historians, sometimes confused with the account of King Conrad's train of ladies during this campaign in Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. She left for the Second Crusade from Vézelay, the rumoured location of Mary Magdalene's grave, in June 1147.
The Crusade itself achieved little. Louis was a weak and ineffectual military leader with no skill for maintaining troop discipline or morale, or of making informed and logical tactical decisions. In eastern Europe, the French army was at times hindered by Manuel I Comnenus, the Byzantine Emperor, who feared that the Crusade would jeopardise the tenuous safety of his empire. Notwithstanding, during their three-week stay at Constantinople, Louis was fêted and Eleanor was much admired. She was compared with Penthesilea, mythical queen of the Amazons, by the Greek historian Nicetas Choniates. He added that she gained the epithet chrysopous (golden-foot) from the cloth of gold that decorated and fringed her robe. Louis and Eleanor stayed in the Philopation palace just outside the city walls.
From the moment the Crusaders entered Asia Minor, things began to go badly. The king and queen were still optimistic—the Byzantine Emperor had told them that King Conrad III of Germany had won a great victory against a Turkish army when in fact the German army had been almost completely destroyed at Dorylaeum. However, while camping near Nicea, the remnants of the German army, including a dazed and sick Conrad III, staggered past the French camp, bringing news of their disaster. The French, with what remained of the Germans, then began to march in increasingly disorganised fashion towards Antioch. They were in high spirits on Christmas Eve, when they chose to camp in a lush valley near Ephesus. Here they were ambushed by a Turkish detachment, but the French proceeded to slaughter this detachment and appropriate their camp.
Louis then decided to cross the Phrygian mountains directly in the hope of reaching Raymond of Poitiers in Antioch more quickly. As they ascended the mountains, however, the army and the king and queen were horrified to discover the unburied corpses of the Germans killed earlier.
On the day set for the crossing of Mount Cadmus, Louis chose to take charge of the rear of the column, where the unarmed pilgrims and the baggage trains marched. The vanguard, with which Queen Eleanor marched, was commanded by her Aquitainian vassal, Geoffrey de Rancon. Unencumbered by baggage, they reached the summit of Cadmus, where Rancon had been ordered to make camp for the night. Rancon, however, chose to continue on, deciding in concert with Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, Louis's uncle, that a nearby plateau would make a better campsite. Such disobedience was reportedly common.
Accordingly, by mid-afternoon, the rear of the column—believing the day's march to be nearly at an end—was dawdling. This resulted in the army becoming separated, with some having already crossed the summit and others still approaching it. In the ensuing Battle of Mount Cadmus, the Turks, who had been following and feinting for many days, seized their opportunity and attacked those who had not yet crossed the summit. The French, both soldiers and pilgrims, taken by surprise, were trapped. Those who tried to escape were caught and killed. Many men, horses, and much of the baggage were cast into the canyon below. The chronicler William of Tyre, writing between 1170 and 1184 and thus perhaps too long after the event to be considered historically accurate, placed the blame for this disaster firmly on the amount of baggage being carried, much of it reputedly belonging to Eleanor and her ladies, and the presence of non-combatants.
The king, having scorned royal apparel in favour of a simple pilgrim's tunic, escaped notice, unlike his bodyguards, whose skulls were brutally smashed and limbs severed. He reportedly "nimbly and bravely scaled a rock by making use of some tree roots which God had provided for his safety" and managed to survive the attack. Others were not so fortunate: "No aid came from Heaven, except that night fell."
Official blame for the disaster was placed on Geoffrey de Rancon, who had made the decision to continue, and it was suggested that he be hanged, a suggestion which the king ignored. Since Geoffrey was Eleanor's vassal, many believed that it was she who had been ultimately responsible for the change in plan, and thus the massacre. This suspicion of responsibility did nothing for her popularity in Christendom. She was also blamed for the size of the baggage train and the fact that her Aquitanian soldiers had marched at the front and thus were not involved in the fight. Continuing on, the army became split, with the commoners marching towards Antioch and the royalty travelling by sea. When most of the land army arrived, the king and queen had a dispute. Some, such as John of Salisbury and William of Tyre, say Eleanor's reputation was sullied by rumours of an affair with her uncle Raymond. However, this rumour may have been a ruse, as Raymond, through Eleanor, had been trying to induce Louis to use his army to attack the actual Muslim encampment at nearby Aleppo, gateway to retaking Edessa, which had all along, by papal decree, been the main objective of the Crusade. Although this was perhaps a better military plan, Louis was not keen to fight in northern Syria. One of Louis's avowed Crusade goals was to journey in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and he stated his intention to continue. Reputedly Eleanor then requested to stay with Raymond and brought up the matter of consanguinity—the fact that she and her husband, King Louis, were perhaps too closely related. Consanguinity was grounds for annulment in the medieval period. But rather than allowing her to stay, Louis took Eleanor from Antioch against her will and continued on to Jerusalem with his dwindling army.
Louis's refusal and his forcing her to accompany him humiliated Eleanor, and she maintained a low profile for the rest of the crusade. Louis's subsequent siege of Damascus in 1148 with his remaining army, reinforced by Conrad and Baldwin III of Jerusalem, achieved little. Damascus was a major wealthy trading centre and was under normal circumstances a potential threat, but the rulers of Jerusalem had recently entered into a truce with the city, which they then forswore. It was a gamble that did not pay off, and whether through military error or betrayal, the Damascus campaign was a failure. Louis's long march to Jerusalem and back north, which Eleanor was forced to join, debilitated his army and disheartened her knights; the divided Crusade armies could not overcome the Muslim forces, and the royal couple had to return home. The French royal family retreated to Jerusalem and then sailed to Rome and made their way back to Paris.
While in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor learned about maritime conventions developing there, which were the beginnings of what would become admiralty law. She introduced those conventions in her own lands on the island of Oléron in 1160 (with the "Rolls of Oléron") and later in England as well. She was also instrumental in developing trade agreements with Constantinople and ports of trade in the Holy Lands.
Annulment
Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged, and their differences were only exacerbated while they were abroad. Eleanor's purported relationship with her uncle Raymond, the ruler of Antioch, was a major source of discord. Eleanor supported her uncle's desire to re-capture the nearby County of Edessa, the objective of the Crusade. In addition, having been close to him in their youth, she now showed what was considered to be "excessive affection" towards her uncle. Raymond had plans to abduct Eleanor, to which she consented.
Home, however, was not easily reached. Louis and Eleanor, on separate ships due to their disagreements, were first attacked in May 1149 by Byzantine ships. Although they escaped this attempt unharmed, stormy weather drove Eleanor's ship far to the south to the Barbary Coast and caused her to lose track of her husband. Neither was heard of for over two months. In mid-July, Eleanor's ship finally reached Palermo in Sicily, where she discovered that she and her husband had both been given up for dead. She was given shelter and food by servants of King Roger II of Sicily, until the king eventually reached Calabria, and she set out to meet him there. Later, at King Roger's court in Potenza, she learned of the death of her uncle Raymond, who had been beheaded by Muslim forces in the Holy Land. This news appears to have forced a change of plans, for instead of returning to France from Marseilles, they went to see Pope Eugene III in Tusculum, where he had been driven five months before by a revolt of the Commune of Rome.
Eugene did not, as Eleanor had hoped, grant an annulment. Instead, he attempted to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, confirming the legality of their marriage. He proclaimed that no word could be spoken against it, and that it might not be dissolved under any pretext. He even arranged for Eleanor and Louis to sleep in the same bed. Thus was conceived their second child—not a son, but another daughter, Alix of France.
The marriage was now doomed. Still without a son and in danger of being left with no male heir, as well as facing substantial opposition to Eleanor from many of his barons and her own desire for annulment, Louis bowed to the inevitable. On 11 March 1152, they met at the royal castle of Beaugency to dissolve the marriage. Hugues de Toucy, archbishop of Sens, presided, and Louis and Eleanor were both present, as were the archbishop of Bordeaux and Rouen. Archbishop Samson of Reims acted for Eleanor.
On 21 March, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis' third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France. Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. Children born to a marriage that was later annulled were not at risk of being "bastardised," because "[w]here parties married in good faith, without knowledge of an impediment, ... children of the marriage were legitimate." [Berman 228.] ) Custody of them was awarded to King Louis. Archbishop Samson received assurances from Louis that Eleanor's lands would be restored to her.
Second marriage
As Eleanor travelled to Poitiers, two lords—Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, brother of Henry II, Duke of Normandy—tried to kidnap and marry her to claim her lands. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to Henry, Duke of Normandy and future king of England, asking him to come at once to marry her. On 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry "without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank."
Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou, wife of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais, and they were also descended from King Robert II of France. A marriage between Henry and Eleanor's daughter Marie had earlier been declared impossible due to their status as third cousins once removed. It was rumoured by some that Eleanor had had an affair with Henry's own father, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, who had advised his son to avoid any involvement with her.
On 25 October 1154, Henry became king of England. A now heavily pregnant Eleanor, was crowned queen of England by Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 19 December 1154. She may not have been anointed on this occasion, however, because she had already been anointed in 1137. Over the next 13 years, she bore Henry five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan. John Speed, in his 1611 work History of Great Britain, mentions the possibility that Eleanor had a son named Philip, who died young. His sources no longer exist, and he alone mentions this birth.
Eleanor's marriage to Henry was reputed to be tumultuous and argumentative, although sufficiently cooperative to produce at least eight pregnancies. Henry was by no means faithful to his wife and had a reputation for philandering. Henry fathered other, illegitimate children throughout the marriage. Eleanor appears to have taken an ambivalent attitude towards these affairs. Geoffrey of York, for example, was an illegitimate son of Henry, but acknowledged by Henry as his child and raised at Westminster in the care of the queen.
During the period from Henry's accession to the birth of Eleanor's youngest son John, affairs in the kingdom were turbulent: Aquitaine, as was the norm, defied the authority of Henry as Eleanor's husband and answered only to their duchess. Attempts were made to claim Toulouse, the rightful inheritance of Eleanor's grandmother Philippa of Toulouse, but they ended in failure. A bitter feud arose between the king and Thomas Becket, initially his chancellor and closest adviser and later the archbishop of Canterbury. Louis of France had remarried and been widowed; he married for the third time and finally fathered a long-hoped-for son, Philip Augustus, also known as Dieudonné—God-given). "Young Henry," son of Henry and Eleanor, wed Margaret, daughter of Louis from his second marriage. Little is known of Eleanor's involvement in these events. It is certain that by late 1166, Henry's notorious affair with Rosamund Clifford had become known, and Eleanor's marriage to Henry appears to have become terminally strained.
In 1167, Eleanor's third daughter, Matilda, married Henry the Lion of Saxony. Eleanor remained in England with her daughter for the year prior to Matilda's departure for Normandy in September. In December, Eleanor gathered her movable possessions in England and transported them on several ships to Argentan. Christmas was celebrated at the royal court there, and she appears to have agreed to a separation from Henry. She certainly left for her own city of Poitiers immediately after Christmas. Henry did not stop her; on the contrary, he and his army personally escorted her there before attacking a castle belonging to the rebellious Lusignan family. Henry then went about his own business outside Aquitaine, leaving Earl Patrick, his regional military commander, as her protective custodian. When Patrick was killed in a skirmish, Eleanor, who proceeded to ransom his captured nephew, the young William Marshal, was left in control of her lands.
The Court of Love in Poitiers
Of all her influence on culture, Eleanor's time in Poitiers between 1168 and 1173 was perhaps the most critical, yet very little is known about it. Henry II was elsewhere, attending to his own affairs after escorting Eleanor there. Some believe that Eleanor's court in Poitiers was the "Court of Love" where Eleanor and her daughter Marie meshed and encouraged the ideas of troubadours, chivalry, and courtly love into a single court. It may have been largely to teach manners, something the French courts would be known for in later generations. Yet the existence and reasons for this court are debated.
In The Art of Courtly Love, Andreas Capellanus, Andrew the chaplain, refers to the court of Poitiers. He claims that Eleanor, her daughter Marie, Ermengarde, Viscountess of Narbonne, and Isabelle of Flanders would sit and listen to the quarrels of lovers and act as a jury to the questions of the court that revolved around acts of romantic love. He records some twenty-one cases, the most famous of them being a problem posed to the women about whether true love can exist in marriage. According to Capellanus, the women decided that it was not at all likely.
Some scholars believe that the "court of love" probably never existed since the only evidence for it is Andreas Capellanus' book. To strengthen their argument, they state that there is no other evidence that Marie ever stayed with her mother in Poitiers. Andreas wrote for the court of the king of France, where Eleanor was not held in esteem. Polly Schroyer Brooks, the author of a non-academic biography of Eleanor, suggests that the court did exist, but that it was not taken very seriously, and that acts of courtly love were just a "parlour game" made up by Eleanor and Marie in order to place some order over the young courtiers living there.
There is no claim that Eleanor invented courtly love, for it was a concept that had begun to grow before Eleanor's court arose. All that can be said is that her court at Poitiers was most likely a catalyst for the increased popularity of courtly love literature in the Western European regions. Amy Kelly, in her article, "Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Courts of Love," gives a very plausible description of the origins of the rules of Eleanor's court: "In the Poitevin code, man is the property, the very thing of woman; whereas a precisely contrary state of things existed in the adjacent realms of the two kings from whom the reigning duchess of Aquitaine was estranged."
Revolt and capture
In March 1173, aggrieved at his lack of power and egged on by Henry's enemies, his son by the same name, the younger Henry, launched the Revolt of 1173–1174. He fled to Paris. From there, "the younger Henry, devising evil against his father from every side by the advice of the French king, went secretly into Aquitaine where his two youthful brothers, Richard and Geoffrey, were living with their mother, and with her connivance, so it is said, he incited them to join him." One source claimed that the queen sent her younger sons to France "to join with him against their father the king." Once her sons had left for Paris, Eleanor may have encouraged the lords of the south to rise up and support them.
Sometime between the end of March and the beginning of May, Eleanor left Poitiers, but was arrested and sent to the king at Rouen. The king did not announce the arrest publicly; for the next year, the queen's whereabouts were unknown. On 8 July 1174, Henry and Eleanor took ship for England from Barfleur. As soon as they disembarked at Southampton, Eleanor was taken either to Winchester Castle or Sarum Castle and held there.
Years of imprisonment 1173–1189
Eleanor was imprisoned for the next 16 years, much of the time in various locations in England. During her imprisonment, Eleanor became more and more distant from her sons, especially from Richard, who had always been her favourite. She did not have the opportunity to see her sons very often during her imprisonment, though she was released for special occasions such as Christmas. About four miles from Shrewsbury and close by Haughmond Abbey is "Queen Eleanor's Bower", the remains of a triangular castle which is believed to have been one of her prisons.
Henry lost the woman reputed to be his great love, Rosamund Clifford, in 1176. He had met her in 1166 and had begun their liaison in 1173, supposedly contemplating divorce from Eleanor. This notorious affair caused a monkish scribe to transcribe Rosamund's name in Latin to "Rosa Immundi", or "Rose of Unchastity". The king had many mistresses, but although he treated earlier liaisons discreetly, he flaunted Rosamund. He may have done so to provoke Eleanor into seeking an annulment, but if so, the queen disappointed him. Nevertheless, rumours persisted, perhaps assisted by Henry's camp, that Eleanor had poisoned Rosamund. It is also speculated that Eleanor placed Rosamund in a bathtub and had an old woman cut Rosamund's arms. Henry donated much money to Godstow Nunnery in Oxfordshire, where Rosamund was buried.
In 1183, the young King Henry tried again to force his father to hand over some of his patrimony. In debt and refused control of Normandy, he tried to ambush his father at Limoges. He was joined by troops sent by his brother Geoffrey and Philip II of France. Henry II's troops besieged the town, forcing his son to flee. After wandering aimlessly through Aquitaine, Henry the Younger caught dysentery. On Saturday, 11 June 1183, the young king realized he was dying and was overcome with remorse for his sins. When his father's ring was sent to him, he begged that his father would show mercy to his mother, and that all his companions would plead with Henry to set her free. Henry II sent Thomas of Earley, Archdeacon of Wells, to break the news to Eleanor at Sarum. Eleanor reputedly had a dream in which she foresaw her son Henry's death. In 1193, she would tell Pope Celestine III that she was tortured by his memory.
King Philip II of France claimed that certain properties in Normandy belonged to his half-sister Margaret, widow of the young Henry, but Henry insisted that they had once belonged to Eleanor and would revert to her upon her son's death. For this reason Henry summoned Eleanor to Normandy in the late summer of 1183. She stayed in Normandy for six months. This was the beginning of a period of greater freedom for the still-supervised Eleanor. Eleanor went back to England probably early in 1184. Over the next few years Eleanor often travelled with her husband and was sometimes associated with him in the government of the realm, but still had a custodian so that she was not free.
Widowhood
Upon the death of her husband Henry II on 6 July 1189, Richard I was the undisputed heir. One of his first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders to release Eleanor from prison; he found upon his arrival that her custodians had already released her. Eleanor rode to Westminster and received the oaths of fealty from many lords and prelates on behalf of the king. She ruled England in Richard's name, signing herself "Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England." On 13August 1189, Richard sailed from Barfleur to Portsmouth and was received with enthusiasm. Between 1190 and 1194, Richard was absent from England, engaged in the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1192, and then held in captivity by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
During Richard's absence, royal authority in England was represented by a Council of Regency in conjunction with a succession of chief justiciars—William de Longchamp (1190–1191), Walter deCoutances (1191–1193), and finally Hubert Walter. Although Eleanor held no formal office in England during this period, she arrived in England in the company of Coutances in June 1191, and for the remainder of Richard's absence, she exercised a considerable degree of influence over the affairs of England as well as the conduct of Prince John. Eleanor played a key role in raising the ransom demanded from England by HenryVI and in the negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor that eventually secured Richard's release. Evidence of the influence she wielded can also be found within the numerous letters she wrote to Pope Celestine III regarding Richard's captivity. Her letter dated 1193, presents her strong expressions of personal suffering as a result of Richard's captivity and informs the Pope that in her grief she is "wasted away by sorrow".
Eleanor survived Richard and lived well into the reign of her youngest son, King John. In 1199, under the terms of a truce between King PhilipII and King John, it was agreed that Philip's 12-year-old heir-apparent Louis would be married to one of John's nieces, daughters of his sister Eleanor of England, queen of Castile. John instructed his mother to travel to Castile to select one of the princesses. Now 77, Eleanor set out from Poitiers. Just outside Poitiers she was ambushed and held captive by Hugh IX of Lusignan, whose lands had been sold to HenryII by his forebears. Eleanor secured her freedom by agreeing to his demands. She continued south, crossed the Pyrenees, and travelled through the kingdoms of Navarre and Castile, arriving in Castile before the end of January 1200.
Eleanor's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Castile, had two remaining unmarried daughters, Urraca and Blanche. Eleanor selected the younger daughter, Blanche. She stayed for two months at the Castilian court, then late in March journeyed with granddaughter Blanche back across the Pyrenees. She celebrated Easter in Bordeaux, where the famous warrior Mercadier came to her court. It was decided that he would escort the queen and princess north. "On the second day in Easter week, he was slain in the city by a man-at-arms in the service of Brandin," a rival mercenary captain. This tragedy was too much for the elderly queen, who was fatigued and unable to continue to Normandy. She and Blanche rode in easy stages to the valley of the Loire, and she entrusted Blanche to the archbishop of Bordeaux, who took over as her escort. The exhausted Eleanor went to Fontevraud, where she remained. In early summer, Eleanor was ill, and John visited her at Fontevraud.
Eleanor was again unwell in early 1201. When war broke out between John and Philip, Eleanor declared her support for John and set out from Fontevraud to her capital Poitiers to prevent her grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, posthumous son of Eleanor's son Geoffrey and John's rival for the English throne, from taking control. Arthur learned of her whereabouts and besieged her in the castle of Mirebeau. As soon as John heard of this, he marched south, overcame the besiegers, and captured the 15-year-old Arthur, and probably his sister Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany, whom Eleanor had raised with Richard. Eleanor then returned to Fontevraud where she took the veil as a nun.
Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey next to her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible and is decorated with representations of magnificent jewellery; such effigies were rare, and Eleanor's is one of the finest of the few that survive from this period. However, during the French Revolution the abbey of Fontevraud was sacked and the tombs were disturbed and vandalised - consequently the bones of Eleanor, Henry, Richard, Joana and Isabella of Angoulême were exhumed and scattered, never to be recovered. By the time of her death she had outlived all of her children except for King John of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile.
Appearance
Contemporary sources praise Eleanor's beauty. Even in an era when ladies of the nobility were excessively praised, their praise of her was undoubtedly sincere. When she was young, she was described as perpulchra—more than beautiful. When she was around 30, Bernard de Ventadour, a noted troubadour, called her "gracious, lovely, the embodiment of charm," extolling her "lovely eyes and noble countenance" and declaring that she was "one meet to crown the state of any king." William of Newburgh emphasised the charms of her person, and even in her old age Richard of Devizes described her as beautiful, while Matthew Paris, writing in the 13thcentury, recalled her "admirable beauty."
In spite of all these words of praise, no one left a more detailed description of Eleanor; the colour of her hair and eyes, for example, are unknown. The effigy on her tomb shows a tall and large-boned woman with brown skin, though this may not be an accurate representation. Her seal of shows a woman with a slender figure, but this is probably an impersonal image.
Popular culture
Art
Judy Chicago's artistic installation The Dinner Party features a place setting for Eleanor, and she was portrayed by Frederick Sandys in his 1858 painting, Queen Eleanor.
Books and dramas
Henry and Eleanor are the main characters in James Goldman's 1966 play The Lion in Winter, which was made into a film in 1968 starring Peter O'Toole as Henry and Katharine Hepburn in the role of Eleanor, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama.
Jean Plaidy's novel The Courts of Love, fifth in the 'Queens of England' series, is a fictionalised autobiography of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Norah Lofts wrote a fictionalized biography of her, entitled in various editions Queen in Waiting or Eleanor the Queen, and including some romanticized episodes—starting off with the young Eleanor planning to elope with a young knight, who is killed out of hand by her guardian, in order to facilitate her marriage to the King's son.
The character Queen Elinor appears in William Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John, with other members of the family. On television, she has been portrayed in this play by Una Venning in the BBC Sunday Night Theatre version (1952) and by Mary Morris in the BBC Shakespeare version (1984).
Eleanor features in the novel Via Crucis (1899) by F. Marion Crawford.
Eleanor serves as an important allegorical figure in Ezra Pound's early Cantos.
In Sharon Kay Penman's Plantagenet novels, she figures prominently in When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance, and Devil's Brood, and also appears in Lionheart and A King's Ransom, both of which focus on the reign of her son, Richard, as king of England. Eleanor also appears briefly in the first novel of Penman's Welsh trilogy, Here Be Dragons. In Penman's historical mysteries, Eleanor, as Richard's regent, sends squire Justin de Quincy on various missions, often an investigation of a situation involving Prince John. The four published mysteries are the Queen's Man, Cruel as the Grave, Dragon's Lair, and Prince of Darkness.
Eleanor is the subject of A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, a children's novel by E.L. Konigsburg.
Historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick wrote a three-volume series about Eleanor: The Summer Queen (2013), The Winter Crown (2014) and The Autumn Throne (2016).
In The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle, retelling the ballad Robin Hood and Queen Katherine, made the queen Queen Eleanor to fit historically with the rest of the work.
She has also been introduced in The Royal Diaries series in the book "Crown Jewel of Aquitaine" by Kristiana Gregory.
She is a supporting character in Matrix by Lauren Groff.
Film, radio and television
Eleanor has featured in a number of screen versions of the Ivanhoe and Robin Hood stories. She has been played by Martita Hunt in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), Jill Esmond in the British TV adventure series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955–1960), Phyllis Neilson-Terry in the British TV adventure series Ivanhoe (1958), Yvonne Mitchell in the BBC TV drama series The Legend of Robin Hood (1975), Siân Phillips in the TV series Ivanhoe (1997), and Tusse Silberg in the TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood (1997). She was portrayed by Lynda Bellingham in the BBC series Robin Hood. Most recently, she was portrayed by Eileen Atkins in Robin Hood (2010).
In the 1964 film Becket, Eleanor is briefly played by Pamela Brown to Peter O'Toole's first performance as a young Henry II.
In the 1968 film The Lion in Winter, Eleanor is played by Katharine Hepburn, who won the third of her four Academy Awards for Best Actress for her portrayal, and Henry again is portrayed by O'Toole. The film is about the difficult relationship between them and the struggle of their three sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John for their father's favour and the succession. In the 2003 television film version, Eleanor was played by Glenn Close alongside Patrick Stewart as Henry.
She was portrayed by Mary Clare in the silent film Becket (1923), by Prudence Hyman in Richard the Lionheart (1962), and twice by Jane Lapotaire in the BBC TV drama series The Devil's Crown (1978) and again in Mike Walker's BBC Radio 4 series Plantagenet (2010). In the 2014 film Richard the Lionheart: Rebellion, Eleanor is played by Debbie Rochon.
Her life was portrayed on BBC Radio 4 in the drama series Eleanor Rising, with Rose Basista as Eleanor and Joel MacCormack as King Louis. The first series of five 15-minute episodes was broadcast in November 2020 and the second series in April 2021.
Music
Eleanor and Rosamund Clifford, as well as Henry IIand Rosamund's father, appear in Gaetano Donizetti's opera Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (libretto by Felice Romani), which was premiered in Florence, at the Teatro Pergola, in 1834.
Eleanor of Aquitaine is thought to be the queen of England mentioned in the poem "Were diu werlt alle min," used as the tenth movement of Carl Orff's famous cantata, Carmina Burana.
Flower and Hawk is a monodrama for soprano and orchestra, written by American composer, Carlisle Floyd that premiered in 1972, in which the soprano (Eleanor of Aquitaine) relives past memories of her time as queen, and at the end of the monodrama, hears the bells that toll for Henry II's death, and in turn, her freedom.
Queen Elanor's Confession, or Queen Eleanor's Confession, is Child ballad 156. Although the figures are intended as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, and William Marshall, the story is an entire invention.
Video games
In the 2019 video game expansion Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, Eleanor is a playable leader for the English and French civilizations.
Issue
See also
List of longest-reigning monarchs
Grandmother of Europe, sobriquet of Eleanor of Aquitaine and others
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
(for young readers)
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Further reading
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External links
The Eleanor Vase preserved at the Louvre
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1122 births
1204 deaths
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"For Better or Worse is an American comedy-drama series created and produced by playwright/director/producer Tyler Perry. The series is based on Perry's 2007 film Why Did I Get Married? and its 2010 sequel Why Did I Get Married Too? It premiered on TBS on November 25, 2011. Led by the comical, over-the-top antics of Marcus and Angela Williams, the ensemble follows three couples: Marcus and Angela, Joseph and Leslie, and Richard and Keisha, who are at various stages of their relationships, as they go through the ups-and-downs of married life and dating.\n\nOn February 20, 2013 it was announced that TBS had opted not to renew the series, and that the Oprah Winfrey Network had since ordered a third season as part of a new deal the network made with Perry.\n\nAfter leaving TBS, OWN had aired episodes of For Better or Worse from 2013–2017\n\nSeries overview\n\nEpisodes\n\nSeason 1 (2011)\n\nSeason 2 (2012)\n\nSeason 3 (2013–14)\n\nSeason 4 (2015)\n\nSeason 5 (2016)\n\nSeason 6 (2017)\n\nReferences\n\nLists of American sitcom episodes",
"Aavida Maa Aavide () is a 1998 Telugu romantic comedy film written and directed by E. V. V. Satyanarayana, produced by D. Kishore under the Jayabheri Art Productions banner, presented by M. Murali Mohan. It stars Nagarjuna, Tabu and Heera Rajagopal in the lead roles, with music composed by Sri. It was dubbed into Hindi, titled as Biwi No.2 (2000) and Tamil as Police Killadi.\n\nPlot\nIn Hyderabad, C. I. Vikranth is pressured by his father, to get married. During a police encounter, he meets another police inspector, S. I. Archana and due to circumstances both keep bumping into each other. Eventually they fall in love, get married and have a son. Sometime later, while transferring a criminal to court their jeep gets blasted and everyone in jeep die along with Archana and their son. Vikranth in unable to forget Archana and his son in spite of support from his father and Archana's mother to forget her (as she has died) and move on with his life.\n\nOne day they arrange his marriage with a young lady, Jhansi and hide about Vikranth's first marriage. They tell Vikranth that she has accepted marriage on her behalf even after learning about his past and get married. After a while, Archana and their son come back into Vikranth's life. Vikranth learns that she did not die and terrorists had kidnapped her, their son and their men before the jeep blasted. Meanwhile, Jhansi wants to shift to a new flat in the same locality where Archana also resides. Eventually, Archana and Jhansi become neighbours as Vikranth fails to convince Jhansi to not to move to the flat. Both women think that their husbands are look-alikes and that they are not married to one person. Vikranth does a double duty of managing both his wives so that they don't suspect him. Jhansi's cousin Kirloskar is a criminal who was once arrested by Archana and put behind bars. There he befriends another criminal, Murari who goes to jail due to Jhansi because of his multiple marriages and betrayal. These two keep interfering into Jhansi and Vikranth's life and try to expose the truth about Vikranth's first marriage. But they fail everytime. After many failed attempts, at last they expose Vikranth's betrayal to his respective wives. They get angry and think he has cheated on them and send divorce papers. Vikranth says that he loved Archana wholeheartedly while he was devastated by the deaths of his wife and son. His father had advised him to move on because he was living a solo life and he did not want him to live like his father after his mother's death when he was a child. Therefore, to respect his father and mother-in-law's wishes, he remarries Jhansi but he didn't know that Jhansi was unaware about his marriage to Archana. He says that he wanted to tell the truth to Jhansi but her father stopped him because Jhansi did not want to get married as she was a tomboy. He tells him to reveal the truth gradually to ease the matter. Archana and Jhansi say that they know about Vikranth's true nature and they want to divorce him because they cannot accept the each other. Finally, Vikranth admits he can accept only Archana as his wife, whereas Jhansi walks out with her father.\n\nCast\n\n Nagarjuna as C. I. Vikranth\n Tabu as S. I. Archana\n Heera Rajagopal as Jhansi\n Kota Srinivasa Rao as Murari\n Srihari as Kirloskar\n Brahmanandam as Head Constable Ramakoti\n Mallikarjuna Rao\n AVS as Hotel Owner\n Giri Babu as Vikranth's father\n Chakravarthy as Jhansi's father\n Rama Prabha as Archana's mother\n Garimalla Viswaswara Rao\n Gadiraju Subba Rao\n Ironleg Sastri\n Shanoor Sana as Head Constable Victoria\n Anuradha\n\nSoundtrack\n\nMusic composed by Sri. Lyrics written by Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry. Music released on ADITYA Music Company.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1998 films\nIndian films\nIndian romantic comedy films\n1998 romantic comedy films\nPolygamy in fiction\nComedy of remarriage films\nFilms directed by E. V. V. Satyanarayana\n1990s Telugu-language films"
] |
[
"Eleanor of Aquitaine",
"First marriage",
"Who did she marry?",
"Louis VII of France",
"When did they get married?",
"On 25 July 1137",
"Where did they get married?",
"in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux"
] |
C_303f8b49f620446b944741385de7fc82_0
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article aside from the fact that Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France got married in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux?
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Eleanor of Aquitaine
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On 25 July 1137 Louis VII of France and Eleanor were married in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux by the Archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine. However, there was a catch: the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both King of the Franks and Duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives. Louis's tenure as Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while Prince Louis and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. Thus he became King Louis VII of France. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned King and Queen of the Franks on Christmas Day of the same year. Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provencal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticized by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behavior baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cite Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake. CANNOTANSWER
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As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre.
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Eleanor of Aquitaine ( – 1 April 1204; , ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1137 until her death in 1204. As the heir of the House of Poitiers, rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. She was patron of literary figures such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. She was also known to have led armies several times in her life and was a key leading figure of the unsuccessful Second Crusade.
Eleanor was the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine. She became duchess upon her father's death in April 1137, and three months later she married Louis, son of her guardian King Louis VI of France. A few weeks later, Prince Louis became the French king. They had two daughters, Marie and Alix. As queen of France, Eleanor participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. Soon afterwards, she sought an annulment of her marriage, but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III. Eventually, Louis agreed to an annulment, as 15 years of marriage had not produced a son. The marriage was annulled on 21 March 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate, custody was awarded to Louis, and Eleanor's lands were restored to her.
As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to her third cousin Henry, Duke of Normandy. The couple married on Whitsun, 18 May 1152. Henry and Eleanor became king and queen of England in 1154. They had five sons and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting the revolt of their eldest son, Henry, against him. She was not released until 6 July 1189, when her husband died and their third son, Richard I, ascended the throne. As queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade. She lived well into the reign of her youngest son, John.
Early life
Eleanor's year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124. On the other hand, some chronicles mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor's fourteenth birthday in 1136. This, and her known age of 82 at her death make 1122 the most likely year of her birth. Her parents almost certainly married in 1121. Her birthplace may have been Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l'Autise, where her mother and brother died when Eleanor was 6 or 8.
Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l'Isle Bouchard, who was William IX's longtime mistress as well as Eleanor's maternal grandmother. Her parents' marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather WilliamIX.
Eleanor is said to have been named for her mother Aenor and called Aliénor from the Latin Alia Aenor, which means the other Aenor. It became Eléanor in the langues d'oïl of northern France and Eleanor in English. There was, however, another prominent Eleanor before her—Eleanor of Normandy, an aunt of William the Conqueror, who lived a century earlier than Eleanor of Aquitaine. In Paris as the queen of France, she was called Helienordis, her honorific name as written in the Latin epistles.
By all accounts, Eleanor's father ensured that she had the best possible education. Eleanor came to learn arithmetic, the constellations, and history. She also learned domestic skills such as household management and the needle arts of embroidery, needlepoint, sewing, spinning, and weaving. Eleanor developed skills in conversation, dancing, games such as backgammon, checkers, and chess, playing the harp, and singing. Although her native tongue was Poitevin, she was taught to read and speak Latin, was well versed in music and literature, and schooled in riding, hawking, and hunting. Eleanor was extroverted, lively, intelligent, and strong-willed. Her four-year-old brother William Aigret and their mother died at the castle of Talmont on Aquitaine's Atlantic coast in the spring of 1130. Eleanor became the heir presumptive to her father's domains. The Duchy of Aquitaine was the largest and richest province of France. Poitou, where Eleanor spent most of her childhood, and Aquitaine together was almost one-third the size of modern France. Eleanor had only one other legitimate sibling, a younger sister named Aelith (also called Petronilla). Her half-brother Joscelin was acknowledged by WilliamX as a son, but not as his heir. The notion that she had another half-brother, William, has been discredited. Later, during the first four years of HenryII's reign, her siblings joined Eleanor's royal household.
Inheritance
In 1137 Duke William X left Poitiers for Bordeaux and took his daughters with him. Upon reaching Bordeaux, he left them in the charge of the archbishop of Bordeaux, one of his few loyal vassals. The duke then set out for the Shrine of Saint James of Compostela in the company of other pilgrims. However, he died on Good Friday of that year (9April).
Eleanor, aged 12 to 15, then became the duchess of Aquitaine, and thus the most eligible heiress in Europe. As these were the days when kidnapping an heiress was seen as a viable option for obtaining a title, William dictated a will on the very day he died that bequeathed his domains to Eleanor and appointed King Louis VI of France as her guardian. William requested of the king that he take care of both the lands and the duchess, and find her a suitable husband. However, until a husband was found, the king had the legal right to Eleanor's lands. The duke also insisted to his companions that his death be kept a secret until Louis was informed; the men were to journey from Saint James of Compostela across the Pyrenees as quickly as possible to call at Bordeaux to notify the archbishop, then to make all speed to Paris to inform the king.
The king of France, known as Louis the Fat, was also gravely ill at that time, suffering from a bout of dysentery from which he appeared unlikely to recover. Yet despite his impending death, Louis's mind remained clear. His eldest surviving son, Louis, had originally been destined for monastic life, but had become the heir apparent when the firstborn, Philip, died in a riding accident in 1131.
The death of William, one of the king's most powerful vassals, made available the most desirable duchy in France. While presenting a solemn and dignified face to the grieving Aquitainian messengers, Louis exulted when they departed. Rather than act as guardian to the duchess and duchy, he decided to marry the duchess to his 17-year-old heir and bring Aquitaine under the control of the French crown, thereby greatly increasing the power and prominence of France and its ruling family, the House of Capet. Within hours, the king had arranged for his son Louis to be married to Eleanor, with Abbot Suger in charge of the wedding arrangements. Louis was sent to Bordeaux with an escort of 500 knights, along with Abbot Suger, Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Count Ralph.
First marriage
On 25 July 1137, Eleanor and Louis were married in the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux by the archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as duke and duchess of Aquitaine. It was agreed that the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both king of France and duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase {fr}, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives.
Louis's tenure as count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while he and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned king and queen of France on Christmas Day of the same year.
Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provençal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticised by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behaviour baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cité Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake.
Conflict
Louis soon came into violent conflict with Pope Innocent II. In 1141, the Archbishopric of Bourges became vacant, and the king put forward as a candidate one of his chancellors, Cadurc, while vetoing the one suitable candidate, Pierre de la Chatre, who was promptly elected by the canons of Bourges and consecrated by the Pope. Louis accordingly bolted the gates of Bourges against the new bishop. The Pope, recalling similar attempts by William X to exile supporters of Innocent from Poitou and replace them with priests loyal to himself, blamed Eleanor, saying that Louis was only a child and should be taught manners. Outraged, Louis swore upon relics that so long as he lived Pierre should never enter Bourges. An interdict was thereupon imposed upon the king's lands, and Pierre was given refuge by Theobald II, Count of Champagne.
Louis became involved in a war with Count Theobald by permitting Raoul I, Count of Vermandois and seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife Eleanor of Blois, Theobald's sister, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, Eleanor's sister. Eleanor urged Louis to support her sister's marriage to Count Raoul. Theobald had also offended Louis by siding with the Pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (1142–44) and ended with the occupation of Champagne by the royal army. Louis was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of Vitry. More than a thousand people who sought refuge in the church there died in the flames. Horrified, and desiring an end to the war, Louis attempted to make peace with Theobald in exchange for his support in lifting the interdict on Raoul and Petronilla. This was duly lifted for long enough to allow Theobald's lands to be restored; it was then lowered once more when Raoul refused to repudiate Petronilla, prompting Louis to return to Champagne and ravage it once more.
In June 1144, the king and queen visited the newly built monastic church at Saint-Denis. While there, the queen met with Bernard of Clairvaux, demanding that he use his influence with the Pope to have the excommunication of Petronilla and Raoul lifted, in exchange for which King Louis would make concessions in Champagne and recognise Pierre de la Chatre as archbishop of Bourges. Dismayed at her attitude, Bernard scolded Eleanor for her lack of penitence and interference in matters of state. In response, Eleanor broke down and meekly excused her behaviour, claiming to be bitter because of her lack of children (her only recorded pregnancy at that time was in about 1138, but she miscarried). In response, Bernard became more kindly towards her: "My child, seek those things which make for peace. Cease to stir up the king against the Church, and urge upon him a better course of action. If you will promise to do this, I in return promise to entreat the merciful Lord to grant you offspring." In a matter of weeks, peace had returned to France: Theobald's provinces were returned and Pierre de la Chatre was installed as archbishop of Bourges. In April 1145, Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, Marie.
Louis, however, still burned with guilt over the massacre at Vitry and wished to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sins. In autumn 1145, Pope Eugene III requested that Louis lead a Crusade to the Middle East to rescue the Frankish states there from disaster. Accordingly, Louis declared on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges his intention of going on a crusade.
Crusade
Eleanor of Aquitaine also formally took up the cross symbolic of the Second Crusade during a sermon preached by Bernard of Clairvaux. In addition, she had been corresponding with her uncle Raymond, Prince of Antioch, who was seeking further protection from the French crown against the Saracens. Eleanor recruited some of her royal ladies-in-waiting for the campaign as well as 300 non-noble Aquitainian vassals. She insisted on taking part in the Crusades as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. The story that she and her ladies dressed as Amazons is disputed by historians, sometimes confused with the account of King Conrad's train of ladies during this campaign in Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. She left for the Second Crusade from Vézelay, the rumoured location of Mary Magdalene's grave, in June 1147.
The Crusade itself achieved little. Louis was a weak and ineffectual military leader with no skill for maintaining troop discipline or morale, or of making informed and logical tactical decisions. In eastern Europe, the French army was at times hindered by Manuel I Comnenus, the Byzantine Emperor, who feared that the Crusade would jeopardise the tenuous safety of his empire. Notwithstanding, during their three-week stay at Constantinople, Louis was fêted and Eleanor was much admired. She was compared with Penthesilea, mythical queen of the Amazons, by the Greek historian Nicetas Choniates. He added that she gained the epithet chrysopous (golden-foot) from the cloth of gold that decorated and fringed her robe. Louis and Eleanor stayed in the Philopation palace just outside the city walls.
From the moment the Crusaders entered Asia Minor, things began to go badly. The king and queen were still optimistic—the Byzantine Emperor had told them that King Conrad III of Germany had won a great victory against a Turkish army when in fact the German army had been almost completely destroyed at Dorylaeum. However, while camping near Nicea, the remnants of the German army, including a dazed and sick Conrad III, staggered past the French camp, bringing news of their disaster. The French, with what remained of the Germans, then began to march in increasingly disorganised fashion towards Antioch. They were in high spirits on Christmas Eve, when they chose to camp in a lush valley near Ephesus. Here they were ambushed by a Turkish detachment, but the French proceeded to slaughter this detachment and appropriate their camp.
Louis then decided to cross the Phrygian mountains directly in the hope of reaching Raymond of Poitiers in Antioch more quickly. As they ascended the mountains, however, the army and the king and queen were horrified to discover the unburied corpses of the Germans killed earlier.
On the day set for the crossing of Mount Cadmus, Louis chose to take charge of the rear of the column, where the unarmed pilgrims and the baggage trains marched. The vanguard, with which Queen Eleanor marched, was commanded by her Aquitainian vassal, Geoffrey de Rancon. Unencumbered by baggage, they reached the summit of Cadmus, where Rancon had been ordered to make camp for the night. Rancon, however, chose to continue on, deciding in concert with Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, Louis's uncle, that a nearby plateau would make a better campsite. Such disobedience was reportedly common.
Accordingly, by mid-afternoon, the rear of the column—believing the day's march to be nearly at an end—was dawdling. This resulted in the army becoming separated, with some having already crossed the summit and others still approaching it. In the ensuing Battle of Mount Cadmus, the Turks, who had been following and feinting for many days, seized their opportunity and attacked those who had not yet crossed the summit. The French, both soldiers and pilgrims, taken by surprise, were trapped. Those who tried to escape were caught and killed. Many men, horses, and much of the baggage were cast into the canyon below. The chronicler William of Tyre, writing between 1170 and 1184 and thus perhaps too long after the event to be considered historically accurate, placed the blame for this disaster firmly on the amount of baggage being carried, much of it reputedly belonging to Eleanor and her ladies, and the presence of non-combatants.
The king, having scorned royal apparel in favour of a simple pilgrim's tunic, escaped notice, unlike his bodyguards, whose skulls were brutally smashed and limbs severed. He reportedly "nimbly and bravely scaled a rock by making use of some tree roots which God had provided for his safety" and managed to survive the attack. Others were not so fortunate: "No aid came from Heaven, except that night fell."
Official blame for the disaster was placed on Geoffrey de Rancon, who had made the decision to continue, and it was suggested that he be hanged, a suggestion which the king ignored. Since Geoffrey was Eleanor's vassal, many believed that it was she who had been ultimately responsible for the change in plan, and thus the massacre. This suspicion of responsibility did nothing for her popularity in Christendom. She was also blamed for the size of the baggage train and the fact that her Aquitanian soldiers had marched at the front and thus were not involved in the fight. Continuing on, the army became split, with the commoners marching towards Antioch and the royalty travelling by sea. When most of the land army arrived, the king and queen had a dispute. Some, such as John of Salisbury and William of Tyre, say Eleanor's reputation was sullied by rumours of an affair with her uncle Raymond. However, this rumour may have been a ruse, as Raymond, through Eleanor, had been trying to induce Louis to use his army to attack the actual Muslim encampment at nearby Aleppo, gateway to retaking Edessa, which had all along, by papal decree, been the main objective of the Crusade. Although this was perhaps a better military plan, Louis was not keen to fight in northern Syria. One of Louis's avowed Crusade goals was to journey in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and he stated his intention to continue. Reputedly Eleanor then requested to stay with Raymond and brought up the matter of consanguinity—the fact that she and her husband, King Louis, were perhaps too closely related. Consanguinity was grounds for annulment in the medieval period. But rather than allowing her to stay, Louis took Eleanor from Antioch against her will and continued on to Jerusalem with his dwindling army.
Louis's refusal and his forcing her to accompany him humiliated Eleanor, and she maintained a low profile for the rest of the crusade. Louis's subsequent siege of Damascus in 1148 with his remaining army, reinforced by Conrad and Baldwin III of Jerusalem, achieved little. Damascus was a major wealthy trading centre and was under normal circumstances a potential threat, but the rulers of Jerusalem had recently entered into a truce with the city, which they then forswore. It was a gamble that did not pay off, and whether through military error or betrayal, the Damascus campaign was a failure. Louis's long march to Jerusalem and back north, which Eleanor was forced to join, debilitated his army and disheartened her knights; the divided Crusade armies could not overcome the Muslim forces, and the royal couple had to return home. The French royal family retreated to Jerusalem and then sailed to Rome and made their way back to Paris.
While in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor learned about maritime conventions developing there, which were the beginnings of what would become admiralty law. She introduced those conventions in her own lands on the island of Oléron in 1160 (with the "Rolls of Oléron") and later in England as well. She was also instrumental in developing trade agreements with Constantinople and ports of trade in the Holy Lands.
Annulment
Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged, and their differences were only exacerbated while they were abroad. Eleanor's purported relationship with her uncle Raymond, the ruler of Antioch, was a major source of discord. Eleanor supported her uncle's desire to re-capture the nearby County of Edessa, the objective of the Crusade. In addition, having been close to him in their youth, she now showed what was considered to be "excessive affection" towards her uncle. Raymond had plans to abduct Eleanor, to which she consented.
Home, however, was not easily reached. Louis and Eleanor, on separate ships due to their disagreements, were first attacked in May 1149 by Byzantine ships. Although they escaped this attempt unharmed, stormy weather drove Eleanor's ship far to the south to the Barbary Coast and caused her to lose track of her husband. Neither was heard of for over two months. In mid-July, Eleanor's ship finally reached Palermo in Sicily, where she discovered that she and her husband had both been given up for dead. She was given shelter and food by servants of King Roger II of Sicily, until the king eventually reached Calabria, and she set out to meet him there. Later, at King Roger's court in Potenza, she learned of the death of her uncle Raymond, who had been beheaded by Muslim forces in the Holy Land. This news appears to have forced a change of plans, for instead of returning to France from Marseilles, they went to see Pope Eugene III in Tusculum, where he had been driven five months before by a revolt of the Commune of Rome.
Eugene did not, as Eleanor had hoped, grant an annulment. Instead, he attempted to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, confirming the legality of their marriage. He proclaimed that no word could be spoken against it, and that it might not be dissolved under any pretext. He even arranged for Eleanor and Louis to sleep in the same bed. Thus was conceived their second child—not a son, but another daughter, Alix of France.
The marriage was now doomed. Still without a son and in danger of being left with no male heir, as well as facing substantial opposition to Eleanor from many of his barons and her own desire for annulment, Louis bowed to the inevitable. On 11 March 1152, they met at the royal castle of Beaugency to dissolve the marriage. Hugues de Toucy, archbishop of Sens, presided, and Louis and Eleanor were both present, as were the archbishop of Bordeaux and Rouen. Archbishop Samson of Reims acted for Eleanor.
On 21 March, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis' third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France. Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. Children born to a marriage that was later annulled were not at risk of being "bastardised," because "[w]here parties married in good faith, without knowledge of an impediment, ... children of the marriage were legitimate." [Berman 228.] ) Custody of them was awarded to King Louis. Archbishop Samson received assurances from Louis that Eleanor's lands would be restored to her.
Second marriage
As Eleanor travelled to Poitiers, two lords—Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, brother of Henry II, Duke of Normandy—tried to kidnap and marry her to claim her lands. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to Henry, Duke of Normandy and future king of England, asking him to come at once to marry her. On 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry "without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank."
Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou, wife of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais, and they were also descended from King Robert II of France. A marriage between Henry and Eleanor's daughter Marie had earlier been declared impossible due to their status as third cousins once removed. It was rumoured by some that Eleanor had had an affair with Henry's own father, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, who had advised his son to avoid any involvement with her.
On 25 October 1154, Henry became king of England. A now heavily pregnant Eleanor, was crowned queen of England by Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 19 December 1154. She may not have been anointed on this occasion, however, because she had already been anointed in 1137. Over the next 13 years, she bore Henry five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan. John Speed, in his 1611 work History of Great Britain, mentions the possibility that Eleanor had a son named Philip, who died young. His sources no longer exist, and he alone mentions this birth.
Eleanor's marriage to Henry was reputed to be tumultuous and argumentative, although sufficiently cooperative to produce at least eight pregnancies. Henry was by no means faithful to his wife and had a reputation for philandering. Henry fathered other, illegitimate children throughout the marriage. Eleanor appears to have taken an ambivalent attitude towards these affairs. Geoffrey of York, for example, was an illegitimate son of Henry, but acknowledged by Henry as his child and raised at Westminster in the care of the queen.
During the period from Henry's accession to the birth of Eleanor's youngest son John, affairs in the kingdom were turbulent: Aquitaine, as was the norm, defied the authority of Henry as Eleanor's husband and answered only to their duchess. Attempts were made to claim Toulouse, the rightful inheritance of Eleanor's grandmother Philippa of Toulouse, but they ended in failure. A bitter feud arose between the king and Thomas Becket, initially his chancellor and closest adviser and later the archbishop of Canterbury. Louis of France had remarried and been widowed; he married for the third time and finally fathered a long-hoped-for son, Philip Augustus, also known as Dieudonné—God-given). "Young Henry," son of Henry and Eleanor, wed Margaret, daughter of Louis from his second marriage. Little is known of Eleanor's involvement in these events. It is certain that by late 1166, Henry's notorious affair with Rosamund Clifford had become known, and Eleanor's marriage to Henry appears to have become terminally strained.
In 1167, Eleanor's third daughter, Matilda, married Henry the Lion of Saxony. Eleanor remained in England with her daughter for the year prior to Matilda's departure for Normandy in September. In December, Eleanor gathered her movable possessions in England and transported them on several ships to Argentan. Christmas was celebrated at the royal court there, and she appears to have agreed to a separation from Henry. She certainly left for her own city of Poitiers immediately after Christmas. Henry did not stop her; on the contrary, he and his army personally escorted her there before attacking a castle belonging to the rebellious Lusignan family. Henry then went about his own business outside Aquitaine, leaving Earl Patrick, his regional military commander, as her protective custodian. When Patrick was killed in a skirmish, Eleanor, who proceeded to ransom his captured nephew, the young William Marshal, was left in control of her lands.
The Court of Love in Poitiers
Of all her influence on culture, Eleanor's time in Poitiers between 1168 and 1173 was perhaps the most critical, yet very little is known about it. Henry II was elsewhere, attending to his own affairs after escorting Eleanor there. Some believe that Eleanor's court in Poitiers was the "Court of Love" where Eleanor and her daughter Marie meshed and encouraged the ideas of troubadours, chivalry, and courtly love into a single court. It may have been largely to teach manners, something the French courts would be known for in later generations. Yet the existence and reasons for this court are debated.
In The Art of Courtly Love, Andreas Capellanus, Andrew the chaplain, refers to the court of Poitiers. He claims that Eleanor, her daughter Marie, Ermengarde, Viscountess of Narbonne, and Isabelle of Flanders would sit and listen to the quarrels of lovers and act as a jury to the questions of the court that revolved around acts of romantic love. He records some twenty-one cases, the most famous of them being a problem posed to the women about whether true love can exist in marriage. According to Capellanus, the women decided that it was not at all likely.
Some scholars believe that the "court of love" probably never existed since the only evidence for it is Andreas Capellanus' book. To strengthen their argument, they state that there is no other evidence that Marie ever stayed with her mother in Poitiers. Andreas wrote for the court of the king of France, where Eleanor was not held in esteem. Polly Schroyer Brooks, the author of a non-academic biography of Eleanor, suggests that the court did exist, but that it was not taken very seriously, and that acts of courtly love were just a "parlour game" made up by Eleanor and Marie in order to place some order over the young courtiers living there.
There is no claim that Eleanor invented courtly love, for it was a concept that had begun to grow before Eleanor's court arose. All that can be said is that her court at Poitiers was most likely a catalyst for the increased popularity of courtly love literature in the Western European regions. Amy Kelly, in her article, "Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Courts of Love," gives a very plausible description of the origins of the rules of Eleanor's court: "In the Poitevin code, man is the property, the very thing of woman; whereas a precisely contrary state of things existed in the adjacent realms of the two kings from whom the reigning duchess of Aquitaine was estranged."
Revolt and capture
In March 1173, aggrieved at his lack of power and egged on by Henry's enemies, his son by the same name, the younger Henry, launched the Revolt of 1173–1174. He fled to Paris. From there, "the younger Henry, devising evil against his father from every side by the advice of the French king, went secretly into Aquitaine where his two youthful brothers, Richard and Geoffrey, were living with their mother, and with her connivance, so it is said, he incited them to join him." One source claimed that the queen sent her younger sons to France "to join with him against their father the king." Once her sons had left for Paris, Eleanor may have encouraged the lords of the south to rise up and support them.
Sometime between the end of March and the beginning of May, Eleanor left Poitiers, but was arrested and sent to the king at Rouen. The king did not announce the arrest publicly; for the next year, the queen's whereabouts were unknown. On 8 July 1174, Henry and Eleanor took ship for England from Barfleur. As soon as they disembarked at Southampton, Eleanor was taken either to Winchester Castle or Sarum Castle and held there.
Years of imprisonment 1173–1189
Eleanor was imprisoned for the next 16 years, much of the time in various locations in England. During her imprisonment, Eleanor became more and more distant from her sons, especially from Richard, who had always been her favourite. She did not have the opportunity to see her sons very often during her imprisonment, though she was released for special occasions such as Christmas. About four miles from Shrewsbury and close by Haughmond Abbey is "Queen Eleanor's Bower", the remains of a triangular castle which is believed to have been one of her prisons.
Henry lost the woman reputed to be his great love, Rosamund Clifford, in 1176. He had met her in 1166 and had begun their liaison in 1173, supposedly contemplating divorce from Eleanor. This notorious affair caused a monkish scribe to transcribe Rosamund's name in Latin to "Rosa Immundi", or "Rose of Unchastity". The king had many mistresses, but although he treated earlier liaisons discreetly, he flaunted Rosamund. He may have done so to provoke Eleanor into seeking an annulment, but if so, the queen disappointed him. Nevertheless, rumours persisted, perhaps assisted by Henry's camp, that Eleanor had poisoned Rosamund. It is also speculated that Eleanor placed Rosamund in a bathtub and had an old woman cut Rosamund's arms. Henry donated much money to Godstow Nunnery in Oxfordshire, where Rosamund was buried.
In 1183, the young King Henry tried again to force his father to hand over some of his patrimony. In debt and refused control of Normandy, he tried to ambush his father at Limoges. He was joined by troops sent by his brother Geoffrey and Philip II of France. Henry II's troops besieged the town, forcing his son to flee. After wandering aimlessly through Aquitaine, Henry the Younger caught dysentery. On Saturday, 11 June 1183, the young king realized he was dying and was overcome with remorse for his sins. When his father's ring was sent to him, he begged that his father would show mercy to his mother, and that all his companions would plead with Henry to set her free. Henry II sent Thomas of Earley, Archdeacon of Wells, to break the news to Eleanor at Sarum. Eleanor reputedly had a dream in which she foresaw her son Henry's death. In 1193, she would tell Pope Celestine III that she was tortured by his memory.
King Philip II of France claimed that certain properties in Normandy belonged to his half-sister Margaret, widow of the young Henry, but Henry insisted that they had once belonged to Eleanor and would revert to her upon her son's death. For this reason Henry summoned Eleanor to Normandy in the late summer of 1183. She stayed in Normandy for six months. This was the beginning of a period of greater freedom for the still-supervised Eleanor. Eleanor went back to England probably early in 1184. Over the next few years Eleanor often travelled with her husband and was sometimes associated with him in the government of the realm, but still had a custodian so that she was not free.
Widowhood
Upon the death of her husband Henry II on 6 July 1189, Richard I was the undisputed heir. One of his first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders to release Eleanor from prison; he found upon his arrival that her custodians had already released her. Eleanor rode to Westminster and received the oaths of fealty from many lords and prelates on behalf of the king. She ruled England in Richard's name, signing herself "Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England." On 13August 1189, Richard sailed from Barfleur to Portsmouth and was received with enthusiasm. Between 1190 and 1194, Richard was absent from England, engaged in the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1192, and then held in captivity by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
During Richard's absence, royal authority in England was represented by a Council of Regency in conjunction with a succession of chief justiciars—William de Longchamp (1190–1191), Walter deCoutances (1191–1193), and finally Hubert Walter. Although Eleanor held no formal office in England during this period, she arrived in England in the company of Coutances in June 1191, and for the remainder of Richard's absence, she exercised a considerable degree of influence over the affairs of England as well as the conduct of Prince John. Eleanor played a key role in raising the ransom demanded from England by HenryVI and in the negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor that eventually secured Richard's release. Evidence of the influence she wielded can also be found within the numerous letters she wrote to Pope Celestine III regarding Richard's captivity. Her letter dated 1193, presents her strong expressions of personal suffering as a result of Richard's captivity and informs the Pope that in her grief she is "wasted away by sorrow".
Eleanor survived Richard and lived well into the reign of her youngest son, King John. In 1199, under the terms of a truce between King PhilipII and King John, it was agreed that Philip's 12-year-old heir-apparent Louis would be married to one of John's nieces, daughters of his sister Eleanor of England, queen of Castile. John instructed his mother to travel to Castile to select one of the princesses. Now 77, Eleanor set out from Poitiers. Just outside Poitiers she was ambushed and held captive by Hugh IX of Lusignan, whose lands had been sold to HenryII by his forebears. Eleanor secured her freedom by agreeing to his demands. She continued south, crossed the Pyrenees, and travelled through the kingdoms of Navarre and Castile, arriving in Castile before the end of January 1200.
Eleanor's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Castile, had two remaining unmarried daughters, Urraca and Blanche. Eleanor selected the younger daughter, Blanche. She stayed for two months at the Castilian court, then late in March journeyed with granddaughter Blanche back across the Pyrenees. She celebrated Easter in Bordeaux, where the famous warrior Mercadier came to her court. It was decided that he would escort the queen and princess north. "On the second day in Easter week, he was slain in the city by a man-at-arms in the service of Brandin," a rival mercenary captain. This tragedy was too much for the elderly queen, who was fatigued and unable to continue to Normandy. She and Blanche rode in easy stages to the valley of the Loire, and she entrusted Blanche to the archbishop of Bordeaux, who took over as her escort. The exhausted Eleanor went to Fontevraud, where she remained. In early summer, Eleanor was ill, and John visited her at Fontevraud.
Eleanor was again unwell in early 1201. When war broke out between John and Philip, Eleanor declared her support for John and set out from Fontevraud to her capital Poitiers to prevent her grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, posthumous son of Eleanor's son Geoffrey and John's rival for the English throne, from taking control. Arthur learned of her whereabouts and besieged her in the castle of Mirebeau. As soon as John heard of this, he marched south, overcame the besiegers, and captured the 15-year-old Arthur, and probably his sister Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany, whom Eleanor had raised with Richard. Eleanor then returned to Fontevraud where she took the veil as a nun.
Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey next to her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible and is decorated with representations of magnificent jewellery; such effigies were rare, and Eleanor's is one of the finest of the few that survive from this period. However, during the French Revolution the abbey of Fontevraud was sacked and the tombs were disturbed and vandalised - consequently the bones of Eleanor, Henry, Richard, Joana and Isabella of Angoulême were exhumed and scattered, never to be recovered. By the time of her death she had outlived all of her children except for King John of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile.
Appearance
Contemporary sources praise Eleanor's beauty. Even in an era when ladies of the nobility were excessively praised, their praise of her was undoubtedly sincere. When she was young, she was described as perpulchra—more than beautiful. When she was around 30, Bernard de Ventadour, a noted troubadour, called her "gracious, lovely, the embodiment of charm," extolling her "lovely eyes and noble countenance" and declaring that she was "one meet to crown the state of any king." William of Newburgh emphasised the charms of her person, and even in her old age Richard of Devizes described her as beautiful, while Matthew Paris, writing in the 13thcentury, recalled her "admirable beauty."
In spite of all these words of praise, no one left a more detailed description of Eleanor; the colour of her hair and eyes, for example, are unknown. The effigy on her tomb shows a tall and large-boned woman with brown skin, though this may not be an accurate representation. Her seal of shows a woman with a slender figure, but this is probably an impersonal image.
Popular culture
Art
Judy Chicago's artistic installation The Dinner Party features a place setting for Eleanor, and she was portrayed by Frederick Sandys in his 1858 painting, Queen Eleanor.
Books and dramas
Henry and Eleanor are the main characters in James Goldman's 1966 play The Lion in Winter, which was made into a film in 1968 starring Peter O'Toole as Henry and Katharine Hepburn in the role of Eleanor, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama.
Jean Plaidy's novel The Courts of Love, fifth in the 'Queens of England' series, is a fictionalised autobiography of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Norah Lofts wrote a fictionalized biography of her, entitled in various editions Queen in Waiting or Eleanor the Queen, and including some romanticized episodes—starting off with the young Eleanor planning to elope with a young knight, who is killed out of hand by her guardian, in order to facilitate her marriage to the King's son.
The character Queen Elinor appears in William Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John, with other members of the family. On television, she has been portrayed in this play by Una Venning in the BBC Sunday Night Theatre version (1952) and by Mary Morris in the BBC Shakespeare version (1984).
Eleanor features in the novel Via Crucis (1899) by F. Marion Crawford.
Eleanor serves as an important allegorical figure in Ezra Pound's early Cantos.
In Sharon Kay Penman's Plantagenet novels, she figures prominently in When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance, and Devil's Brood, and also appears in Lionheart and A King's Ransom, both of which focus on the reign of her son, Richard, as king of England. Eleanor also appears briefly in the first novel of Penman's Welsh trilogy, Here Be Dragons. In Penman's historical mysteries, Eleanor, as Richard's regent, sends squire Justin de Quincy on various missions, often an investigation of a situation involving Prince John. The four published mysteries are the Queen's Man, Cruel as the Grave, Dragon's Lair, and Prince of Darkness.
Eleanor is the subject of A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, a children's novel by E.L. Konigsburg.
Historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick wrote a three-volume series about Eleanor: The Summer Queen (2013), The Winter Crown (2014) and The Autumn Throne (2016).
In The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle, retelling the ballad Robin Hood and Queen Katherine, made the queen Queen Eleanor to fit historically with the rest of the work.
She has also been introduced in The Royal Diaries series in the book "Crown Jewel of Aquitaine" by Kristiana Gregory.
She is a supporting character in Matrix by Lauren Groff.
Film, radio and television
Eleanor has featured in a number of screen versions of the Ivanhoe and Robin Hood stories. She has been played by Martita Hunt in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), Jill Esmond in the British TV adventure series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955–1960), Phyllis Neilson-Terry in the British TV adventure series Ivanhoe (1958), Yvonne Mitchell in the BBC TV drama series The Legend of Robin Hood (1975), Siân Phillips in the TV series Ivanhoe (1997), and Tusse Silberg in the TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood (1997). She was portrayed by Lynda Bellingham in the BBC series Robin Hood. Most recently, she was portrayed by Eileen Atkins in Robin Hood (2010).
In the 1964 film Becket, Eleanor is briefly played by Pamela Brown to Peter O'Toole's first performance as a young Henry II.
In the 1968 film The Lion in Winter, Eleanor is played by Katharine Hepburn, who won the third of her four Academy Awards for Best Actress for her portrayal, and Henry again is portrayed by O'Toole. The film is about the difficult relationship between them and the struggle of their three sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John for their father's favour and the succession. In the 2003 television film version, Eleanor was played by Glenn Close alongside Patrick Stewart as Henry.
She was portrayed by Mary Clare in the silent film Becket (1923), by Prudence Hyman in Richard the Lionheart (1962), and twice by Jane Lapotaire in the BBC TV drama series The Devil's Crown (1978) and again in Mike Walker's BBC Radio 4 series Plantagenet (2010). In the 2014 film Richard the Lionheart: Rebellion, Eleanor is played by Debbie Rochon.
Her life was portrayed on BBC Radio 4 in the drama series Eleanor Rising, with Rose Basista as Eleanor and Joel MacCormack as King Louis. The first series of five 15-minute episodes was broadcast in November 2020 and the second series in April 2021.
Music
Eleanor and Rosamund Clifford, as well as Henry IIand Rosamund's father, appear in Gaetano Donizetti's opera Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (libretto by Felice Romani), which was premiered in Florence, at the Teatro Pergola, in 1834.
Eleanor of Aquitaine is thought to be the queen of England mentioned in the poem "Were diu werlt alle min," used as the tenth movement of Carl Orff's famous cantata, Carmina Burana.
Flower and Hawk is a monodrama for soprano and orchestra, written by American composer, Carlisle Floyd that premiered in 1972, in which the soprano (Eleanor of Aquitaine) relives past memories of her time as queen, and at the end of the monodrama, hears the bells that toll for Henry II's death, and in turn, her freedom.
Queen Elanor's Confession, or Queen Eleanor's Confession, is Child ballad 156. Although the figures are intended as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, and William Marshall, the story is an entire invention.
Video games
In the 2019 video game expansion Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, Eleanor is a playable leader for the English and French civilizations.
Issue
See also
List of longest-reigning monarchs
Grandmother of Europe, sobriquet of Eleanor of Aquitaine and others
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
The Eleanor Vase preserved at the Louvre
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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"
] |
[
"Eleanor of Aquitaine",
"First marriage",
"Who did she marry?",
"Louis VII of France",
"When did they get married?",
"On 25 July 1137",
"Where did they get married?",
"in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre."
] |
C_303f8b49f620446b944741385de7fc82_0
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Why did she give him that gift?
| 5 |
Why did Eleanor of Aquitaine give Louis VII of France a rock crystal vase?
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Eleanor of Aquitaine
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On 25 July 1137 Louis VII of France and Eleanor were married in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux by the Archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine. However, there was a catch: the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both King of the Franks and Duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives. Louis's tenure as Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while Prince Louis and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. Thus he became King Louis VII of France. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned King and Queen of the Franks on Christmas Day of the same year. Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provencal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticized by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behavior baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cite Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Eleanor of Aquitaine ( – 1 April 1204; , ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1137 until her death in 1204. As the heir of the House of Poitiers, rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. She was patron of literary figures such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. She was also known to have led armies several times in her life and was a key leading figure of the unsuccessful Second Crusade.
Eleanor was the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine. She became duchess upon her father's death in April 1137, and three months later she married Louis, son of her guardian King Louis VI of France. A few weeks later, Prince Louis became the French king. They had two daughters, Marie and Alix. As queen of France, Eleanor participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. Soon afterwards, she sought an annulment of her marriage, but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III. Eventually, Louis agreed to an annulment, as 15 years of marriage had not produced a son. The marriage was annulled on 21 March 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate, custody was awarded to Louis, and Eleanor's lands were restored to her.
As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to her third cousin Henry, Duke of Normandy. The couple married on Whitsun, 18 May 1152. Henry and Eleanor became king and queen of England in 1154. They had five sons and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting the revolt of their eldest son, Henry, against him. She was not released until 6 July 1189, when her husband died and their third son, Richard I, ascended the throne. As queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade. She lived well into the reign of her youngest son, John.
Early life
Eleanor's year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124. On the other hand, some chronicles mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor's fourteenth birthday in 1136. This, and her known age of 82 at her death make 1122 the most likely year of her birth. Her parents almost certainly married in 1121. Her birthplace may have been Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l'Autise, where her mother and brother died when Eleanor was 6 or 8.
Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l'Isle Bouchard, who was William IX's longtime mistress as well as Eleanor's maternal grandmother. Her parents' marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather WilliamIX.
Eleanor is said to have been named for her mother Aenor and called Aliénor from the Latin Alia Aenor, which means the other Aenor. It became Eléanor in the langues d'oïl of northern France and Eleanor in English. There was, however, another prominent Eleanor before her—Eleanor of Normandy, an aunt of William the Conqueror, who lived a century earlier than Eleanor of Aquitaine. In Paris as the queen of France, she was called Helienordis, her honorific name as written in the Latin epistles.
By all accounts, Eleanor's father ensured that she had the best possible education. Eleanor came to learn arithmetic, the constellations, and history. She also learned domestic skills such as household management and the needle arts of embroidery, needlepoint, sewing, spinning, and weaving. Eleanor developed skills in conversation, dancing, games such as backgammon, checkers, and chess, playing the harp, and singing. Although her native tongue was Poitevin, she was taught to read and speak Latin, was well versed in music and literature, and schooled in riding, hawking, and hunting. Eleanor was extroverted, lively, intelligent, and strong-willed. Her four-year-old brother William Aigret and their mother died at the castle of Talmont on Aquitaine's Atlantic coast in the spring of 1130. Eleanor became the heir presumptive to her father's domains. The Duchy of Aquitaine was the largest and richest province of France. Poitou, where Eleanor spent most of her childhood, and Aquitaine together was almost one-third the size of modern France. Eleanor had only one other legitimate sibling, a younger sister named Aelith (also called Petronilla). Her half-brother Joscelin was acknowledged by WilliamX as a son, but not as his heir. The notion that she had another half-brother, William, has been discredited. Later, during the first four years of HenryII's reign, her siblings joined Eleanor's royal household.
Inheritance
In 1137 Duke William X left Poitiers for Bordeaux and took his daughters with him. Upon reaching Bordeaux, he left them in the charge of the archbishop of Bordeaux, one of his few loyal vassals. The duke then set out for the Shrine of Saint James of Compostela in the company of other pilgrims. However, he died on Good Friday of that year (9April).
Eleanor, aged 12 to 15, then became the duchess of Aquitaine, and thus the most eligible heiress in Europe. As these were the days when kidnapping an heiress was seen as a viable option for obtaining a title, William dictated a will on the very day he died that bequeathed his domains to Eleanor and appointed King Louis VI of France as her guardian. William requested of the king that he take care of both the lands and the duchess, and find her a suitable husband. However, until a husband was found, the king had the legal right to Eleanor's lands. The duke also insisted to his companions that his death be kept a secret until Louis was informed; the men were to journey from Saint James of Compostela across the Pyrenees as quickly as possible to call at Bordeaux to notify the archbishop, then to make all speed to Paris to inform the king.
The king of France, known as Louis the Fat, was also gravely ill at that time, suffering from a bout of dysentery from which he appeared unlikely to recover. Yet despite his impending death, Louis's mind remained clear. His eldest surviving son, Louis, had originally been destined for monastic life, but had become the heir apparent when the firstborn, Philip, died in a riding accident in 1131.
The death of William, one of the king's most powerful vassals, made available the most desirable duchy in France. While presenting a solemn and dignified face to the grieving Aquitainian messengers, Louis exulted when they departed. Rather than act as guardian to the duchess and duchy, he decided to marry the duchess to his 17-year-old heir and bring Aquitaine under the control of the French crown, thereby greatly increasing the power and prominence of France and its ruling family, the House of Capet. Within hours, the king had arranged for his son Louis to be married to Eleanor, with Abbot Suger in charge of the wedding arrangements. Louis was sent to Bordeaux with an escort of 500 knights, along with Abbot Suger, Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Count Ralph.
First marriage
On 25 July 1137, Eleanor and Louis were married in the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux by the archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as duke and duchess of Aquitaine. It was agreed that the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both king of France and duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase {fr}, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives.
Louis's tenure as count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while he and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned king and queen of France on Christmas Day of the same year.
Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provençal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticised by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behaviour baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cité Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake.
Conflict
Louis soon came into violent conflict with Pope Innocent II. In 1141, the Archbishopric of Bourges became vacant, and the king put forward as a candidate one of his chancellors, Cadurc, while vetoing the one suitable candidate, Pierre de la Chatre, who was promptly elected by the canons of Bourges and consecrated by the Pope. Louis accordingly bolted the gates of Bourges against the new bishop. The Pope, recalling similar attempts by William X to exile supporters of Innocent from Poitou and replace them with priests loyal to himself, blamed Eleanor, saying that Louis was only a child and should be taught manners. Outraged, Louis swore upon relics that so long as he lived Pierre should never enter Bourges. An interdict was thereupon imposed upon the king's lands, and Pierre was given refuge by Theobald II, Count of Champagne.
Louis became involved in a war with Count Theobald by permitting Raoul I, Count of Vermandois and seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife Eleanor of Blois, Theobald's sister, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, Eleanor's sister. Eleanor urged Louis to support her sister's marriage to Count Raoul. Theobald had also offended Louis by siding with the Pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (1142–44) and ended with the occupation of Champagne by the royal army. Louis was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of Vitry. More than a thousand people who sought refuge in the church there died in the flames. Horrified, and desiring an end to the war, Louis attempted to make peace with Theobald in exchange for his support in lifting the interdict on Raoul and Petronilla. This was duly lifted for long enough to allow Theobald's lands to be restored; it was then lowered once more when Raoul refused to repudiate Petronilla, prompting Louis to return to Champagne and ravage it once more.
In June 1144, the king and queen visited the newly built monastic church at Saint-Denis. While there, the queen met with Bernard of Clairvaux, demanding that he use his influence with the Pope to have the excommunication of Petronilla and Raoul lifted, in exchange for which King Louis would make concessions in Champagne and recognise Pierre de la Chatre as archbishop of Bourges. Dismayed at her attitude, Bernard scolded Eleanor for her lack of penitence and interference in matters of state. In response, Eleanor broke down and meekly excused her behaviour, claiming to be bitter because of her lack of children (her only recorded pregnancy at that time was in about 1138, but she miscarried). In response, Bernard became more kindly towards her: "My child, seek those things which make for peace. Cease to stir up the king against the Church, and urge upon him a better course of action. If you will promise to do this, I in return promise to entreat the merciful Lord to grant you offspring." In a matter of weeks, peace had returned to France: Theobald's provinces were returned and Pierre de la Chatre was installed as archbishop of Bourges. In April 1145, Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, Marie.
Louis, however, still burned with guilt over the massacre at Vitry and wished to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sins. In autumn 1145, Pope Eugene III requested that Louis lead a Crusade to the Middle East to rescue the Frankish states there from disaster. Accordingly, Louis declared on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges his intention of going on a crusade.
Crusade
Eleanor of Aquitaine also formally took up the cross symbolic of the Second Crusade during a sermon preached by Bernard of Clairvaux. In addition, she had been corresponding with her uncle Raymond, Prince of Antioch, who was seeking further protection from the French crown against the Saracens. Eleanor recruited some of her royal ladies-in-waiting for the campaign as well as 300 non-noble Aquitainian vassals. She insisted on taking part in the Crusades as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. The story that she and her ladies dressed as Amazons is disputed by historians, sometimes confused with the account of King Conrad's train of ladies during this campaign in Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. She left for the Second Crusade from Vézelay, the rumoured location of Mary Magdalene's grave, in June 1147.
The Crusade itself achieved little. Louis was a weak and ineffectual military leader with no skill for maintaining troop discipline or morale, or of making informed and logical tactical decisions. In eastern Europe, the French army was at times hindered by Manuel I Comnenus, the Byzantine Emperor, who feared that the Crusade would jeopardise the tenuous safety of his empire. Notwithstanding, during their three-week stay at Constantinople, Louis was fêted and Eleanor was much admired. She was compared with Penthesilea, mythical queen of the Amazons, by the Greek historian Nicetas Choniates. He added that she gained the epithet chrysopous (golden-foot) from the cloth of gold that decorated and fringed her robe. Louis and Eleanor stayed in the Philopation palace just outside the city walls.
From the moment the Crusaders entered Asia Minor, things began to go badly. The king and queen were still optimistic—the Byzantine Emperor had told them that King Conrad III of Germany had won a great victory against a Turkish army when in fact the German army had been almost completely destroyed at Dorylaeum. However, while camping near Nicea, the remnants of the German army, including a dazed and sick Conrad III, staggered past the French camp, bringing news of their disaster. The French, with what remained of the Germans, then began to march in increasingly disorganised fashion towards Antioch. They were in high spirits on Christmas Eve, when they chose to camp in a lush valley near Ephesus. Here they were ambushed by a Turkish detachment, but the French proceeded to slaughter this detachment and appropriate their camp.
Louis then decided to cross the Phrygian mountains directly in the hope of reaching Raymond of Poitiers in Antioch more quickly. As they ascended the mountains, however, the army and the king and queen were horrified to discover the unburied corpses of the Germans killed earlier.
On the day set for the crossing of Mount Cadmus, Louis chose to take charge of the rear of the column, where the unarmed pilgrims and the baggage trains marched. The vanguard, with which Queen Eleanor marched, was commanded by her Aquitainian vassal, Geoffrey de Rancon. Unencumbered by baggage, they reached the summit of Cadmus, where Rancon had been ordered to make camp for the night. Rancon, however, chose to continue on, deciding in concert with Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, Louis's uncle, that a nearby plateau would make a better campsite. Such disobedience was reportedly common.
Accordingly, by mid-afternoon, the rear of the column—believing the day's march to be nearly at an end—was dawdling. This resulted in the army becoming separated, with some having already crossed the summit and others still approaching it. In the ensuing Battle of Mount Cadmus, the Turks, who had been following and feinting for many days, seized their opportunity and attacked those who had not yet crossed the summit. The French, both soldiers and pilgrims, taken by surprise, were trapped. Those who tried to escape were caught and killed. Many men, horses, and much of the baggage were cast into the canyon below. The chronicler William of Tyre, writing between 1170 and 1184 and thus perhaps too long after the event to be considered historically accurate, placed the blame for this disaster firmly on the amount of baggage being carried, much of it reputedly belonging to Eleanor and her ladies, and the presence of non-combatants.
The king, having scorned royal apparel in favour of a simple pilgrim's tunic, escaped notice, unlike his bodyguards, whose skulls were brutally smashed and limbs severed. He reportedly "nimbly and bravely scaled a rock by making use of some tree roots which God had provided for his safety" and managed to survive the attack. Others were not so fortunate: "No aid came from Heaven, except that night fell."
Official blame for the disaster was placed on Geoffrey de Rancon, who had made the decision to continue, and it was suggested that he be hanged, a suggestion which the king ignored. Since Geoffrey was Eleanor's vassal, many believed that it was she who had been ultimately responsible for the change in plan, and thus the massacre. This suspicion of responsibility did nothing for her popularity in Christendom. She was also blamed for the size of the baggage train and the fact that her Aquitanian soldiers had marched at the front and thus were not involved in the fight. Continuing on, the army became split, with the commoners marching towards Antioch and the royalty travelling by sea. When most of the land army arrived, the king and queen had a dispute. Some, such as John of Salisbury and William of Tyre, say Eleanor's reputation was sullied by rumours of an affair with her uncle Raymond. However, this rumour may have been a ruse, as Raymond, through Eleanor, had been trying to induce Louis to use his army to attack the actual Muslim encampment at nearby Aleppo, gateway to retaking Edessa, which had all along, by papal decree, been the main objective of the Crusade. Although this was perhaps a better military plan, Louis was not keen to fight in northern Syria. One of Louis's avowed Crusade goals was to journey in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and he stated his intention to continue. Reputedly Eleanor then requested to stay with Raymond and brought up the matter of consanguinity—the fact that she and her husband, King Louis, were perhaps too closely related. Consanguinity was grounds for annulment in the medieval period. But rather than allowing her to stay, Louis took Eleanor from Antioch against her will and continued on to Jerusalem with his dwindling army.
Louis's refusal and his forcing her to accompany him humiliated Eleanor, and she maintained a low profile for the rest of the crusade. Louis's subsequent siege of Damascus in 1148 with his remaining army, reinforced by Conrad and Baldwin III of Jerusalem, achieved little. Damascus was a major wealthy trading centre and was under normal circumstances a potential threat, but the rulers of Jerusalem had recently entered into a truce with the city, which they then forswore. It was a gamble that did not pay off, and whether through military error or betrayal, the Damascus campaign was a failure. Louis's long march to Jerusalem and back north, which Eleanor was forced to join, debilitated his army and disheartened her knights; the divided Crusade armies could not overcome the Muslim forces, and the royal couple had to return home. The French royal family retreated to Jerusalem and then sailed to Rome and made their way back to Paris.
While in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor learned about maritime conventions developing there, which were the beginnings of what would become admiralty law. She introduced those conventions in her own lands on the island of Oléron in 1160 (with the "Rolls of Oléron") and later in England as well. She was also instrumental in developing trade agreements with Constantinople and ports of trade in the Holy Lands.
Annulment
Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged, and their differences were only exacerbated while they were abroad. Eleanor's purported relationship with her uncle Raymond, the ruler of Antioch, was a major source of discord. Eleanor supported her uncle's desire to re-capture the nearby County of Edessa, the objective of the Crusade. In addition, having been close to him in their youth, she now showed what was considered to be "excessive affection" towards her uncle. Raymond had plans to abduct Eleanor, to which she consented.
Home, however, was not easily reached. Louis and Eleanor, on separate ships due to their disagreements, were first attacked in May 1149 by Byzantine ships. Although they escaped this attempt unharmed, stormy weather drove Eleanor's ship far to the south to the Barbary Coast and caused her to lose track of her husband. Neither was heard of for over two months. In mid-July, Eleanor's ship finally reached Palermo in Sicily, where she discovered that she and her husband had both been given up for dead. She was given shelter and food by servants of King Roger II of Sicily, until the king eventually reached Calabria, and she set out to meet him there. Later, at King Roger's court in Potenza, she learned of the death of her uncle Raymond, who had been beheaded by Muslim forces in the Holy Land. This news appears to have forced a change of plans, for instead of returning to France from Marseilles, they went to see Pope Eugene III in Tusculum, where he had been driven five months before by a revolt of the Commune of Rome.
Eugene did not, as Eleanor had hoped, grant an annulment. Instead, he attempted to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, confirming the legality of their marriage. He proclaimed that no word could be spoken against it, and that it might not be dissolved under any pretext. He even arranged for Eleanor and Louis to sleep in the same bed. Thus was conceived their second child—not a son, but another daughter, Alix of France.
The marriage was now doomed. Still without a son and in danger of being left with no male heir, as well as facing substantial opposition to Eleanor from many of his barons and her own desire for annulment, Louis bowed to the inevitable. On 11 March 1152, they met at the royal castle of Beaugency to dissolve the marriage. Hugues de Toucy, archbishop of Sens, presided, and Louis and Eleanor were both present, as were the archbishop of Bordeaux and Rouen. Archbishop Samson of Reims acted for Eleanor.
On 21 March, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis' third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France. Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. Children born to a marriage that was later annulled were not at risk of being "bastardised," because "[w]here parties married in good faith, without knowledge of an impediment, ... children of the marriage were legitimate." [Berman 228.] ) Custody of them was awarded to King Louis. Archbishop Samson received assurances from Louis that Eleanor's lands would be restored to her.
Second marriage
As Eleanor travelled to Poitiers, two lords—Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, brother of Henry II, Duke of Normandy—tried to kidnap and marry her to claim her lands. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to Henry, Duke of Normandy and future king of England, asking him to come at once to marry her. On 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry "without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank."
Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou, wife of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais, and they were also descended from King Robert II of France. A marriage between Henry and Eleanor's daughter Marie had earlier been declared impossible due to their status as third cousins once removed. It was rumoured by some that Eleanor had had an affair with Henry's own father, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, who had advised his son to avoid any involvement with her.
On 25 October 1154, Henry became king of England. A now heavily pregnant Eleanor, was crowned queen of England by Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 19 December 1154. She may not have been anointed on this occasion, however, because she had already been anointed in 1137. Over the next 13 years, she bore Henry five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan. John Speed, in his 1611 work History of Great Britain, mentions the possibility that Eleanor had a son named Philip, who died young. His sources no longer exist, and he alone mentions this birth.
Eleanor's marriage to Henry was reputed to be tumultuous and argumentative, although sufficiently cooperative to produce at least eight pregnancies. Henry was by no means faithful to his wife and had a reputation for philandering. Henry fathered other, illegitimate children throughout the marriage. Eleanor appears to have taken an ambivalent attitude towards these affairs. Geoffrey of York, for example, was an illegitimate son of Henry, but acknowledged by Henry as his child and raised at Westminster in the care of the queen.
During the period from Henry's accession to the birth of Eleanor's youngest son John, affairs in the kingdom were turbulent: Aquitaine, as was the norm, defied the authority of Henry as Eleanor's husband and answered only to their duchess. Attempts were made to claim Toulouse, the rightful inheritance of Eleanor's grandmother Philippa of Toulouse, but they ended in failure. A bitter feud arose between the king and Thomas Becket, initially his chancellor and closest adviser and later the archbishop of Canterbury. Louis of France had remarried and been widowed; he married for the third time and finally fathered a long-hoped-for son, Philip Augustus, also known as Dieudonné—God-given). "Young Henry," son of Henry and Eleanor, wed Margaret, daughter of Louis from his second marriage. Little is known of Eleanor's involvement in these events. It is certain that by late 1166, Henry's notorious affair with Rosamund Clifford had become known, and Eleanor's marriage to Henry appears to have become terminally strained.
In 1167, Eleanor's third daughter, Matilda, married Henry the Lion of Saxony. Eleanor remained in England with her daughter for the year prior to Matilda's departure for Normandy in September. In December, Eleanor gathered her movable possessions in England and transported them on several ships to Argentan. Christmas was celebrated at the royal court there, and she appears to have agreed to a separation from Henry. She certainly left for her own city of Poitiers immediately after Christmas. Henry did not stop her; on the contrary, he and his army personally escorted her there before attacking a castle belonging to the rebellious Lusignan family. Henry then went about his own business outside Aquitaine, leaving Earl Patrick, his regional military commander, as her protective custodian. When Patrick was killed in a skirmish, Eleanor, who proceeded to ransom his captured nephew, the young William Marshal, was left in control of her lands.
The Court of Love in Poitiers
Of all her influence on culture, Eleanor's time in Poitiers between 1168 and 1173 was perhaps the most critical, yet very little is known about it. Henry II was elsewhere, attending to his own affairs after escorting Eleanor there. Some believe that Eleanor's court in Poitiers was the "Court of Love" where Eleanor and her daughter Marie meshed and encouraged the ideas of troubadours, chivalry, and courtly love into a single court. It may have been largely to teach manners, something the French courts would be known for in later generations. Yet the existence and reasons for this court are debated.
In The Art of Courtly Love, Andreas Capellanus, Andrew the chaplain, refers to the court of Poitiers. He claims that Eleanor, her daughter Marie, Ermengarde, Viscountess of Narbonne, and Isabelle of Flanders would sit and listen to the quarrels of lovers and act as a jury to the questions of the court that revolved around acts of romantic love. He records some twenty-one cases, the most famous of them being a problem posed to the women about whether true love can exist in marriage. According to Capellanus, the women decided that it was not at all likely.
Some scholars believe that the "court of love" probably never existed since the only evidence for it is Andreas Capellanus' book. To strengthen their argument, they state that there is no other evidence that Marie ever stayed with her mother in Poitiers. Andreas wrote for the court of the king of France, where Eleanor was not held in esteem. Polly Schroyer Brooks, the author of a non-academic biography of Eleanor, suggests that the court did exist, but that it was not taken very seriously, and that acts of courtly love were just a "parlour game" made up by Eleanor and Marie in order to place some order over the young courtiers living there.
There is no claim that Eleanor invented courtly love, for it was a concept that had begun to grow before Eleanor's court arose. All that can be said is that her court at Poitiers was most likely a catalyst for the increased popularity of courtly love literature in the Western European regions. Amy Kelly, in her article, "Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Courts of Love," gives a very plausible description of the origins of the rules of Eleanor's court: "In the Poitevin code, man is the property, the very thing of woman; whereas a precisely contrary state of things existed in the adjacent realms of the two kings from whom the reigning duchess of Aquitaine was estranged."
Revolt and capture
In March 1173, aggrieved at his lack of power and egged on by Henry's enemies, his son by the same name, the younger Henry, launched the Revolt of 1173–1174. He fled to Paris. From there, "the younger Henry, devising evil against his father from every side by the advice of the French king, went secretly into Aquitaine where his two youthful brothers, Richard and Geoffrey, were living with their mother, and with her connivance, so it is said, he incited them to join him." One source claimed that the queen sent her younger sons to France "to join with him against their father the king." Once her sons had left for Paris, Eleanor may have encouraged the lords of the south to rise up and support them.
Sometime between the end of March and the beginning of May, Eleanor left Poitiers, but was arrested and sent to the king at Rouen. The king did not announce the arrest publicly; for the next year, the queen's whereabouts were unknown. On 8 July 1174, Henry and Eleanor took ship for England from Barfleur. As soon as they disembarked at Southampton, Eleanor was taken either to Winchester Castle or Sarum Castle and held there.
Years of imprisonment 1173–1189
Eleanor was imprisoned for the next 16 years, much of the time in various locations in England. During her imprisonment, Eleanor became more and more distant from her sons, especially from Richard, who had always been her favourite. She did not have the opportunity to see her sons very often during her imprisonment, though she was released for special occasions such as Christmas. About four miles from Shrewsbury and close by Haughmond Abbey is "Queen Eleanor's Bower", the remains of a triangular castle which is believed to have been one of her prisons.
Henry lost the woman reputed to be his great love, Rosamund Clifford, in 1176. He had met her in 1166 and had begun their liaison in 1173, supposedly contemplating divorce from Eleanor. This notorious affair caused a monkish scribe to transcribe Rosamund's name in Latin to "Rosa Immundi", or "Rose of Unchastity". The king had many mistresses, but although he treated earlier liaisons discreetly, he flaunted Rosamund. He may have done so to provoke Eleanor into seeking an annulment, but if so, the queen disappointed him. Nevertheless, rumours persisted, perhaps assisted by Henry's camp, that Eleanor had poisoned Rosamund. It is also speculated that Eleanor placed Rosamund in a bathtub and had an old woman cut Rosamund's arms. Henry donated much money to Godstow Nunnery in Oxfordshire, where Rosamund was buried.
In 1183, the young King Henry tried again to force his father to hand over some of his patrimony. In debt and refused control of Normandy, he tried to ambush his father at Limoges. He was joined by troops sent by his brother Geoffrey and Philip II of France. Henry II's troops besieged the town, forcing his son to flee. After wandering aimlessly through Aquitaine, Henry the Younger caught dysentery. On Saturday, 11 June 1183, the young king realized he was dying and was overcome with remorse for his sins. When his father's ring was sent to him, he begged that his father would show mercy to his mother, and that all his companions would plead with Henry to set her free. Henry II sent Thomas of Earley, Archdeacon of Wells, to break the news to Eleanor at Sarum. Eleanor reputedly had a dream in which she foresaw her son Henry's death. In 1193, she would tell Pope Celestine III that she was tortured by his memory.
King Philip II of France claimed that certain properties in Normandy belonged to his half-sister Margaret, widow of the young Henry, but Henry insisted that they had once belonged to Eleanor and would revert to her upon her son's death. For this reason Henry summoned Eleanor to Normandy in the late summer of 1183. She stayed in Normandy for six months. This was the beginning of a period of greater freedom for the still-supervised Eleanor. Eleanor went back to England probably early in 1184. Over the next few years Eleanor often travelled with her husband and was sometimes associated with him in the government of the realm, but still had a custodian so that she was not free.
Widowhood
Upon the death of her husband Henry II on 6 July 1189, Richard I was the undisputed heir. One of his first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders to release Eleanor from prison; he found upon his arrival that her custodians had already released her. Eleanor rode to Westminster and received the oaths of fealty from many lords and prelates on behalf of the king. She ruled England in Richard's name, signing herself "Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England." On 13August 1189, Richard sailed from Barfleur to Portsmouth and was received with enthusiasm. Between 1190 and 1194, Richard was absent from England, engaged in the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1192, and then held in captivity by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
During Richard's absence, royal authority in England was represented by a Council of Regency in conjunction with a succession of chief justiciars—William de Longchamp (1190–1191), Walter deCoutances (1191–1193), and finally Hubert Walter. Although Eleanor held no formal office in England during this period, she arrived in England in the company of Coutances in June 1191, and for the remainder of Richard's absence, she exercised a considerable degree of influence over the affairs of England as well as the conduct of Prince John. Eleanor played a key role in raising the ransom demanded from England by HenryVI and in the negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor that eventually secured Richard's release. Evidence of the influence she wielded can also be found within the numerous letters she wrote to Pope Celestine III regarding Richard's captivity. Her letter dated 1193, presents her strong expressions of personal suffering as a result of Richard's captivity and informs the Pope that in her grief she is "wasted away by sorrow".
Eleanor survived Richard and lived well into the reign of her youngest son, King John. In 1199, under the terms of a truce between King PhilipII and King John, it was agreed that Philip's 12-year-old heir-apparent Louis would be married to one of John's nieces, daughters of his sister Eleanor of England, queen of Castile. John instructed his mother to travel to Castile to select one of the princesses. Now 77, Eleanor set out from Poitiers. Just outside Poitiers she was ambushed and held captive by Hugh IX of Lusignan, whose lands had been sold to HenryII by his forebears. Eleanor secured her freedom by agreeing to his demands. She continued south, crossed the Pyrenees, and travelled through the kingdoms of Navarre and Castile, arriving in Castile before the end of January 1200.
Eleanor's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Castile, had two remaining unmarried daughters, Urraca and Blanche. Eleanor selected the younger daughter, Blanche. She stayed for two months at the Castilian court, then late in March journeyed with granddaughter Blanche back across the Pyrenees. She celebrated Easter in Bordeaux, where the famous warrior Mercadier came to her court. It was decided that he would escort the queen and princess north. "On the second day in Easter week, he was slain in the city by a man-at-arms in the service of Brandin," a rival mercenary captain. This tragedy was too much for the elderly queen, who was fatigued and unable to continue to Normandy. She and Blanche rode in easy stages to the valley of the Loire, and she entrusted Blanche to the archbishop of Bordeaux, who took over as her escort. The exhausted Eleanor went to Fontevraud, where she remained. In early summer, Eleanor was ill, and John visited her at Fontevraud.
Eleanor was again unwell in early 1201. When war broke out between John and Philip, Eleanor declared her support for John and set out from Fontevraud to her capital Poitiers to prevent her grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, posthumous son of Eleanor's son Geoffrey and John's rival for the English throne, from taking control. Arthur learned of her whereabouts and besieged her in the castle of Mirebeau. As soon as John heard of this, he marched south, overcame the besiegers, and captured the 15-year-old Arthur, and probably his sister Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany, whom Eleanor had raised with Richard. Eleanor then returned to Fontevraud where she took the veil as a nun.
Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey next to her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible and is decorated with representations of magnificent jewellery; such effigies were rare, and Eleanor's is one of the finest of the few that survive from this period. However, during the French Revolution the abbey of Fontevraud was sacked and the tombs were disturbed and vandalised - consequently the bones of Eleanor, Henry, Richard, Joana and Isabella of Angoulême were exhumed and scattered, never to be recovered. By the time of her death she had outlived all of her children except for King John of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile.
Appearance
Contemporary sources praise Eleanor's beauty. Even in an era when ladies of the nobility were excessively praised, their praise of her was undoubtedly sincere. When she was young, she was described as perpulchra—more than beautiful. When she was around 30, Bernard de Ventadour, a noted troubadour, called her "gracious, lovely, the embodiment of charm," extolling her "lovely eyes and noble countenance" and declaring that she was "one meet to crown the state of any king." William of Newburgh emphasised the charms of her person, and even in her old age Richard of Devizes described her as beautiful, while Matthew Paris, writing in the 13thcentury, recalled her "admirable beauty."
In spite of all these words of praise, no one left a more detailed description of Eleanor; the colour of her hair and eyes, for example, are unknown. The effigy on her tomb shows a tall and large-boned woman with brown skin, though this may not be an accurate representation. Her seal of shows a woman with a slender figure, but this is probably an impersonal image.
Popular culture
Art
Judy Chicago's artistic installation The Dinner Party features a place setting for Eleanor, and she was portrayed by Frederick Sandys in his 1858 painting, Queen Eleanor.
Books and dramas
Henry and Eleanor are the main characters in James Goldman's 1966 play The Lion in Winter, which was made into a film in 1968 starring Peter O'Toole as Henry and Katharine Hepburn in the role of Eleanor, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama.
Jean Plaidy's novel The Courts of Love, fifth in the 'Queens of England' series, is a fictionalised autobiography of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Norah Lofts wrote a fictionalized biography of her, entitled in various editions Queen in Waiting or Eleanor the Queen, and including some romanticized episodes—starting off with the young Eleanor planning to elope with a young knight, who is killed out of hand by her guardian, in order to facilitate her marriage to the King's son.
The character Queen Elinor appears in William Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John, with other members of the family. On television, she has been portrayed in this play by Una Venning in the BBC Sunday Night Theatre version (1952) and by Mary Morris in the BBC Shakespeare version (1984).
Eleanor features in the novel Via Crucis (1899) by F. Marion Crawford.
Eleanor serves as an important allegorical figure in Ezra Pound's early Cantos.
In Sharon Kay Penman's Plantagenet novels, she figures prominently in When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance, and Devil's Brood, and also appears in Lionheart and A King's Ransom, both of which focus on the reign of her son, Richard, as king of England. Eleanor also appears briefly in the first novel of Penman's Welsh trilogy, Here Be Dragons. In Penman's historical mysteries, Eleanor, as Richard's regent, sends squire Justin de Quincy on various missions, often an investigation of a situation involving Prince John. The four published mysteries are the Queen's Man, Cruel as the Grave, Dragon's Lair, and Prince of Darkness.
Eleanor is the subject of A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, a children's novel by E.L. Konigsburg.
Historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick wrote a three-volume series about Eleanor: The Summer Queen (2013), The Winter Crown (2014) and The Autumn Throne (2016).
In The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle, retelling the ballad Robin Hood and Queen Katherine, made the queen Queen Eleanor to fit historically with the rest of the work.
She has also been introduced in The Royal Diaries series in the book "Crown Jewel of Aquitaine" by Kristiana Gregory.
She is a supporting character in Matrix by Lauren Groff.
Film, radio and television
Eleanor has featured in a number of screen versions of the Ivanhoe and Robin Hood stories. She has been played by Martita Hunt in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), Jill Esmond in the British TV adventure series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955–1960), Phyllis Neilson-Terry in the British TV adventure series Ivanhoe (1958), Yvonne Mitchell in the BBC TV drama series The Legend of Robin Hood (1975), Siân Phillips in the TV series Ivanhoe (1997), and Tusse Silberg in the TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood (1997). She was portrayed by Lynda Bellingham in the BBC series Robin Hood. Most recently, she was portrayed by Eileen Atkins in Robin Hood (2010).
In the 1964 film Becket, Eleanor is briefly played by Pamela Brown to Peter O'Toole's first performance as a young Henry II.
In the 1968 film The Lion in Winter, Eleanor is played by Katharine Hepburn, who won the third of her four Academy Awards for Best Actress for her portrayal, and Henry again is portrayed by O'Toole. The film is about the difficult relationship between them and the struggle of their three sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John for their father's favour and the succession. In the 2003 television film version, Eleanor was played by Glenn Close alongside Patrick Stewart as Henry.
She was portrayed by Mary Clare in the silent film Becket (1923), by Prudence Hyman in Richard the Lionheart (1962), and twice by Jane Lapotaire in the BBC TV drama series The Devil's Crown (1978) and again in Mike Walker's BBC Radio 4 series Plantagenet (2010). In the 2014 film Richard the Lionheart: Rebellion, Eleanor is played by Debbie Rochon.
Her life was portrayed on BBC Radio 4 in the drama series Eleanor Rising, with Rose Basista as Eleanor and Joel MacCormack as King Louis. The first series of five 15-minute episodes was broadcast in November 2020 and the second series in April 2021.
Music
Eleanor and Rosamund Clifford, as well as Henry IIand Rosamund's father, appear in Gaetano Donizetti's opera Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (libretto by Felice Romani), which was premiered in Florence, at the Teatro Pergola, in 1834.
Eleanor of Aquitaine is thought to be the queen of England mentioned in the poem "Were diu werlt alle min," used as the tenth movement of Carl Orff's famous cantata, Carmina Burana.
Flower and Hawk is a monodrama for soprano and orchestra, written by American composer, Carlisle Floyd that premiered in 1972, in which the soprano (Eleanor of Aquitaine) relives past memories of her time as queen, and at the end of the monodrama, hears the bells that toll for Henry II's death, and in turn, her freedom.
Queen Elanor's Confession, or Queen Eleanor's Confession, is Child ballad 156. Although the figures are intended as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, and William Marshall, the story is an entire invention.
Video games
In the 2019 video game expansion Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, Eleanor is a playable leader for the English and French civilizations.
Issue
See also
List of longest-reigning monarchs
Grandmother of Europe, sobriquet of Eleanor of Aquitaine and others
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
(for young readers)
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Further reading
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External links
The Eleanor Vase preserved at the Louvre
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1122 births
1204 deaths
12th-century French people
13th-century French people
12th-century English people
13th-century English people
12th-century French women
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Women in 12th-century warfare
French queens consort
English royal consorts
Countesses of Anjou
Countesses of Maine
Counts of Poitiers
Duchesses of Normandy
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Regents of England
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Robin Hood characters
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Remarried royal consorts
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[
"Lord Thomas Stuart is Child ballad 259.\n\nSynopsis\n\nThomas Stuart wooes the Countess of Balquhin and gives her, as her morning gift, Strathboggie and Aboyne. She insists on seeing them. They ride off, and he takes ill. He sends her on.\n\nHis father asks if anyone can cure him, but he says that every leech has tried. He tells his father to give his wife her dowry and his morning gift, but says it would have been better for her if she had had a son to be his heir.\n\nHis wife returns, and seeing the commotion, fears that her lord is dead.\n\nSee also\nList of the Child Ballads\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nLord Thomas Stuart\n\nChild Ballads",
"The Gift is the thirteenth studio album by American rapper Master P. The album was released on December 6, 2013, by No Limit Forever and XLP Distribution. It became his first release in 8 years. The album features guest appearances from Howie T, AD, Alley Boy, Rick Ross, Silkk the Shocker, Cymphonique, Romeo, Jeremih, Yo Gotti, Krazy, Deezle, Play Beezy, Gangsta, Miss Chee, Larayne, T-Bo, The Game and Nipsey Hussle. The album was supported with the official singles \"Two Three\" and \"Lonely Road\".\n\nBackground\nIn October 2013, during an interview with AllHipHop, Master P stated that each copy of The Gift would come with a “golden lottery ticket\", which would put the purchaser in a raffle for $10,000 dollars, saying: \"As I get better with time, the man upstairs has blessed me and continues to give me the inspiration to share my talents or should I say my GIFT with my current and new fan base of music consumers of all ages and ethnic backgrounds across the world. With the holidays approaching and the economy being the way it is, many families will be unable to buy gifts for their loved ones and that’s why I want to give everyone THE GIFT. Most importantly, I will be able to use my gift of music to help give back to underprivileged kids in many communities, and give them a chance to receive Christmas gifts that they would normally not be able to afford. It is my hope that this will encourage other artists to join me in this movement.\"\n\nSingles\nOn November 20, 2013, the album's first single \"Two Three\" featuring Rick Ross was released.\n\nTrack listing\n\nSamples\n\"Holding Back the Years\" contains a sample of \"Holding Back the Years\" performed by Simply Red\n\nReferences\n\nMaster P albums\n2013 albums\nAlbums produced by 1500 or Nothin'"
] |
[
"Eleanor of Aquitaine",
"First marriage",
"Who did she marry?",
"Louis VII of France",
"When did they get married?",
"On 25 July 1137",
"Where did they get married?",
"in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre.",
"Why did she give him that gift?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_303f8b49f620446b944741385de7fc82_0
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Did they exchange any other gifts?
| 6 |
Did Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France exchange any other gifts aside from the rock crystal vase Eleanor of Aquitaine gave Louis VII of France?
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Eleanor of Aquitaine
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On 25 July 1137 Louis VII of France and Eleanor were married in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux by the Archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine. However, there was a catch: the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both King of the Franks and Duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives. Louis's tenure as Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while Prince Louis and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. Thus he became King Louis VII of France. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned King and Queen of the Franks on Christmas Day of the same year. Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provencal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticized by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behavior baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cite Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Eleanor of Aquitaine ( – 1 April 1204; , ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1137 until her death in 1204. As the heir of the House of Poitiers, rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. She was patron of literary figures such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. She was also known to have led armies several times in her life and was a key leading figure of the unsuccessful Second Crusade.
Eleanor was the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine. She became duchess upon her father's death in April 1137, and three months later she married Louis, son of her guardian King Louis VI of France. A few weeks later, Prince Louis became the French king. They had two daughters, Marie and Alix. As queen of France, Eleanor participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. Soon afterwards, she sought an annulment of her marriage, but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III. Eventually, Louis agreed to an annulment, as 15 years of marriage had not produced a son. The marriage was annulled on 21 March 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate, custody was awarded to Louis, and Eleanor's lands were restored to her.
As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to her third cousin Henry, Duke of Normandy. The couple married on Whitsun, 18 May 1152. Henry and Eleanor became king and queen of England in 1154. They had five sons and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting the revolt of their eldest son, Henry, against him. She was not released until 6 July 1189, when her husband died and their third son, Richard I, ascended the throne. As queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade. She lived well into the reign of her youngest son, John.
Early life
Eleanor's year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124. On the other hand, some chronicles mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor's fourteenth birthday in 1136. This, and her known age of 82 at her death make 1122 the most likely year of her birth. Her parents almost certainly married in 1121. Her birthplace may have been Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l'Autise, where her mother and brother died when Eleanor was 6 or 8.
Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l'Isle Bouchard, who was William IX's longtime mistress as well as Eleanor's maternal grandmother. Her parents' marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather WilliamIX.
Eleanor is said to have been named for her mother Aenor and called Aliénor from the Latin Alia Aenor, which means the other Aenor. It became Eléanor in the langues d'oïl of northern France and Eleanor in English. There was, however, another prominent Eleanor before her—Eleanor of Normandy, an aunt of William the Conqueror, who lived a century earlier than Eleanor of Aquitaine. In Paris as the queen of France, she was called Helienordis, her honorific name as written in the Latin epistles.
By all accounts, Eleanor's father ensured that she had the best possible education. Eleanor came to learn arithmetic, the constellations, and history. She also learned domestic skills such as household management and the needle arts of embroidery, needlepoint, sewing, spinning, and weaving. Eleanor developed skills in conversation, dancing, games such as backgammon, checkers, and chess, playing the harp, and singing. Although her native tongue was Poitevin, she was taught to read and speak Latin, was well versed in music and literature, and schooled in riding, hawking, and hunting. Eleanor was extroverted, lively, intelligent, and strong-willed. Her four-year-old brother William Aigret and their mother died at the castle of Talmont on Aquitaine's Atlantic coast in the spring of 1130. Eleanor became the heir presumptive to her father's domains. The Duchy of Aquitaine was the largest and richest province of France. Poitou, where Eleanor spent most of her childhood, and Aquitaine together was almost one-third the size of modern France. Eleanor had only one other legitimate sibling, a younger sister named Aelith (also called Petronilla). Her half-brother Joscelin was acknowledged by WilliamX as a son, but not as his heir. The notion that she had another half-brother, William, has been discredited. Later, during the first four years of HenryII's reign, her siblings joined Eleanor's royal household.
Inheritance
In 1137 Duke William X left Poitiers for Bordeaux and took his daughters with him. Upon reaching Bordeaux, he left them in the charge of the archbishop of Bordeaux, one of his few loyal vassals. The duke then set out for the Shrine of Saint James of Compostela in the company of other pilgrims. However, he died on Good Friday of that year (9April).
Eleanor, aged 12 to 15, then became the duchess of Aquitaine, and thus the most eligible heiress in Europe. As these were the days when kidnapping an heiress was seen as a viable option for obtaining a title, William dictated a will on the very day he died that bequeathed his domains to Eleanor and appointed King Louis VI of France as her guardian. William requested of the king that he take care of both the lands and the duchess, and find her a suitable husband. However, until a husband was found, the king had the legal right to Eleanor's lands. The duke also insisted to his companions that his death be kept a secret until Louis was informed; the men were to journey from Saint James of Compostela across the Pyrenees as quickly as possible to call at Bordeaux to notify the archbishop, then to make all speed to Paris to inform the king.
The king of France, known as Louis the Fat, was also gravely ill at that time, suffering from a bout of dysentery from which he appeared unlikely to recover. Yet despite his impending death, Louis's mind remained clear. His eldest surviving son, Louis, had originally been destined for monastic life, but had become the heir apparent when the firstborn, Philip, died in a riding accident in 1131.
The death of William, one of the king's most powerful vassals, made available the most desirable duchy in France. While presenting a solemn and dignified face to the grieving Aquitainian messengers, Louis exulted when they departed. Rather than act as guardian to the duchess and duchy, he decided to marry the duchess to his 17-year-old heir and bring Aquitaine under the control of the French crown, thereby greatly increasing the power and prominence of France and its ruling family, the House of Capet. Within hours, the king had arranged for his son Louis to be married to Eleanor, with Abbot Suger in charge of the wedding arrangements. Louis was sent to Bordeaux with an escort of 500 knights, along with Abbot Suger, Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Count Ralph.
First marriage
On 25 July 1137, Eleanor and Louis were married in the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux by the archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as duke and duchess of Aquitaine. It was agreed that the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both king of France and duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase {fr}, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives.
Louis's tenure as count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while he and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned king and queen of France on Christmas Day of the same year.
Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provençal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticised by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behaviour baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cité Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake.
Conflict
Louis soon came into violent conflict with Pope Innocent II. In 1141, the Archbishopric of Bourges became vacant, and the king put forward as a candidate one of his chancellors, Cadurc, while vetoing the one suitable candidate, Pierre de la Chatre, who was promptly elected by the canons of Bourges and consecrated by the Pope. Louis accordingly bolted the gates of Bourges against the new bishop. The Pope, recalling similar attempts by William X to exile supporters of Innocent from Poitou and replace them with priests loyal to himself, blamed Eleanor, saying that Louis was only a child and should be taught manners. Outraged, Louis swore upon relics that so long as he lived Pierre should never enter Bourges. An interdict was thereupon imposed upon the king's lands, and Pierre was given refuge by Theobald II, Count of Champagne.
Louis became involved in a war with Count Theobald by permitting Raoul I, Count of Vermandois and seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife Eleanor of Blois, Theobald's sister, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, Eleanor's sister. Eleanor urged Louis to support her sister's marriage to Count Raoul. Theobald had also offended Louis by siding with the Pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (1142–44) and ended with the occupation of Champagne by the royal army. Louis was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of Vitry. More than a thousand people who sought refuge in the church there died in the flames. Horrified, and desiring an end to the war, Louis attempted to make peace with Theobald in exchange for his support in lifting the interdict on Raoul and Petronilla. This was duly lifted for long enough to allow Theobald's lands to be restored; it was then lowered once more when Raoul refused to repudiate Petronilla, prompting Louis to return to Champagne and ravage it once more.
In June 1144, the king and queen visited the newly built monastic church at Saint-Denis. While there, the queen met with Bernard of Clairvaux, demanding that he use his influence with the Pope to have the excommunication of Petronilla and Raoul lifted, in exchange for which King Louis would make concessions in Champagne and recognise Pierre de la Chatre as archbishop of Bourges. Dismayed at her attitude, Bernard scolded Eleanor for her lack of penitence and interference in matters of state. In response, Eleanor broke down and meekly excused her behaviour, claiming to be bitter because of her lack of children (her only recorded pregnancy at that time was in about 1138, but she miscarried). In response, Bernard became more kindly towards her: "My child, seek those things which make for peace. Cease to stir up the king against the Church, and urge upon him a better course of action. If you will promise to do this, I in return promise to entreat the merciful Lord to grant you offspring." In a matter of weeks, peace had returned to France: Theobald's provinces were returned and Pierre de la Chatre was installed as archbishop of Bourges. In April 1145, Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, Marie.
Louis, however, still burned with guilt over the massacre at Vitry and wished to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sins. In autumn 1145, Pope Eugene III requested that Louis lead a Crusade to the Middle East to rescue the Frankish states there from disaster. Accordingly, Louis declared on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges his intention of going on a crusade.
Crusade
Eleanor of Aquitaine also formally took up the cross symbolic of the Second Crusade during a sermon preached by Bernard of Clairvaux. In addition, she had been corresponding with her uncle Raymond, Prince of Antioch, who was seeking further protection from the French crown against the Saracens. Eleanor recruited some of her royal ladies-in-waiting for the campaign as well as 300 non-noble Aquitainian vassals. She insisted on taking part in the Crusades as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. The story that she and her ladies dressed as Amazons is disputed by historians, sometimes confused with the account of King Conrad's train of ladies during this campaign in Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. She left for the Second Crusade from Vézelay, the rumoured location of Mary Magdalene's grave, in June 1147.
The Crusade itself achieved little. Louis was a weak and ineffectual military leader with no skill for maintaining troop discipline or morale, or of making informed and logical tactical decisions. In eastern Europe, the French army was at times hindered by Manuel I Comnenus, the Byzantine Emperor, who feared that the Crusade would jeopardise the tenuous safety of his empire. Notwithstanding, during their three-week stay at Constantinople, Louis was fêted and Eleanor was much admired. She was compared with Penthesilea, mythical queen of the Amazons, by the Greek historian Nicetas Choniates. He added that she gained the epithet chrysopous (golden-foot) from the cloth of gold that decorated and fringed her robe. Louis and Eleanor stayed in the Philopation palace just outside the city walls.
From the moment the Crusaders entered Asia Minor, things began to go badly. The king and queen were still optimistic—the Byzantine Emperor had told them that King Conrad III of Germany had won a great victory against a Turkish army when in fact the German army had been almost completely destroyed at Dorylaeum. However, while camping near Nicea, the remnants of the German army, including a dazed and sick Conrad III, staggered past the French camp, bringing news of their disaster. The French, with what remained of the Germans, then began to march in increasingly disorganised fashion towards Antioch. They were in high spirits on Christmas Eve, when they chose to camp in a lush valley near Ephesus. Here they were ambushed by a Turkish detachment, but the French proceeded to slaughter this detachment and appropriate their camp.
Louis then decided to cross the Phrygian mountains directly in the hope of reaching Raymond of Poitiers in Antioch more quickly. As they ascended the mountains, however, the army and the king and queen were horrified to discover the unburied corpses of the Germans killed earlier.
On the day set for the crossing of Mount Cadmus, Louis chose to take charge of the rear of the column, where the unarmed pilgrims and the baggage trains marched. The vanguard, with which Queen Eleanor marched, was commanded by her Aquitainian vassal, Geoffrey de Rancon. Unencumbered by baggage, they reached the summit of Cadmus, where Rancon had been ordered to make camp for the night. Rancon, however, chose to continue on, deciding in concert with Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, Louis's uncle, that a nearby plateau would make a better campsite. Such disobedience was reportedly common.
Accordingly, by mid-afternoon, the rear of the column—believing the day's march to be nearly at an end—was dawdling. This resulted in the army becoming separated, with some having already crossed the summit and others still approaching it. In the ensuing Battle of Mount Cadmus, the Turks, who had been following and feinting for many days, seized their opportunity and attacked those who had not yet crossed the summit. The French, both soldiers and pilgrims, taken by surprise, were trapped. Those who tried to escape were caught and killed. Many men, horses, and much of the baggage were cast into the canyon below. The chronicler William of Tyre, writing between 1170 and 1184 and thus perhaps too long after the event to be considered historically accurate, placed the blame for this disaster firmly on the amount of baggage being carried, much of it reputedly belonging to Eleanor and her ladies, and the presence of non-combatants.
The king, having scorned royal apparel in favour of a simple pilgrim's tunic, escaped notice, unlike his bodyguards, whose skulls were brutally smashed and limbs severed. He reportedly "nimbly and bravely scaled a rock by making use of some tree roots which God had provided for his safety" and managed to survive the attack. Others were not so fortunate: "No aid came from Heaven, except that night fell."
Official blame for the disaster was placed on Geoffrey de Rancon, who had made the decision to continue, and it was suggested that he be hanged, a suggestion which the king ignored. Since Geoffrey was Eleanor's vassal, many believed that it was she who had been ultimately responsible for the change in plan, and thus the massacre. This suspicion of responsibility did nothing for her popularity in Christendom. She was also blamed for the size of the baggage train and the fact that her Aquitanian soldiers had marched at the front and thus were not involved in the fight. Continuing on, the army became split, with the commoners marching towards Antioch and the royalty travelling by sea. When most of the land army arrived, the king and queen had a dispute. Some, such as John of Salisbury and William of Tyre, say Eleanor's reputation was sullied by rumours of an affair with her uncle Raymond. However, this rumour may have been a ruse, as Raymond, through Eleanor, had been trying to induce Louis to use his army to attack the actual Muslim encampment at nearby Aleppo, gateway to retaking Edessa, which had all along, by papal decree, been the main objective of the Crusade. Although this was perhaps a better military plan, Louis was not keen to fight in northern Syria. One of Louis's avowed Crusade goals was to journey in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and he stated his intention to continue. Reputedly Eleanor then requested to stay with Raymond and brought up the matter of consanguinity—the fact that she and her husband, King Louis, were perhaps too closely related. Consanguinity was grounds for annulment in the medieval period. But rather than allowing her to stay, Louis took Eleanor from Antioch against her will and continued on to Jerusalem with his dwindling army.
Louis's refusal and his forcing her to accompany him humiliated Eleanor, and she maintained a low profile for the rest of the crusade. Louis's subsequent siege of Damascus in 1148 with his remaining army, reinforced by Conrad and Baldwin III of Jerusalem, achieved little. Damascus was a major wealthy trading centre and was under normal circumstances a potential threat, but the rulers of Jerusalem had recently entered into a truce with the city, which they then forswore. It was a gamble that did not pay off, and whether through military error or betrayal, the Damascus campaign was a failure. Louis's long march to Jerusalem and back north, which Eleanor was forced to join, debilitated his army and disheartened her knights; the divided Crusade armies could not overcome the Muslim forces, and the royal couple had to return home. The French royal family retreated to Jerusalem and then sailed to Rome and made their way back to Paris.
While in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor learned about maritime conventions developing there, which were the beginnings of what would become admiralty law. She introduced those conventions in her own lands on the island of Oléron in 1160 (with the "Rolls of Oléron") and later in England as well. She was also instrumental in developing trade agreements with Constantinople and ports of trade in the Holy Lands.
Annulment
Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged, and their differences were only exacerbated while they were abroad. Eleanor's purported relationship with her uncle Raymond, the ruler of Antioch, was a major source of discord. Eleanor supported her uncle's desire to re-capture the nearby County of Edessa, the objective of the Crusade. In addition, having been close to him in their youth, she now showed what was considered to be "excessive affection" towards her uncle. Raymond had plans to abduct Eleanor, to which she consented.
Home, however, was not easily reached. Louis and Eleanor, on separate ships due to their disagreements, were first attacked in May 1149 by Byzantine ships. Although they escaped this attempt unharmed, stormy weather drove Eleanor's ship far to the south to the Barbary Coast and caused her to lose track of her husband. Neither was heard of for over two months. In mid-July, Eleanor's ship finally reached Palermo in Sicily, where she discovered that she and her husband had both been given up for dead. She was given shelter and food by servants of King Roger II of Sicily, until the king eventually reached Calabria, and she set out to meet him there. Later, at King Roger's court in Potenza, she learned of the death of her uncle Raymond, who had been beheaded by Muslim forces in the Holy Land. This news appears to have forced a change of plans, for instead of returning to France from Marseilles, they went to see Pope Eugene III in Tusculum, where he had been driven five months before by a revolt of the Commune of Rome.
Eugene did not, as Eleanor had hoped, grant an annulment. Instead, he attempted to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, confirming the legality of their marriage. He proclaimed that no word could be spoken against it, and that it might not be dissolved under any pretext. He even arranged for Eleanor and Louis to sleep in the same bed. Thus was conceived their second child—not a son, but another daughter, Alix of France.
The marriage was now doomed. Still without a son and in danger of being left with no male heir, as well as facing substantial opposition to Eleanor from many of his barons and her own desire for annulment, Louis bowed to the inevitable. On 11 March 1152, they met at the royal castle of Beaugency to dissolve the marriage. Hugues de Toucy, archbishop of Sens, presided, and Louis and Eleanor were both present, as were the archbishop of Bordeaux and Rouen. Archbishop Samson of Reims acted for Eleanor.
On 21 March, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis' third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France. Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. Children born to a marriage that was later annulled were not at risk of being "bastardised," because "[w]here parties married in good faith, without knowledge of an impediment, ... children of the marriage were legitimate." [Berman 228.] ) Custody of them was awarded to King Louis. Archbishop Samson received assurances from Louis that Eleanor's lands would be restored to her.
Second marriage
As Eleanor travelled to Poitiers, two lords—Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, brother of Henry II, Duke of Normandy—tried to kidnap and marry her to claim her lands. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to Henry, Duke of Normandy and future king of England, asking him to come at once to marry her. On 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry "without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank."
Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou, wife of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais, and they were also descended from King Robert II of France. A marriage between Henry and Eleanor's daughter Marie had earlier been declared impossible due to their status as third cousins once removed. It was rumoured by some that Eleanor had had an affair with Henry's own father, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, who had advised his son to avoid any involvement with her.
On 25 October 1154, Henry became king of England. A now heavily pregnant Eleanor, was crowned queen of England by Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 19 December 1154. She may not have been anointed on this occasion, however, because she had already been anointed in 1137. Over the next 13 years, she bore Henry five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan. John Speed, in his 1611 work History of Great Britain, mentions the possibility that Eleanor had a son named Philip, who died young. His sources no longer exist, and he alone mentions this birth.
Eleanor's marriage to Henry was reputed to be tumultuous and argumentative, although sufficiently cooperative to produce at least eight pregnancies. Henry was by no means faithful to his wife and had a reputation for philandering. Henry fathered other, illegitimate children throughout the marriage. Eleanor appears to have taken an ambivalent attitude towards these affairs. Geoffrey of York, for example, was an illegitimate son of Henry, but acknowledged by Henry as his child and raised at Westminster in the care of the queen.
During the period from Henry's accession to the birth of Eleanor's youngest son John, affairs in the kingdom were turbulent: Aquitaine, as was the norm, defied the authority of Henry as Eleanor's husband and answered only to their duchess. Attempts were made to claim Toulouse, the rightful inheritance of Eleanor's grandmother Philippa of Toulouse, but they ended in failure. A bitter feud arose between the king and Thomas Becket, initially his chancellor and closest adviser and later the archbishop of Canterbury. Louis of France had remarried and been widowed; he married for the third time and finally fathered a long-hoped-for son, Philip Augustus, also known as Dieudonné—God-given). "Young Henry," son of Henry and Eleanor, wed Margaret, daughter of Louis from his second marriage. Little is known of Eleanor's involvement in these events. It is certain that by late 1166, Henry's notorious affair with Rosamund Clifford had become known, and Eleanor's marriage to Henry appears to have become terminally strained.
In 1167, Eleanor's third daughter, Matilda, married Henry the Lion of Saxony. Eleanor remained in England with her daughter for the year prior to Matilda's departure for Normandy in September. In December, Eleanor gathered her movable possessions in England and transported them on several ships to Argentan. Christmas was celebrated at the royal court there, and she appears to have agreed to a separation from Henry. She certainly left for her own city of Poitiers immediately after Christmas. Henry did not stop her; on the contrary, he and his army personally escorted her there before attacking a castle belonging to the rebellious Lusignan family. Henry then went about his own business outside Aquitaine, leaving Earl Patrick, his regional military commander, as her protective custodian. When Patrick was killed in a skirmish, Eleanor, who proceeded to ransom his captured nephew, the young William Marshal, was left in control of her lands.
The Court of Love in Poitiers
Of all her influence on culture, Eleanor's time in Poitiers between 1168 and 1173 was perhaps the most critical, yet very little is known about it. Henry II was elsewhere, attending to his own affairs after escorting Eleanor there. Some believe that Eleanor's court in Poitiers was the "Court of Love" where Eleanor and her daughter Marie meshed and encouraged the ideas of troubadours, chivalry, and courtly love into a single court. It may have been largely to teach manners, something the French courts would be known for in later generations. Yet the existence and reasons for this court are debated.
In The Art of Courtly Love, Andreas Capellanus, Andrew the chaplain, refers to the court of Poitiers. He claims that Eleanor, her daughter Marie, Ermengarde, Viscountess of Narbonne, and Isabelle of Flanders would sit and listen to the quarrels of lovers and act as a jury to the questions of the court that revolved around acts of romantic love. He records some twenty-one cases, the most famous of them being a problem posed to the women about whether true love can exist in marriage. According to Capellanus, the women decided that it was not at all likely.
Some scholars believe that the "court of love" probably never existed since the only evidence for it is Andreas Capellanus' book. To strengthen their argument, they state that there is no other evidence that Marie ever stayed with her mother in Poitiers. Andreas wrote for the court of the king of France, where Eleanor was not held in esteem. Polly Schroyer Brooks, the author of a non-academic biography of Eleanor, suggests that the court did exist, but that it was not taken very seriously, and that acts of courtly love were just a "parlour game" made up by Eleanor and Marie in order to place some order over the young courtiers living there.
There is no claim that Eleanor invented courtly love, for it was a concept that had begun to grow before Eleanor's court arose. All that can be said is that her court at Poitiers was most likely a catalyst for the increased popularity of courtly love literature in the Western European regions. Amy Kelly, in her article, "Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Courts of Love," gives a very plausible description of the origins of the rules of Eleanor's court: "In the Poitevin code, man is the property, the very thing of woman; whereas a precisely contrary state of things existed in the adjacent realms of the two kings from whom the reigning duchess of Aquitaine was estranged."
Revolt and capture
In March 1173, aggrieved at his lack of power and egged on by Henry's enemies, his son by the same name, the younger Henry, launched the Revolt of 1173–1174. He fled to Paris. From there, "the younger Henry, devising evil against his father from every side by the advice of the French king, went secretly into Aquitaine where his two youthful brothers, Richard and Geoffrey, were living with their mother, and with her connivance, so it is said, he incited them to join him." One source claimed that the queen sent her younger sons to France "to join with him against their father the king." Once her sons had left for Paris, Eleanor may have encouraged the lords of the south to rise up and support them.
Sometime between the end of March and the beginning of May, Eleanor left Poitiers, but was arrested and sent to the king at Rouen. The king did not announce the arrest publicly; for the next year, the queen's whereabouts were unknown. On 8 July 1174, Henry and Eleanor took ship for England from Barfleur. As soon as they disembarked at Southampton, Eleanor was taken either to Winchester Castle or Sarum Castle and held there.
Years of imprisonment 1173–1189
Eleanor was imprisoned for the next 16 years, much of the time in various locations in England. During her imprisonment, Eleanor became more and more distant from her sons, especially from Richard, who had always been her favourite. She did not have the opportunity to see her sons very often during her imprisonment, though she was released for special occasions such as Christmas. About four miles from Shrewsbury and close by Haughmond Abbey is "Queen Eleanor's Bower", the remains of a triangular castle which is believed to have been one of her prisons.
Henry lost the woman reputed to be his great love, Rosamund Clifford, in 1176. He had met her in 1166 and had begun their liaison in 1173, supposedly contemplating divorce from Eleanor. This notorious affair caused a monkish scribe to transcribe Rosamund's name in Latin to "Rosa Immundi", or "Rose of Unchastity". The king had many mistresses, but although he treated earlier liaisons discreetly, he flaunted Rosamund. He may have done so to provoke Eleanor into seeking an annulment, but if so, the queen disappointed him. Nevertheless, rumours persisted, perhaps assisted by Henry's camp, that Eleanor had poisoned Rosamund. It is also speculated that Eleanor placed Rosamund in a bathtub and had an old woman cut Rosamund's arms. Henry donated much money to Godstow Nunnery in Oxfordshire, where Rosamund was buried.
In 1183, the young King Henry tried again to force his father to hand over some of his patrimony. In debt and refused control of Normandy, he tried to ambush his father at Limoges. He was joined by troops sent by his brother Geoffrey and Philip II of France. Henry II's troops besieged the town, forcing his son to flee. After wandering aimlessly through Aquitaine, Henry the Younger caught dysentery. On Saturday, 11 June 1183, the young king realized he was dying and was overcome with remorse for his sins. When his father's ring was sent to him, he begged that his father would show mercy to his mother, and that all his companions would plead with Henry to set her free. Henry II sent Thomas of Earley, Archdeacon of Wells, to break the news to Eleanor at Sarum. Eleanor reputedly had a dream in which she foresaw her son Henry's death. In 1193, she would tell Pope Celestine III that she was tortured by his memory.
King Philip II of France claimed that certain properties in Normandy belonged to his half-sister Margaret, widow of the young Henry, but Henry insisted that they had once belonged to Eleanor and would revert to her upon her son's death. For this reason Henry summoned Eleanor to Normandy in the late summer of 1183. She stayed in Normandy for six months. This was the beginning of a period of greater freedom for the still-supervised Eleanor. Eleanor went back to England probably early in 1184. Over the next few years Eleanor often travelled with her husband and was sometimes associated with him in the government of the realm, but still had a custodian so that she was not free.
Widowhood
Upon the death of her husband Henry II on 6 July 1189, Richard I was the undisputed heir. One of his first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders to release Eleanor from prison; he found upon his arrival that her custodians had already released her. Eleanor rode to Westminster and received the oaths of fealty from many lords and prelates on behalf of the king. She ruled England in Richard's name, signing herself "Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England." On 13August 1189, Richard sailed from Barfleur to Portsmouth and was received with enthusiasm. Between 1190 and 1194, Richard was absent from England, engaged in the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1192, and then held in captivity by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
During Richard's absence, royal authority in England was represented by a Council of Regency in conjunction with a succession of chief justiciars—William de Longchamp (1190–1191), Walter deCoutances (1191–1193), and finally Hubert Walter. Although Eleanor held no formal office in England during this period, she arrived in England in the company of Coutances in June 1191, and for the remainder of Richard's absence, she exercised a considerable degree of influence over the affairs of England as well as the conduct of Prince John. Eleanor played a key role in raising the ransom demanded from England by HenryVI and in the negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor that eventually secured Richard's release. Evidence of the influence she wielded can also be found within the numerous letters she wrote to Pope Celestine III regarding Richard's captivity. Her letter dated 1193, presents her strong expressions of personal suffering as a result of Richard's captivity and informs the Pope that in her grief she is "wasted away by sorrow".
Eleanor survived Richard and lived well into the reign of her youngest son, King John. In 1199, under the terms of a truce between King PhilipII and King John, it was agreed that Philip's 12-year-old heir-apparent Louis would be married to one of John's nieces, daughters of his sister Eleanor of England, queen of Castile. John instructed his mother to travel to Castile to select one of the princesses. Now 77, Eleanor set out from Poitiers. Just outside Poitiers she was ambushed and held captive by Hugh IX of Lusignan, whose lands had been sold to HenryII by his forebears. Eleanor secured her freedom by agreeing to his demands. She continued south, crossed the Pyrenees, and travelled through the kingdoms of Navarre and Castile, arriving in Castile before the end of January 1200.
Eleanor's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Castile, had two remaining unmarried daughters, Urraca and Blanche. Eleanor selected the younger daughter, Blanche. She stayed for two months at the Castilian court, then late in March journeyed with granddaughter Blanche back across the Pyrenees. She celebrated Easter in Bordeaux, where the famous warrior Mercadier came to her court. It was decided that he would escort the queen and princess north. "On the second day in Easter week, he was slain in the city by a man-at-arms in the service of Brandin," a rival mercenary captain. This tragedy was too much for the elderly queen, who was fatigued and unable to continue to Normandy. She and Blanche rode in easy stages to the valley of the Loire, and she entrusted Blanche to the archbishop of Bordeaux, who took over as her escort. The exhausted Eleanor went to Fontevraud, where she remained. In early summer, Eleanor was ill, and John visited her at Fontevraud.
Eleanor was again unwell in early 1201. When war broke out between John and Philip, Eleanor declared her support for John and set out from Fontevraud to her capital Poitiers to prevent her grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, posthumous son of Eleanor's son Geoffrey and John's rival for the English throne, from taking control. Arthur learned of her whereabouts and besieged her in the castle of Mirebeau. As soon as John heard of this, he marched south, overcame the besiegers, and captured the 15-year-old Arthur, and probably his sister Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany, whom Eleanor had raised with Richard. Eleanor then returned to Fontevraud where she took the veil as a nun.
Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey next to her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible and is decorated with representations of magnificent jewellery; such effigies were rare, and Eleanor's is one of the finest of the few that survive from this period. However, during the French Revolution the abbey of Fontevraud was sacked and the tombs were disturbed and vandalised - consequently the bones of Eleanor, Henry, Richard, Joana and Isabella of Angoulême were exhumed and scattered, never to be recovered. By the time of her death she had outlived all of her children except for King John of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile.
Appearance
Contemporary sources praise Eleanor's beauty. Even in an era when ladies of the nobility were excessively praised, their praise of her was undoubtedly sincere. When she was young, she was described as perpulchra—more than beautiful. When she was around 30, Bernard de Ventadour, a noted troubadour, called her "gracious, lovely, the embodiment of charm," extolling her "lovely eyes and noble countenance" and declaring that she was "one meet to crown the state of any king." William of Newburgh emphasised the charms of her person, and even in her old age Richard of Devizes described her as beautiful, while Matthew Paris, writing in the 13thcentury, recalled her "admirable beauty."
In spite of all these words of praise, no one left a more detailed description of Eleanor; the colour of her hair and eyes, for example, are unknown. The effigy on her tomb shows a tall and large-boned woman with brown skin, though this may not be an accurate representation. Her seal of shows a woman with a slender figure, but this is probably an impersonal image.
Popular culture
Art
Judy Chicago's artistic installation The Dinner Party features a place setting for Eleanor, and she was portrayed by Frederick Sandys in his 1858 painting, Queen Eleanor.
Books and dramas
Henry and Eleanor are the main characters in James Goldman's 1966 play The Lion in Winter, which was made into a film in 1968 starring Peter O'Toole as Henry and Katharine Hepburn in the role of Eleanor, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama.
Jean Plaidy's novel The Courts of Love, fifth in the 'Queens of England' series, is a fictionalised autobiography of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Norah Lofts wrote a fictionalized biography of her, entitled in various editions Queen in Waiting or Eleanor the Queen, and including some romanticized episodes—starting off with the young Eleanor planning to elope with a young knight, who is killed out of hand by her guardian, in order to facilitate her marriage to the King's son.
The character Queen Elinor appears in William Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John, with other members of the family. On television, she has been portrayed in this play by Una Venning in the BBC Sunday Night Theatre version (1952) and by Mary Morris in the BBC Shakespeare version (1984).
Eleanor features in the novel Via Crucis (1899) by F. Marion Crawford.
Eleanor serves as an important allegorical figure in Ezra Pound's early Cantos.
In Sharon Kay Penman's Plantagenet novels, she figures prominently in When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance, and Devil's Brood, and also appears in Lionheart and A King's Ransom, both of which focus on the reign of her son, Richard, as king of England. Eleanor also appears briefly in the first novel of Penman's Welsh trilogy, Here Be Dragons. In Penman's historical mysteries, Eleanor, as Richard's regent, sends squire Justin de Quincy on various missions, often an investigation of a situation involving Prince John. The four published mysteries are the Queen's Man, Cruel as the Grave, Dragon's Lair, and Prince of Darkness.
Eleanor is the subject of A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, a children's novel by E.L. Konigsburg.
Historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick wrote a three-volume series about Eleanor: The Summer Queen (2013), The Winter Crown (2014) and The Autumn Throne (2016).
In The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle, retelling the ballad Robin Hood and Queen Katherine, made the queen Queen Eleanor to fit historically with the rest of the work.
She has also been introduced in The Royal Diaries series in the book "Crown Jewel of Aquitaine" by Kristiana Gregory.
She is a supporting character in Matrix by Lauren Groff.
Film, radio and television
Eleanor has featured in a number of screen versions of the Ivanhoe and Robin Hood stories. She has been played by Martita Hunt in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), Jill Esmond in the British TV adventure series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955–1960), Phyllis Neilson-Terry in the British TV adventure series Ivanhoe (1958), Yvonne Mitchell in the BBC TV drama series The Legend of Robin Hood (1975), Siân Phillips in the TV series Ivanhoe (1997), and Tusse Silberg in the TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood (1997). She was portrayed by Lynda Bellingham in the BBC series Robin Hood. Most recently, she was portrayed by Eileen Atkins in Robin Hood (2010).
In the 1964 film Becket, Eleanor is briefly played by Pamela Brown to Peter O'Toole's first performance as a young Henry II.
In the 1968 film The Lion in Winter, Eleanor is played by Katharine Hepburn, who won the third of her four Academy Awards for Best Actress for her portrayal, and Henry again is portrayed by O'Toole. The film is about the difficult relationship between them and the struggle of their three sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John for their father's favour and the succession. In the 2003 television film version, Eleanor was played by Glenn Close alongside Patrick Stewart as Henry.
She was portrayed by Mary Clare in the silent film Becket (1923), by Prudence Hyman in Richard the Lionheart (1962), and twice by Jane Lapotaire in the BBC TV drama series The Devil's Crown (1978) and again in Mike Walker's BBC Radio 4 series Plantagenet (2010). In the 2014 film Richard the Lionheart: Rebellion, Eleanor is played by Debbie Rochon.
Her life was portrayed on BBC Radio 4 in the drama series Eleanor Rising, with Rose Basista as Eleanor and Joel MacCormack as King Louis. The first series of five 15-minute episodes was broadcast in November 2020 and the second series in April 2021.
Music
Eleanor and Rosamund Clifford, as well as Henry IIand Rosamund's father, appear in Gaetano Donizetti's opera Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (libretto by Felice Romani), which was premiered in Florence, at the Teatro Pergola, in 1834.
Eleanor of Aquitaine is thought to be the queen of England mentioned in the poem "Were diu werlt alle min," used as the tenth movement of Carl Orff's famous cantata, Carmina Burana.
Flower and Hawk is a monodrama for soprano and orchestra, written by American composer, Carlisle Floyd that premiered in 1972, in which the soprano (Eleanor of Aquitaine) relives past memories of her time as queen, and at the end of the monodrama, hears the bells that toll for Henry II's death, and in turn, her freedom.
Queen Elanor's Confession, or Queen Eleanor's Confession, is Child ballad 156. Although the figures are intended as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, and William Marshall, the story is an entire invention.
Video games
In the 2019 video game expansion Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, Eleanor is a playable leader for the English and French civilizations.
Issue
See also
List of longest-reigning monarchs
Grandmother of Europe, sobriquet of Eleanor of Aquitaine and others
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
(for young readers)
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Further reading
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External links
The Eleanor Vase preserved at the Louvre
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1122 births
1204 deaths
12th-century French people
13th-century French people
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House of Poitiers
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People from Aquitaine
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[
"The greeting-gift (Šulmānī) were gifts, or presents exchanged between Kings, and rulers of the 1350 BC–1335 BC Amarna letters correspondence. They are notable in the 382–letter corpus for the variety of the gifts, as well as the involvement of the individuals exchanging the gifts, (their motives).\n\nThe \"greeting-gifts\" were \"peace-offerings\" between the rulers, and were a function of intrigues, and country/political relationships, or regional 'country'/kingdom relationships.\n\nAn example of a discussion of a greeting-gift exchange can be found at one of the authors of the Amarna letters, Zita (Hittite prince). Letter EA 44 is presented, (EA for 'el Amarna'), as an example of the term's usage.\n\nOther notable exchanges of greeting-gifts were with Tushratta of Mittani, Assyria, the King of Ugarit-(letter EA 49, by Niqmaddu II), and the King of Babylon.\n\nSee also\nAmarna letters\nZita (Hittite prince)\n\nReferences\nMoran, William L. The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. (softcover, )\n\n \nAmarna letters\nDiplomatic gifts",
"Toshakhana is a word of Persian origin that literally translates into \"treasure-house\".\nIn Mughal ruled India, a toshakhana was a place where princes store \"gifts and emblems of honor that they received for their posterity ... an archive of objects whose origin and receipt embodied his status and honor\"\n\nUnder British colonial rule, the officials of East India Company were not allowed to accept diplomatic gifts, often weapons or jewels\nknown as khilat, from Indian or Middle Eastern rulers and their subjects. When procedure required that the officials received such a khilat, the official would deposit it in the company's treasury (toshakhana). The objects were later used for exchange gifts with other rulers, when it was deemed appropriate to enter an exchange of khilat.\n\nTwo particularly rare items kept in the toshakhana of Harminder Sahib are a richly bejeweled canopy, and a chandoa (a diamond-encrusted piece of cloth hung over the Guru Granth Sahib). The cost of the artefacts was pegged at Rs 200 crore. present from the Nizam of Kingdom of Hyderabad to Maharaja Ranjit Singh who reportedly considering it too lavish a gift, sent it to the Harimandar Sahib and a chandan da chaur (flywhisk) made of sandalwood fibres which took years for Haji Muhammad Maskin, a Muslim craftsman to prepare.\n\nSeveral countries have Toshakhanas. In India, as per protocol, all gifts received by the Prime Minister and other officials from overseas have to be deposited in Toshakhana for evaluation. A Toshkhana is a treasure house wherein gifts that are received as honour are kept. It could be anything - paintings, sarees to other artefacts. It is managed by the MEA. The MEA has its own rate of evaluation done by dedicated personnel. As per a June 1978 gazette notification, every gift received by a person during an official visit should be deposited in the Toshakhana within 30 days of his return. Government of Pakistan has Toshakhana for gifts to state of Pakistan from other states or head of states. A Sikh Toshakhana is located on the first floor of the Darshani Deorhi, the gateway to the Golden Temple. Bangladesh has a Toshakhana.\n\nThe records of a 1930s British East India Company Toshakhana at Bushire shows that weapons and ammunition were kept in bulk for giving to the Trucial Coast sheikhs.\n\nReferences\n\nTreasure troves of India\nDiplomatic gifts\nJewels of the Nizams of Hyderabad"
] |
[
"Eleanor of Aquitaine",
"First marriage",
"Who did she marry?",
"Louis VII of France",
"When did they get married?",
"On 25 July 1137",
"Where did they get married?",
"in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre.",
"Why did she give him that gift?",
"I don't know.",
"Did they exchange any other gifts?",
"I don't know."
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C_303f8b49f620446b944741385de7fc82_0
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How long were they married?
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How long were Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France married?
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Eleanor of Aquitaine
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On 25 July 1137 Louis VII of France and Eleanor were married in the Cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux by the Archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine. However, there was a catch: the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both King of the Franks and Duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives. Louis's tenure as Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while Prince Louis and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. Thus he became King Louis VII of France. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned King and Queen of the Franks on Christmas Day of the same year. Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provencal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticized by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behavior baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cite Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Eleanor of Aquitaine ( – 1 April 1204; , ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1137 until her death in 1204. As the heir of the House of Poitiers, rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. She was patron of literary figures such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. She was also known to have led armies several times in her life and was a key leading figure of the unsuccessful Second Crusade.
Eleanor was the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine. She became duchess upon her father's death in April 1137, and three months later she married Louis, son of her guardian King Louis VI of France. A few weeks later, Prince Louis became the French king. They had two daughters, Marie and Alix. As queen of France, Eleanor participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. Soon afterwards, she sought an annulment of her marriage, but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III. Eventually, Louis agreed to an annulment, as 15 years of marriage had not produced a son. The marriage was annulled on 21 March 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate, custody was awarded to Louis, and Eleanor's lands were restored to her.
As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to her third cousin Henry, Duke of Normandy. The couple married on Whitsun, 18 May 1152. Henry and Eleanor became king and queen of England in 1154. They had five sons and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting the revolt of their eldest son, Henry, against him. She was not released until 6 July 1189, when her husband died and their third son, Richard I, ascended the throne. As queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade. She lived well into the reign of her youngest son, John.
Early life
Eleanor's year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124. On the other hand, some chronicles mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor's fourteenth birthday in 1136. This, and her known age of 82 at her death make 1122 the most likely year of her birth. Her parents almost certainly married in 1121. Her birthplace may have been Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l'Autise, where her mother and brother died when Eleanor was 6 or 8.
Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l'Isle Bouchard, who was William IX's longtime mistress as well as Eleanor's maternal grandmother. Her parents' marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather WilliamIX.
Eleanor is said to have been named for her mother Aenor and called Aliénor from the Latin Alia Aenor, which means the other Aenor. It became Eléanor in the langues d'oïl of northern France and Eleanor in English. There was, however, another prominent Eleanor before her—Eleanor of Normandy, an aunt of William the Conqueror, who lived a century earlier than Eleanor of Aquitaine. In Paris as the queen of France, she was called Helienordis, her honorific name as written in the Latin epistles.
By all accounts, Eleanor's father ensured that she had the best possible education. Eleanor came to learn arithmetic, the constellations, and history. She also learned domestic skills such as household management and the needle arts of embroidery, needlepoint, sewing, spinning, and weaving. Eleanor developed skills in conversation, dancing, games such as backgammon, checkers, and chess, playing the harp, and singing. Although her native tongue was Poitevin, she was taught to read and speak Latin, was well versed in music and literature, and schooled in riding, hawking, and hunting. Eleanor was extroverted, lively, intelligent, and strong-willed. Her four-year-old brother William Aigret and their mother died at the castle of Talmont on Aquitaine's Atlantic coast in the spring of 1130. Eleanor became the heir presumptive to her father's domains. The Duchy of Aquitaine was the largest and richest province of France. Poitou, where Eleanor spent most of her childhood, and Aquitaine together was almost one-third the size of modern France. Eleanor had only one other legitimate sibling, a younger sister named Aelith (also called Petronilla). Her half-brother Joscelin was acknowledged by WilliamX as a son, but not as his heir. The notion that she had another half-brother, William, has been discredited. Later, during the first four years of HenryII's reign, her siblings joined Eleanor's royal household.
Inheritance
In 1137 Duke William X left Poitiers for Bordeaux and took his daughters with him. Upon reaching Bordeaux, he left them in the charge of the archbishop of Bordeaux, one of his few loyal vassals. The duke then set out for the Shrine of Saint James of Compostela in the company of other pilgrims. However, he died on Good Friday of that year (9April).
Eleanor, aged 12 to 15, then became the duchess of Aquitaine, and thus the most eligible heiress in Europe. As these were the days when kidnapping an heiress was seen as a viable option for obtaining a title, William dictated a will on the very day he died that bequeathed his domains to Eleanor and appointed King Louis VI of France as her guardian. William requested of the king that he take care of both the lands and the duchess, and find her a suitable husband. However, until a husband was found, the king had the legal right to Eleanor's lands. The duke also insisted to his companions that his death be kept a secret until Louis was informed; the men were to journey from Saint James of Compostela across the Pyrenees as quickly as possible to call at Bordeaux to notify the archbishop, then to make all speed to Paris to inform the king.
The king of France, known as Louis the Fat, was also gravely ill at that time, suffering from a bout of dysentery from which he appeared unlikely to recover. Yet despite his impending death, Louis's mind remained clear. His eldest surviving son, Louis, had originally been destined for monastic life, but had become the heir apparent when the firstborn, Philip, died in a riding accident in 1131.
The death of William, one of the king's most powerful vassals, made available the most desirable duchy in France. While presenting a solemn and dignified face to the grieving Aquitainian messengers, Louis exulted when they departed. Rather than act as guardian to the duchess and duchy, he decided to marry the duchess to his 17-year-old heir and bring Aquitaine under the control of the French crown, thereby greatly increasing the power and prominence of France and its ruling family, the House of Capet. Within hours, the king had arranged for his son Louis to be married to Eleanor, with Abbot Suger in charge of the wedding arrangements. Louis was sent to Bordeaux with an escort of 500 knights, along with Abbot Suger, Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Count Ralph.
First marriage
On 25 July 1137, Eleanor and Louis were married in the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux by the archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as duke and duchess of Aquitaine. It was agreed that the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both king of France and duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase {fr}, currently on display at the Louvre. Louis gave the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives.
Louis's tenure as count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while he and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned king and queen of France on Christmas Day of the same year.
Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provençal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticised by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behaviour baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cité Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake.
Conflict
Louis soon came into violent conflict with Pope Innocent II. In 1141, the Archbishopric of Bourges became vacant, and the king put forward as a candidate one of his chancellors, Cadurc, while vetoing the one suitable candidate, Pierre de la Chatre, who was promptly elected by the canons of Bourges and consecrated by the Pope. Louis accordingly bolted the gates of Bourges against the new bishop. The Pope, recalling similar attempts by William X to exile supporters of Innocent from Poitou and replace them with priests loyal to himself, blamed Eleanor, saying that Louis was only a child and should be taught manners. Outraged, Louis swore upon relics that so long as he lived Pierre should never enter Bourges. An interdict was thereupon imposed upon the king's lands, and Pierre was given refuge by Theobald II, Count of Champagne.
Louis became involved in a war with Count Theobald by permitting Raoul I, Count of Vermandois and seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife Eleanor of Blois, Theobald's sister, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, Eleanor's sister. Eleanor urged Louis to support her sister's marriage to Count Raoul. Theobald had also offended Louis by siding with the Pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (1142–44) and ended with the occupation of Champagne by the royal army. Louis was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of Vitry. More than a thousand people who sought refuge in the church there died in the flames. Horrified, and desiring an end to the war, Louis attempted to make peace with Theobald in exchange for his support in lifting the interdict on Raoul and Petronilla. This was duly lifted for long enough to allow Theobald's lands to be restored; it was then lowered once more when Raoul refused to repudiate Petronilla, prompting Louis to return to Champagne and ravage it once more.
In June 1144, the king and queen visited the newly built monastic church at Saint-Denis. While there, the queen met with Bernard of Clairvaux, demanding that he use his influence with the Pope to have the excommunication of Petronilla and Raoul lifted, in exchange for which King Louis would make concessions in Champagne and recognise Pierre de la Chatre as archbishop of Bourges. Dismayed at her attitude, Bernard scolded Eleanor for her lack of penitence and interference in matters of state. In response, Eleanor broke down and meekly excused her behaviour, claiming to be bitter because of her lack of children (her only recorded pregnancy at that time was in about 1138, but she miscarried). In response, Bernard became more kindly towards her: "My child, seek those things which make for peace. Cease to stir up the king against the Church, and urge upon him a better course of action. If you will promise to do this, I in return promise to entreat the merciful Lord to grant you offspring." In a matter of weeks, peace had returned to France: Theobald's provinces were returned and Pierre de la Chatre was installed as archbishop of Bourges. In April 1145, Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, Marie.
Louis, however, still burned with guilt over the massacre at Vitry and wished to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sins. In autumn 1145, Pope Eugene III requested that Louis lead a Crusade to the Middle East to rescue the Frankish states there from disaster. Accordingly, Louis declared on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges his intention of going on a crusade.
Crusade
Eleanor of Aquitaine also formally took up the cross symbolic of the Second Crusade during a sermon preached by Bernard of Clairvaux. In addition, she had been corresponding with her uncle Raymond, Prince of Antioch, who was seeking further protection from the French crown against the Saracens. Eleanor recruited some of her royal ladies-in-waiting for the campaign as well as 300 non-noble Aquitainian vassals. She insisted on taking part in the Crusades as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. The story that she and her ladies dressed as Amazons is disputed by historians, sometimes confused with the account of King Conrad's train of ladies during this campaign in Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. She left for the Second Crusade from Vézelay, the rumoured location of Mary Magdalene's grave, in June 1147.
The Crusade itself achieved little. Louis was a weak and ineffectual military leader with no skill for maintaining troop discipline or morale, or of making informed and logical tactical decisions. In eastern Europe, the French army was at times hindered by Manuel I Comnenus, the Byzantine Emperor, who feared that the Crusade would jeopardise the tenuous safety of his empire. Notwithstanding, during their three-week stay at Constantinople, Louis was fêted and Eleanor was much admired. She was compared with Penthesilea, mythical queen of the Amazons, by the Greek historian Nicetas Choniates. He added that she gained the epithet chrysopous (golden-foot) from the cloth of gold that decorated and fringed her robe. Louis and Eleanor stayed in the Philopation palace just outside the city walls.
From the moment the Crusaders entered Asia Minor, things began to go badly. The king and queen were still optimistic—the Byzantine Emperor had told them that King Conrad III of Germany had won a great victory against a Turkish army when in fact the German army had been almost completely destroyed at Dorylaeum. However, while camping near Nicea, the remnants of the German army, including a dazed and sick Conrad III, staggered past the French camp, bringing news of their disaster. The French, with what remained of the Germans, then began to march in increasingly disorganised fashion towards Antioch. They were in high spirits on Christmas Eve, when they chose to camp in a lush valley near Ephesus. Here they were ambushed by a Turkish detachment, but the French proceeded to slaughter this detachment and appropriate their camp.
Louis then decided to cross the Phrygian mountains directly in the hope of reaching Raymond of Poitiers in Antioch more quickly. As they ascended the mountains, however, the army and the king and queen were horrified to discover the unburied corpses of the Germans killed earlier.
On the day set for the crossing of Mount Cadmus, Louis chose to take charge of the rear of the column, where the unarmed pilgrims and the baggage trains marched. The vanguard, with which Queen Eleanor marched, was commanded by her Aquitainian vassal, Geoffrey de Rancon. Unencumbered by baggage, they reached the summit of Cadmus, where Rancon had been ordered to make camp for the night. Rancon, however, chose to continue on, deciding in concert with Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, Louis's uncle, that a nearby plateau would make a better campsite. Such disobedience was reportedly common.
Accordingly, by mid-afternoon, the rear of the column—believing the day's march to be nearly at an end—was dawdling. This resulted in the army becoming separated, with some having already crossed the summit and others still approaching it. In the ensuing Battle of Mount Cadmus, the Turks, who had been following and feinting for many days, seized their opportunity and attacked those who had not yet crossed the summit. The French, both soldiers and pilgrims, taken by surprise, were trapped. Those who tried to escape were caught and killed. Many men, horses, and much of the baggage were cast into the canyon below. The chronicler William of Tyre, writing between 1170 and 1184 and thus perhaps too long after the event to be considered historically accurate, placed the blame for this disaster firmly on the amount of baggage being carried, much of it reputedly belonging to Eleanor and her ladies, and the presence of non-combatants.
The king, having scorned royal apparel in favour of a simple pilgrim's tunic, escaped notice, unlike his bodyguards, whose skulls were brutally smashed and limbs severed. He reportedly "nimbly and bravely scaled a rock by making use of some tree roots which God had provided for his safety" and managed to survive the attack. Others were not so fortunate: "No aid came from Heaven, except that night fell."
Official blame for the disaster was placed on Geoffrey de Rancon, who had made the decision to continue, and it was suggested that he be hanged, a suggestion which the king ignored. Since Geoffrey was Eleanor's vassal, many believed that it was she who had been ultimately responsible for the change in plan, and thus the massacre. This suspicion of responsibility did nothing for her popularity in Christendom. She was also blamed for the size of the baggage train and the fact that her Aquitanian soldiers had marched at the front and thus were not involved in the fight. Continuing on, the army became split, with the commoners marching towards Antioch and the royalty travelling by sea. When most of the land army arrived, the king and queen had a dispute. Some, such as John of Salisbury and William of Tyre, say Eleanor's reputation was sullied by rumours of an affair with her uncle Raymond. However, this rumour may have been a ruse, as Raymond, through Eleanor, had been trying to induce Louis to use his army to attack the actual Muslim encampment at nearby Aleppo, gateway to retaking Edessa, which had all along, by papal decree, been the main objective of the Crusade. Although this was perhaps a better military plan, Louis was not keen to fight in northern Syria. One of Louis's avowed Crusade goals was to journey in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and he stated his intention to continue. Reputedly Eleanor then requested to stay with Raymond and brought up the matter of consanguinity—the fact that she and her husband, King Louis, were perhaps too closely related. Consanguinity was grounds for annulment in the medieval period. But rather than allowing her to stay, Louis took Eleanor from Antioch against her will and continued on to Jerusalem with his dwindling army.
Louis's refusal and his forcing her to accompany him humiliated Eleanor, and she maintained a low profile for the rest of the crusade. Louis's subsequent siege of Damascus in 1148 with his remaining army, reinforced by Conrad and Baldwin III of Jerusalem, achieved little. Damascus was a major wealthy trading centre and was under normal circumstances a potential threat, but the rulers of Jerusalem had recently entered into a truce with the city, which they then forswore. It was a gamble that did not pay off, and whether through military error or betrayal, the Damascus campaign was a failure. Louis's long march to Jerusalem and back north, which Eleanor was forced to join, debilitated his army and disheartened her knights; the divided Crusade armies could not overcome the Muslim forces, and the royal couple had to return home. The French royal family retreated to Jerusalem and then sailed to Rome and made their way back to Paris.
While in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor learned about maritime conventions developing there, which were the beginnings of what would become admiralty law. She introduced those conventions in her own lands on the island of Oléron in 1160 (with the "Rolls of Oléron") and later in England as well. She was also instrumental in developing trade agreements with Constantinople and ports of trade in the Holy Lands.
Annulment
Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged, and their differences were only exacerbated while they were abroad. Eleanor's purported relationship with her uncle Raymond, the ruler of Antioch, was a major source of discord. Eleanor supported her uncle's desire to re-capture the nearby County of Edessa, the objective of the Crusade. In addition, having been close to him in their youth, she now showed what was considered to be "excessive affection" towards her uncle. Raymond had plans to abduct Eleanor, to which she consented.
Home, however, was not easily reached. Louis and Eleanor, on separate ships due to their disagreements, were first attacked in May 1149 by Byzantine ships. Although they escaped this attempt unharmed, stormy weather drove Eleanor's ship far to the south to the Barbary Coast and caused her to lose track of her husband. Neither was heard of for over two months. In mid-July, Eleanor's ship finally reached Palermo in Sicily, where she discovered that she and her husband had both been given up for dead. She was given shelter and food by servants of King Roger II of Sicily, until the king eventually reached Calabria, and she set out to meet him there. Later, at King Roger's court in Potenza, she learned of the death of her uncle Raymond, who had been beheaded by Muslim forces in the Holy Land. This news appears to have forced a change of plans, for instead of returning to France from Marseilles, they went to see Pope Eugene III in Tusculum, where he had been driven five months before by a revolt of the Commune of Rome.
Eugene did not, as Eleanor had hoped, grant an annulment. Instead, he attempted to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, confirming the legality of their marriage. He proclaimed that no word could be spoken against it, and that it might not be dissolved under any pretext. He even arranged for Eleanor and Louis to sleep in the same bed. Thus was conceived their second child—not a son, but another daughter, Alix of France.
The marriage was now doomed. Still without a son and in danger of being left with no male heir, as well as facing substantial opposition to Eleanor from many of his barons and her own desire for annulment, Louis bowed to the inevitable. On 11 March 1152, they met at the royal castle of Beaugency to dissolve the marriage. Hugues de Toucy, archbishop of Sens, presided, and Louis and Eleanor were both present, as were the archbishop of Bordeaux and Rouen. Archbishop Samson of Reims acted for Eleanor.
On 21 March, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis' third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France. Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. Children born to a marriage that was later annulled were not at risk of being "bastardised," because "[w]here parties married in good faith, without knowledge of an impediment, ... children of the marriage were legitimate." [Berman 228.] ) Custody of them was awarded to King Louis. Archbishop Samson received assurances from Louis that Eleanor's lands would be restored to her.
Second marriage
As Eleanor travelled to Poitiers, two lords—Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, brother of Henry II, Duke of Normandy—tried to kidnap and marry her to claim her lands. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to Henry, Duke of Normandy and future king of England, asking him to come at once to marry her. On 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry "without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank."
Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou, wife of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais, and they were also descended from King Robert II of France. A marriage between Henry and Eleanor's daughter Marie had earlier been declared impossible due to their status as third cousins once removed. It was rumoured by some that Eleanor had had an affair with Henry's own father, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, who had advised his son to avoid any involvement with her.
On 25 October 1154, Henry became king of England. A now heavily pregnant Eleanor, was crowned queen of England by Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 19 December 1154. She may not have been anointed on this occasion, however, because she had already been anointed in 1137. Over the next 13 years, she bore Henry five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan. John Speed, in his 1611 work History of Great Britain, mentions the possibility that Eleanor had a son named Philip, who died young. His sources no longer exist, and he alone mentions this birth.
Eleanor's marriage to Henry was reputed to be tumultuous and argumentative, although sufficiently cooperative to produce at least eight pregnancies. Henry was by no means faithful to his wife and had a reputation for philandering. Henry fathered other, illegitimate children throughout the marriage. Eleanor appears to have taken an ambivalent attitude towards these affairs. Geoffrey of York, for example, was an illegitimate son of Henry, but acknowledged by Henry as his child and raised at Westminster in the care of the queen.
During the period from Henry's accession to the birth of Eleanor's youngest son John, affairs in the kingdom were turbulent: Aquitaine, as was the norm, defied the authority of Henry as Eleanor's husband and answered only to their duchess. Attempts were made to claim Toulouse, the rightful inheritance of Eleanor's grandmother Philippa of Toulouse, but they ended in failure. A bitter feud arose between the king and Thomas Becket, initially his chancellor and closest adviser and later the archbishop of Canterbury. Louis of France had remarried and been widowed; he married for the third time and finally fathered a long-hoped-for son, Philip Augustus, also known as Dieudonné—God-given). "Young Henry," son of Henry and Eleanor, wed Margaret, daughter of Louis from his second marriage. Little is known of Eleanor's involvement in these events. It is certain that by late 1166, Henry's notorious affair with Rosamund Clifford had become known, and Eleanor's marriage to Henry appears to have become terminally strained.
In 1167, Eleanor's third daughter, Matilda, married Henry the Lion of Saxony. Eleanor remained in England with her daughter for the year prior to Matilda's departure for Normandy in September. In December, Eleanor gathered her movable possessions in England and transported them on several ships to Argentan. Christmas was celebrated at the royal court there, and she appears to have agreed to a separation from Henry. She certainly left for her own city of Poitiers immediately after Christmas. Henry did not stop her; on the contrary, he and his army personally escorted her there before attacking a castle belonging to the rebellious Lusignan family. Henry then went about his own business outside Aquitaine, leaving Earl Patrick, his regional military commander, as her protective custodian. When Patrick was killed in a skirmish, Eleanor, who proceeded to ransom his captured nephew, the young William Marshal, was left in control of her lands.
The Court of Love in Poitiers
Of all her influence on culture, Eleanor's time in Poitiers between 1168 and 1173 was perhaps the most critical, yet very little is known about it. Henry II was elsewhere, attending to his own affairs after escorting Eleanor there. Some believe that Eleanor's court in Poitiers was the "Court of Love" where Eleanor and her daughter Marie meshed and encouraged the ideas of troubadours, chivalry, and courtly love into a single court. It may have been largely to teach manners, something the French courts would be known for in later generations. Yet the existence and reasons for this court are debated.
In The Art of Courtly Love, Andreas Capellanus, Andrew the chaplain, refers to the court of Poitiers. He claims that Eleanor, her daughter Marie, Ermengarde, Viscountess of Narbonne, and Isabelle of Flanders would sit and listen to the quarrels of lovers and act as a jury to the questions of the court that revolved around acts of romantic love. He records some twenty-one cases, the most famous of them being a problem posed to the women about whether true love can exist in marriage. According to Capellanus, the women decided that it was not at all likely.
Some scholars believe that the "court of love" probably never existed since the only evidence for it is Andreas Capellanus' book. To strengthen their argument, they state that there is no other evidence that Marie ever stayed with her mother in Poitiers. Andreas wrote for the court of the king of France, where Eleanor was not held in esteem. Polly Schroyer Brooks, the author of a non-academic biography of Eleanor, suggests that the court did exist, but that it was not taken very seriously, and that acts of courtly love were just a "parlour game" made up by Eleanor and Marie in order to place some order over the young courtiers living there.
There is no claim that Eleanor invented courtly love, for it was a concept that had begun to grow before Eleanor's court arose. All that can be said is that her court at Poitiers was most likely a catalyst for the increased popularity of courtly love literature in the Western European regions. Amy Kelly, in her article, "Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Courts of Love," gives a very plausible description of the origins of the rules of Eleanor's court: "In the Poitevin code, man is the property, the very thing of woman; whereas a precisely contrary state of things existed in the adjacent realms of the two kings from whom the reigning duchess of Aquitaine was estranged."
Revolt and capture
In March 1173, aggrieved at his lack of power and egged on by Henry's enemies, his son by the same name, the younger Henry, launched the Revolt of 1173–1174. He fled to Paris. From there, "the younger Henry, devising evil against his father from every side by the advice of the French king, went secretly into Aquitaine where his two youthful brothers, Richard and Geoffrey, were living with their mother, and with her connivance, so it is said, he incited them to join him." One source claimed that the queen sent her younger sons to France "to join with him against their father the king." Once her sons had left for Paris, Eleanor may have encouraged the lords of the south to rise up and support them.
Sometime between the end of March and the beginning of May, Eleanor left Poitiers, but was arrested and sent to the king at Rouen. The king did not announce the arrest publicly; for the next year, the queen's whereabouts were unknown. On 8 July 1174, Henry and Eleanor took ship for England from Barfleur. As soon as they disembarked at Southampton, Eleanor was taken either to Winchester Castle or Sarum Castle and held there.
Years of imprisonment 1173–1189
Eleanor was imprisoned for the next 16 years, much of the time in various locations in England. During her imprisonment, Eleanor became more and more distant from her sons, especially from Richard, who had always been her favourite. She did not have the opportunity to see her sons very often during her imprisonment, though she was released for special occasions such as Christmas. About four miles from Shrewsbury and close by Haughmond Abbey is "Queen Eleanor's Bower", the remains of a triangular castle which is believed to have been one of her prisons.
Henry lost the woman reputed to be his great love, Rosamund Clifford, in 1176. He had met her in 1166 and had begun their liaison in 1173, supposedly contemplating divorce from Eleanor. This notorious affair caused a monkish scribe to transcribe Rosamund's name in Latin to "Rosa Immundi", or "Rose of Unchastity". The king had many mistresses, but although he treated earlier liaisons discreetly, he flaunted Rosamund. He may have done so to provoke Eleanor into seeking an annulment, but if so, the queen disappointed him. Nevertheless, rumours persisted, perhaps assisted by Henry's camp, that Eleanor had poisoned Rosamund. It is also speculated that Eleanor placed Rosamund in a bathtub and had an old woman cut Rosamund's arms. Henry donated much money to Godstow Nunnery in Oxfordshire, where Rosamund was buried.
In 1183, the young King Henry tried again to force his father to hand over some of his patrimony. In debt and refused control of Normandy, he tried to ambush his father at Limoges. He was joined by troops sent by his brother Geoffrey and Philip II of France. Henry II's troops besieged the town, forcing his son to flee. After wandering aimlessly through Aquitaine, Henry the Younger caught dysentery. On Saturday, 11 June 1183, the young king realized he was dying and was overcome with remorse for his sins. When his father's ring was sent to him, he begged that his father would show mercy to his mother, and that all his companions would plead with Henry to set her free. Henry II sent Thomas of Earley, Archdeacon of Wells, to break the news to Eleanor at Sarum. Eleanor reputedly had a dream in which she foresaw her son Henry's death. In 1193, she would tell Pope Celestine III that she was tortured by his memory.
King Philip II of France claimed that certain properties in Normandy belonged to his half-sister Margaret, widow of the young Henry, but Henry insisted that they had once belonged to Eleanor and would revert to her upon her son's death. For this reason Henry summoned Eleanor to Normandy in the late summer of 1183. She stayed in Normandy for six months. This was the beginning of a period of greater freedom for the still-supervised Eleanor. Eleanor went back to England probably early in 1184. Over the next few years Eleanor often travelled with her husband and was sometimes associated with him in the government of the realm, but still had a custodian so that she was not free.
Widowhood
Upon the death of her husband Henry II on 6 July 1189, Richard I was the undisputed heir. One of his first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders to release Eleanor from prison; he found upon his arrival that her custodians had already released her. Eleanor rode to Westminster and received the oaths of fealty from many lords and prelates on behalf of the king. She ruled England in Richard's name, signing herself "Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England." On 13August 1189, Richard sailed from Barfleur to Portsmouth and was received with enthusiasm. Between 1190 and 1194, Richard was absent from England, engaged in the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1192, and then held in captivity by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
During Richard's absence, royal authority in England was represented by a Council of Regency in conjunction with a succession of chief justiciars—William de Longchamp (1190–1191), Walter deCoutances (1191–1193), and finally Hubert Walter. Although Eleanor held no formal office in England during this period, she arrived in England in the company of Coutances in June 1191, and for the remainder of Richard's absence, she exercised a considerable degree of influence over the affairs of England as well as the conduct of Prince John. Eleanor played a key role in raising the ransom demanded from England by HenryVI and in the negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor that eventually secured Richard's release. Evidence of the influence she wielded can also be found within the numerous letters she wrote to Pope Celestine III regarding Richard's captivity. Her letter dated 1193, presents her strong expressions of personal suffering as a result of Richard's captivity and informs the Pope that in her grief she is "wasted away by sorrow".
Eleanor survived Richard and lived well into the reign of her youngest son, King John. In 1199, under the terms of a truce between King PhilipII and King John, it was agreed that Philip's 12-year-old heir-apparent Louis would be married to one of John's nieces, daughters of his sister Eleanor of England, queen of Castile. John instructed his mother to travel to Castile to select one of the princesses. Now 77, Eleanor set out from Poitiers. Just outside Poitiers she was ambushed and held captive by Hugh IX of Lusignan, whose lands had been sold to HenryII by his forebears. Eleanor secured her freedom by agreeing to his demands. She continued south, crossed the Pyrenees, and travelled through the kingdoms of Navarre and Castile, arriving in Castile before the end of January 1200.
Eleanor's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Castile, had two remaining unmarried daughters, Urraca and Blanche. Eleanor selected the younger daughter, Blanche. She stayed for two months at the Castilian court, then late in March journeyed with granddaughter Blanche back across the Pyrenees. She celebrated Easter in Bordeaux, where the famous warrior Mercadier came to her court. It was decided that he would escort the queen and princess north. "On the second day in Easter week, he was slain in the city by a man-at-arms in the service of Brandin," a rival mercenary captain. This tragedy was too much for the elderly queen, who was fatigued and unable to continue to Normandy. She and Blanche rode in easy stages to the valley of the Loire, and she entrusted Blanche to the archbishop of Bordeaux, who took over as her escort. The exhausted Eleanor went to Fontevraud, where she remained. In early summer, Eleanor was ill, and John visited her at Fontevraud.
Eleanor was again unwell in early 1201. When war broke out between John and Philip, Eleanor declared her support for John and set out from Fontevraud to her capital Poitiers to prevent her grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, posthumous son of Eleanor's son Geoffrey and John's rival for the English throne, from taking control. Arthur learned of her whereabouts and besieged her in the castle of Mirebeau. As soon as John heard of this, he marched south, overcame the besiegers, and captured the 15-year-old Arthur, and probably his sister Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany, whom Eleanor had raised with Richard. Eleanor then returned to Fontevraud where she took the veil as a nun.
Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey next to her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible and is decorated with representations of magnificent jewellery; such effigies were rare, and Eleanor's is one of the finest of the few that survive from this period. However, during the French Revolution the abbey of Fontevraud was sacked and the tombs were disturbed and vandalised - consequently the bones of Eleanor, Henry, Richard, Joana and Isabella of Angoulême were exhumed and scattered, never to be recovered. By the time of her death she had outlived all of her children except for King John of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile.
Appearance
Contemporary sources praise Eleanor's beauty. Even in an era when ladies of the nobility were excessively praised, their praise of her was undoubtedly sincere. When she was young, she was described as perpulchra—more than beautiful. When she was around 30, Bernard de Ventadour, a noted troubadour, called her "gracious, lovely, the embodiment of charm," extolling her "lovely eyes and noble countenance" and declaring that she was "one meet to crown the state of any king." William of Newburgh emphasised the charms of her person, and even in her old age Richard of Devizes described her as beautiful, while Matthew Paris, writing in the 13thcentury, recalled her "admirable beauty."
In spite of all these words of praise, no one left a more detailed description of Eleanor; the colour of her hair and eyes, for example, are unknown. The effigy on her tomb shows a tall and large-boned woman with brown skin, though this may not be an accurate representation. Her seal of shows a woman with a slender figure, but this is probably an impersonal image.
Popular culture
Art
Judy Chicago's artistic installation The Dinner Party features a place setting for Eleanor, and she was portrayed by Frederick Sandys in his 1858 painting, Queen Eleanor.
Books and dramas
Henry and Eleanor are the main characters in James Goldman's 1966 play The Lion in Winter, which was made into a film in 1968 starring Peter O'Toole as Henry and Katharine Hepburn in the role of Eleanor, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama.
Jean Plaidy's novel The Courts of Love, fifth in the 'Queens of England' series, is a fictionalised autobiography of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Norah Lofts wrote a fictionalized biography of her, entitled in various editions Queen in Waiting or Eleanor the Queen, and including some romanticized episodes—starting off with the young Eleanor planning to elope with a young knight, who is killed out of hand by her guardian, in order to facilitate her marriage to the King's son.
The character Queen Elinor appears in William Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John, with other members of the family. On television, she has been portrayed in this play by Una Venning in the BBC Sunday Night Theatre version (1952) and by Mary Morris in the BBC Shakespeare version (1984).
Eleanor features in the novel Via Crucis (1899) by F. Marion Crawford.
Eleanor serves as an important allegorical figure in Ezra Pound's early Cantos.
In Sharon Kay Penman's Plantagenet novels, she figures prominently in When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance, and Devil's Brood, and also appears in Lionheart and A King's Ransom, both of which focus on the reign of her son, Richard, as king of England. Eleanor also appears briefly in the first novel of Penman's Welsh trilogy, Here Be Dragons. In Penman's historical mysteries, Eleanor, as Richard's regent, sends squire Justin de Quincy on various missions, often an investigation of a situation involving Prince John. The four published mysteries are the Queen's Man, Cruel as the Grave, Dragon's Lair, and Prince of Darkness.
Eleanor is the subject of A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, a children's novel by E.L. Konigsburg.
Historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick wrote a three-volume series about Eleanor: The Summer Queen (2013), The Winter Crown (2014) and The Autumn Throne (2016).
In The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle, retelling the ballad Robin Hood and Queen Katherine, made the queen Queen Eleanor to fit historically with the rest of the work.
She has also been introduced in The Royal Diaries series in the book "Crown Jewel of Aquitaine" by Kristiana Gregory.
She is a supporting character in Matrix by Lauren Groff.
Film, radio and television
Eleanor has featured in a number of screen versions of the Ivanhoe and Robin Hood stories. She has been played by Martita Hunt in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), Jill Esmond in the British TV adventure series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955–1960), Phyllis Neilson-Terry in the British TV adventure series Ivanhoe (1958), Yvonne Mitchell in the BBC TV drama series The Legend of Robin Hood (1975), Siân Phillips in the TV series Ivanhoe (1997), and Tusse Silberg in the TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood (1997). She was portrayed by Lynda Bellingham in the BBC series Robin Hood. Most recently, she was portrayed by Eileen Atkins in Robin Hood (2010).
In the 1964 film Becket, Eleanor is briefly played by Pamela Brown to Peter O'Toole's first performance as a young Henry II.
In the 1968 film The Lion in Winter, Eleanor is played by Katharine Hepburn, who won the third of her four Academy Awards for Best Actress for her portrayal, and Henry again is portrayed by O'Toole. The film is about the difficult relationship between them and the struggle of their three sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John for their father's favour and the succession. In the 2003 television film version, Eleanor was played by Glenn Close alongside Patrick Stewart as Henry.
She was portrayed by Mary Clare in the silent film Becket (1923), by Prudence Hyman in Richard the Lionheart (1962), and twice by Jane Lapotaire in the BBC TV drama series The Devil's Crown (1978) and again in Mike Walker's BBC Radio 4 series Plantagenet (2010). In the 2014 film Richard the Lionheart: Rebellion, Eleanor is played by Debbie Rochon.
Her life was portrayed on BBC Radio 4 in the drama series Eleanor Rising, with Rose Basista as Eleanor and Joel MacCormack as King Louis. The first series of five 15-minute episodes was broadcast in November 2020 and the second series in April 2021.
Music
Eleanor and Rosamund Clifford, as well as Henry IIand Rosamund's father, appear in Gaetano Donizetti's opera Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (libretto by Felice Romani), which was premiered in Florence, at the Teatro Pergola, in 1834.
Eleanor of Aquitaine is thought to be the queen of England mentioned in the poem "Were diu werlt alle min," used as the tenth movement of Carl Orff's famous cantata, Carmina Burana.
Flower and Hawk is a monodrama for soprano and orchestra, written by American composer, Carlisle Floyd that premiered in 1972, in which the soprano (Eleanor of Aquitaine) relives past memories of her time as queen, and at the end of the monodrama, hears the bells that toll for Henry II's death, and in turn, her freedom.
Queen Elanor's Confession, or Queen Eleanor's Confession, is Child ballad 156. Although the figures are intended as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, and William Marshall, the story is an entire invention.
Video games
In the 2019 video game expansion Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, Eleanor is a playable leader for the English and French civilizations.
Issue
See also
List of longest-reigning monarchs
Grandmother of Europe, sobriquet of Eleanor of Aquitaine and others
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
(for young readers)
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Further reading
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External links
The Eleanor Vase preserved at the Louvre
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1122 births
1204 deaths
12th-century French people
13th-century French people
12th-century English people
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12th-century French women
13th-century French women
12th-century English women
13th-century English women
12th-century viceregal rulers
12th-century women rulers
13th-century women rulers
Women in 12th-century warfare
French queens consort
English royal consorts
Countesses of Anjou
Countesses of Maine
Counts of Poitiers
Duchesses of Normandy
Dukes of Gascony
Duchesses of Aquitaine
House of Poitiers
French patrons of literature
Christians of the Second Crusade
People from Aquitaine
Regents of England
Burials at Fontevraud Abbey
Henry II of England
Women in medieval European warfare
Robin Hood characters
Women in war in the Middle East
Remarried royal consorts
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"This is a list of long marriages. It includes marriages extending over at least 80 years.\n\nBackground\nA study by Robert and Jeanette Lauer, reported in the Journal of Family Issues, conducted on 40 sets of spouses married for at least 50 years, concluded that the long-term married couples received high scores on the Lock-Wallace marital satisfaction test and were closely aligned on how their marriages were doing. In a 1979 study on about 55 couples in marriages with an average length of 55.5 years, couples said their marriages lasted so long because of mutual devotion and special regard for each other. Couples who have been married for a long time have a lower likelihood of divorcing because \"common economic interests and friendship networks increase over time\" and during stress can assist in sustaining the relationship.\n\nAnother study found that people in long marriages are wedded to the idea of \"marital permanency\" in which \"They don't see divorce as an option\". Sociologist Pepper Schwartz, AARP's relationships authority, said that it was helpful to have a spouse who is quick to recover when there are surprises in life.\n\nA study of 1,152 couples who had been married for over 50 years found that they attributed their long marriages to faith in each other, love, ability to make concessions, admiration for each other, reliance on each other, children, and strong communication. Bowling Green State University's National Center for Family and Marriage Research found that 7% of American marriages last at least 50 years.\n\nRecording longest marriages\nThe longest marriage recorded (although not officially recognized) is a granite wedding anniversary (90 years) between Karam and Kartari Chand, who both lived in the United Kingdom, but were married in India. Karam and Kartari Chand married in 1925 and died in 2016 and 2019 respectively.\n\nGuinness World Records published its first edition in 1955. In the 1984 to 1998 editions, the longest recorded marriages were between Temulji Bhicaji Nariman and Lady Nariman, and Lazarus and Mary Rowe according to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, both of them spanning 86 years. Guinness has since recognized couples with longer marriage spans, with the current world record holders being Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher. Guinness also keeps record of the oldest married couple by aggregate age.\n\nOther organizations have created events where they honor couples with long marriages. In 2011, World Marriage Encounter (WME), an American organization that was responsible for making a World Marriage Day, created a Longest Married Couple Project (LMCP), where they pick a couple with a long marriage and honor them on Valentine's Day. They have since expanded the awards to representatives in each of the 50 states, although the candidates selected are not necessarily the ones with record-setting marriages. Starting in 2004, the Louisiana Family Forum (LFF) has honored its own annual list of long-time married couples in that particular state, beginning with George and Germaine Briant. Irving (107) and Dorothy Black (103) of Queens, NY were married November 10, 1940. They are now the 2nd longest married couple in the United States.\n\nList of marriages reported to be more than 80 years\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nLists of people by marital status\nMarriages\nLongest-duration things",
"Pillow Talk (simplified Chinese: 再见单人床) is a Singaporean Chinese drama which will be telecast on Singapore's free-to-air channel, MediaCorp Channel 8. It stars Joanne Peh, Pierre Png, Thomas Ong, Michelle Chia and Jacelyn Tay of this series. This drama serial was retelecast on every weekday except Thursday & Friday at 3.30 pm.\n\nSynopsis\nHow exactly are men different from women? How exactly does being in love differ from being married?\n\nA couple tied the knot because they yearned to wed. The bride's parents divorced three days after her marriage because they had tolerated each other to breaking point after their long years of marriage.\n\nThis drama paints the married life of four wedded couples: a pair of newly-weds enjoying nuptial bliss; a couple married for seven years struggling for survival in the midst of establishing their careers and raising children, and whose marriage is showing cracks yet they are clueless about managing the strained relationship; a middle-aged couple married for decades who try but fail to change each other's ways, and who long to end their marriage to gain freedom but eventually realising that they are inseparable; an old loving couple who bicker to spice up their lives, and having understood the essence of marriage, manage their monotonous married life with wisdom.\n\nApart from exploring the meaning of marriage, the drama provides tips to preserve a marriage in a light-hearted manner. By educating through entertainment, viewers learn to appreciate that as \"Home is not a place to reason, but to love\", it is an art to maintain a relationship and that the true meaning of marriage hinges on patience, wisdom and love. How exactly are men different from women? How exactly does being in love differ from being married?\n\nProduction\nMars vs Venus's Chinese name is 幸福双人床 (literally Lucky Double Bed), whereas this drama's is 再见单人床, which translates to \"Seeing the Single Bed again\". 再见单人床 can also be interpreted as saying goodbye to the single bed, implying one is going to get married. \n\nThis drama was planned to have 20 episodes, but added an episode due to overruns in filming.\n\nCast\n\nSpecial appearances\n\nOverseas broadcast\n\nAwards and nominations\nPillow Talk is nominated in nine categories, and won the year's Best Drama Serial.\n\nStar Awards 2013\n\nSee also\n List of programmes broadcast by Mediacorp Channel 8\n List of Pillow Talk (TV series) episodes\n\nReferences\nJoanne Peh is the celeb blogger on the Pillow Talk posts.\n\nSingapore Chinese dramas\n2012 Singaporean television series debuts\nChannel 8 (Singapore) original programming"
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[
"Horslips",
"Return"
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C_ee3b5ed0e1d947daa08b75d71fde6e43_0
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how did the horslips return?
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How did the Horslips return?
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Horslips
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In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs. The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal. A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test. In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980. The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music. CANNOTANSWER
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Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio
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Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and reels. The group are regarded as 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' for their fusion of traditional Irish music with rock music and went on to inspire many local and international acts. They formed in 1970 and 'retired' in 1980 for an extended period. The name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse".
Although Horslips had limited commercial success when the band was playing in the 70s, there was a revival of interest in their music in the late 1990s and they came to be regarded as one of the defining bands of the Celtic rock genre. There have since been small scale reunions including appearances on The Late Late Show and RTÉ's Other Voices. The band reformed for two Irish shows in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast and the 3Arena in Dublin at the end of 2009, and have continued to play shows since then.
Band members
Jim Lockhart (born 3 February 1948), from James's St in Dublin, studied Economics and Politics at University College Dublin. He fell under the influence of Seán Ó Riada, wanting to build an orchestral sound out of Irish music. He plays keyboards, pipes, whistles and flute. He did vocals on a select number of songs, mainly in Manx or Irish.
Eamon Carr (born 12 November 1948), is from Kells, County Meath. He was one of the founding members of a poetry and beat performance group called Tara Telephone in Dublin in the late 60s that also published the quarterly literary journal Capella. He is the drummer in the band.
Charles O'Connor, (Born 7 September 1948) from Middlesbrough in the UK plays concertina, mandolin, fiddle and both electric and slide guitar. He also shares the main vocal tasks with Barry Devlin and Johnny Fean.
Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946), from Ardboe in County Tyrone, once trained as a Columban priest. He left this to study English in University College Dublin and afterwards joined a graphics company as a screenwriter. He is the band's bass player, shares vocals, and is its unofficial front man.
Johnny Fean (born 17 November 1951) spent his childhood in the city of Limerick and in Shannon, County Clare. He soon mastered guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica. In his teens, he played in sessions in Limerick and County Clare. Fean developed his listening tastes from rock to blues and incorporated it into his guitar style. In his late teens he played in a group called Sweet Street, with Joe O'Donnell on electric fiddle and Eugene Wallace. He later played in Jeremiah Henry, a rock and blues band. His idols were Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He left Jeremiah Henry in 1970 to play traditional music again in Limerick.
Career
Original line-up
Barry Devlin, Eamon Carr and Charles O'Connor met when they worked at the Ark advertising company in Dublin. They were cajoled into pretending to be a band for a Harp Lager commercial but needed a keyboard player. Devlin said he knew a Jim Lockhart who would fit the bill. The four enjoyed the act so much that they decided to try being proper rock performers. They joined guitarist Declan Sinnott, a colleague of Eamon Carr's from Tara Telephone and, briefly, Gene Mulvaney to form Horslips (originally Horslypse) in 1970.
The band went professional on St Patrick's Day 1972 having shed Mulvaney and released a single, "Johnny's Wedding", on their own record label, Oats. Declan Sinnott left soon after, primarily due to his annoyance at the group appearing in an advert for Mirinda orange drink (shot in the grounds of Ardmore Studios Bray in Easter 1972) and was replaced by Gus Guest briefly, then Johnny Fean.
Albums
Horslips designed their own artwork, wrote sleeve-notes and researched the legends that they made into concept albums. They established their own record label, Oats, and licensed the recordings through Atco, RCA and DJM for release outside Ireland. They kept their base in Ireland, unlike previous Irish bands.
In October 1972, Horslips went to Longfield House in Tipperary and recorded their first album, Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part, in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. They then released another single, "Green Gravel". On the first album the melodies were mostly traditional. Jim Lockhart was on keyboards and gradually mastered other instruments including uillean pipes. Eamon Carr was on drums, including the Irish bodhrán. Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part was the fastest-selling album for eight years in Ireland. The sleeve was an elaborate concertina-shaped fold-out design.
The Abbey Theatre in Dublin asked the band to provide the background for a stage adaptation of "The Táin". They leapt at the opportunity. "Táin Bó Cúailnge" (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley) is a tenth-century story written in Old and Middle Irish. It tells of an ancient war between Ulster and Connacht. The Táin was released in 1973 and had more original material alongside the traditional tunes, and greater emphasis on rock. In the same year a single, "Dearg Doom", went to number one in Germany.
Dancehall Sweethearts followed in 1974, and also balanced folk with rock. Their fourth album, The Unfortunate Cup of Tea, drifted toward pop music and was generally considered less successful. RCA ended their funding deal for the group in 1975. The group funded their next venture themselves and went back to basics. Drive The Cold Winter Away (also 1975) was their most traditional album to date. They signed with DJM Records worldwide through A&R man Frank Neilson. The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony (1976), like The Táin, was an adaptation of Irish legends built into a complex story. It became their only entry in the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at No. 39 in 1977.
Ever ambitious, the band now tried to make it in the United States. They brought in Jim Slye to become their manager. He later sold their publishing rights to William McBurney for £4,000. In 1977 they produced Aliens, about the experience of the Irish in nineteenth-century America, which included little folk music. They toured Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States. The night they played the Albert Hall in London was described by one critic as the loudest gig there since Hendrix. The Man Who Built America (1978), produced by Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Blues Project fame, concerned Irish emigration to the US and received considerable airplay but broad approval was missing. The heavier sound did bring some acceptance in America but they lost their folk base and their freshness. Short Stories, Tall Tales (1979) was their last studio album and was panned by the record company and critics alike.
"The Last Time"
At a time when The Troubles were at its peak, Horslips played gigs in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without prejudice and were accepted everywhere. Their last recordings were from live performances at the Whitla Hall in Belfast April and May 1980. A few months later, on 12 October 1980 they played their final gig in the Ulster Hall. They made no public announcement. They simply gave an encore — the Rolling Stones' song "The Last Time" (this was a reference to the recording studio of their first album) and the final act was Charles O'Connor throwing his mangled fiddle into the audience. Ten years after they formed, they disbanded.
Musical life after the break up
Even before Horslips ended, Johnny Fean, Eamon Carr and two others founded the Zen Alligators in 1980. They played straight rock and soul on the Irish circuit, and they recorded several singles. Another spin-off group called Host contained Fean, O'Connor and Carr. They issued one album, Tryal, in 1984, and two singles.
The final album that had a Fean/Carr collaboration in the 1980s was The Last Bandits in the World (1986).
Barry Devlin issued a solo album called Breaking Star Codes in 1983 with some help from Jim Lockhart. The album had 12 songs, each based, loosely, on the signs of the zodiac. Further Lockhart/Devlin collaborations included the theme tune to the popular RTÉ drama series Glenroe.
In 1986, Johnny Fean moved to England. An English indie band called Jacobites (1983 to 1986) consisted of Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth. Their 1986 album Ragged School had Johnny on guitar. He also played sporadically with a Horslips tribute band Spirit of Horslips and pub gigs with pick up three-piece The Treat, which sometimes featured former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell instead of Fean.
In 1990, the electric guitar intro to "Dearg Doom" was used for Put 'Em Under Pressure, Ireland's 1990 World Cup song, written by Larry Mullen and featuring the Republic of Ireland national football team and Moya Brennan. This use of the intro may be better known in Ireland than the original.
Charles O'Connor released an instrumental album, Angel on the Mantelpiece, in collaboration with Paul Whittaker in 1997.
Further activities
Johnny Fean continued to play live music with Stephen Travers, formerly of The Miami Showband.
After his retirement, Eamon Carr went on to become a producer of young rock talent in the mid-1980s, and also formed his own record label called Hotwire (which sponsored noted acts such as the punk rock group The Golden Horde). He also did a number of specialist DJ slots on radio before morphing into a music/sports journalist with the Evening Herald in Dublin. More recently he presented on a Dublin station 'Carr's Cocktail Shack' in which he played American music of the 1950s and 1960s. In 2008, Carr and Henry McCullough co-wrote a new bunch of songs. A resulting album entitled Poor Man's Moon was released on 1 September 2008. Also in 2008, Carr released his first book, The Origami Crow, Journey Into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002, a book that is at once a travel log about his journey to Japan, a poetry collection, an homage to Japanese poet Bashō, and also has some sports commentary thrown in.
Barry Devlin directed for the screen and been a drama writer for radio and screen, as can be seen from his credits on the IMDB and for the radio detective drama Baldi He produced a number of U2 videos in the mid-1980s. Examples of his screen writing are evident in the joint RTÉ/BBC production Ballykissangel and ITV's The Darling Buds of May.
Jim Lockhart is head of production at RTÉ 2fm and has also done some production work and music arrangement.
Charles O'Connor owns two antique shops in Whitby, England. O'Connor continued to record folk and traditional music in his home recording studio.
Copyright issues
For 20 years William McBurney, head of Belfast-based Outlet Records for over 40 years, received royalties from the sales of vinyl and CDs, including many compilations. He claimed that he bought the rights in good faith from Jim Slye, who managed Horslips from the late 1970s until the band's final gig. However, the quality of these releases left much to be desired. Shoddy artwork and poor sound meant that most of these releases were sold at bargain prices, leaving the five former band members disillusioned. They fought back and on 7 March 1999 won a court victory in Belfast for copyright ownership and a substantial financial settlement. Horslips are now once again fully in control of their music and they released the entire back catalogue on CD in 2000/2001 with updated artwork and digitally remastered sound.
Return
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.
The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal.
A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTÉ television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980.
The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music.
2009 reunion to present
On 2 July 2009, it was announced that Horslips would reunite for two shows, their first 'open public' gigs since 1980. The band played the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on 3 December and the 3Arena in Dublin on 5 December. Drummer Eamon Carr did not play the concerts, citing personal reasons, though he was fully supportive and remains a fifth member. His place was taken by Johnny Fean's brother Ray Fean. Recordings from these shows were released on the DVD/CD 'Live at the O2' in November 2010. The O2 Arena has since been renamed as The 3Arena. The Irish band Something Happens were the support act for the show in The 3Arena.
The band played two invitation-only warm up gigs in McHugh's of Drogheda on 26 and 27 November. The band was set to play at "Live at the Marquee" Cork City on 26 June 2010, but the concert was cancelled due to Jim Lockhart falling ill.
In November and December 2010, Horslips, again with Ray Fean on percussion, returned with a four gig tour of Ireland. These included the INEC (Ireland's National Event Centre) in Killarney (27 November), the Royal Theatre in Castlebar (28 November), the Waterfront Hall in Belfast (1 December) and culminated in a return to the O2 Arena on 4 December. They played at the 2011 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow's "Old Fruitmarket" on 18 January.
On 10 February 2010, it was announced that Horslips would be special guests under Fairport Convention at Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2011. They performed on 13 August.
On St Patrick's Day, 17 March 2011, the band played a BBC concert with the Ulster Orchestra at Belfast's Waterfront Hall.
On 3 June 2012, Horslips performed as the headline act at the Rory Gallagher Tribute Festival in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal.
On 25 and 26 August 2012, Horslips played two shows in the national concert hall with the RTÉ concert orchestra in Dublin.
On 4 November 2013, Horslips released their biography Tall Tales. The book was written by Mark Cunningham and features interviews with the band. A double album featuring all the group's singles released outside Ireland, called Biography, was also released.
On the Summer Solstice (21 June) 2014, Horslips played at Dunluce Castle, near Portrush in Northern Ireland.
In August 2014, Horslips played at Milkmarket in Limerick, County Limerick.
On 12 March 2019, two of the band, Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart, played at an event in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, to commemorate the occupation by radical students of the administration block at University College, Dublin, 50 years before. They joined the house band for the night, made up of members of Chris Meehan and his Redneck Friends, along with other well-known musicians, actors and performers who had been involved in the events of 1969, when the building that is now the NCH was part of UCD.
On 11 and 12 May 2019, with Charles retired from music, original members Barry, Johnny and Jim plus Ray Fean (drums) played two concerts at Belfast's Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, at Custom House Square. The shows were promoted as 'Barry Devlin, Johnny Fean & Jim Lockhart from Horslips'.
Discography
Original studio albums
Happy to Meet – Sorry to Part (1972)
The Táin (1973)
Dancehall Sweethearts (1974)
The Unfortunate Cup of Tea (1975)
Drive the Cold Winter Away (1975)
The Book of Invasions (1976) UK No. 39
Aliens (1977) U.S. No. 98
The Man Who Built America (1978) U.S. No. 155
Short Stories/Tall Tales (1979)
Roll Back (2004)
Compilation albums
Tracks from the Vaults (1977)
Treasury (2009)
Biography (2013)
Live albums
Horslips Live (1976)
The Belfast Gigs (1980)
Live at the O2 (2010)
Live with the Ulster Orchestra (2011)
Books
Tall Tales (2013)
References
External links
Official website for Horslips
Official website for Johnny Fean and Steve Travers
Come Back Horslips Fansite
Carr's Cocktail Shack Radio Website
Tara Telephone Archival History Fansite
Performance and Interview Pt.1
Interview Pt.2
Horslips page on Irish Rockers website
Irish progressive rock groups
Celtic rock music
Irish folk rock groups
Celtic fusion musicians
Musical groups established in 1970
Musical groups disestablished in 1980
Atco Records artists
DJM Records artists
| true |
[
"Roll Back is an album by Irish rock band Horslips, their first since Short Stories/Tall Tales 25 years earlier. It is a collection of acoustic re-workings of various songs from the band's catalogue.\n\nBackground\nIn March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. To open the exhibition, the Nelis, Ferris and Callaghan invited the five original members of the band to perform. The performance took place on March 20, to an audience of around 200 specially invited guests, where the band played a short set of acoustic versions of some of their better known songs.\n\nFollowing the enthusiastic reception to the exhibition reunion, the band decided to reconvene again to record a couple of acoustic songs for the forthcoming documentary DVD Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts. These sessions eventually resulted in a full album of material, consisting of re-recorded versions of songs spanning the band's whole career, some of which were dramatically re-imagined.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \nHorslips\n Eamon Carr - drums, percussions\n Barry Devlin - bass guitar, vocals\n Johnny Fean - guitar, tenor guitar, slide guitar, tenor banjo, vocals\n Jim Lockhart - piano, keyboards, low whistle, vocals\n Charles O'Connor - guitar, tenor guitar, violin, mandolin, concertina, vocals\nGuest musician\n Aisling Drury - cello on \"Cuchulainn's Lament\" and \"Furniture\"\nProduction\n Stefano Soffia, Ivan O'Shea - engineering\n Stefano Soffia - mixing\n Peter Mew - mastering\n Charles O'Connor, Chris Ellis - cover art\n\nReferences \n\n2004 albums\nHorslips albums",
"\n\nBirths and deaths\n\nDeaths\n Felix Doran (c. 1915–1972)\n Willie Clancy (1918–1973)\n Joe Cooley (1924–1973)\n\nRecordings\n 1970 \"Moondance\" (Van Morrison)\n 1971 \"Prosperous\" (Christy Moore)\n 1972 Alone Again (Naturally) (Gilbert O'Sullivan) (US No. 1)\n 1972 Clair (Gilbert O'Sullivan) (UK No. 1)\n 1972 \"Get Down\" (Gilbert O'Sullivan) (UK No. 1)\n 1972 \"Happy to Meet, Sorry To Part\" (Horslips)\n 1972 \"Planxty\" (Planxty)\n 1973 \"The Tain\" (Horslips)\n 1973 \"Well Below The Valley\" (Planxty)\n 1974 \"Dancehall Sweethearts\" (Horslips)\n 1975 \"Carolan's Receipt\" (Derek Bell)\n 1975 \"Drive the Cold Winter Away\" (Horslips)\n 1975 \"De Dannan\" (De Dannan)\n 1976 \"The Book of Invasions\" (Horslips)\n 1977 \"7\" (Chieftains)\n 1978 \"8\" (Chieftains)\n 1979 \"Broken Hearted I'll Wander\" (Dolores Keane & John Faulkner)\n\n1970s"
] |
[
"Horslips",
"Return",
"how did the horslips return?",
"Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio"
] |
C_ee3b5ed0e1d947daa08b75d71fde6e43_0
|
Did they release any albums after the return?
| 2 |
Did horslips release any albums after the return?
|
Horslips
|
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs. The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal. A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test. In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980. The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music. CANNOTANSWER
|
Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album,
|
Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and reels. The group are regarded as 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' for their fusion of traditional Irish music with rock music and went on to inspire many local and international acts. They formed in 1970 and 'retired' in 1980 for an extended period. The name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse".
Although Horslips had limited commercial success when the band was playing in the 70s, there was a revival of interest in their music in the late 1990s and they came to be regarded as one of the defining bands of the Celtic rock genre. There have since been small scale reunions including appearances on The Late Late Show and RTÉ's Other Voices. The band reformed for two Irish shows in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast and the 3Arena in Dublin at the end of 2009, and have continued to play shows since then.
Band members
Jim Lockhart (born 3 February 1948), from James's St in Dublin, studied Economics and Politics at University College Dublin. He fell under the influence of Seán Ó Riada, wanting to build an orchestral sound out of Irish music. He plays keyboards, pipes, whistles and flute. He did vocals on a select number of songs, mainly in Manx or Irish.
Eamon Carr (born 12 November 1948), is from Kells, County Meath. He was one of the founding members of a poetry and beat performance group called Tara Telephone in Dublin in the late 60s that also published the quarterly literary journal Capella. He is the drummer in the band.
Charles O'Connor, (Born 7 September 1948) from Middlesbrough in the UK plays concertina, mandolin, fiddle and both electric and slide guitar. He also shares the main vocal tasks with Barry Devlin and Johnny Fean.
Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946), from Ardboe in County Tyrone, once trained as a Columban priest. He left this to study English in University College Dublin and afterwards joined a graphics company as a screenwriter. He is the band's bass player, shares vocals, and is its unofficial front man.
Johnny Fean (born 17 November 1951) spent his childhood in the city of Limerick and in Shannon, County Clare. He soon mastered guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica. In his teens, he played in sessions in Limerick and County Clare. Fean developed his listening tastes from rock to blues and incorporated it into his guitar style. In his late teens he played in a group called Sweet Street, with Joe O'Donnell on electric fiddle and Eugene Wallace. He later played in Jeremiah Henry, a rock and blues band. His idols were Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He left Jeremiah Henry in 1970 to play traditional music again in Limerick.
Career
Original line-up
Barry Devlin, Eamon Carr and Charles O'Connor met when they worked at the Ark advertising company in Dublin. They were cajoled into pretending to be a band for a Harp Lager commercial but needed a keyboard player. Devlin said he knew a Jim Lockhart who would fit the bill. The four enjoyed the act so much that they decided to try being proper rock performers. They joined guitarist Declan Sinnott, a colleague of Eamon Carr's from Tara Telephone and, briefly, Gene Mulvaney to form Horslips (originally Horslypse) in 1970.
The band went professional on St Patrick's Day 1972 having shed Mulvaney and released a single, "Johnny's Wedding", on their own record label, Oats. Declan Sinnott left soon after, primarily due to his annoyance at the group appearing in an advert for Mirinda orange drink (shot in the grounds of Ardmore Studios Bray in Easter 1972) and was replaced by Gus Guest briefly, then Johnny Fean.
Albums
Horslips designed their own artwork, wrote sleeve-notes and researched the legends that they made into concept albums. They established their own record label, Oats, and licensed the recordings through Atco, RCA and DJM for release outside Ireland. They kept their base in Ireland, unlike previous Irish bands.
In October 1972, Horslips went to Longfield House in Tipperary and recorded their first album, Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part, in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. They then released another single, "Green Gravel". On the first album the melodies were mostly traditional. Jim Lockhart was on keyboards and gradually mastered other instruments including uillean pipes. Eamon Carr was on drums, including the Irish bodhrán. Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part was the fastest-selling album for eight years in Ireland. The sleeve was an elaborate concertina-shaped fold-out design.
The Abbey Theatre in Dublin asked the band to provide the background for a stage adaptation of "The Táin". They leapt at the opportunity. "Táin Bó Cúailnge" (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley) is a tenth-century story written in Old and Middle Irish. It tells of an ancient war between Ulster and Connacht. The Táin was released in 1973 and had more original material alongside the traditional tunes, and greater emphasis on rock. In the same year a single, "Dearg Doom", went to number one in Germany.
Dancehall Sweethearts followed in 1974, and also balanced folk with rock. Their fourth album, The Unfortunate Cup of Tea, drifted toward pop music and was generally considered less successful. RCA ended their funding deal for the group in 1975. The group funded their next venture themselves and went back to basics. Drive The Cold Winter Away (also 1975) was their most traditional album to date. They signed with DJM Records worldwide through A&R man Frank Neilson. The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony (1976), like The Táin, was an adaptation of Irish legends built into a complex story. It became their only entry in the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at No. 39 in 1977.
Ever ambitious, the band now tried to make it in the United States. They brought in Jim Slye to become their manager. He later sold their publishing rights to William McBurney for £4,000. In 1977 they produced Aliens, about the experience of the Irish in nineteenth-century America, which included little folk music. They toured Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States. The night they played the Albert Hall in London was described by one critic as the loudest gig there since Hendrix. The Man Who Built America (1978), produced by Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Blues Project fame, concerned Irish emigration to the US and received considerable airplay but broad approval was missing. The heavier sound did bring some acceptance in America but they lost their folk base and their freshness. Short Stories, Tall Tales (1979) was their last studio album and was panned by the record company and critics alike.
"The Last Time"
At a time when The Troubles were at its peak, Horslips played gigs in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without prejudice and were accepted everywhere. Their last recordings were from live performances at the Whitla Hall in Belfast April and May 1980. A few months later, on 12 October 1980 they played their final gig in the Ulster Hall. They made no public announcement. They simply gave an encore — the Rolling Stones' song "The Last Time" (this was a reference to the recording studio of their first album) and the final act was Charles O'Connor throwing his mangled fiddle into the audience. Ten years after they formed, they disbanded.
Musical life after the break up
Even before Horslips ended, Johnny Fean, Eamon Carr and two others founded the Zen Alligators in 1980. They played straight rock and soul on the Irish circuit, and they recorded several singles. Another spin-off group called Host contained Fean, O'Connor and Carr. They issued one album, Tryal, in 1984, and two singles.
The final album that had a Fean/Carr collaboration in the 1980s was The Last Bandits in the World (1986).
Barry Devlin issued a solo album called Breaking Star Codes in 1983 with some help from Jim Lockhart. The album had 12 songs, each based, loosely, on the signs of the zodiac. Further Lockhart/Devlin collaborations included the theme tune to the popular RTÉ drama series Glenroe.
In 1986, Johnny Fean moved to England. An English indie band called Jacobites (1983 to 1986) consisted of Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth. Their 1986 album Ragged School had Johnny on guitar. He also played sporadically with a Horslips tribute band Spirit of Horslips and pub gigs with pick up three-piece The Treat, which sometimes featured former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell instead of Fean.
In 1990, the electric guitar intro to "Dearg Doom" was used for Put 'Em Under Pressure, Ireland's 1990 World Cup song, written by Larry Mullen and featuring the Republic of Ireland national football team and Moya Brennan. This use of the intro may be better known in Ireland than the original.
Charles O'Connor released an instrumental album, Angel on the Mantelpiece, in collaboration with Paul Whittaker in 1997.
Further activities
Johnny Fean continued to play live music with Stephen Travers, formerly of The Miami Showband.
After his retirement, Eamon Carr went on to become a producer of young rock talent in the mid-1980s, and also formed his own record label called Hotwire (which sponsored noted acts such as the punk rock group The Golden Horde). He also did a number of specialist DJ slots on radio before morphing into a music/sports journalist with the Evening Herald in Dublin. More recently he presented on a Dublin station 'Carr's Cocktail Shack' in which he played American music of the 1950s and 1960s. In 2008, Carr and Henry McCullough co-wrote a new bunch of songs. A resulting album entitled Poor Man's Moon was released on 1 September 2008. Also in 2008, Carr released his first book, The Origami Crow, Journey Into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002, a book that is at once a travel log about his journey to Japan, a poetry collection, an homage to Japanese poet Bashō, and also has some sports commentary thrown in.
Barry Devlin directed for the screen and been a drama writer for radio and screen, as can be seen from his credits on the IMDB and for the radio detective drama Baldi He produced a number of U2 videos in the mid-1980s. Examples of his screen writing are evident in the joint RTÉ/BBC production Ballykissangel and ITV's The Darling Buds of May.
Jim Lockhart is head of production at RTÉ 2fm and has also done some production work and music arrangement.
Charles O'Connor owns two antique shops in Whitby, England. O'Connor continued to record folk and traditional music in his home recording studio.
Copyright issues
For 20 years William McBurney, head of Belfast-based Outlet Records for over 40 years, received royalties from the sales of vinyl and CDs, including many compilations. He claimed that he bought the rights in good faith from Jim Slye, who managed Horslips from the late 1970s until the band's final gig. However, the quality of these releases left much to be desired. Shoddy artwork and poor sound meant that most of these releases were sold at bargain prices, leaving the five former band members disillusioned. They fought back and on 7 March 1999 won a court victory in Belfast for copyright ownership and a substantial financial settlement. Horslips are now once again fully in control of their music and they released the entire back catalogue on CD in 2000/2001 with updated artwork and digitally remastered sound.
Return
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.
The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal.
A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTÉ television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980.
The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music.
2009 reunion to present
On 2 July 2009, it was announced that Horslips would reunite for two shows, their first 'open public' gigs since 1980. The band played the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on 3 December and the 3Arena in Dublin on 5 December. Drummer Eamon Carr did not play the concerts, citing personal reasons, though he was fully supportive and remains a fifth member. His place was taken by Johnny Fean's brother Ray Fean. Recordings from these shows were released on the DVD/CD 'Live at the O2' in November 2010. The O2 Arena has since been renamed as The 3Arena. The Irish band Something Happens were the support act for the show in The 3Arena.
The band played two invitation-only warm up gigs in McHugh's of Drogheda on 26 and 27 November. The band was set to play at "Live at the Marquee" Cork City on 26 June 2010, but the concert was cancelled due to Jim Lockhart falling ill.
In November and December 2010, Horslips, again with Ray Fean on percussion, returned with a four gig tour of Ireland. These included the INEC (Ireland's National Event Centre) in Killarney (27 November), the Royal Theatre in Castlebar (28 November), the Waterfront Hall in Belfast (1 December) and culminated in a return to the O2 Arena on 4 December. They played at the 2011 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow's "Old Fruitmarket" on 18 January.
On 10 February 2010, it was announced that Horslips would be special guests under Fairport Convention at Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2011. They performed on 13 August.
On St Patrick's Day, 17 March 2011, the band played a BBC concert with the Ulster Orchestra at Belfast's Waterfront Hall.
On 3 June 2012, Horslips performed as the headline act at the Rory Gallagher Tribute Festival in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal.
On 25 and 26 August 2012, Horslips played two shows in the national concert hall with the RTÉ concert orchestra in Dublin.
On 4 November 2013, Horslips released their biography Tall Tales. The book was written by Mark Cunningham and features interviews with the band. A double album featuring all the group's singles released outside Ireland, called Biography, was also released.
On the Summer Solstice (21 June) 2014, Horslips played at Dunluce Castle, near Portrush in Northern Ireland.
In August 2014, Horslips played at Milkmarket in Limerick, County Limerick.
On 12 March 2019, two of the band, Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart, played at an event in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, to commemorate the occupation by radical students of the administration block at University College, Dublin, 50 years before. They joined the house band for the night, made up of members of Chris Meehan and his Redneck Friends, along with other well-known musicians, actors and performers who had been involved in the events of 1969, when the building that is now the NCH was part of UCD.
On 11 and 12 May 2019, with Charles retired from music, original members Barry, Johnny and Jim plus Ray Fean (drums) played two concerts at Belfast's Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, at Custom House Square. The shows were promoted as 'Barry Devlin, Johnny Fean & Jim Lockhart from Horslips'.
Discography
Original studio albums
Happy to Meet – Sorry to Part (1972)
The Táin (1973)
Dancehall Sweethearts (1974)
The Unfortunate Cup of Tea (1975)
Drive the Cold Winter Away (1975)
The Book of Invasions (1976) UK No. 39
Aliens (1977) U.S. No. 98
The Man Who Built America (1978) U.S. No. 155
Short Stories/Tall Tales (1979)
Roll Back (2004)
Compilation albums
Tracks from the Vaults (1977)
Treasury (2009)
Biography (2013)
Live albums
Horslips Live (1976)
The Belfast Gigs (1980)
Live at the O2 (2010)
Live with the Ulster Orchestra (2011)
Books
Tall Tales (2013)
References
External links
Official website for Horslips
Official website for Johnny Fean and Steve Travers
Come Back Horslips Fansite
Carr's Cocktail Shack Radio Website
Tara Telephone Archival History Fansite
Performance and Interview Pt.1
Interview Pt.2
Horslips page on Irish Rockers website
Irish progressive rock groups
Celtic rock music
Irish folk rock groups
Celtic fusion musicians
Musical groups established in 1970
Musical groups disestablished in 1980
Atco Records artists
DJM Records artists
| true |
[
"I Love Mekons (stylized I ♥ Mekons on the album cover; also referred to as I (Heart) Mekons) is an album by the British-American punk rock band the Mekons, released in 1993 on the Quarterstick and Touch and Go labels. It is a concept album consisting of twelve love songs.\n\nBackground\nBefore I Love Mekons was released, the Mekons had been engaged in two years of rancorous arguments with their record label at the time, Warner Bros. Records subsidiary Loud Records. As a result, the Mekons did not release any albums for two years after the release of Curse of the Mekons in 1991. Originally, Warner Bros. had refused to release I Love Mekons because they thought it was not good enough. After the Mekons parted ways with Loud Records, the album was released in 1993 on Quarterstick, a subsidiary of Touch and Go.\n\nReception\n\nMelody Makers Dave Jennings described I Love Mekons as \"simultaneously a brilliant, exhilarating pop record and an exploration of the assumptions behind other people’s pop records.\" Robert Christgau gave the album a B+ grade, describing it as \"love songs, laid out casually across disc and lyric sheet--a country album without a happy ending.\"\n\nEnd-of-year lists\nGreg Kot ranked I Love Mekons as his 10th favorite album of 1993, and Mark LePage of the Montreal Gazette named it his 4th favorite album of the year.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Millionaire\" – 4:37\n\"Wicked Midnite\" – 3:51\n\"I Don't Know\" – 4:20\n\"Dear Sausage\" – 3:48\n\"All I Want\" – 3:49\n\"Special\" – 2:30\n\"St. Valentine's Day\" – 4:59\n\"I Love Apple\" – 3:26\n\"Love Letter\" – 4:18\n\"Honeymoon in Hell\" – 5:34\n\"Too Personal\" – 5:54\n\"Point of No Return\" – 3:00\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\nThe Mekons albums\n1993 albums\nQuarterstick Records albums\nConcept albums\nTouch and Go Records albums",
"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"
] |
[
"Horslips",
"Return",
"how did the horslips return?",
"Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio",
"Did they release any albums after the return?",
"Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album,"
] |
C_ee3b5ed0e1d947daa08b75d71fde6e43_0
|
what album did they release?
| 3 |
what album did horslips release?
|
Horslips
|
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs. The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal. A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test. In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980. The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music. CANNOTANSWER
|
"Horslips Unplugged",
|
Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and reels. The group are regarded as 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' for their fusion of traditional Irish music with rock music and went on to inspire many local and international acts. They formed in 1970 and 'retired' in 1980 for an extended period. The name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse".
Although Horslips had limited commercial success when the band was playing in the 70s, there was a revival of interest in their music in the late 1990s and they came to be regarded as one of the defining bands of the Celtic rock genre. There have since been small scale reunions including appearances on The Late Late Show and RTÉ's Other Voices. The band reformed for two Irish shows in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast and the 3Arena in Dublin at the end of 2009, and have continued to play shows since then.
Band members
Jim Lockhart (born 3 February 1948), from James's St in Dublin, studied Economics and Politics at University College Dublin. He fell under the influence of Seán Ó Riada, wanting to build an orchestral sound out of Irish music. He plays keyboards, pipes, whistles and flute. He did vocals on a select number of songs, mainly in Manx or Irish.
Eamon Carr (born 12 November 1948), is from Kells, County Meath. He was one of the founding members of a poetry and beat performance group called Tara Telephone in Dublin in the late 60s that also published the quarterly literary journal Capella. He is the drummer in the band.
Charles O'Connor, (Born 7 September 1948) from Middlesbrough in the UK plays concertina, mandolin, fiddle and both electric and slide guitar. He also shares the main vocal tasks with Barry Devlin and Johnny Fean.
Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946), from Ardboe in County Tyrone, once trained as a Columban priest. He left this to study English in University College Dublin and afterwards joined a graphics company as a screenwriter. He is the band's bass player, shares vocals, and is its unofficial front man.
Johnny Fean (born 17 November 1951) spent his childhood in the city of Limerick and in Shannon, County Clare. He soon mastered guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica. In his teens, he played in sessions in Limerick and County Clare. Fean developed his listening tastes from rock to blues and incorporated it into his guitar style. In his late teens he played in a group called Sweet Street, with Joe O'Donnell on electric fiddle and Eugene Wallace. He later played in Jeremiah Henry, a rock and blues band. His idols were Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He left Jeremiah Henry in 1970 to play traditional music again in Limerick.
Career
Original line-up
Barry Devlin, Eamon Carr and Charles O'Connor met when they worked at the Ark advertising company in Dublin. They were cajoled into pretending to be a band for a Harp Lager commercial but needed a keyboard player. Devlin said he knew a Jim Lockhart who would fit the bill. The four enjoyed the act so much that they decided to try being proper rock performers. They joined guitarist Declan Sinnott, a colleague of Eamon Carr's from Tara Telephone and, briefly, Gene Mulvaney to form Horslips (originally Horslypse) in 1970.
The band went professional on St Patrick's Day 1972 having shed Mulvaney and released a single, "Johnny's Wedding", on their own record label, Oats. Declan Sinnott left soon after, primarily due to his annoyance at the group appearing in an advert for Mirinda orange drink (shot in the grounds of Ardmore Studios Bray in Easter 1972) and was replaced by Gus Guest briefly, then Johnny Fean.
Albums
Horslips designed their own artwork, wrote sleeve-notes and researched the legends that they made into concept albums. They established their own record label, Oats, and licensed the recordings through Atco, RCA and DJM for release outside Ireland. They kept their base in Ireland, unlike previous Irish bands.
In October 1972, Horslips went to Longfield House in Tipperary and recorded their first album, Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part, in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. They then released another single, "Green Gravel". On the first album the melodies were mostly traditional. Jim Lockhart was on keyboards and gradually mastered other instruments including uillean pipes. Eamon Carr was on drums, including the Irish bodhrán. Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part was the fastest-selling album for eight years in Ireland. The sleeve was an elaborate concertina-shaped fold-out design.
The Abbey Theatre in Dublin asked the band to provide the background for a stage adaptation of "The Táin". They leapt at the opportunity. "Táin Bó Cúailnge" (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley) is a tenth-century story written in Old and Middle Irish. It tells of an ancient war between Ulster and Connacht. The Táin was released in 1973 and had more original material alongside the traditional tunes, and greater emphasis on rock. In the same year a single, "Dearg Doom", went to number one in Germany.
Dancehall Sweethearts followed in 1974, and also balanced folk with rock. Their fourth album, The Unfortunate Cup of Tea, drifted toward pop music and was generally considered less successful. RCA ended their funding deal for the group in 1975. The group funded their next venture themselves and went back to basics. Drive The Cold Winter Away (also 1975) was their most traditional album to date. They signed with DJM Records worldwide through A&R man Frank Neilson. The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony (1976), like The Táin, was an adaptation of Irish legends built into a complex story. It became their only entry in the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at No. 39 in 1977.
Ever ambitious, the band now tried to make it in the United States. They brought in Jim Slye to become their manager. He later sold their publishing rights to William McBurney for £4,000. In 1977 they produced Aliens, about the experience of the Irish in nineteenth-century America, which included little folk music. They toured Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States. The night they played the Albert Hall in London was described by one critic as the loudest gig there since Hendrix. The Man Who Built America (1978), produced by Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Blues Project fame, concerned Irish emigration to the US and received considerable airplay but broad approval was missing. The heavier sound did bring some acceptance in America but they lost their folk base and their freshness. Short Stories, Tall Tales (1979) was their last studio album and was panned by the record company and critics alike.
"The Last Time"
At a time when The Troubles were at its peak, Horslips played gigs in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without prejudice and were accepted everywhere. Their last recordings were from live performances at the Whitla Hall in Belfast April and May 1980. A few months later, on 12 October 1980 they played their final gig in the Ulster Hall. They made no public announcement. They simply gave an encore — the Rolling Stones' song "The Last Time" (this was a reference to the recording studio of their first album) and the final act was Charles O'Connor throwing his mangled fiddle into the audience. Ten years after they formed, they disbanded.
Musical life after the break up
Even before Horslips ended, Johnny Fean, Eamon Carr and two others founded the Zen Alligators in 1980. They played straight rock and soul on the Irish circuit, and they recorded several singles. Another spin-off group called Host contained Fean, O'Connor and Carr. They issued one album, Tryal, in 1984, and two singles.
The final album that had a Fean/Carr collaboration in the 1980s was The Last Bandits in the World (1986).
Barry Devlin issued a solo album called Breaking Star Codes in 1983 with some help from Jim Lockhart. The album had 12 songs, each based, loosely, on the signs of the zodiac. Further Lockhart/Devlin collaborations included the theme tune to the popular RTÉ drama series Glenroe.
In 1986, Johnny Fean moved to England. An English indie band called Jacobites (1983 to 1986) consisted of Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth. Their 1986 album Ragged School had Johnny on guitar. He also played sporadically with a Horslips tribute band Spirit of Horslips and pub gigs with pick up three-piece The Treat, which sometimes featured former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell instead of Fean.
In 1990, the electric guitar intro to "Dearg Doom" was used for Put 'Em Under Pressure, Ireland's 1990 World Cup song, written by Larry Mullen and featuring the Republic of Ireland national football team and Moya Brennan. This use of the intro may be better known in Ireland than the original.
Charles O'Connor released an instrumental album, Angel on the Mantelpiece, in collaboration with Paul Whittaker in 1997.
Further activities
Johnny Fean continued to play live music with Stephen Travers, formerly of The Miami Showband.
After his retirement, Eamon Carr went on to become a producer of young rock talent in the mid-1980s, and also formed his own record label called Hotwire (which sponsored noted acts such as the punk rock group The Golden Horde). He also did a number of specialist DJ slots on radio before morphing into a music/sports journalist with the Evening Herald in Dublin. More recently he presented on a Dublin station 'Carr's Cocktail Shack' in which he played American music of the 1950s and 1960s. In 2008, Carr and Henry McCullough co-wrote a new bunch of songs. A resulting album entitled Poor Man's Moon was released on 1 September 2008. Also in 2008, Carr released his first book, The Origami Crow, Journey Into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002, a book that is at once a travel log about his journey to Japan, a poetry collection, an homage to Japanese poet Bashō, and also has some sports commentary thrown in.
Barry Devlin directed for the screen and been a drama writer for radio and screen, as can be seen from his credits on the IMDB and for the radio detective drama Baldi He produced a number of U2 videos in the mid-1980s. Examples of his screen writing are evident in the joint RTÉ/BBC production Ballykissangel and ITV's The Darling Buds of May.
Jim Lockhart is head of production at RTÉ 2fm and has also done some production work and music arrangement.
Charles O'Connor owns two antique shops in Whitby, England. O'Connor continued to record folk and traditional music in his home recording studio.
Copyright issues
For 20 years William McBurney, head of Belfast-based Outlet Records for over 40 years, received royalties from the sales of vinyl and CDs, including many compilations. He claimed that he bought the rights in good faith from Jim Slye, who managed Horslips from the late 1970s until the band's final gig. However, the quality of these releases left much to be desired. Shoddy artwork and poor sound meant that most of these releases were sold at bargain prices, leaving the five former band members disillusioned. They fought back and on 7 March 1999 won a court victory in Belfast for copyright ownership and a substantial financial settlement. Horslips are now once again fully in control of their music and they released the entire back catalogue on CD in 2000/2001 with updated artwork and digitally remastered sound.
Return
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.
The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal.
A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTÉ television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980.
The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music.
2009 reunion to present
On 2 July 2009, it was announced that Horslips would reunite for two shows, their first 'open public' gigs since 1980. The band played the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on 3 December and the 3Arena in Dublin on 5 December. Drummer Eamon Carr did not play the concerts, citing personal reasons, though he was fully supportive and remains a fifth member. His place was taken by Johnny Fean's brother Ray Fean. Recordings from these shows were released on the DVD/CD 'Live at the O2' in November 2010. The O2 Arena has since been renamed as The 3Arena. The Irish band Something Happens were the support act for the show in The 3Arena.
The band played two invitation-only warm up gigs in McHugh's of Drogheda on 26 and 27 November. The band was set to play at "Live at the Marquee" Cork City on 26 June 2010, but the concert was cancelled due to Jim Lockhart falling ill.
In November and December 2010, Horslips, again with Ray Fean on percussion, returned with a four gig tour of Ireland. These included the INEC (Ireland's National Event Centre) in Killarney (27 November), the Royal Theatre in Castlebar (28 November), the Waterfront Hall in Belfast (1 December) and culminated in a return to the O2 Arena on 4 December. They played at the 2011 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow's "Old Fruitmarket" on 18 January.
On 10 February 2010, it was announced that Horslips would be special guests under Fairport Convention at Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2011. They performed on 13 August.
On St Patrick's Day, 17 March 2011, the band played a BBC concert with the Ulster Orchestra at Belfast's Waterfront Hall.
On 3 June 2012, Horslips performed as the headline act at the Rory Gallagher Tribute Festival in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal.
On 25 and 26 August 2012, Horslips played two shows in the national concert hall with the RTÉ concert orchestra in Dublin.
On 4 November 2013, Horslips released their biography Tall Tales. The book was written by Mark Cunningham and features interviews with the band. A double album featuring all the group's singles released outside Ireland, called Biography, was also released.
On the Summer Solstice (21 June) 2014, Horslips played at Dunluce Castle, near Portrush in Northern Ireland.
In August 2014, Horslips played at Milkmarket in Limerick, County Limerick.
On 12 March 2019, two of the band, Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart, played at an event in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, to commemorate the occupation by radical students of the administration block at University College, Dublin, 50 years before. They joined the house band for the night, made up of members of Chris Meehan and his Redneck Friends, along with other well-known musicians, actors and performers who had been involved in the events of 1969, when the building that is now the NCH was part of UCD.
On 11 and 12 May 2019, with Charles retired from music, original members Barry, Johnny and Jim plus Ray Fean (drums) played two concerts at Belfast's Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, at Custom House Square. The shows were promoted as 'Barry Devlin, Johnny Fean & Jim Lockhart from Horslips'.
Discography
Original studio albums
Happy to Meet – Sorry to Part (1972)
The Táin (1973)
Dancehall Sweethearts (1974)
The Unfortunate Cup of Tea (1975)
Drive the Cold Winter Away (1975)
The Book of Invasions (1976) UK No. 39
Aliens (1977) U.S. No. 98
The Man Who Built America (1978) U.S. No. 155
Short Stories/Tall Tales (1979)
Roll Back (2004)
Compilation albums
Tracks from the Vaults (1977)
Treasury (2009)
Biography (2013)
Live albums
Horslips Live (1976)
The Belfast Gigs (1980)
Live at the O2 (2010)
Live with the Ulster Orchestra (2011)
Books
Tall Tales (2013)
References
External links
Official website for Horslips
Official website for Johnny Fean and Steve Travers
Come Back Horslips Fansite
Carr's Cocktail Shack Radio Website
Tara Telephone Archival History Fansite
Performance and Interview Pt.1
Interview Pt.2
Horslips page on Irish Rockers website
Irish progressive rock groups
Celtic rock music
Irish folk rock groups
Celtic fusion musicians
Musical groups established in 1970
Musical groups disestablished in 1980
Atco Records artists
DJM Records artists
| true |
[
"\"What I Did for Love\" is a song from the musical A Chorus Line (music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban). It was quickly recognized for its show-business potential outside Broadway and was picked up by popular singers to include in their performances in their club and television appearances. Both female and male singers have made it an inclusion in their recorded albums to great effect. The Daily Telegraph described it as a \"big anthem\".\n\nSynopsis within A Chorus Line\nIn the penultimate scene of the production, one of the dancers, Paul San Marco, has suffered a career-ending injury. The remaining dancers, gathered together onstage, are asked what they would do if they were told they could no longer dance. Diana Morales, in reply, sings this anthem, which considers loss philosophically, with an undefeated optimism; all the other dancers concur. Whatever happens, they will be free of regret. What they did in their careers, they did for love, and their talent, no matter how great, was only theirs \"to borrow,\" was to be only temporary and would someday be gone. However, the love of performing is never gone, and they are all pointed toward tomorrow.\n\nNotable versions\nBeverly Bremers' version, was released as a single in 1975.\nEydie Gormé - a single release in 1976 (US AC #23).\nBing Crosby - for his album Beautiful Memories (1977)\nEngelbert Humperdinck - for his album Miracles (1977).\nGrace Jones - for her debut album Portfolio (1977)\nJack Jones - in his 1975 album What I Did for Love (US AC #25, Canada AC #23).\nJohnny Mathis - Feelings (1975)\nBill Hayes - for his album From Me To You With Love (1976)\nMarcia Hines - see below\nPeggy Lee - for her album Peggy (1977)\nPetula Clark - a single release in 1975.\nShirley Bassey - Love, Life and Feelings (1976)\nRobert Goulet - in his album You're Something Special (1978).\nElaine Paige - included in her album Stages (1983)\nHoward Keel - for his album Just for You (1988).\nJosh Groban - for his album Stages (2015)\nMe First and the Gimme Gimmes - from their album Are A Drag (1999)\n\nMarcia Hines' version\n\nMarcia Hines recorded and released a version as the lead single from her third studio album, Ladies and Gentlemen (1977). The song peaked at number 6 on the Kent Music Report, becoming Hines' third top 10 single in Australia.\n\nAt the 1978 Australian Record Awards, the song won Hines Female Vocalist of the Year.\n\nTrack listing\n 7\" Single (MS-507)\nSide A \"What I Did for Love\" - 3:15\nSide B \"A Love Story\" (Robie Porter) - 3:31\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\nSongs from A Chorus Line\n1975 songs\n1975 singles\n1977 singles\nMarcia Hines songs\nBeverly Bremers songs\nColumbia Records singles\nGrace Jones songs\nSongs written by Marvin Hamlisch",
"E.G.O. (an acronym for Everybody Gets Off) is the fourth studio album by British singer-songwriter Lucie Silvas. It was released on 24 August 2018 through Furthest Point and distributed by Thirty Tigers. The album failed to chart.\n\nBackground\nGoing into the project, Silvas spoke about the album in an interview with The Boot: \"No one knew what the concept was, even my manager didn't really know. We just went ahead and did it, and the record label, Thirty Tigers, saw it afterwards. They had no idea what it was going to be. With fewer cooks in the kitchen, I feel like we could be really creative with it.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2018 albums\nLucie Silvas albums"
] |
[
"Horslips",
"Return",
"how did the horslips return?",
"Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio",
"Did they release any albums after the return?",
"Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album,",
"what album did they release?",
"\"Horslips Unplugged\","
] |
C_ee3b5ed0e1d947daa08b75d71fde6e43_0
|
were there other albums that they released?
| 4 |
In addition to Horslips Unplugged, were there other albums that horslips released?
|
Horslips
|
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs. The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal. A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test. In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980. The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music. CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
|
Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and reels. The group are regarded as 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' for their fusion of traditional Irish music with rock music and went on to inspire many local and international acts. They formed in 1970 and 'retired' in 1980 for an extended period. The name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse".
Although Horslips had limited commercial success when the band was playing in the 70s, there was a revival of interest in their music in the late 1990s and they came to be regarded as one of the defining bands of the Celtic rock genre. There have since been small scale reunions including appearances on The Late Late Show and RTÉ's Other Voices. The band reformed for two Irish shows in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast and the 3Arena in Dublin at the end of 2009, and have continued to play shows since then.
Band members
Jim Lockhart (born 3 February 1948), from James's St in Dublin, studied Economics and Politics at University College Dublin. He fell under the influence of Seán Ó Riada, wanting to build an orchestral sound out of Irish music. He plays keyboards, pipes, whistles and flute. He did vocals on a select number of songs, mainly in Manx or Irish.
Eamon Carr (born 12 November 1948), is from Kells, County Meath. He was one of the founding members of a poetry and beat performance group called Tara Telephone in Dublin in the late 60s that also published the quarterly literary journal Capella. He is the drummer in the band.
Charles O'Connor, (Born 7 September 1948) from Middlesbrough in the UK plays concertina, mandolin, fiddle and both electric and slide guitar. He also shares the main vocal tasks with Barry Devlin and Johnny Fean.
Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946), from Ardboe in County Tyrone, once trained as a Columban priest. He left this to study English in University College Dublin and afterwards joined a graphics company as a screenwriter. He is the band's bass player, shares vocals, and is its unofficial front man.
Johnny Fean (born 17 November 1951) spent his childhood in the city of Limerick and in Shannon, County Clare. He soon mastered guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica. In his teens, he played in sessions in Limerick and County Clare. Fean developed his listening tastes from rock to blues and incorporated it into his guitar style. In his late teens he played in a group called Sweet Street, with Joe O'Donnell on electric fiddle and Eugene Wallace. He later played in Jeremiah Henry, a rock and blues band. His idols were Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He left Jeremiah Henry in 1970 to play traditional music again in Limerick.
Career
Original line-up
Barry Devlin, Eamon Carr and Charles O'Connor met when they worked at the Ark advertising company in Dublin. They were cajoled into pretending to be a band for a Harp Lager commercial but needed a keyboard player. Devlin said he knew a Jim Lockhart who would fit the bill. The four enjoyed the act so much that they decided to try being proper rock performers. They joined guitarist Declan Sinnott, a colleague of Eamon Carr's from Tara Telephone and, briefly, Gene Mulvaney to form Horslips (originally Horslypse) in 1970.
The band went professional on St Patrick's Day 1972 having shed Mulvaney and released a single, "Johnny's Wedding", on their own record label, Oats. Declan Sinnott left soon after, primarily due to his annoyance at the group appearing in an advert for Mirinda orange drink (shot in the grounds of Ardmore Studios Bray in Easter 1972) and was replaced by Gus Guest briefly, then Johnny Fean.
Albums
Horslips designed their own artwork, wrote sleeve-notes and researched the legends that they made into concept albums. They established their own record label, Oats, and licensed the recordings through Atco, RCA and DJM for release outside Ireland. They kept their base in Ireland, unlike previous Irish bands.
In October 1972, Horslips went to Longfield House in Tipperary and recorded their first album, Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part, in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. They then released another single, "Green Gravel". On the first album the melodies were mostly traditional. Jim Lockhart was on keyboards and gradually mastered other instruments including uillean pipes. Eamon Carr was on drums, including the Irish bodhrán. Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part was the fastest-selling album for eight years in Ireland. The sleeve was an elaborate concertina-shaped fold-out design.
The Abbey Theatre in Dublin asked the band to provide the background for a stage adaptation of "The Táin". They leapt at the opportunity. "Táin Bó Cúailnge" (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley) is a tenth-century story written in Old and Middle Irish. It tells of an ancient war between Ulster and Connacht. The Táin was released in 1973 and had more original material alongside the traditional tunes, and greater emphasis on rock. In the same year a single, "Dearg Doom", went to number one in Germany.
Dancehall Sweethearts followed in 1974, and also balanced folk with rock. Their fourth album, The Unfortunate Cup of Tea, drifted toward pop music and was generally considered less successful. RCA ended their funding deal for the group in 1975. The group funded their next venture themselves and went back to basics. Drive The Cold Winter Away (also 1975) was their most traditional album to date. They signed with DJM Records worldwide through A&R man Frank Neilson. The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony (1976), like The Táin, was an adaptation of Irish legends built into a complex story. It became their only entry in the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at No. 39 in 1977.
Ever ambitious, the band now tried to make it in the United States. They brought in Jim Slye to become their manager. He later sold their publishing rights to William McBurney for £4,000. In 1977 they produced Aliens, about the experience of the Irish in nineteenth-century America, which included little folk music. They toured Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States. The night they played the Albert Hall in London was described by one critic as the loudest gig there since Hendrix. The Man Who Built America (1978), produced by Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Blues Project fame, concerned Irish emigration to the US and received considerable airplay but broad approval was missing. The heavier sound did bring some acceptance in America but they lost their folk base and their freshness. Short Stories, Tall Tales (1979) was their last studio album and was panned by the record company and critics alike.
"The Last Time"
At a time when The Troubles were at its peak, Horslips played gigs in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without prejudice and were accepted everywhere. Their last recordings were from live performances at the Whitla Hall in Belfast April and May 1980. A few months later, on 12 October 1980 they played their final gig in the Ulster Hall. They made no public announcement. They simply gave an encore — the Rolling Stones' song "The Last Time" (this was a reference to the recording studio of their first album) and the final act was Charles O'Connor throwing his mangled fiddle into the audience. Ten years after they formed, they disbanded.
Musical life after the break up
Even before Horslips ended, Johnny Fean, Eamon Carr and two others founded the Zen Alligators in 1980. They played straight rock and soul on the Irish circuit, and they recorded several singles. Another spin-off group called Host contained Fean, O'Connor and Carr. They issued one album, Tryal, in 1984, and two singles.
The final album that had a Fean/Carr collaboration in the 1980s was The Last Bandits in the World (1986).
Barry Devlin issued a solo album called Breaking Star Codes in 1983 with some help from Jim Lockhart. The album had 12 songs, each based, loosely, on the signs of the zodiac. Further Lockhart/Devlin collaborations included the theme tune to the popular RTÉ drama series Glenroe.
In 1986, Johnny Fean moved to England. An English indie band called Jacobites (1983 to 1986) consisted of Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth. Their 1986 album Ragged School had Johnny on guitar. He also played sporadically with a Horslips tribute band Spirit of Horslips and pub gigs with pick up three-piece The Treat, which sometimes featured former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell instead of Fean.
In 1990, the electric guitar intro to "Dearg Doom" was used for Put 'Em Under Pressure, Ireland's 1990 World Cup song, written by Larry Mullen and featuring the Republic of Ireland national football team and Moya Brennan. This use of the intro may be better known in Ireland than the original.
Charles O'Connor released an instrumental album, Angel on the Mantelpiece, in collaboration with Paul Whittaker in 1997.
Further activities
Johnny Fean continued to play live music with Stephen Travers, formerly of The Miami Showband.
After his retirement, Eamon Carr went on to become a producer of young rock talent in the mid-1980s, and also formed his own record label called Hotwire (which sponsored noted acts such as the punk rock group The Golden Horde). He also did a number of specialist DJ slots on radio before morphing into a music/sports journalist with the Evening Herald in Dublin. More recently he presented on a Dublin station 'Carr's Cocktail Shack' in which he played American music of the 1950s and 1960s. In 2008, Carr and Henry McCullough co-wrote a new bunch of songs. A resulting album entitled Poor Man's Moon was released on 1 September 2008. Also in 2008, Carr released his first book, The Origami Crow, Journey Into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002, a book that is at once a travel log about his journey to Japan, a poetry collection, an homage to Japanese poet Bashō, and also has some sports commentary thrown in.
Barry Devlin directed for the screen and been a drama writer for radio and screen, as can be seen from his credits on the IMDB and for the radio detective drama Baldi He produced a number of U2 videos in the mid-1980s. Examples of his screen writing are evident in the joint RTÉ/BBC production Ballykissangel and ITV's The Darling Buds of May.
Jim Lockhart is head of production at RTÉ 2fm and has also done some production work and music arrangement.
Charles O'Connor owns two antique shops in Whitby, England. O'Connor continued to record folk and traditional music in his home recording studio.
Copyright issues
For 20 years William McBurney, head of Belfast-based Outlet Records for over 40 years, received royalties from the sales of vinyl and CDs, including many compilations. He claimed that he bought the rights in good faith from Jim Slye, who managed Horslips from the late 1970s until the band's final gig. However, the quality of these releases left much to be desired. Shoddy artwork and poor sound meant that most of these releases were sold at bargain prices, leaving the five former band members disillusioned. They fought back and on 7 March 1999 won a court victory in Belfast for copyright ownership and a substantial financial settlement. Horslips are now once again fully in control of their music and they released the entire back catalogue on CD in 2000/2001 with updated artwork and digitally remastered sound.
Return
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.
The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal.
A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTÉ television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980.
The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music.
2009 reunion to present
On 2 July 2009, it was announced that Horslips would reunite for two shows, their first 'open public' gigs since 1980. The band played the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on 3 December and the 3Arena in Dublin on 5 December. Drummer Eamon Carr did not play the concerts, citing personal reasons, though he was fully supportive and remains a fifth member. His place was taken by Johnny Fean's brother Ray Fean. Recordings from these shows were released on the DVD/CD 'Live at the O2' in November 2010. The O2 Arena has since been renamed as The 3Arena. The Irish band Something Happens were the support act for the show in The 3Arena.
The band played two invitation-only warm up gigs in McHugh's of Drogheda on 26 and 27 November. The band was set to play at "Live at the Marquee" Cork City on 26 June 2010, but the concert was cancelled due to Jim Lockhart falling ill.
In November and December 2010, Horslips, again with Ray Fean on percussion, returned with a four gig tour of Ireland. These included the INEC (Ireland's National Event Centre) in Killarney (27 November), the Royal Theatre in Castlebar (28 November), the Waterfront Hall in Belfast (1 December) and culminated in a return to the O2 Arena on 4 December. They played at the 2011 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow's "Old Fruitmarket" on 18 January.
On 10 February 2010, it was announced that Horslips would be special guests under Fairport Convention at Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2011. They performed on 13 August.
On St Patrick's Day, 17 March 2011, the band played a BBC concert with the Ulster Orchestra at Belfast's Waterfront Hall.
On 3 June 2012, Horslips performed as the headline act at the Rory Gallagher Tribute Festival in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal.
On 25 and 26 August 2012, Horslips played two shows in the national concert hall with the RTÉ concert orchestra in Dublin.
On 4 November 2013, Horslips released their biography Tall Tales. The book was written by Mark Cunningham and features interviews with the band. A double album featuring all the group's singles released outside Ireland, called Biography, was also released.
On the Summer Solstice (21 June) 2014, Horslips played at Dunluce Castle, near Portrush in Northern Ireland.
In August 2014, Horslips played at Milkmarket in Limerick, County Limerick.
On 12 March 2019, two of the band, Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart, played at an event in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, to commemorate the occupation by radical students of the administration block at University College, Dublin, 50 years before. They joined the house band for the night, made up of members of Chris Meehan and his Redneck Friends, along with other well-known musicians, actors and performers who had been involved in the events of 1969, when the building that is now the NCH was part of UCD.
On 11 and 12 May 2019, with Charles retired from music, original members Barry, Johnny and Jim plus Ray Fean (drums) played two concerts at Belfast's Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, at Custom House Square. The shows were promoted as 'Barry Devlin, Johnny Fean & Jim Lockhart from Horslips'.
Discography
Original studio albums
Happy to Meet – Sorry to Part (1972)
The Táin (1973)
Dancehall Sweethearts (1974)
The Unfortunate Cup of Tea (1975)
Drive the Cold Winter Away (1975)
The Book of Invasions (1976) UK No. 39
Aliens (1977) U.S. No. 98
The Man Who Built America (1978) U.S. No. 155
Short Stories/Tall Tales (1979)
Roll Back (2004)
Compilation albums
Tracks from the Vaults (1977)
Treasury (2009)
Biography (2013)
Live albums
Horslips Live (1976)
The Belfast Gigs (1980)
Live at the O2 (2010)
Live with the Ulster Orchestra (2011)
Books
Tall Tales (2013)
References
External links
Official website for Horslips
Official website for Johnny Fean and Steve Travers
Come Back Horslips Fansite
Carr's Cocktail Shack Radio Website
Tara Telephone Archival History Fansite
Performance and Interview Pt.1
Interview Pt.2
Horslips page on Irish Rockers website
Irish progressive rock groups
Celtic rock music
Irish folk rock groups
Celtic fusion musicians
Musical groups established in 1970
Musical groups disestablished in 1980
Atco Records artists
DJM Records artists
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"This is the discography of the hard rock band Magnum, which is headed by vocalist Bob Catley and guitarist/songwriter Tony Clarkin. Originally formed around 1972 they released their first single in 1975 (a cover of Sweets for My Sweet that did not chart) and their first album Kingdom of Madness in 1978. They continued recording and releasing albums until 1995 when they split. However, they re-formed in 2001 and have released albums every few years since. Many compilations and live albums were released in the gap, as well as Bob and Tony forming Hard Rain before re-forming Magnum with long-time keyboard player Mark Stanway.\n\nStudio albums\n\nLive albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nThere have also been many other compilations across various labels.\n\nCharted singles\n\nVideos and DVDs\n\nReferences\n\nDiscographies of British artists\nRock music group discographies",
"The discography of Monkey Majik consists of twelve studio albums, five compilation albums and numerous singles and digital downloads. The band's releases were originally self-released in Sendai, after which they were signed to independent label and management Under Horse Records, and released material through there between 2004 and 2005. In 2005, Monkey Majik were signed to major label Avex Entertainment, and continue to release under the Binyl Records sub-label.\n\nMonkey Majik have four certified albums by the RIAJ, including the platinum Sora wa Marude (2007). They have five songs that were commercially successful enough to receive certifications, including the double platinum \"Around the World\" (2006) and \"Sora wa Marude\" (2007).\n\nAlbums\n\nStudio albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nExtended plays\n\nSingles\n\n2021 S.O.S Zero-One Others: Kamen Rider MetsubouJinrai\n\nReferences\n\nPop music discographies\nDiscographies of Japanese artists"
] |
[
"Horslips",
"Return",
"how did the horslips return?",
"Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio",
"Did they release any albums after the return?",
"Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album,",
"what album did they release?",
"\"Horslips Unplugged\",",
"were there other albums that they released?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_ee3b5ed0e1d947daa08b75d71fde6e43_0
|
Did they play live after the return?
| 5 |
Did horslips play live after the return?
|
Horslips
|
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs. The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal. A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test. In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980. The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music. CANNOTANSWER
|
In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices
|
Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and reels. The group are regarded as 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' for their fusion of traditional Irish music with rock music and went on to inspire many local and international acts. They formed in 1970 and 'retired' in 1980 for an extended period. The name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse".
Although Horslips had limited commercial success when the band was playing in the 70s, there was a revival of interest in their music in the late 1990s and they came to be regarded as one of the defining bands of the Celtic rock genre. There have since been small scale reunions including appearances on The Late Late Show and RTÉ's Other Voices. The band reformed for two Irish shows in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast and the 3Arena in Dublin at the end of 2009, and have continued to play shows since then.
Band members
Jim Lockhart (born 3 February 1948), from James's St in Dublin, studied Economics and Politics at University College Dublin. He fell under the influence of Seán Ó Riada, wanting to build an orchestral sound out of Irish music. He plays keyboards, pipes, whistles and flute. He did vocals on a select number of songs, mainly in Manx or Irish.
Eamon Carr (born 12 November 1948), is from Kells, County Meath. He was one of the founding members of a poetry and beat performance group called Tara Telephone in Dublin in the late 60s that also published the quarterly literary journal Capella. He is the drummer in the band.
Charles O'Connor, (Born 7 September 1948) from Middlesbrough in the UK plays concertina, mandolin, fiddle and both electric and slide guitar. He also shares the main vocal tasks with Barry Devlin and Johnny Fean.
Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946), from Ardboe in County Tyrone, once trained as a Columban priest. He left this to study English in University College Dublin and afterwards joined a graphics company as a screenwriter. He is the band's bass player, shares vocals, and is its unofficial front man.
Johnny Fean (born 17 November 1951) spent his childhood in the city of Limerick and in Shannon, County Clare. He soon mastered guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica. In his teens, he played in sessions in Limerick and County Clare. Fean developed his listening tastes from rock to blues and incorporated it into his guitar style. In his late teens he played in a group called Sweet Street, with Joe O'Donnell on electric fiddle and Eugene Wallace. He later played in Jeremiah Henry, a rock and blues band. His idols were Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He left Jeremiah Henry in 1970 to play traditional music again in Limerick.
Career
Original line-up
Barry Devlin, Eamon Carr and Charles O'Connor met when they worked at the Ark advertising company in Dublin. They were cajoled into pretending to be a band for a Harp Lager commercial but needed a keyboard player. Devlin said he knew a Jim Lockhart who would fit the bill. The four enjoyed the act so much that they decided to try being proper rock performers. They joined guitarist Declan Sinnott, a colleague of Eamon Carr's from Tara Telephone and, briefly, Gene Mulvaney to form Horslips (originally Horslypse) in 1970.
The band went professional on St Patrick's Day 1972 having shed Mulvaney and released a single, "Johnny's Wedding", on their own record label, Oats. Declan Sinnott left soon after, primarily due to his annoyance at the group appearing in an advert for Mirinda orange drink (shot in the grounds of Ardmore Studios Bray in Easter 1972) and was replaced by Gus Guest briefly, then Johnny Fean.
Albums
Horslips designed their own artwork, wrote sleeve-notes and researched the legends that they made into concept albums. They established their own record label, Oats, and licensed the recordings through Atco, RCA and DJM for release outside Ireland. They kept their base in Ireland, unlike previous Irish bands.
In October 1972, Horslips went to Longfield House in Tipperary and recorded their first album, Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part, in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. They then released another single, "Green Gravel". On the first album the melodies were mostly traditional. Jim Lockhart was on keyboards and gradually mastered other instruments including uillean pipes. Eamon Carr was on drums, including the Irish bodhrán. Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part was the fastest-selling album for eight years in Ireland. The sleeve was an elaborate concertina-shaped fold-out design.
The Abbey Theatre in Dublin asked the band to provide the background for a stage adaptation of "The Táin". They leapt at the opportunity. "Táin Bó Cúailnge" (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley) is a tenth-century story written in Old and Middle Irish. It tells of an ancient war between Ulster and Connacht. The Táin was released in 1973 and had more original material alongside the traditional tunes, and greater emphasis on rock. In the same year a single, "Dearg Doom", went to number one in Germany.
Dancehall Sweethearts followed in 1974, and also balanced folk with rock. Their fourth album, The Unfortunate Cup of Tea, drifted toward pop music and was generally considered less successful. RCA ended their funding deal for the group in 1975. The group funded their next venture themselves and went back to basics. Drive The Cold Winter Away (also 1975) was their most traditional album to date. They signed with DJM Records worldwide through A&R man Frank Neilson. The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony (1976), like The Táin, was an adaptation of Irish legends built into a complex story. It became their only entry in the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at No. 39 in 1977.
Ever ambitious, the band now tried to make it in the United States. They brought in Jim Slye to become their manager. He later sold their publishing rights to William McBurney for £4,000. In 1977 they produced Aliens, about the experience of the Irish in nineteenth-century America, which included little folk music. They toured Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States. The night they played the Albert Hall in London was described by one critic as the loudest gig there since Hendrix. The Man Who Built America (1978), produced by Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Blues Project fame, concerned Irish emigration to the US and received considerable airplay but broad approval was missing. The heavier sound did bring some acceptance in America but they lost their folk base and their freshness. Short Stories, Tall Tales (1979) was their last studio album and was panned by the record company and critics alike.
"The Last Time"
At a time when The Troubles were at its peak, Horslips played gigs in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without prejudice and were accepted everywhere. Their last recordings were from live performances at the Whitla Hall in Belfast April and May 1980. A few months later, on 12 October 1980 they played their final gig in the Ulster Hall. They made no public announcement. They simply gave an encore — the Rolling Stones' song "The Last Time" (this was a reference to the recording studio of their first album) and the final act was Charles O'Connor throwing his mangled fiddle into the audience. Ten years after they formed, they disbanded.
Musical life after the break up
Even before Horslips ended, Johnny Fean, Eamon Carr and two others founded the Zen Alligators in 1980. They played straight rock and soul on the Irish circuit, and they recorded several singles. Another spin-off group called Host contained Fean, O'Connor and Carr. They issued one album, Tryal, in 1984, and two singles.
The final album that had a Fean/Carr collaboration in the 1980s was The Last Bandits in the World (1986).
Barry Devlin issued a solo album called Breaking Star Codes in 1983 with some help from Jim Lockhart. The album had 12 songs, each based, loosely, on the signs of the zodiac. Further Lockhart/Devlin collaborations included the theme tune to the popular RTÉ drama series Glenroe.
In 1986, Johnny Fean moved to England. An English indie band called Jacobites (1983 to 1986) consisted of Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth. Their 1986 album Ragged School had Johnny on guitar. He also played sporadically with a Horslips tribute band Spirit of Horslips and pub gigs with pick up three-piece The Treat, which sometimes featured former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell instead of Fean.
In 1990, the electric guitar intro to "Dearg Doom" was used for Put 'Em Under Pressure, Ireland's 1990 World Cup song, written by Larry Mullen and featuring the Republic of Ireland national football team and Moya Brennan. This use of the intro may be better known in Ireland than the original.
Charles O'Connor released an instrumental album, Angel on the Mantelpiece, in collaboration with Paul Whittaker in 1997.
Further activities
Johnny Fean continued to play live music with Stephen Travers, formerly of The Miami Showband.
After his retirement, Eamon Carr went on to become a producer of young rock talent in the mid-1980s, and also formed his own record label called Hotwire (which sponsored noted acts such as the punk rock group The Golden Horde). He also did a number of specialist DJ slots on radio before morphing into a music/sports journalist with the Evening Herald in Dublin. More recently he presented on a Dublin station 'Carr's Cocktail Shack' in which he played American music of the 1950s and 1960s. In 2008, Carr and Henry McCullough co-wrote a new bunch of songs. A resulting album entitled Poor Man's Moon was released on 1 September 2008. Also in 2008, Carr released his first book, The Origami Crow, Journey Into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002, a book that is at once a travel log about his journey to Japan, a poetry collection, an homage to Japanese poet Bashō, and also has some sports commentary thrown in.
Barry Devlin directed for the screen and been a drama writer for radio and screen, as can be seen from his credits on the IMDB and for the radio detective drama Baldi He produced a number of U2 videos in the mid-1980s. Examples of his screen writing are evident in the joint RTÉ/BBC production Ballykissangel and ITV's The Darling Buds of May.
Jim Lockhart is head of production at RTÉ 2fm and has also done some production work and music arrangement.
Charles O'Connor owns two antique shops in Whitby, England. O'Connor continued to record folk and traditional music in his home recording studio.
Copyright issues
For 20 years William McBurney, head of Belfast-based Outlet Records for over 40 years, received royalties from the sales of vinyl and CDs, including many compilations. He claimed that he bought the rights in good faith from Jim Slye, who managed Horslips from the late 1970s until the band's final gig. However, the quality of these releases left much to be desired. Shoddy artwork and poor sound meant that most of these releases were sold at bargain prices, leaving the five former band members disillusioned. They fought back and on 7 March 1999 won a court victory in Belfast for copyright ownership and a substantial financial settlement. Horslips are now once again fully in control of their music and they released the entire back catalogue on CD in 2000/2001 with updated artwork and digitally remastered sound.
Return
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.
The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal.
A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTÉ television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980.
The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music.
2009 reunion to present
On 2 July 2009, it was announced that Horslips would reunite for two shows, their first 'open public' gigs since 1980. The band played the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on 3 December and the 3Arena in Dublin on 5 December. Drummer Eamon Carr did not play the concerts, citing personal reasons, though he was fully supportive and remains a fifth member. His place was taken by Johnny Fean's brother Ray Fean. Recordings from these shows were released on the DVD/CD 'Live at the O2' in November 2010. The O2 Arena has since been renamed as The 3Arena. The Irish band Something Happens were the support act for the show in The 3Arena.
The band played two invitation-only warm up gigs in McHugh's of Drogheda on 26 and 27 November. The band was set to play at "Live at the Marquee" Cork City on 26 June 2010, but the concert was cancelled due to Jim Lockhart falling ill.
In November and December 2010, Horslips, again with Ray Fean on percussion, returned with a four gig tour of Ireland. These included the INEC (Ireland's National Event Centre) in Killarney (27 November), the Royal Theatre in Castlebar (28 November), the Waterfront Hall in Belfast (1 December) and culminated in a return to the O2 Arena on 4 December. They played at the 2011 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow's "Old Fruitmarket" on 18 January.
On 10 February 2010, it was announced that Horslips would be special guests under Fairport Convention at Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2011. They performed on 13 August.
On St Patrick's Day, 17 March 2011, the band played a BBC concert with the Ulster Orchestra at Belfast's Waterfront Hall.
On 3 June 2012, Horslips performed as the headline act at the Rory Gallagher Tribute Festival in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal.
On 25 and 26 August 2012, Horslips played two shows in the national concert hall with the RTÉ concert orchestra in Dublin.
On 4 November 2013, Horslips released their biography Tall Tales. The book was written by Mark Cunningham and features interviews with the band. A double album featuring all the group's singles released outside Ireland, called Biography, was also released.
On the Summer Solstice (21 June) 2014, Horslips played at Dunluce Castle, near Portrush in Northern Ireland.
In August 2014, Horslips played at Milkmarket in Limerick, County Limerick.
On 12 March 2019, two of the band, Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart, played at an event in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, to commemorate the occupation by radical students of the administration block at University College, Dublin, 50 years before. They joined the house band for the night, made up of members of Chris Meehan and his Redneck Friends, along with other well-known musicians, actors and performers who had been involved in the events of 1969, when the building that is now the NCH was part of UCD.
On 11 and 12 May 2019, with Charles retired from music, original members Barry, Johnny and Jim plus Ray Fean (drums) played two concerts at Belfast's Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, at Custom House Square. The shows were promoted as 'Barry Devlin, Johnny Fean & Jim Lockhart from Horslips'.
Discography
Original studio albums
Happy to Meet – Sorry to Part (1972)
The Táin (1973)
Dancehall Sweethearts (1974)
The Unfortunate Cup of Tea (1975)
Drive the Cold Winter Away (1975)
The Book of Invasions (1976) UK No. 39
Aliens (1977) U.S. No. 98
The Man Who Built America (1978) U.S. No. 155
Short Stories/Tall Tales (1979)
Roll Back (2004)
Compilation albums
Tracks from the Vaults (1977)
Treasury (2009)
Biography (2013)
Live albums
Horslips Live (1976)
The Belfast Gigs (1980)
Live at the O2 (2010)
Live with the Ulster Orchestra (2011)
Books
Tall Tales (2013)
References
External links
Official website for Horslips
Official website for Johnny Fean and Steve Travers
Come Back Horslips Fansite
Carr's Cocktail Shack Radio Website
Tara Telephone Archival History Fansite
Performance and Interview Pt.1
Interview Pt.2
Horslips page on Irish Rockers website
Irish progressive rock groups
Celtic rock music
Irish folk rock groups
Celtic fusion musicians
Musical groups established in 1970
Musical groups disestablished in 1980
Atco Records artists
DJM Records artists
| false |
[
"P. J. Tracy is a pseudonym for American mother-daughter writing team Patricia (P. J.) (b. 1946 d. Stillwater December 21, 2016) and Traci Lambrecht, winners of the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book Awards. Their ten mystery thrillers include Monkeewrench (published as Want to Play? in the UK), Live Bait, Dead Run, Snow Blind, Shoot to Thrill (published as Play to Kill in the UK), Off the Grid, The Sixth Idea (published a Cold Kill in the UK), Nothing Stays Buried, The Guilty Dead, and Ice Cold Heart. They also published Return of the Magi, a quirky Christmas novella, as an ebook. After Patricia Lambrecht died in 2016, Traci Lambrecht continued to write under the P. J. Tracy pseudonym.\n\nNovels\nMonkeewrench Series\nMonkeewrench (2003) (UK title: Want To Play?)\nWon 2004 Barry Award for Best First Mystery Novel \nLive Bait (2004) \nDead Run (2005) \nSnow Blind (2006) \nShoot to Thrill (2010) (UK title: Play to Kill)\nOff the Grid (2012) (UK title: Two Evils)\nThe Sixth Idea (2016) (UK title: Cold Kill)\nNothing Stays Buried (2017) \nThe Guilty Dead (2018) \nIce Cold Heart (2020) \nDetective Margaret Nolan series\nDeep into the Dark (2021) \nStandalone\n\n Return of the Magi (2017)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n21st-century American novelists\nAmerican mystery writers\nCollective pseudonyms\nAnthony Award winners\nBarry Award winners\nAmerican women novelists\nWomen mystery writers\n21st-century American women writers\nPseudonymous women writers",
"Return to the Apocalyptic City is a live EP by American thrash metal band Testament, released in 1993. All tracks were recorded at the Los Angeles Palladium, except for the last two; \"Reign of Terror\" was recorded during The New Order sessions in 1987–1988, but did not appear on that album; it did, however, surface as a B-side to the album's sole single \"Trial by Fire\". The closing track, \"Return to Serenity\", is a single edited version of the song, which appears on The Ritual.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Over the Wall\" (Live) - 5:28\n\"So Many Lies\" (Live) - 6:13\n\"The Haunting\" (Live) - 4:28\n\"Disciples of the Watch\" (Live) - 4:38\n\"Reign of Terror\" - 4:48\n\"Return to Serenity\" (Edit) - 4:30\n\nCredits\nChuck Billy: vocals\nGlen Alvelais: lead and rhythm guitars (tracks 1–4)\nAlex Skolnick: lead and rhythm guitars (tracks 5–6)\nEric Peterson: rhythm guitar\nGreg Christian: bass guitar\nPaul Bostaph: drums (tracks 1–4)\nLouie Clemente: drums (tracks 5–6)\n\nReferences\n\n1993 EPs\n1993 live albums\nLive EPs\nTestament (band) EPs\nTestament (band) live albums\nAtlantic Records live albums\nAtlantic Records EPs\nMegaforce Records EPs"
] |
[
"Horslips",
"Return",
"how did the horslips return?",
"Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio",
"Did they release any albums after the return?",
"Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album,",
"what album did they release?",
"\"Horslips Unplugged\",",
"were there other albums that they released?",
"I don't know.",
"Did they play live after the return?",
"In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices"
] |
C_ee3b5ed0e1d947daa08b75d71fde6e43_0
|
What was a single from their album?
| 6 |
What was a single from horslips' album?
|
Horslips
|
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs. The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal. A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test. In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980. The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music. CANNOTANSWER
|
the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.
|
Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and reels. The group are regarded as 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' for their fusion of traditional Irish music with rock music and went on to inspire many local and international acts. They formed in 1970 and 'retired' in 1980 for an extended period. The name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse".
Although Horslips had limited commercial success when the band was playing in the 70s, there was a revival of interest in their music in the late 1990s and they came to be regarded as one of the defining bands of the Celtic rock genre. There have since been small scale reunions including appearances on The Late Late Show and RTÉ's Other Voices. The band reformed for two Irish shows in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast and the 3Arena in Dublin at the end of 2009, and have continued to play shows since then.
Band members
Jim Lockhart (born 3 February 1948), from James's St in Dublin, studied Economics and Politics at University College Dublin. He fell under the influence of Seán Ó Riada, wanting to build an orchestral sound out of Irish music. He plays keyboards, pipes, whistles and flute. He did vocals on a select number of songs, mainly in Manx or Irish.
Eamon Carr (born 12 November 1948), is from Kells, County Meath. He was one of the founding members of a poetry and beat performance group called Tara Telephone in Dublin in the late 60s that also published the quarterly literary journal Capella. He is the drummer in the band.
Charles O'Connor, (Born 7 September 1948) from Middlesbrough in the UK plays concertina, mandolin, fiddle and both electric and slide guitar. He also shares the main vocal tasks with Barry Devlin and Johnny Fean.
Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946), from Ardboe in County Tyrone, once trained as a Columban priest. He left this to study English in University College Dublin and afterwards joined a graphics company as a screenwriter. He is the band's bass player, shares vocals, and is its unofficial front man.
Johnny Fean (born 17 November 1951) spent his childhood in the city of Limerick and in Shannon, County Clare. He soon mastered guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica. In his teens, he played in sessions in Limerick and County Clare. Fean developed his listening tastes from rock to blues and incorporated it into his guitar style. In his late teens he played in a group called Sweet Street, with Joe O'Donnell on electric fiddle and Eugene Wallace. He later played in Jeremiah Henry, a rock and blues band. His idols were Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He left Jeremiah Henry in 1970 to play traditional music again in Limerick.
Career
Original line-up
Barry Devlin, Eamon Carr and Charles O'Connor met when they worked at the Ark advertising company in Dublin. They were cajoled into pretending to be a band for a Harp Lager commercial but needed a keyboard player. Devlin said he knew a Jim Lockhart who would fit the bill. The four enjoyed the act so much that they decided to try being proper rock performers. They joined guitarist Declan Sinnott, a colleague of Eamon Carr's from Tara Telephone and, briefly, Gene Mulvaney to form Horslips (originally Horslypse) in 1970.
The band went professional on St Patrick's Day 1972 having shed Mulvaney and released a single, "Johnny's Wedding", on their own record label, Oats. Declan Sinnott left soon after, primarily due to his annoyance at the group appearing in an advert for Mirinda orange drink (shot in the grounds of Ardmore Studios Bray in Easter 1972) and was replaced by Gus Guest briefly, then Johnny Fean.
Albums
Horslips designed their own artwork, wrote sleeve-notes and researched the legends that they made into concept albums. They established their own record label, Oats, and licensed the recordings through Atco, RCA and DJM for release outside Ireland. They kept their base in Ireland, unlike previous Irish bands.
In October 1972, Horslips went to Longfield House in Tipperary and recorded their first album, Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part, in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. They then released another single, "Green Gravel". On the first album the melodies were mostly traditional. Jim Lockhart was on keyboards and gradually mastered other instruments including uillean pipes. Eamon Carr was on drums, including the Irish bodhrán. Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part was the fastest-selling album for eight years in Ireland. The sleeve was an elaborate concertina-shaped fold-out design.
The Abbey Theatre in Dublin asked the band to provide the background for a stage adaptation of "The Táin". They leapt at the opportunity. "Táin Bó Cúailnge" (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley) is a tenth-century story written in Old and Middle Irish. It tells of an ancient war between Ulster and Connacht. The Táin was released in 1973 and had more original material alongside the traditional tunes, and greater emphasis on rock. In the same year a single, "Dearg Doom", went to number one in Germany.
Dancehall Sweethearts followed in 1974, and also balanced folk with rock. Their fourth album, The Unfortunate Cup of Tea, drifted toward pop music and was generally considered less successful. RCA ended their funding deal for the group in 1975. The group funded their next venture themselves and went back to basics. Drive The Cold Winter Away (also 1975) was their most traditional album to date. They signed with DJM Records worldwide through A&R man Frank Neilson. The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony (1976), like The Táin, was an adaptation of Irish legends built into a complex story. It became their only entry in the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at No. 39 in 1977.
Ever ambitious, the band now tried to make it in the United States. They brought in Jim Slye to become their manager. He later sold their publishing rights to William McBurney for £4,000. In 1977 they produced Aliens, about the experience of the Irish in nineteenth-century America, which included little folk music. They toured Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States. The night they played the Albert Hall in London was described by one critic as the loudest gig there since Hendrix. The Man Who Built America (1978), produced by Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Blues Project fame, concerned Irish emigration to the US and received considerable airplay but broad approval was missing. The heavier sound did bring some acceptance in America but they lost their folk base and their freshness. Short Stories, Tall Tales (1979) was their last studio album and was panned by the record company and critics alike.
"The Last Time"
At a time when The Troubles were at its peak, Horslips played gigs in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without prejudice and were accepted everywhere. Their last recordings were from live performances at the Whitla Hall in Belfast April and May 1980. A few months later, on 12 October 1980 they played their final gig in the Ulster Hall. They made no public announcement. They simply gave an encore — the Rolling Stones' song "The Last Time" (this was a reference to the recording studio of their first album) and the final act was Charles O'Connor throwing his mangled fiddle into the audience. Ten years after they formed, they disbanded.
Musical life after the break up
Even before Horslips ended, Johnny Fean, Eamon Carr and two others founded the Zen Alligators in 1980. They played straight rock and soul on the Irish circuit, and they recorded several singles. Another spin-off group called Host contained Fean, O'Connor and Carr. They issued one album, Tryal, in 1984, and two singles.
The final album that had a Fean/Carr collaboration in the 1980s was The Last Bandits in the World (1986).
Barry Devlin issued a solo album called Breaking Star Codes in 1983 with some help from Jim Lockhart. The album had 12 songs, each based, loosely, on the signs of the zodiac. Further Lockhart/Devlin collaborations included the theme tune to the popular RTÉ drama series Glenroe.
In 1986, Johnny Fean moved to England. An English indie band called Jacobites (1983 to 1986) consisted of Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth. Their 1986 album Ragged School had Johnny on guitar. He also played sporadically with a Horslips tribute band Spirit of Horslips and pub gigs with pick up three-piece The Treat, which sometimes featured former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell instead of Fean.
In 1990, the electric guitar intro to "Dearg Doom" was used for Put 'Em Under Pressure, Ireland's 1990 World Cup song, written by Larry Mullen and featuring the Republic of Ireland national football team and Moya Brennan. This use of the intro may be better known in Ireland than the original.
Charles O'Connor released an instrumental album, Angel on the Mantelpiece, in collaboration with Paul Whittaker in 1997.
Further activities
Johnny Fean continued to play live music with Stephen Travers, formerly of The Miami Showband.
After his retirement, Eamon Carr went on to become a producer of young rock talent in the mid-1980s, and also formed his own record label called Hotwire (which sponsored noted acts such as the punk rock group The Golden Horde). He also did a number of specialist DJ slots on radio before morphing into a music/sports journalist with the Evening Herald in Dublin. More recently he presented on a Dublin station 'Carr's Cocktail Shack' in which he played American music of the 1950s and 1960s. In 2008, Carr and Henry McCullough co-wrote a new bunch of songs. A resulting album entitled Poor Man's Moon was released on 1 September 2008. Also in 2008, Carr released his first book, The Origami Crow, Journey Into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002, a book that is at once a travel log about his journey to Japan, a poetry collection, an homage to Japanese poet Bashō, and also has some sports commentary thrown in.
Barry Devlin directed for the screen and been a drama writer for radio and screen, as can be seen from his credits on the IMDB and for the radio detective drama Baldi He produced a number of U2 videos in the mid-1980s. Examples of his screen writing are evident in the joint RTÉ/BBC production Ballykissangel and ITV's The Darling Buds of May.
Jim Lockhart is head of production at RTÉ 2fm and has also done some production work and music arrangement.
Charles O'Connor owns two antique shops in Whitby, England. O'Connor continued to record folk and traditional music in his home recording studio.
Copyright issues
For 20 years William McBurney, head of Belfast-based Outlet Records for over 40 years, received royalties from the sales of vinyl and CDs, including many compilations. He claimed that he bought the rights in good faith from Jim Slye, who managed Horslips from the late 1970s until the band's final gig. However, the quality of these releases left much to be desired. Shoddy artwork and poor sound meant that most of these releases were sold at bargain prices, leaving the five former band members disillusioned. They fought back and on 7 March 1999 won a court victory in Belfast for copyright ownership and a substantial financial settlement. Horslips are now once again fully in control of their music and they released the entire back catalogue on CD in 2000/2001 with updated artwork and digitally remastered sound.
Return
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.
The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal.
A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTÉ television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980.
The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music.
2009 reunion to present
On 2 July 2009, it was announced that Horslips would reunite for two shows, their first 'open public' gigs since 1980. The band played the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on 3 December and the 3Arena in Dublin on 5 December. Drummer Eamon Carr did not play the concerts, citing personal reasons, though he was fully supportive and remains a fifth member. His place was taken by Johnny Fean's brother Ray Fean. Recordings from these shows were released on the DVD/CD 'Live at the O2' in November 2010. The O2 Arena has since been renamed as The 3Arena. The Irish band Something Happens were the support act for the show in The 3Arena.
The band played two invitation-only warm up gigs in McHugh's of Drogheda on 26 and 27 November. The band was set to play at "Live at the Marquee" Cork City on 26 June 2010, but the concert was cancelled due to Jim Lockhart falling ill.
In November and December 2010, Horslips, again with Ray Fean on percussion, returned with a four gig tour of Ireland. These included the INEC (Ireland's National Event Centre) in Killarney (27 November), the Royal Theatre in Castlebar (28 November), the Waterfront Hall in Belfast (1 December) and culminated in a return to the O2 Arena on 4 December. They played at the 2011 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow's "Old Fruitmarket" on 18 January.
On 10 February 2010, it was announced that Horslips would be special guests under Fairport Convention at Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2011. They performed on 13 August.
On St Patrick's Day, 17 March 2011, the band played a BBC concert with the Ulster Orchestra at Belfast's Waterfront Hall.
On 3 June 2012, Horslips performed as the headline act at the Rory Gallagher Tribute Festival in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal.
On 25 and 26 August 2012, Horslips played two shows in the national concert hall with the RTÉ concert orchestra in Dublin.
On 4 November 2013, Horslips released their biography Tall Tales. The book was written by Mark Cunningham and features interviews with the band. A double album featuring all the group's singles released outside Ireland, called Biography, was also released.
On the Summer Solstice (21 June) 2014, Horslips played at Dunluce Castle, near Portrush in Northern Ireland.
In August 2014, Horslips played at Milkmarket in Limerick, County Limerick.
On 12 March 2019, two of the band, Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart, played at an event in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, to commemorate the occupation by radical students of the administration block at University College, Dublin, 50 years before. They joined the house band for the night, made up of members of Chris Meehan and his Redneck Friends, along with other well-known musicians, actors and performers who had been involved in the events of 1969, when the building that is now the NCH was part of UCD.
On 11 and 12 May 2019, with Charles retired from music, original members Barry, Johnny and Jim plus Ray Fean (drums) played two concerts at Belfast's Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, at Custom House Square. The shows were promoted as 'Barry Devlin, Johnny Fean & Jim Lockhart from Horslips'.
Discography
Original studio albums
Happy to Meet – Sorry to Part (1972)
The Táin (1973)
Dancehall Sweethearts (1974)
The Unfortunate Cup of Tea (1975)
Drive the Cold Winter Away (1975)
The Book of Invasions (1976) UK No. 39
Aliens (1977) U.S. No. 98
The Man Who Built America (1978) U.S. No. 155
Short Stories/Tall Tales (1979)
Roll Back (2004)
Compilation albums
Tracks from the Vaults (1977)
Treasury (2009)
Biography (2013)
Live albums
Horslips Live (1976)
The Belfast Gigs (1980)
Live at the O2 (2010)
Live with the Ulster Orchestra (2011)
Books
Tall Tales (2013)
References
External links
Official website for Horslips
Official website for Johnny Fean and Steve Travers
Come Back Horslips Fansite
Carr's Cocktail Shack Radio Website
Tara Telephone Archival History Fansite
Performance and Interview Pt.1
Interview Pt.2
Horslips page on Irish Rockers website
Irish progressive rock groups
Celtic rock music
Irish folk rock groups
Celtic fusion musicians
Musical groups established in 1970
Musical groups disestablished in 1980
Atco Records artists
DJM Records artists
| true |
[
"Unite is the debut album of the Danish indie pop band A Friend in London. It was released on 21 January 2013 on ArtPeople record label and includes \"New Tomorrow\", their Danish Eurovision Song Contest 2011 entry that finished fifth in that year's competition. The album also includes a collaboration with Carly Rae Jepsen, who is featured in the track \"Rest from the Streets\".\n\nSingles\n \"New Tomorrow\" was released as the lead single from the album on 25 February 2011. It represented Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, held in Düsseldorf, Germany.\n \"Calling a Friend\" was released as the second single from the album on 30 April 2012.\n \"Get Rich in Vegas\" was released as the third single from the album on 23 July 2012.\n \"What A Way\" was released as the third single from the album on 29 March 2010.\n \"The Light\" was released from the album on 7 February 2011.\n\nTrack listing\n\nChart performance\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2013 debut albums\nA Friend in London albums",
"\"Give Me What I Want\" is the second single by Kids in Glass Houses to be taken from the band's debut album Smart Casual. It was released on 19 May 2008. The song was nominated for the Kerrang! Award for Best Single.\n\nThe track was originally released as \"Me Me Me\" in June 2007. It has since been re-recorded and renamed \"Give Me What I Want\" for the album Smart Casual. The band have suggested through their blog that they are not entirely happy with this decision, made to prevent \"Me Me Me\" from being purchased from an earlier Kerrang! compilation album instead of the single. It has reached #62 on the UK Singles Chart. The track on the single differs slightly from that on the album, in that it was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge rather than Romesh Dodangoda.\n\nThe B-Side for this single, \"Be Nice (Start Now)\", was intended to be on the album in place of \"Good Boys Gone Rad\" (recorded after the album's completion as a B-Side) until very late in production. However, the two tracks were switched after the band decided \"Good Boys Gone Rad\" fitted into the album better.\n\nTrack listing\nCD single\n \"Give Me What I Want\" (Radio Mix) – 3:20\n \"Be Nice (Start Now)\" – 02:20\n\nLtd. 7\" Vinyl Picture Disc\n \"Give Me What I Want\" (Radio Mix) – 3:20\n \"Easy Tiger\" (Acoustic) – 04:03\n\niTunes Exclusive Download\n \"Give Me What I Want\" (Radio Mix) – 3:20\n \"Pink Suede\" – 2:53\n\nReferences\n\n2008 singles\n2008 songs\nRoadrunner Records singles\nKids in Glass Houses songs"
] |
[
"Horslips",
"Return",
"how did the horslips return?",
"Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio",
"Did they release any albums after the return?",
"Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album,",
"what album did they release?",
"\"Horslips Unplugged\",",
"were there other albums that they released?",
"I don't know.",
"Did they play live after the return?",
"In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices",
"What was a single from their album?",
"the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs."
] |
C_ee3b5ed0e1d947daa08b75d71fde6e43_0
|
did they do a tour?
| 7 |
did thorslips do a tour?
|
Horslips
|
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs. The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal. A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test. In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980. The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music. CANNOTANSWER
|
a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience.
|
Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and reels. The group are regarded as 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' for their fusion of traditional Irish music with rock music and went on to inspire many local and international acts. They formed in 1970 and 'retired' in 1980 for an extended period. The name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse".
Although Horslips had limited commercial success when the band was playing in the 70s, there was a revival of interest in their music in the late 1990s and they came to be regarded as one of the defining bands of the Celtic rock genre. There have since been small scale reunions including appearances on The Late Late Show and RTÉ's Other Voices. The band reformed for two Irish shows in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast and the 3Arena in Dublin at the end of 2009, and have continued to play shows since then.
Band members
Jim Lockhart (born 3 February 1948), from James's St in Dublin, studied Economics and Politics at University College Dublin. He fell under the influence of Seán Ó Riada, wanting to build an orchestral sound out of Irish music. He plays keyboards, pipes, whistles and flute. He did vocals on a select number of songs, mainly in Manx or Irish.
Eamon Carr (born 12 November 1948), is from Kells, County Meath. He was one of the founding members of a poetry and beat performance group called Tara Telephone in Dublin in the late 60s that also published the quarterly literary journal Capella. He is the drummer in the band.
Charles O'Connor, (Born 7 September 1948) from Middlesbrough in the UK plays concertina, mandolin, fiddle and both electric and slide guitar. He also shares the main vocal tasks with Barry Devlin and Johnny Fean.
Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946), from Ardboe in County Tyrone, once trained as a Columban priest. He left this to study English in University College Dublin and afterwards joined a graphics company as a screenwriter. He is the band's bass player, shares vocals, and is its unofficial front man.
Johnny Fean (born 17 November 1951) spent his childhood in the city of Limerick and in Shannon, County Clare. He soon mastered guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica. In his teens, he played in sessions in Limerick and County Clare. Fean developed his listening tastes from rock to blues and incorporated it into his guitar style. In his late teens he played in a group called Sweet Street, with Joe O'Donnell on electric fiddle and Eugene Wallace. He later played in Jeremiah Henry, a rock and blues band. His idols were Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He left Jeremiah Henry in 1970 to play traditional music again in Limerick.
Career
Original line-up
Barry Devlin, Eamon Carr and Charles O'Connor met when they worked at the Ark advertising company in Dublin. They were cajoled into pretending to be a band for a Harp Lager commercial but needed a keyboard player. Devlin said he knew a Jim Lockhart who would fit the bill. The four enjoyed the act so much that they decided to try being proper rock performers. They joined guitarist Declan Sinnott, a colleague of Eamon Carr's from Tara Telephone and, briefly, Gene Mulvaney to form Horslips (originally Horslypse) in 1970.
The band went professional on St Patrick's Day 1972 having shed Mulvaney and released a single, "Johnny's Wedding", on their own record label, Oats. Declan Sinnott left soon after, primarily due to his annoyance at the group appearing in an advert for Mirinda orange drink (shot in the grounds of Ardmore Studios Bray in Easter 1972) and was replaced by Gus Guest briefly, then Johnny Fean.
Albums
Horslips designed their own artwork, wrote sleeve-notes and researched the legends that they made into concept albums. They established their own record label, Oats, and licensed the recordings through Atco, RCA and DJM for release outside Ireland. They kept their base in Ireland, unlike previous Irish bands.
In October 1972, Horslips went to Longfield House in Tipperary and recorded their first album, Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part, in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. They then released another single, "Green Gravel". On the first album the melodies were mostly traditional. Jim Lockhart was on keyboards and gradually mastered other instruments including uillean pipes. Eamon Carr was on drums, including the Irish bodhrán. Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part was the fastest-selling album for eight years in Ireland. The sleeve was an elaborate concertina-shaped fold-out design.
The Abbey Theatre in Dublin asked the band to provide the background for a stage adaptation of "The Táin". They leapt at the opportunity. "Táin Bó Cúailnge" (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley) is a tenth-century story written in Old and Middle Irish. It tells of an ancient war between Ulster and Connacht. The Táin was released in 1973 and had more original material alongside the traditional tunes, and greater emphasis on rock. In the same year a single, "Dearg Doom", went to number one in Germany.
Dancehall Sweethearts followed in 1974, and also balanced folk with rock. Their fourth album, The Unfortunate Cup of Tea, drifted toward pop music and was generally considered less successful. RCA ended their funding deal for the group in 1975. The group funded their next venture themselves and went back to basics. Drive The Cold Winter Away (also 1975) was their most traditional album to date. They signed with DJM Records worldwide through A&R man Frank Neilson. The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony (1976), like The Táin, was an adaptation of Irish legends built into a complex story. It became their only entry in the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at No. 39 in 1977.
Ever ambitious, the band now tried to make it in the United States. They brought in Jim Slye to become their manager. He later sold their publishing rights to William McBurney for £4,000. In 1977 they produced Aliens, about the experience of the Irish in nineteenth-century America, which included little folk music. They toured Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States. The night they played the Albert Hall in London was described by one critic as the loudest gig there since Hendrix. The Man Who Built America (1978), produced by Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Blues Project fame, concerned Irish emigration to the US and received considerable airplay but broad approval was missing. The heavier sound did bring some acceptance in America but they lost their folk base and their freshness. Short Stories, Tall Tales (1979) was their last studio album and was panned by the record company and critics alike.
"The Last Time"
At a time when The Troubles were at its peak, Horslips played gigs in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without prejudice and were accepted everywhere. Their last recordings were from live performances at the Whitla Hall in Belfast April and May 1980. A few months later, on 12 October 1980 they played their final gig in the Ulster Hall. They made no public announcement. They simply gave an encore — the Rolling Stones' song "The Last Time" (this was a reference to the recording studio of their first album) and the final act was Charles O'Connor throwing his mangled fiddle into the audience. Ten years after they formed, they disbanded.
Musical life after the break up
Even before Horslips ended, Johnny Fean, Eamon Carr and two others founded the Zen Alligators in 1980. They played straight rock and soul on the Irish circuit, and they recorded several singles. Another spin-off group called Host contained Fean, O'Connor and Carr. They issued one album, Tryal, in 1984, and two singles.
The final album that had a Fean/Carr collaboration in the 1980s was The Last Bandits in the World (1986).
Barry Devlin issued a solo album called Breaking Star Codes in 1983 with some help from Jim Lockhart. The album had 12 songs, each based, loosely, on the signs of the zodiac. Further Lockhart/Devlin collaborations included the theme tune to the popular RTÉ drama series Glenroe.
In 1986, Johnny Fean moved to England. An English indie band called Jacobites (1983 to 1986) consisted of Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth. Their 1986 album Ragged School had Johnny on guitar. He also played sporadically with a Horslips tribute band Spirit of Horslips and pub gigs with pick up three-piece The Treat, which sometimes featured former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell instead of Fean.
In 1990, the electric guitar intro to "Dearg Doom" was used for Put 'Em Under Pressure, Ireland's 1990 World Cup song, written by Larry Mullen and featuring the Republic of Ireland national football team and Moya Brennan. This use of the intro may be better known in Ireland than the original.
Charles O'Connor released an instrumental album, Angel on the Mantelpiece, in collaboration with Paul Whittaker in 1997.
Further activities
Johnny Fean continued to play live music with Stephen Travers, formerly of The Miami Showband.
After his retirement, Eamon Carr went on to become a producer of young rock talent in the mid-1980s, and also formed his own record label called Hotwire (which sponsored noted acts such as the punk rock group The Golden Horde). He also did a number of specialist DJ slots on radio before morphing into a music/sports journalist with the Evening Herald in Dublin. More recently he presented on a Dublin station 'Carr's Cocktail Shack' in which he played American music of the 1950s and 1960s. In 2008, Carr and Henry McCullough co-wrote a new bunch of songs. A resulting album entitled Poor Man's Moon was released on 1 September 2008. Also in 2008, Carr released his first book, The Origami Crow, Journey Into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002, a book that is at once a travel log about his journey to Japan, a poetry collection, an homage to Japanese poet Bashō, and also has some sports commentary thrown in.
Barry Devlin directed for the screen and been a drama writer for radio and screen, as can be seen from his credits on the IMDB and for the radio detective drama Baldi He produced a number of U2 videos in the mid-1980s. Examples of his screen writing are evident in the joint RTÉ/BBC production Ballykissangel and ITV's The Darling Buds of May.
Jim Lockhart is head of production at RTÉ 2fm and has also done some production work and music arrangement.
Charles O'Connor owns two antique shops in Whitby, England. O'Connor continued to record folk and traditional music in his home recording studio.
Copyright issues
For 20 years William McBurney, head of Belfast-based Outlet Records for over 40 years, received royalties from the sales of vinyl and CDs, including many compilations. He claimed that he bought the rights in good faith from Jim Slye, who managed Horslips from the late 1970s until the band's final gig. However, the quality of these releases left much to be desired. Shoddy artwork and poor sound meant that most of these releases were sold at bargain prices, leaving the five former band members disillusioned. They fought back and on 7 March 1999 won a court victory in Belfast for copyright ownership and a substantial financial settlement. Horslips are now once again fully in control of their music and they released the entire back catalogue on CD in 2000/2001 with updated artwork and digitally remastered sound.
Return
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.
The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal.
A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTÉ television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980.
The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music.
2009 reunion to present
On 2 July 2009, it was announced that Horslips would reunite for two shows, their first 'open public' gigs since 1980. The band played the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on 3 December and the 3Arena in Dublin on 5 December. Drummer Eamon Carr did not play the concerts, citing personal reasons, though he was fully supportive and remains a fifth member. His place was taken by Johnny Fean's brother Ray Fean. Recordings from these shows were released on the DVD/CD 'Live at the O2' in November 2010. The O2 Arena has since been renamed as The 3Arena. The Irish band Something Happens were the support act for the show in The 3Arena.
The band played two invitation-only warm up gigs in McHugh's of Drogheda on 26 and 27 November. The band was set to play at "Live at the Marquee" Cork City on 26 June 2010, but the concert was cancelled due to Jim Lockhart falling ill.
In November and December 2010, Horslips, again with Ray Fean on percussion, returned with a four gig tour of Ireland. These included the INEC (Ireland's National Event Centre) in Killarney (27 November), the Royal Theatre in Castlebar (28 November), the Waterfront Hall in Belfast (1 December) and culminated in a return to the O2 Arena on 4 December. They played at the 2011 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow's "Old Fruitmarket" on 18 January.
On 10 February 2010, it was announced that Horslips would be special guests under Fairport Convention at Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2011. They performed on 13 August.
On St Patrick's Day, 17 March 2011, the band played a BBC concert with the Ulster Orchestra at Belfast's Waterfront Hall.
On 3 June 2012, Horslips performed as the headline act at the Rory Gallagher Tribute Festival in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal.
On 25 and 26 August 2012, Horslips played two shows in the national concert hall with the RTÉ concert orchestra in Dublin.
On 4 November 2013, Horslips released their biography Tall Tales. The book was written by Mark Cunningham and features interviews with the band. A double album featuring all the group's singles released outside Ireland, called Biography, was also released.
On the Summer Solstice (21 June) 2014, Horslips played at Dunluce Castle, near Portrush in Northern Ireland.
In August 2014, Horslips played at Milkmarket in Limerick, County Limerick.
On 12 March 2019, two of the band, Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart, played at an event in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, to commemorate the occupation by radical students of the administration block at University College, Dublin, 50 years before. They joined the house band for the night, made up of members of Chris Meehan and his Redneck Friends, along with other well-known musicians, actors and performers who had been involved in the events of 1969, when the building that is now the NCH was part of UCD.
On 11 and 12 May 2019, with Charles retired from music, original members Barry, Johnny and Jim plus Ray Fean (drums) played two concerts at Belfast's Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, at Custom House Square. The shows were promoted as 'Barry Devlin, Johnny Fean & Jim Lockhart from Horslips'.
Discography
Original studio albums
Happy to Meet – Sorry to Part (1972)
The Táin (1973)
Dancehall Sweethearts (1974)
The Unfortunate Cup of Tea (1975)
Drive the Cold Winter Away (1975)
The Book of Invasions (1976) UK No. 39
Aliens (1977) U.S. No. 98
The Man Who Built America (1978) U.S. No. 155
Short Stories/Tall Tales (1979)
Roll Back (2004)
Compilation albums
Tracks from the Vaults (1977)
Treasury (2009)
Biography (2013)
Live albums
Horslips Live (1976)
The Belfast Gigs (1980)
Live at the O2 (2010)
Live with the Ulster Orchestra (2011)
Books
Tall Tales (2013)
References
External links
Official website for Horslips
Official website for Johnny Fean and Steve Travers
Come Back Horslips Fansite
Carr's Cocktail Shack Radio Website
Tara Telephone Archival History Fansite
Performance and Interview Pt.1
Interview Pt.2
Horslips page on Irish Rockers website
Irish progressive rock groups
Celtic rock music
Irish folk rock groups
Celtic fusion musicians
Musical groups established in 1970
Musical groups disestablished in 1980
Atco Records artists
DJM Records artists
| true |
[
"The 2009 PGA Tour season ran from January 8 to November 15. The season consisted of 46 official money events, one of which was canceled. This included four major championships and three World Golf Championships, which are also sanctioned by the European Tour.\n\nSchedule\nThe following table lists the main season events for 2009. The numbers in parentheses after the winners' names are the number of wins they had on the tour up to and including that event.\n\nUnofficial events\nThe following events did not carry official money.\n\nSource:\n\nLocation of tournaments\n\nMoney leaders\nThis shows the money leaders for the 2009 PGA Tour season. These figures do not include FedEx Cup bonus money.\n\nSource:\n\nAwards\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n2009 PGA Tour at ESPN\n\nPGA Tour seasons\nPGA Tour",
"The 2010 PGA Tour season ran from January 7 to November 14. The season consisted of 46 official money events. This included four major championships and three World Golf Championships, which are also sanctioned by the European Tour.\n\nSchedule\nThe following table lists the main season events for 2010. \"Date\" is the ending date of each event. The numbers in parentheses after the winners' names are the number of wins they had on tour up to and including that event.\n\nUnofficial events\nThe following events did not carry official money.\n\nSource:\n\nLocation of tournaments\n\nMoney leaders\nThis shows the money leaders for the 2010 PGA Tour season. These figures do not include FedEx Cup bonus money.\n\nSource:\n\nAwards\n\nNotes and references\n\nExternal links\n2010 PGA Tour at ESPN\n\nPGA Tour seasons\nPGA Tour"
] |
[
"Horslips",
"Return",
"how did the horslips return?",
"Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio",
"Did they release any albums after the return?",
"Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album,",
"what album did they release?",
"\"Horslips Unplugged\",",
"were there other albums that they released?",
"I don't know.",
"Did they play live after the return?",
"In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices",
"What was a single from their album?",
"the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.",
"did they do a tour?",
"a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience."
] |
C_ee3b5ed0e1d947daa08b75d71fde6e43_0
|
what kind of songs were there in the horslips unplugged?
| 8 |
what kind of songs were there in the horslips unplugged?
|
Horslips
|
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs. The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal. A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test. In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTE television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980. The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music. CANNOTANSWER
|
the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.
|
Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and reels. The group are regarded as 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' for their fusion of traditional Irish music with rock music and went on to inspire many local and international acts. They formed in 1970 and 'retired' in 1980 for an extended period. The name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse".
Although Horslips had limited commercial success when the band was playing in the 70s, there was a revival of interest in their music in the late 1990s and they came to be regarded as one of the defining bands of the Celtic rock genre. There have since been small scale reunions including appearances on The Late Late Show and RTÉ's Other Voices. The band reformed for two Irish shows in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast and the 3Arena in Dublin at the end of 2009, and have continued to play shows since then.
Band members
Jim Lockhart (born 3 February 1948), from James's St in Dublin, studied Economics and Politics at University College Dublin. He fell under the influence of Seán Ó Riada, wanting to build an orchestral sound out of Irish music. He plays keyboards, pipes, whistles and flute. He did vocals on a select number of songs, mainly in Manx or Irish.
Eamon Carr (born 12 November 1948), is from Kells, County Meath. He was one of the founding members of a poetry and beat performance group called Tara Telephone in Dublin in the late 60s that also published the quarterly literary journal Capella. He is the drummer in the band.
Charles O'Connor, (Born 7 September 1948) from Middlesbrough in the UK plays concertina, mandolin, fiddle and both electric and slide guitar. He also shares the main vocal tasks with Barry Devlin and Johnny Fean.
Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946), from Ardboe in County Tyrone, once trained as a Columban priest. He left this to study English in University College Dublin and afterwards joined a graphics company as a screenwriter. He is the band's bass player, shares vocals, and is its unofficial front man.
Johnny Fean (born 17 November 1951) spent his childhood in the city of Limerick and in Shannon, County Clare. He soon mastered guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica. In his teens, he played in sessions in Limerick and County Clare. Fean developed his listening tastes from rock to blues and incorporated it into his guitar style. In his late teens he played in a group called Sweet Street, with Joe O'Donnell on electric fiddle and Eugene Wallace. He later played in Jeremiah Henry, a rock and blues band. His idols were Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He left Jeremiah Henry in 1970 to play traditional music again in Limerick.
Career
Original line-up
Barry Devlin, Eamon Carr and Charles O'Connor met when they worked at the Ark advertising company in Dublin. They were cajoled into pretending to be a band for a Harp Lager commercial but needed a keyboard player. Devlin said he knew a Jim Lockhart who would fit the bill. The four enjoyed the act so much that they decided to try being proper rock performers. They joined guitarist Declan Sinnott, a colleague of Eamon Carr's from Tara Telephone and, briefly, Gene Mulvaney to form Horslips (originally Horslypse) in 1970.
The band went professional on St Patrick's Day 1972 having shed Mulvaney and released a single, "Johnny's Wedding", on their own record label, Oats. Declan Sinnott left soon after, primarily due to his annoyance at the group appearing in an advert for Mirinda orange drink (shot in the grounds of Ardmore Studios Bray in Easter 1972) and was replaced by Gus Guest briefly, then Johnny Fean.
Albums
Horslips designed their own artwork, wrote sleeve-notes and researched the legends that they made into concept albums. They established their own record label, Oats, and licensed the recordings through Atco, RCA and DJM for release outside Ireland. They kept their base in Ireland, unlike previous Irish bands.
In October 1972, Horslips went to Longfield House in Tipperary and recorded their first album, Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part, in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. They then released another single, "Green Gravel". On the first album the melodies were mostly traditional. Jim Lockhart was on keyboards and gradually mastered other instruments including uillean pipes. Eamon Carr was on drums, including the Irish bodhrán. Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part was the fastest-selling album for eight years in Ireland. The sleeve was an elaborate concertina-shaped fold-out design.
The Abbey Theatre in Dublin asked the band to provide the background for a stage adaptation of "The Táin". They leapt at the opportunity. "Táin Bó Cúailnge" (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley) is a tenth-century story written in Old and Middle Irish. It tells of an ancient war between Ulster and Connacht. The Táin was released in 1973 and had more original material alongside the traditional tunes, and greater emphasis on rock. In the same year a single, "Dearg Doom", went to number one in Germany.
Dancehall Sweethearts followed in 1974, and also balanced folk with rock. Their fourth album, The Unfortunate Cup of Tea, drifted toward pop music and was generally considered less successful. RCA ended their funding deal for the group in 1975. The group funded their next venture themselves and went back to basics. Drive The Cold Winter Away (also 1975) was their most traditional album to date. They signed with DJM Records worldwide through A&R man Frank Neilson. The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony (1976), like The Táin, was an adaptation of Irish legends built into a complex story. It became their only entry in the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at No. 39 in 1977.
Ever ambitious, the band now tried to make it in the United States. They brought in Jim Slye to become their manager. He later sold their publishing rights to William McBurney for £4,000. In 1977 they produced Aliens, about the experience of the Irish in nineteenth-century America, which included little folk music. They toured Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States. The night they played the Albert Hall in London was described by one critic as the loudest gig there since Hendrix. The Man Who Built America (1978), produced by Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Blues Project fame, concerned Irish emigration to the US and received considerable airplay but broad approval was missing. The heavier sound did bring some acceptance in America but they lost their folk base and their freshness. Short Stories, Tall Tales (1979) was their last studio album and was panned by the record company and critics alike.
"The Last Time"
At a time when The Troubles were at its peak, Horslips played gigs in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without prejudice and were accepted everywhere. Their last recordings were from live performances at the Whitla Hall in Belfast April and May 1980. A few months later, on 12 October 1980 they played their final gig in the Ulster Hall. They made no public announcement. They simply gave an encore — the Rolling Stones' song "The Last Time" (this was a reference to the recording studio of their first album) and the final act was Charles O'Connor throwing his mangled fiddle into the audience. Ten years after they formed, they disbanded.
Musical life after the break up
Even before Horslips ended, Johnny Fean, Eamon Carr and two others founded the Zen Alligators in 1980. They played straight rock and soul on the Irish circuit, and they recorded several singles. Another spin-off group called Host contained Fean, O'Connor and Carr. They issued one album, Tryal, in 1984, and two singles.
The final album that had a Fean/Carr collaboration in the 1980s was The Last Bandits in the World (1986).
Barry Devlin issued a solo album called Breaking Star Codes in 1983 with some help from Jim Lockhart. The album had 12 songs, each based, loosely, on the signs of the zodiac. Further Lockhart/Devlin collaborations included the theme tune to the popular RTÉ drama series Glenroe.
In 1986, Johnny Fean moved to England. An English indie band called Jacobites (1983 to 1986) consisted of Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth. Their 1986 album Ragged School had Johnny on guitar. He also played sporadically with a Horslips tribute band Spirit of Horslips and pub gigs with pick up three-piece The Treat, which sometimes featured former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell instead of Fean.
In 1990, the electric guitar intro to "Dearg Doom" was used for Put 'Em Under Pressure, Ireland's 1990 World Cup song, written by Larry Mullen and featuring the Republic of Ireland national football team and Moya Brennan. This use of the intro may be better known in Ireland than the original.
Charles O'Connor released an instrumental album, Angel on the Mantelpiece, in collaboration with Paul Whittaker in 1997.
Further activities
Johnny Fean continued to play live music with Stephen Travers, formerly of The Miami Showband.
After his retirement, Eamon Carr went on to become a producer of young rock talent in the mid-1980s, and also formed his own record label called Hotwire (which sponsored noted acts such as the punk rock group The Golden Horde). He also did a number of specialist DJ slots on radio before morphing into a music/sports journalist with the Evening Herald in Dublin. More recently he presented on a Dublin station 'Carr's Cocktail Shack' in which he played American music of the 1950s and 1960s. In 2008, Carr and Henry McCullough co-wrote a new bunch of songs. A resulting album entitled Poor Man's Moon was released on 1 September 2008. Also in 2008, Carr released his first book, The Origami Crow, Journey Into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002, a book that is at once a travel log about his journey to Japan, a poetry collection, an homage to Japanese poet Bashō, and also has some sports commentary thrown in.
Barry Devlin directed for the screen and been a drama writer for radio and screen, as can be seen from his credits on the IMDB and for the radio detective drama Baldi He produced a number of U2 videos in the mid-1980s. Examples of his screen writing are evident in the joint RTÉ/BBC production Ballykissangel and ITV's The Darling Buds of May.
Jim Lockhart is head of production at RTÉ 2fm and has also done some production work and music arrangement.
Charles O'Connor owns two antique shops in Whitby, England. O'Connor continued to record folk and traditional music in his home recording studio.
Copyright issues
For 20 years William McBurney, head of Belfast-based Outlet Records for over 40 years, received royalties from the sales of vinyl and CDs, including many compilations. He claimed that he bought the rights in good faith from Jim Slye, who managed Horslips from the late 1970s until the band's final gig. However, the quality of these releases left much to be desired. Shoddy artwork and poor sound meant that most of these releases were sold at bargain prices, leaving the five former band members disillusioned. They fought back and on 7 March 1999 won a court victory in Belfast for copyright ownership and a substantial financial settlement. Horslips are now once again fully in control of their music and they released the entire back catalogue on CD in 2000/2001 with updated artwork and digitally remastered sound.
Return
In March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contained acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.
The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on 6 October by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a version of "Furniture". The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and in July it opened in Ballybofey in Donegal.
A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc two was live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
In December 2005, the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTÉ television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" - the first time the band had played live and electric since October 1980.
The last Horslips' event in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on 25 March 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music.
2009 reunion to present
On 2 July 2009, it was announced that Horslips would reunite for two shows, their first 'open public' gigs since 1980. The band played the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on 3 December and the 3Arena in Dublin on 5 December. Drummer Eamon Carr did not play the concerts, citing personal reasons, though he was fully supportive and remains a fifth member. His place was taken by Johnny Fean's brother Ray Fean. Recordings from these shows were released on the DVD/CD 'Live at the O2' in November 2010. The O2 Arena has since been renamed as The 3Arena. The Irish band Something Happens were the support act for the show in The 3Arena.
The band played two invitation-only warm up gigs in McHugh's of Drogheda on 26 and 27 November. The band was set to play at "Live at the Marquee" Cork City on 26 June 2010, but the concert was cancelled due to Jim Lockhart falling ill.
In November and December 2010, Horslips, again with Ray Fean on percussion, returned with a four gig tour of Ireland. These included the INEC (Ireland's National Event Centre) in Killarney (27 November), the Royal Theatre in Castlebar (28 November), the Waterfront Hall in Belfast (1 December) and culminated in a return to the O2 Arena on 4 December. They played at the 2011 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow's "Old Fruitmarket" on 18 January.
On 10 February 2010, it was announced that Horslips would be special guests under Fairport Convention at Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2011. They performed on 13 August.
On St Patrick's Day, 17 March 2011, the band played a BBC concert with the Ulster Orchestra at Belfast's Waterfront Hall.
On 3 June 2012, Horslips performed as the headline act at the Rory Gallagher Tribute Festival in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal.
On 25 and 26 August 2012, Horslips played two shows in the national concert hall with the RTÉ concert orchestra in Dublin.
On 4 November 2013, Horslips released their biography Tall Tales. The book was written by Mark Cunningham and features interviews with the band. A double album featuring all the group's singles released outside Ireland, called Biography, was also released.
On the Summer Solstice (21 June) 2014, Horslips played at Dunluce Castle, near Portrush in Northern Ireland.
In August 2014, Horslips played at Milkmarket in Limerick, County Limerick.
On 12 March 2019, two of the band, Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart, played at an event in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, to commemorate the occupation by radical students of the administration block at University College, Dublin, 50 years before. They joined the house band for the night, made up of members of Chris Meehan and his Redneck Friends, along with other well-known musicians, actors and performers who had been involved in the events of 1969, when the building that is now the NCH was part of UCD.
On 11 and 12 May 2019, with Charles retired from music, original members Barry, Johnny and Jim plus Ray Fean (drums) played two concerts at Belfast's Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, at Custom House Square. The shows were promoted as 'Barry Devlin, Johnny Fean & Jim Lockhart from Horslips'.
Discography
Original studio albums
Happy to Meet – Sorry to Part (1972)
The Táin (1973)
Dancehall Sweethearts (1974)
The Unfortunate Cup of Tea (1975)
Drive the Cold Winter Away (1975)
The Book of Invasions (1976) UK No. 39
Aliens (1977) U.S. No. 98
The Man Who Built America (1978) U.S. No. 155
Short Stories/Tall Tales (1979)
Roll Back (2004)
Compilation albums
Tracks from the Vaults (1977)
Treasury (2009)
Biography (2013)
Live albums
Horslips Live (1976)
The Belfast Gigs (1980)
Live at the O2 (2010)
Live with the Ulster Orchestra (2011)
Books
Tall Tales (2013)
References
External links
Official website for Horslips
Official website for Johnny Fean and Steve Travers
Come Back Horslips Fansite
Carr's Cocktail Shack Radio Website
Tara Telephone Archival History Fansite
Performance and Interview Pt.1
Interview Pt.2
Horslips page on Irish Rockers website
Irish progressive rock groups
Celtic rock music
Irish folk rock groups
Celtic fusion musicians
Musical groups established in 1970
Musical groups disestablished in 1980
Atco Records artists
DJM Records artists
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[
"Dancehall Sweethearts is the name of the third studio album by Irish rock band Horslips. Recorded during the 1974 World Cup Finals, the songs were loosely based on the travels of the famed 18th century blind harper, Turlough O' Carolan. The title and cover were chosen by the band in reaction to the record company's worry that an album about a deceased blind Irish harper would not sell in great quantities.\n\nFor this album, the addition of brass sections added a new element to Horslips' sound, as songs like Nighttown Boy and Sunburst displayed elements of blues which were new to Horslips' Celtic Rock sound. Once again, traditional jigs and reels were incorporated into Horslips' songs. A video was recorded for Ireland's national broadcaster, RTÉ, of Horslips performing King of the Fairies, a set dance, Beatles-style on the roof of Bank of Ireland's headquarters in 1975.\n\nTrack listing\nSide One\n\"Nighttown Boy\" – 5:08\n\"The Blind Can't Lead the Blind\" – 5:20\n\"Stars\" – 5:03\n\"We Bring the Summer with Us\" (instrumental) – 2:32\n\"Sunburst\" – 3:31\n\nSide Two\n\"Mad Pat\" – 6:17\n\"Blindman\" – 3:33\n\"King of the Fairies\" (instrumental) – 4:40\n\"Lonely Hearts\" – 5:34\n\"The Best Years of My Life\" – 1:49\n\nPersonnel \n Barry Devlin - bass, vocals\n Johnny Fean - guitar, banjo, vocals\n Jim Lockhart - keyboards, flute, tin whistle, vocals\n Eamon Carr - drums, bodhrán, percussions\n Charles O'Connor - fiddle, mandolin, concertina, vocals\n Fritz Fryer - Producer, Engineer\n George Sloan - Engineer\n Paul Watkins - Assistant Engineer\n Ray Russell - Brass Arrangements\n Ian Finlay - Photography\n\nExternal links \n Horslips official site - Gives lyrics and information about the album\n\nHorslips albums\n1974 albums\nAlbums recorded at Rockfield Studios",
"Roll Back is an album by Irish rock band Horslips, their first since Short Stories/Tall Tales 25 years earlier. It is a collection of acoustic re-workings of various songs from the band's catalogue.\n\nBackground\nIn March 2004, three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. To open the exhibition, the Nelis, Ferris and Callaghan invited the five original members of the band to perform. The performance took place on March 20, to an audience of around 200 specially invited guests, where the band played a short set of acoustic versions of some of their better known songs.\n\nFollowing the enthusiastic reception to the exhibition reunion, the band decided to reconvene again to record a couple of acoustic songs for the forthcoming documentary DVD Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts. These sessions eventually resulted in a full album of material, consisting of re-recorded versions of songs spanning the band's whole career, some of which were dramatically re-imagined.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \nHorslips\n Eamon Carr - drums, percussions\n Barry Devlin - bass guitar, vocals\n Johnny Fean - guitar, tenor guitar, slide guitar, tenor banjo, vocals\n Jim Lockhart - piano, keyboards, low whistle, vocals\n Charles O'Connor - guitar, tenor guitar, violin, mandolin, concertina, vocals\nGuest musician\n Aisling Drury - cello on \"Cuchulainn's Lament\" and \"Furniture\"\nProduction\n Stefano Soffia, Ivan O'Shea - engineering\n Stefano Soffia - mixing\n Peter Mew - mastering\n Charles O'Connor, Chris Ellis - cover art\n\nReferences \n\n2004 albums\nHorslips albums"
] |
[
"Rosalind Franklin",
"Cambridge and World War II"
] |
C_145dfae88a7144ceb9aa67cc28dcccd4_0
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what happened with Rosalind and Cambridge?
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What happened with Rosalind Franklin and Cambridge?
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Rosalind Franklin
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Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular B.A. and M.A. degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and helped her to improve her spoken French. Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide for her what to work upon, and at that time was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin Irene Franklin asked to join her in a vacated house of her uncle in Putney. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids. She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her Ph.D. thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge University awarded her a Ph.D. in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers. CANNOTANSWER
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Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos.
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Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognized during her life, for which she has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology".
She graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Disappointed by Norrish’s lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The research on coal helped her earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1945. Moving to Paris in 1947 as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, she became an accomplished X-ray crystallographer. After joining King's College London in 1951 as a research associate, she discovered the key properties of DNA, which eventually facilitated the correct description of the double helix structure of DNA. Owing to disagreement with her director, John Randall, and her colleague Maurice Wilkins, she was compelled to move to Birkbeck College in 1953.
Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA while at King's College London, particularly Photo 51, taken by her student Raymond Gosling, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix for which Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Watson suggested that Franklin would have ideally been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Wilkins but, although there was not yet a rule against posthumous awards, the Nobel Committee generally did not make posthumous nominations.
Working under John Desmond Bernal, Franklin led pioneering work at Birkbeck on the molecular structures of viruses. On the day before she was to unveil the structure of tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels, she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 37 in 1958. Her team member Aaron Klug continued her research, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982.
Early life
Franklin was born on 25 July 1920 in 50 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill, London, into an affluent and influential British Jewish family.
Family
Franklin's father was Ellis Arthur Franklin (1894–1964), a politically liberal London merchant banker who taught at the city's Working Men's College, and her mother was Muriel Frances Waley (1894–1976). Rosalind was the elder daughter and the second child in the family of five children. David (1919–1986) was the eldest brother; Colin (1923–2020), Roland (born 1926), and Jenifer (born 1929) were her younger siblings.
Franklin's paternal great-uncle was Herbert Samuel (later Viscount Samuel), who was the Home Secretary in 1916 and the first practising Jew to serve in the British Cabinet. Her aunt, Helen Caroline Franklin, known in the family as Mamie, was married to Norman de Mattos Bentwich, who was the Attorney General in the British Mandate of Palestine. Helen was active in trade union organisation and the women's suffrage movement and was later a member of the London County Council. Franklin's uncle, Hugh Franklin, was another prominent figure in the suffrage movement, although his actions therein embarrassed the Franklin family. Rosalind's middle name, "Elsie", was in memory of Hugh's first wife, who died in the 1918 flu pandemic. Her family was actively involved with the Working Men's College, where her father taught the subjects of electricity, magnetism, and the history of the Great War in the evenings, later becoming the vice principal.
Franklin's parents helped settle Jewish refugees from Europe who had escaped the Nazis, particularly those from the Kindertransport. They took in two Jewish children to their home, and one of them, a nine-year-old Austrian, Evi Eisenstädter, shared Jenifer's room. (Evi's father Hans Mathias Eisenstädter had been imprisoned in Buchenwald, and after liberation, the family adopted the surname "Ellis".)
Education
From early childhood, Franklin showed exceptional scholastic abilities. At age six, she joined her brother Roland at Norland Place School, a private day school in West London. At that time, her aunt Mamie (Helen Bentwich), described her to her husband: "Rosalind is alarmingly clever – she spends all her time doing arithmetic for pleasure, and invariably gets her sums right." She also developed an early interest in cricket and hockey. At age nine, she entered a boarding school, Lindores School for Young Ladies in Sussex. The school was near the seaside, and the family wanted a good environment for her delicate health.
She was 11 when she went to St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, west London, one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. At St Paul's she excelled in science, Latin, and sports. She also learned German, and became fluent in French, a language she would later find useful. She topped her classes, and won annual awards. Her only educational weakness was in music, for which the school music director, the composer Gustav Holst, once called upon her mother to inquire whether she might have suffered from hearing problems or tonsillitis. With six distinctions, she passed her matriculation in 1938, winning a scholarship for university, the School Leaving Exhibition of £30 a year for three years, and £5 from her grandfather. Her father asked her to give the scholarship to a deserving refugee student.
Cambridge and World War II
Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular BA and MA degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and who helped her to improve her conversational French.
Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide upon the assignment of work for her. At that time he was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she initially stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin, Irene Franklin, proposed that they share living quarters at a vacated house in Putney that belonged to her uncle. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids.
She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her PhD thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge awarded her a PhD in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers.
Career and research
Paris
With World War II ending in 1945, Franklin asked Adrienne Weill for help and to let her know of job openings for "a physical chemist who knows very little physical chemistry, but quite a lot about the holes in coal." At a conference in the autumn of 1946, Weill introduced her to Marcel Mathieu, a director of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the network of institutes that comprise the major part of the scientific research laboratories supported by the French government. This led to her appointment with Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État in Paris. She joined the labo (as referred to by the staff) of Mering on 14 February 1947 as one of the fifteen chercheurs (researchers).
Mering was an X-ray crystallographer who applied X-ray diffraction to the study of rayon and other amorphous substances, in contrast to the thousands of regular crystals that had been studied by this method for many years. He taught her the practical aspects of applying X-ray crystallography to amorphous substances. This presented new challenges in the conduct of experiments and the interpretation of results. Franklin applied them to further problems related to coal and to other carbonaceous materials, in particular the changes to the arrangement of atoms when these are converted to graphite. She published several further papers on this work which has become part of the mainstream of the physics and chemistry of coal and carbon. She coined the terms graphitising and non-graphitising carbon. The coal work was covered in a 1993 monograph, and in the regularly-published textbook Chemistry and Physics of Carbon. Mering continued the study of carbon in various forms, using X-ray diffraction and other methods.
King's College London
In 1950, Franklin was granted a three-year Turner & Newall Fellowship to work at King's College London. In January 1951, she started working as a research associate in the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Biophysics Unit, directed by John Randall. She was originally appointed to work on X-ray diffraction of proteins and lipids in solution, but Randall redirected her work to DNA fibres because of new developments in the field, and she was to be the only experienced experimental diffraction researcher at King's at the time. Randall made this reassignment, even before Franklin started working at King's, because of the pioneering work by DNA researcher Maurice Wilkins, and he reassigned Raymond Gosling, the graduate student who had been working with Wilkins, to be her assistant.
In 1950, Swiss chemist Rudolf Signer in Berne prepared a highly purified DNA sample from calf thymus. He freely distributed the DNA sample, later referred to as the Signer DNA, in early May 1950 at the meeting of the Faraday Society in London, and Wilkins was one of the recipients. Even using crude equipment, Wilkins and Gosling had obtained a good-quality diffraction picture of the DNA sample which sparked further interest in this molecule. But Randall had not indicated to them that he had asked Franklin to take over both the DNA diffraction work and guidance of Gosling's thesis. It was while Wilkins was away on holiday that Randall, in a letter in December 1950, assured Franklin that "as far as the experimental X-ray effort there would be for the moment only yourself and Gosling." Randall's lack of communication about this reassignment significantly contributed to the well documented friction that developed between Wilkins and Franklin. When Wilkins returned, he handed over the Signer DNA and Gosling to Franklin.
Franklin, now working with Gosling, started to apply her expertise in X-ray diffraction techniques to the structure of DNA. She used a new fine-focus X-ray tube and microcamera ordered by Wilkins, but which she refined, adjusted and focused carefully. Drawing upon her physical chemistry background, a critical innovation she applied was making the camera chamber that could be controlled for its humidity using different saturated salt solutions. When Wilkins inquired about this improved technique, she replied in terms which offended him as she had "an air of cool superiority".
Franklin's habit of intensely looking people in the eye while being concise, impatient and direct unnerved many of her colleagues. In stark contrast, Wilkins was very shy, and slowly calculating in speech while he avoided looking anyone directly in the eye. With the ingenious humidity-controlling camera, Franklin was soon able to produce X-ray images of better quality than those of Wilkins. She immediately discovered that the DNA sample could exist in two forms: at a relative humidity higher than 75%, the DNA fibre became long and thin; when it was drier, it became short and fat. She originally referred to the former as "wet" and the latter as "crystalline."
On the structure of the crystalline DNA, Franklin first recorded the analysis in her notebook, which reads: "Evidence for spiral [meaning helical] structure. Straight chain untwisted is highly improbable. Absence of reflections on meridian in χtalline [crystalline] form suggests spiral structure." An immediate discovery from this was that the phosphate group lies outside of the main DNA chain; she however could not make out whether there could be two or three chains. She presented their data at a lecture in November 1951, in King's College London. In her lecture notes, she wrote the following:The results suggest a helical structure (which must be very closely packed) containing 2, 3 or 4 co‐axial nucleic acid chains per helical unit, and having the phosphate groups near the outside.Franklin then named "A" and "B" respectively for the "wet" and "crystalline" forms. (The biological functions of A-DNA were discovered only 60 years later.) Because of the intense personality conflict developing between Franklin and Wilkins, Randall divided the work on DNA. Franklin chose the data rich "A" form while Wilkins selected the "B" form. By the end of 1951 it became generally accepted at King's that the B-DNA was a helix, but after she had recorded an asymmetrical image in May 1952, Franklin became unconvinced that the A-DNA was a helix. In July 1952, as a practical joke on Wilkins (who frequently expressed his view that both forms of DNA were helical), Franklin and Gosling produced a funeral notice regretting the 'death' of helical A-DNA, which runs:It is with great regret that we have to announce the death, on Friday 18th July 1952 of DNA helix (crystalline). Death followed a protracted illness which an intensive course of Besselised [referring to Bessel function that was used to analyse the X-ray diffraction patterns] injections had failed to relieve. A memorial service will be held next Monday or Tuesday. It is hoped that Dr M H F Wilkins will speak in memory of the late helix. [Signed Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling.]During 1952, they worked at applying the Patterson function to the X-ray pictures of DNA they had produced. This was a long and labour-intensive approach but would yield significant insight into the structure of the molecule. Franklin was fully committed to experimental data and was sternly against theoretical or model buildings, as she said, "We are not going to speculate, we are going to wait, we are going to let the spots on this photograph tell us what the [DNA] structure is." The X-ray diffraction pictures, including the landmark Photo 51 taken by Gosling at this time, have been called by John Desmond Bernal as "amongst the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken".
By January 1953, Franklin had reconciled her conflicting data, concluding that both DNA forms had two helices, and had started to write a series of three draft manuscripts, two of which included a double helical DNA backbone (see below). Her two A-DNA manuscripts reached Acta Crystallographica in Copenhagen on 6 March 1953, one day before Crick and Watson had completed their model on B-DNA. She must have mailed them while the Cambridge team was building their model, and certainly had written them before she knew of their work. On 8 July 1953 she modified one of these "in proof" Acta articles, "in light of recent work" by the King's and Cambridge research teams.
The third draft paper was on the B-DNA, dated 17 March 1953, which was discovered years later amongst her papers, by Franklin's Birkbeck colleague, Aaron Klug. He then published in 1974 an evaluation of the draft's close correlation with the third of the original trio of 25 April 1953 Nature DNA articles. Klug designed this paper to complement the first article he had written in 1968 defending Franklin's significant contribution to DNA structure. He had written this first article in response to the incomplete picture of Franklin's work depicted in James Watson's 1968 memoir, The Double Helix.
As vividly described Watson, he travelled to King's on 30 January 1953 carrying a preprint of Linus Pauling's incorrect proposal for DNA structure. Since Wilkins was not in his office, Watson went to Franklin's lab with his urgent message that they should all collaborate before Pauling discovered his error. The unimpressed Franklin became angry when Watson suggested she did not know how to interpret her own data. Watson hastily retreated, backing into Wilkins who had been attracted by the commotion. Wilkins commiserated with his harried friend and then showed Watson Franklin's DNA X-ray image. Watson, in turn, showed Wilkins a prepublication manuscript by Pauling and Robert Corey, which contained a DNA structure remarkably like their first incorrect model.
Discovery of DNA structure
In February 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University had started to build a molecular model of the B-DNA using data similar to that available to both teams at King's. Based on Franklin's lecture in November 1952 that DNA was helical with either two or three stands, they constructed a triple helix model, which was immediately proven to be flawed. Franklin's research was completed by February 1953, ahead of her move to Birkbeck, and her data was critical. Model building had been applied successfully in the elucidation of the structure of the alpha helix by Linus Pauling in 1951, but Franklin was opposed to prematurely building theoretical models, until sufficient data were obtained to properly guide the model building. She took the view that building a model was to be undertaken only after enough of the structure was known. Her conviction was justified by the fact that Pauling and Corey also came up in the late 1952 (published in February 1953) with an erroneous triple helix model.
Ever cautious, she wanted to eliminate misleading possibilities. Photographs of her Birkbeck work table show that she routinely used small molecular models, although certainly not ones on the grand scale successfully used at Cambridge for DNA. In the middle of February 1953, Crick's thesis advisor, Max Perutz, gave Crick a copy of a report written for a Medical Research Council biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952, containing many of Franklin's crystallographic calculations.
Since Franklin had decided to transfer to Birkbeck College and Randall had insisted that all DNA work must stay at King's, Wilkins was given copies of Franklin's diffraction photographs by Gosling. By 28 February 1953, Watson and Crick felt they had solved the problem enough for Crick to proclaim (in the local pub) that they had "found the secret of life". However, they knew they must complete their model before they could be certain.
Watson and Crick finished building their model on 7 March 1953, one day before they received a letter from Wilkins stating that Franklin was finally leaving and they could put "all hands to the pump". This was also one day after Franklin's two A-DNA papers had reached Acta Crystallographica. Wilkins came to see the model the following week, according to Franklin's biographer Brenda Maddox, on 12 March, and allegedly informed Gosling on his return to King's.
One of the most critical and overlooked moments in DNA research was how and when Franklin realised and conceded that B-DNA was a double helical molecule. When Klug first examined Franklin's documents after her death, he initially came to an impression that Franklin was not convinced of the double helical nature until the knowledge of the Cambridge model. But he later discovered the original draft of the manuscript (dated 17 March 1953) from which it became clear that Franklin had already resolved the correct structure. The news of Watson–Crick model reached King's the next day, 18 March, suggesting that Franklin would have learned of it much later since she had moved to Birkbeck. Further scrutiny of her notebook revealed that Franklin had already thought of the helical structure for B-DNA in February 1953 but was not sure of the number of strands, as she wrote: "Evidence for 2-chain (or 1-chain helix)." Her conclusion on the helical nature was evident, though she failed to understand the complete organisation of the DNA strands as the possibility two strands running in opposite directions did not occur to her.
Towards the end of February she began to work out the indications of double strands, as she noted: "Structure B does not fit single helical theory, even for low layer-lines." It soon dawned to her that the B-DNA and A-DNA were structurally similar, and perceived A-DNA as an "unwound version" of B-DNA. She and Gosling wrote a five-paged manuscript on 17 March titled "A Note on Molecular Configuration of Sodium Thymonucleate." After the Watson–Crick model was known, there appeared to be only one (hand-written) modification after the typeset at the end of the text which states that their data was consistent with the model, and appeared as such in the trio of 25 April 1953 Nature articles; the other modification being a deletion of "A Note on" from the title.
Weeks later, on 10 April, Franklin wrote to Crick for permission to see their model. Franklin retained her scepticism for premature model building even after seeing the Watson–Crick model, and remained unimpressed. She is reported to have commented, "It's very pretty, but how are they going to prove it?" As an experimental scientist, Franklin seems to have been interested in producing far greater evidence before publishing-as-proven a proposed model. Accordingly, her response to the Watson–Crick model was in keeping with her cautious approach to science.
Crick and Watson then published their model in Nature on 25 April 1953, in an article describing the double-helical structure of DNA with only a footnote acknowledging "having been stimulated by a general knowledge of Franklin and Wilkins' "unpublished" contribution. Actually, although it was the bare minimum, they had just enough specific knowledge of Franklin and Gosling's data upon which to base their model. As a result of a deal struck by the two laboratory directors, articles by Wilkins and Franklin, which included their X-ray diffraction data, were modified and then published second and third in the same issue of Nature, seemingly only in support of the Crick and Watson theoretical paper which proposed a model for the B-DNA. Most of the scientific community hesitated several years before accepting the double helix proposal. At first mainly geneticists embraced the model because of its obvious genetic implications.
Birkbeck College
Franklin left King's College London in mid-March 1953 for Birkbeck College, in a move that had been planned for some time and that she described (in a letter to Adrienne Weill in Paris) as "moving from a palace to the slums ... but pleasanter all the same". She was recruited by physics department chair John Desmond Bernal, a crystallographer who was a communist, known for promoting women crystallographers. Her new laboratories were housed in 21 Torrington Square, one of a pair of dilapidated and cramped Georgian houses containing several different departments; Franklin frequently took Bernal to task over the careless attitudes of some of the other laboratory staff, notably after workers in the pharmacy department flooded her first-floor laboratory with water on one occasion.
Despite the parting words of Bernal to stop her interest in nucleic acids, she helped Gosling to finish his thesis, although she was no longer his official supervisor. Together they published the first evidence of double helix in the A form of DNA in the 25 July issue of Nature. At the end of 1954, Bernal secured funding for Franklin from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), which enabled her to work as a senior scientist supervising her own research group. John Finch, a physics student from King's College London, subsequently joined Franklin's group, followed by Kenneth Holmes, a Cambridge graduate, in July 1955. Despite the ARC funding, Franklin wrote to Bernal that the existing facilities remained highly unsuited for conducting research "...my desk and lab are on the fourth floor, my X-ray tube in the basement, and I am responsible for the work of four people distributed over the basement, first and second floors on two different staircases."
RNA research
Franklin continued to explore another major nucleic acid, RNA, a molecule equally central to life as DNA. She again used X-ray crystallography to study the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), an RNA virus. Her meeting with Aaron Klug in early 1954 led to a longstanding and successful collaboration. Klug had just then earned his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined Birkbeck in late 1953. In 1955 Franklin published her first major works on TMV in Nature, in which she described that all TMV virus particles were of the same length. This was in direct contradiction to the ideas of the eminent virologist Norman Pirie, though her observation ultimately proved correct.
Franklin assigned the study of the complete structure of TMV to her PhD student Holmes. They soon discovered (published in 1956) that the covering of TMV was protein molecules arranged in helices. Her colleague Klug worked on spherical viruses with his student Finch, with Franklin coordinating and overseeing the work. As a team, from 1956 they started publishing seminal works on TMV, cucumber virus 4 and turnip yellow mosaic virus.
Franklin also had a research assistant, James Watt, subsidised by the National Coal Board and was now the leader of the ARC group at Birkbeck. The Birkbeck team members continued working on RNA viruses affecting several plants, including potato, turnip, tomato and pea. In 1955 the team was joined by an American post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. He worked on the precise location of RNA molecules in TMV. In 1956 he and Franklin published individual but complementary papers in the 10 March issue of Nature, in which they showed that the RNA in TMV is wound along the inner surface of the hollow virus. Caspar was not an enthusiastic writer, and Franklin had to write the entire manuscript for him.
Her research grant from ARC expired at the end of 1957, and she was never given the full salary proposed by Birkbeck. After Bernal requested ARC chairman Lord Rothschild, she was given a one-year extension ending in March 1958.
Expo 58, the first major international fair after World War II, was to be held in Brussels in 1958. Franklin was invited to make a five-foot high model of TMV, which she started in 1957. Her materials included table tennis balls and plastic bicycle handlebar grips. The Brussels world's fair, with an exhibit of her virus model at the International Science Pavilion, opened on 17 April, one day after she died.
Polio virus
In 1956, Franklin visited the University of California, Berkeley, where colleagues suggested her group research the polio virus. In 1957 she applied for a grant from the United States Public Health Service of the National Institutes of Health, which approved £10,000 (equivalent to £ in ) for three years, the largest fund ever received at Birkbeck. In her grant application, Franklin mentioned her new interest in animal virus research. She obtained Bernal's consent in July 1957, though serious concerns were raised after she disclosed her intentions to research live, instead of killed, polio virus at Birkbeck. Eventually, Bernal arranged for the virus to be safely stored at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine during the group's research. With her group, Franklin then commenced deciphering the structure of the polio virus while it was in a crystalline state. She attempted to mount the virus crystals in capillary tubes for X-ray studies, but was forced to end her work due to her rapidly failing health.
After Franklin's death, Klug succeeded her as group leader, and he, Finch and Holmes continued researching the structure of the polio virus. They eventually succeeded in obtaining extremely detailed X-ray images of the virus. In June 1959, Klug and Finch published the group's findings, revealing the polio virus to have icosahedral symmetry, and in the same paper suggested the possibility for all spherical viruses to possess the same symmetry, as it permitted the greatest possible number (60) of identical structural units. The team moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, in 1962, and the old Torrington Square laboratories were demolished four years later, in May 1966.
Personal life
Franklin was best described as an agnostic. Her lack of religious faith apparently did not stem from anyone's influence, rather from her own line of thinking. She developed her scepticism as a young child. Her mother recalled that she refused to believe in the existence of God, and remarked, "Well, anyhow, how do you know He isn't She?" She later made her position clear, now based on her scientific experience, and wrote to her father in 1940:
However, she did not abandon Jewish traditions. As the only Jewish student at Lindores School, she had Hebrew lessons on her own while her friends went to church. She joined the Jewish Society while in her first term at Cambridge, out of respect of her grandfather's request. Franklin confided to her sister that she was "always consciously a Jew".
Franklin loved travelling abroad, particularly trekking. She first "qualified" at Christmas 1929 for a vacation at Menton, France, where her grandfather went to escape the English winter. Her family frequently spent vacations in Wales or Cornwall. A trip to France in 1938 gave her a lasting love for France and its language. She considered the French lifestyle at that time as "vastly superior to that of English". In contrast, she described English people as having "vacant stupid faces and childlike complacency". Her family was almost stuck in Norway in 1939, as World War II was declared on their way home. In another instance, she trekked the French Alps with Jean Kerslake in 1946, which almost cost her her life. She slipped off a slope, and was barely rescued. But she wrote to her mother, "I am quite sure I could wander happily in France forever. I love the people, the country and the food."
She made several professional trips to the United States, and was particularly jovial among her American friends and constantly displayed her sense of humour. William Ginoza of the University of California, Los Angeles, later recalled that she was the opposite of Watson's description of her, and as Maddox comments, Americans enjoyed her "sunny side".
In his book The Double Helix, Watson provides his first-person account of the search for and discovery of DNA. He paints a sympathetic but sometimes critical portrait of Franklin. He praises her intellect and scientific acumen, but portrays her as difficult to work with and careless with her appearance. After introducing her in the book as "Rosalind", he writes that he and his male colleagues usually referred to her as "Rosy", the name people at King's College London used behind her back. She did not want to be called by that name because she had a great-aunt Rosy. In the family, she was called "Ros". To others, she was simply "Rosalind". She made it clear to an American visiting friend, Dorothea Raacke, while sitting with her at Crick's table in The Eagle pub in Cambridge: Raacke asked her how she was to be called and she replied "I'm afraid it will have to be Rosalind", adding "Most definitely not Rosy."
She often expressed her political views. She initially blamed Winston Churchill for inciting the war, but later admired him for his speeches. She actively supported Professor John Ryle as an independent candidate for parliament in the 1940 Cambridge University by-election, but he was unsuccessful.
She did not seem to have an intimate relationship with anyone, and always kept her deepest personal feelings to herself. After her younger days, she avoided close friendship with the opposite sex. In her later years, Evi Ellis, who had shared her bedroom when a child refugee and who was then married to Ernst Wohlgemuth and had moved to Notting Hill from Chicago, tried matchmaking her with Ralph Miliband but failed. Franklin once told Evi that her flatmate asked her for a drink, but she did not understand the intention. She was quite infatuated by her French mentor Mering, who had a wife and a mistress. Mering also admitted that he was captivated by her "intelligence and beauty". According to Anne Sayre, Franklin did confess her feeling for Mering when she was undergoing a second surgery, but Maddox reported that the family denied this. Mering wept when he visited her later, and destroyed all her letters after her death.
Her closest personal affair was probably with her once post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. In 1956, she visited him at his home in Colorado after her tour to University of California, Berkeley, and she was known to remark later that Caspar was one "she might have loved, might have married". In her letter to Sayre, she described him as "an ideal match".
Illness, death, and burial
In mid-1956, while on a work-related trip to the United States, Franklin first began to suspect a health problem. While in New York she found difficulty in zipping her skirt; her stomach had bulged. Back in London she consulted Mair Livingstone, who asked her, "You're not pregnant?" to which she retorted, "I wish I were." Her case was marked "URGENT". An operation on 4 September of the same year revealed two tumours in her abdomen. After this period and other periods of hospitalisation, Franklin spent time convalescing with various friends and family members. These included Anne Sayre, Francis Crick, his wife Odile, with whom Franklin had formed a strong friendship, and finally with the Roland and Nina Franklin family where Rosalind's nieces and nephews bolstered her spirits.
Franklin chose not to stay with her parents because her mother's uncontrollable grief and crying upset her too much. Even while undergoing cancer treatment, Franklin continued to work, and her group continued to produce results – seven papers in 1956 and six more in 1957. At the end of 1957, Franklin again fell ill and she was admitted to the Royal Marsden Hospital. On 2 December, she made her will. She named her three brothers as executors and made her colleague Aaron Klug the principal beneficiary, who would receive £3,000 and her Austin car. Of her other friends, Mair Livingstone would get £2,000, Anne Piper £1,000, and her nurse Miss Griffith £250. The remainder of the estate was to be used for charities.
She returned to work in January 1958, and was also given a promotion to Research Associate in Biophysics on 25 February. She fell ill again on 30 March, and she died on 16 April 1958, in Chelsea, London, of bronchopneumonia, secondary carcinomatosis, and ovarian cancer. Exposure to X-ray radiation is sometimes considered to be a possible factor in her illness.
Other members of her family have died of cancer, and the incidence of gynaecological cancer is known to be disproportionately high among Ashkenazi Jews. Her death certificate states: A Research Scientist, Spinster, Daughter of Ellis Arthur Franklin, a Banker. She was interred on 17 April 1958 in the family plot at Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery at Beaconsfield Road in London Borough of Brent. The inscription on her tombstone reads:
IN MEMORY OF ROSALIND ELSIE FRANKLIN מ' רחל בת ר' יהודה [Rochel/Rachel daughter of Yehuda, her father's Hebrew name] DEARLY LOVED ELDER DAUGHTER OF ELLIS AND MURIEL FRANKLIN 25TH JULY 1920 – 16TH APRIL 1958 SCIENTIST HER RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES ON VIRUSES REMAIN OF LASTING BENEFIT TO MANKIND ת נ צ ב ה [Hebrew initials for "her soul shall be bound in the bundle of life"]
Franklin's will was proven on 30 June, with her estate assessed for probate at £11,278 10s. 9d. (equivalent to £ in ).
Controversies after death
Alleged sexism toward Franklin
Anne Sayre, Franklin's friend and one of her biographers, says in her 1975 book, Rosalind Franklin and DNA: "In 1951 ... King's College London as an institution, was not distinguished for the welcome that it offered to women ... Rosalind ... was unused to purdah [a religious and social institution of female seclusion] ... there was one other woman scientist on the laboratory staff". The molecular biologist Andrzej Stasiak notes: "Sayre's book became widely cited in feminist circles for exposing rampant sexism in science." Farooq Hussain says: "there were seven women in the biophysics department ... Jean Hanson became an FRS, Dame Honor B. Fell, Director of Strangeways Laboratory, supervised the biologists". Maddox states: "Randall ... did have many women on his staff ... they found him ... sympathetic and helpful."
Sayre asserts that "while the male staff at King's lunched in a large, comfortable, rather clubby dining room" the female staff of all ranks "lunched in the student's hall or away from the premises". However, Elkin claims that most of the MRC group (including Franklin) typically ate lunch together in the mixed dining room discussed below. And Maddox says, of Randall: "He liked to see his flock, men and women, come together for morning coffee, and at lunch in the joint dining room, where he ate with them nearly every day." Francis Crick also commented that "her colleagues treated men and women scientists alike".
Sayre also discusses at length Franklin's struggle in pursuing science, particularly her father's concern about women in academic professions. This account had led to accusations of sexism in regard to Ellis Franklin's attitude to his daughter. A good deal of information explicitly claims that he strongly opposed her entering Newnham College. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) biography of Franklin goes further, stating that he refused to pay her fees, and that an aunt stepped in to do that for her. Her sister, Jenifer Glynn, has stated that those stories are myths, and that her parents fully supported Franklin's entire career.
Sexism is said to pervade the memoir of one peer, James Watson, in his book The Double Helix, published 10 years after Franklin's death and after Watson had returned from Cambridge to Harvard. His Cambridge colleague, Peter Pauling, wrote in a letter, "Morris [sic] Wilkins is supposed to be doing this work; Miss Franklin is evidently a fool." Crick acknowledges later, "I'm afraid we always used to adopt – let's say, a patronizing attitude towards her."
Glynn accuses Sayre of erroneously making her sister a feminist heroine, and sees Watson's The Double Helix as the root of what she calls the "Rosalind Industry". She conjectures that the stories of alleged sexism would "have embarrassed her [Rosalind Franklin] almost as much as Watson's account would have upset her", and declared that "she [Rosalind] was never a feminist." Klug and Crick have also concurred that Franklin was definitely not a feminist.
Franklin's letter to her parents in January 1939 is often taken as reflecting her own prejudiced attitude, and the claim that she was "not immune to the sexism rampant in these circles". In the letter, she remarked that one lecturer was "very good, though female". Maddox maintains that was a circumstantial comment rather than an example of gender bias, and that it was a expression of admiration because, at the time, woman teachers of science were a rarity. In fact, Maddox says, Franklin laughed at men who were embarrassed by the appointment of the first female professor, Dorothy Garrod.
Contribution to the model/structure of DNA
Rosalind Franklin's first important contributions to the model popularised by Crick and Watson was her lecture at the seminar in November 1951, where she presented to those present, among them Watson, the two forms of the molecule, type A and type B, her position being that the phosphate units are located in the external part of the molecule. She also specified the amount of water to be found in the molecule in accordance with other parts of it, data that have considerable importance for the stability of the molecule. Franklin was the first to discover and formulate these facts, which in fact constituted the basis for all later attempts to build a model of the molecule. However, Watson, at the time ignorant of the chemistry, failed to comprehend the crucial information, and this led to the construction of a wrong three-helical model.
The other contribution included an X-ray photograph of B-DNA (called Photo 51) taken by Franklin's student Gosling that was briefly shown to Watson by Wilkins in January 1953, and a report written for an MRC biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952 which was shown by Perutz at the Cavendish Laboratory to both Crick and Watson. This MRC report contained data from the King's group, including some of Franklin's and Gosling's work, and was given to Crick – who was working on his thesis on haemoglobin structure – by his thesis supervisor Perutz, a member of the visiting committee.
Sayre's biography of Franklin contains a story alleging that the photograph 51 in question was shown to Watson by Wilkins without Franklin's permission, and that this constituted a case of bad science ethics. Others dispute this story, asserting that Wilkins had been given photograph 51 by Franklin's PhD student Gosling because she was leaving King's to work at Birkbeck, and there was allegedly nothing untoward in this transfer of data to Wilkins because Director Randall had insisted that all DNA work belonged exclusively to King's and had instructed Franklin in a letter to even stop working on it and submit her data. Also, it was implied by Horace Freeland Judson, that Maurice Wilkins had taken the photograph out of Franklin's drawer, but this is also said to be incorrect.
Likewise, Perutz saw "no harm" in showing an MRC report containing the conclusions of Franklin and Gosling's X-ray data analysis to Crick, since it had not been marked as confidential, although "The report was not expected to reach outside eyes". Indeed, after the publication of Watson's The Double Helix exposed Perutz's act, he received so many letters questioning his judgment that he felt the need to both answer them all and to post a general statement in Science excusing himself on the basis of being "inexperienced and casual in administrative matters".
Perutz also claimed that the MRC information was already made available to the Cambridge team when Watson had attended Franklin's seminar in November 1951. A preliminary version of much of the important material contained in the 1952 December MRC report had been presented by Franklin in a talk she had given in November 1951, which Watson had attended but not understood.
The Perutz letter was as said one of three letters, published with letters by Wilkins and Watson, which discussed their various contributions. Watson clarified the importance of the data obtained from the MRC report as he had not recorded these data while attending Franklin's lecture in 1951. The upshot of all this was that when Crick and Watson started to build their model in February 1953 they were working with critical parameters that had been determined by Franklin in 1951, and which she and Gosling had significantly refined in 1952, as well as with published data and other very similar data to those available at King's. It was generally believed that Franklin was never aware that her work had been used during construction of the model, but Gosling asserted in his 2013 interview that, "Yes. Oh, she did know about that."
Recognition of her contribution to the model of DNA
Upon the completion of their model, Crick and Watson had invited Wilkins to be a co-author of their paper describing the structure. Wilkins turned down this offer, as he had taken no part in building the model. He later expressed regret that greater discussion of co-authorship had not taken place as this might have helped to clarify the contribution the work at King's had made to the discovery. There is no doubt that Franklin's experimental data were used by Crick and Watson to build their model of DNA in 1953. Some, including Maddox, have explained this citation omission by suggesting that it may be a question of circumstance, because it would have been very difficult to cite the unpublished work from the MRC report they had seen.
Indeed, a clear timely acknowledgment would have been awkward, given the unorthodox manner in which data were transferred from King's to Cambridge. However, methods were available. Watson and Crick could have cited the MRC report as a personal communication or else cited the Acta articles in press, or most easily, the third Nature paper that they knew was in press. One of the most important accomplishments of Maddox's widely acclaimed biography is that Maddox made a well-received case for inadequate acknowledgement. "Such acknowledgement as they gave her was very muted and always coupled with the name of Wilkins".
Fifteen years after the fact, the first clear recitation of Franklin's contribution appeared as it permeated Watson's account, The Double Helix, although it was buried under descriptions of Watson's (often quite negative) regard towards Franklin during the period of their work on DNA. This attitude is epitomized in the confrontation between Watson and Franklin over a preprint of Pauling's mistaken DNA manuscript. Watson's words impelled Sayre to write her rebuttal, in which the entire chapter nine, "Winner Take All" has the structure of a legal brief dissecting and analyzing the topic of acknowledgement.
Sayre's early analysis was often ignored because of perceived feminist overtones in her book. Watson and Crick did not cite the X-ray diffraction work of Wilkins and Franklin in their original paper, though they admit having "been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M. H. F. Wilkins, Dr. R. E. Franklin and their co-workers at King's College London". In fact, Watson and Crick cited no experimental data at all in support of their model. Franklin and Gosling's publication of the DNA X-ray image, in the same issue of Nature, served as the principal evidence:Thus our general ideas are not inconsistent with the model proposed by Watson and Crick in the preceding communication.
Nobel Prize
Franklin was never nominated for a Nobel Prize. Her work was a crucial part in the discovery of DNA's structure, which along with subsequent related work led to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins being awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962. She had died in 1958, and during her lifetime the DNA structure was not considered to be fully proven. It took Wilkins and his colleagues about seven years to collect enough data to prove and refine the proposed DNA structure. Moreover, its biological significance, as proposed by Watson and Crick, was not established. General acceptance for the DNA double helix and its function did not start until late in the 1950s, leading to Nobel nominations in 1960, 1961, and 1962 for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and in 1962 for Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The first breakthrough was from Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958, who experimentally showed the DNA replication of a bacterium Escherichia coli. In what is now known as the Meselson–Stahl experiment, DNA was found to replicate into two double-stranded helices, with each helix having one of the original DNA strands. This DNA replication was firmly established by 1961 after further demonstration in other species, and of the stepwise chemical reaction. According to the 1961 Crick–Monod letter, this experimental proof, along with Wilkins having initiated the DNA diffraction work, were the reasons why Crick felt that Wilkins should be included in the DNA Nobel Prize.
In 1962 the Nobel Prize was subsequently awarded to Crick, Watson, and Wilkins. Nobel rules now prohibit posthumous nominations (though this statute was not formally in effect until 1974) or splitting of Prizes more than three ways. The award was for their body of work on nucleic acids and not exclusively for the discovery of the structure of DNA. By the time of the award Wilkins had been working on the structure of DNA for more than 10 years, and had done much to confirm the Watson–Crick model. Crick had been working on the genetic code at Cambridge and Watson had worked on RNA for some years. Watson has suggested that ideally Wilkins and Franklin would have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Pauling, who received the Nobel Peace Prize that year, believed and earlier warned the Nobel Committee in 1960 that "it might well be premature to make an award of a Prize to Watson and Crick, because of existing uncertainty about the detailed structure of nucleic acid. I myself feel that it is likely that the general nature of the Watson-Crick structure is correct, but that there is doubt about details." He was partly right as an alternative of Watson-Crick base pairing, called the Hoogsteen base pairing that can form triple DNA strand, was discovered by Karst Hoogsteen in 1963.
Aaron Klug, Franklin's colleague and principal beneficiary in her will, was the sole winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1982, "for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes". This work was exactly what Franklin had started and which she introduced to Klug, and it is highly plausible that, were she alive, she would have shared the Nobel Prize.
Awards and honours
Posthumous recognition
1982, Iota Sigma Pi designated Franklin a National Honorary Member.
1984, St Paul's Girls School established the Rosalind Franklin Technology Centre.
1992, English Heritage placed a blue plaque commemorating Franklin on the building in Drayton Gardens, London, where she lived until her death.
1993, King's College London renamed the Orchard Residence at its Hampstead Campus as Rosalind Franklin Hall.
1993, King's College London placed a blue plaque on its outside wall bearing the inscription: "R. E. Franklin, R. G. Gosling, A. R. Stokes, M. H. F. Wilkins, H. R. Wilson – King's College London – DNA – X-ray diffraction studies – 1953."
1995, Newnham College, Cambridge opened a graduate residence named Rosalind Franklin Building, and put a bust of her in its garden.
1997, Birkbeck, University of London School of Crystallography opened the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory.
1997, a newly discovered asteroid was named 9241 Rosfranklin.
1998, National Portrait Gallery in London added Rosalind Franklin's portrait next to those of Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins.
1999, the Institute of Physics at Portland Place, London, renamed its theatre as Franklin Lecture Theatre.
2000, King's College London opened the Franklin–Wilkins Building in honour of Franklin's and Wilkins's work at the college.
2000, We the Curious (formally @Bristol) features the Rosalind Franklin Room.
2001, the American National Cancer Institute established the Rosalind E. Franklin Award for women in cancer research.
2002, the University of Groningen, supported by the European Union, launched the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship to encourage women researchers to become full university professors.
2003, the Royal Society established the Rosalind Franklin Award (officially the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture) for an outstanding contribution to any area of natural science, engineering or technology. The award consists of a silver-coated medal and a grant of £30,000.
2003, the Royal Society of Chemistry declared King's College London as "National Historic Chemical Landmark" and placed a plaque on the wall near the entrance of the building, with the inscription: "Near this site Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, Raymond Gosling, Alexander Stokes and Herbert Wilson performed experiments that led to the discovery of the structure of DNA. This work revolutionised our understanding of the chemistry behind life itself."
2004, Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, located in North Chicago, Illinois, USA changed its name to the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. It also adopted a new motto "Life in Discovery", and Photo 51 as its logo.
2004, the Gruber Foundation started the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for two female geneticists from all over the world. It carries an annual fund of $25,000, each award is for three years, and selection is made by a joint committee appointed by the Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Human Genetics.
2004, the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and the APS Users Organization (APSUO) started the APSUO Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for young scientists who made contributions through the APS.
2005, the DNA sculpture (donated by James Watson) outside Clare College, Cambridge's Memorial Court incorporates the words "The double helix model was supported by the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins."
2005, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, based in Florida, US, established an annual award the Rosalind Franklin Prize for Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research.
2006, the Rosalind Franklin Society was established in New York by Mary Ann Liebert. The Society aims to recognise, foster, and advance the important contributions of women in the life sciences and affiliated disciplines.
2008, Columbia University awarded an honorary Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Franklin, "for her seminal contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA".
2008, the Institute of Physics established a biennial award the Rosalind Franklin Medal and Prize.
2012, the bioinformatics education software platform Rosalind was named in honour of Franklin.
2012, The Rosalind Franklin Building was opened at Nottingham Trent University.
2013, Google honoured Rosalind Franklin with a doodle, showing her gazing at a double helix structure of DNA with an X-ray of Photo 51 beyond it.
2013, a plaque was placed on the wall of The Eagle pub in Cambridge commemorating Franklin's contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA, on the sixtieth anniversary of Crick and Watson's announcement in the pub.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology was established by Biotechnology Industry Organization (Biotechnology Innovation Organization since 2016) in collaboration with the Rosalind Franklin Society, for an outstanding woman in the field of industrial biotechnology and bioprocessing.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science unveiled a bronze statue of Franklin, created by Julie Rotblatt-Amrany, near its front entrance.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin STEM Elementary was opened in Pasco, Washington, the first science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) elementary school in the district.
2014, the University of Wolverhampton opened its new laboratory building named the Rosalind Franklin Science Building.
2015, Newnham College Boat Club, Cambridge, launched a new racing VIII, naming it the Rosalind Franklin.
2015, the Rosalind Franklin Appathon was launched by University College London as a national app competition for women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine).
2015, a high performance computing and cloud facility in London was named Rosalind.
2016, the British Humanist Association added the Rosalind Franklin Lecture to its annual lecture series, aimed to explore and celebrate the contribution of women towards the promotion and advancement of humanism.
2016, the Rosalind Franklin Prize and Tech Day was held on 23 February in London, organised by University College London, i-sense, UCL Enterprise, the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the UCL Athena Swan Charter.
2017, DSM opened the Rosalind Franklin Biotechnology Center in Delft, the Netherlands.
2017, Historic England gave a heritage listing, at Grade II, to Franklin's tomb at Willesden Jewish Cemetery on the grounds of it being of "special architectural or historic interest". Historic England said that "the tomb commemorates the life and achievements of Rosalind Franklin, a scientist of exceptional distinction, whose pioneering work helped lay the foundations of molecular biology; Franklin’s X-ray observation of DNA contributed to the discovery of its helical structure."
2018, the Rosalind Franklin Institute, an autonomous medical research centre under the join venture of 10 universities and funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation, was launched at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus on 6 June, and was officially opened on 29 September 2021.
2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) named its ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin.
2019, the University of Portsmouth announced that it changed the name James Watson Halls to Rosalind Franklin Halls from 2 September.
2020, Franklin was selected for the Time 100 Women of the Year, for 1953.
2020, the UK Royal Mint released a 50-pence coin in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Franklin’s birth on 25 July. It features a stylized version of Photo 51.
2020, South Norfolk Council renamed a road on the Norwich Research Park in her honour in July 2020. The road is home to the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia's Bob Champion Research and Education Building.
2020, Trinity College Dublin announced that its library had previously held forty busts, all of whom were of men, was commissioning four new busts of women one of whom would be Franklin.
2020, Aston Medical School instituted an annual competition for medical students named the Rosalind Franklin Essay Prize, funded by its alumni and Rosalind's nephew, Daniel Franklin, executive and diplomatic editor of The Economist.
2021, a bronze tondo of Rosalind Franklin was placed on Hampstead Manor and unveiled on 15 March.
2021, the Rosalind Franklin laboratory was opened in the Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 13 July as the largest laboratory for COVID-19 testing under the UK Health Security Agency and National Health Service Test and Trace network, and supported by the University of Warwick.
Cultural references
Franklin's part in the discovery of the nature of DNA was shown in the 1987 TV Movie Life Story, starring Juliet Stevenson as Franklin, and with Tim Pigott-Smith as Crick, Alan Howard as Wilkins and Jeff Goldblum as Watson. This movie portrayed Franklin as somewhat stern, but also alleged that Watson and Crick did use a lot of her work to do theirs.
A 56-minute documentary of the life and scientific contributions of Franklin, DNA – Secret of Photo 51, was broadcast in 2003 on PBS Nova. Narrated by Barbara Flynn, the program features interviews with Wilkins, Gosling, Klug, Maddox, including Franklin's friends Vittorio Luzzati, Caspar, Anne Piper, and Sue Richley. The UK version produced by BBC is titled Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady.
The first episode of another PBS documentary serial, DNA, was aired on 4 January 2004. The episode titled The Secret of Life centres much around the contributions of Franklin. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, it features Watson, Wilkins, Gosling and Peter Pauling (son of Linus Pauling).
A play entitled Rosalind: A Question of Life was written by Deborah Gearing to mark the work of Franklin, and was first performed on 1 November 2005 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and published by Oberon Books in 2006.
Another play, Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, published in 2011, has been produced at several places in the US and in late 2015 was put on at the Noel Coward Theatre, London, with Nicole Kidman playing Franklin. Ziegler's version of the 1951–53 'race' for the structure of DNA sometimes emphasizes the pivotal role of Franklin's research and her personality. Although sometimes altering history for dramatic effect, the play nevertheless illuminates many of the key issues of how science was and is conducted.
False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch is a play about the life of Marie Curie in which Franklin is portrayed as frustrated and angry at the lack of recognition for her scientific contributions. Hostility between the two is also depicted in season 3 of Harvey Girls Forever.
Publications
Rosalind Franklin's most notable publications are listed below. The last two were published posthumously.
See also
Timeline of women in science
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer who discovered the most elemental composition of stars
References
Citations
Sources
Elkin, L. O., Rosalind Franklin and the Double Helix Physics Today March 2003, pp. 42–48.
Holt, J. (2002) "Photo Finish: Rosalind Franklin and the great DNA race" The New Yorker October
Watson, J. Letter to Science, 164, p. 1539, 27 (1969).
Further reading
External links
Recordings by Aaron Klug at Web of Stories:
by Sir Aaron Klug
The first American newspaper coverage of the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Website for television program first broadcast in 2003
Documents from the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Also available at
1920 births
1958 deaths
20th-century British biologists
20th-century British chemists
20th-century English scientists
20th-century British women scientists
Academics of Birkbeck, University of London
Academics of King's College London
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery
Carbon scientists
Civil Defence Service personnel
Crystallographers
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from ovarian cancer
English agnostics
English Jews
English molecular biologists
English physical chemists
English women biologists
English women chemists
Rosalind
Jewish agnostics
Jewish biophysicists
Jewish British scientists
Jewish women scientists
People educated at Norland Place School
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
People from Notting Hill
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[
"Flame of the Islands is a 1956 American film noir crime film directed by Edward Ludwig and starring Yvonne De Carlo, Howard Duff, and Zachary Scott.\n\nPlot\n\nIn New York City, Rosalind Dee (DeCarlo) is a secretary longing to enter high society. She is rumored of being Carlton Hammond's mistress; he is an older, wealthy man, who dies of a heart attack. Evelyn Hammond, his wife and an invalid, sees her at his funeral. She summons her to the family home and gifts Rosalind $100,000 for making her husband happy. Despite protests, Rosalind takes the money.\n\nRosalind quits her job, determined to make something of herself. That evening, she goes to a dinner-dance with her friend Wade Evans (Zachary Scott). Gambling-club owner Cyril Mace (Kurt Kasznar) joins their table and tries to talk Wade into investing in his Nassau club. Rosalind is intrigued by Cyril's colorful descriptions of an elite, high society club and casino by the ocean, so she inquires about Cyril's plans with Wade.\n\nThe couple flies to Nassau with Cyril as their guide, tour the island and the club, and meet Rev. Kelly Rand (James Arness), who also takes tourists fishing. Rosalind invests $75,000, and Wade invests $20,000.\n\nCyril meets with his Cuban partners, informing him that they have two American partners, too. They are nervous, but Cyril assures them that he will keep the Americans away, and that they will all make money. Rand takes Rosalind marlin fishing. When she lands one, Rand kisses her \"as a prize.\" On dock, Cyril is waiting with some newly arrived, rich Americans, who have come to admire her catch; he introduces her to them. Playboy Doug Duryea (Howard Duff) is there, too, flustering Rosalind, particularly when he asks if they met on Nassau last year.\n\nAt home, Rosalind confides in Wade that, when she was 15, she and Doug were in love; her name was Linda Darcy. She was poor, he was wealthy, and his family separated them. She still loves him, but he does not remember her. She invested in the club because she was sure that Doug would visit, and she is hoping for a second chance. Wade asks her what she will do if Doug does not fall in love with her; Rosalind replies that he will.\n\nThe club opens to a full house with Rosalind as hostess and a popular singer/dancer. Doug introduces his mother, Mrs. Charmaine Duryea, to Rosalind; Doug takes Rosalind aside, saying that she's the woman for whom he has been waiting. Charmaine has a heart spasm, caused by excitement at gambling. While recovering, she asks to see Rosalind. Charmaine says she opposes Doug marrying a second time, as he is now her companion. Back in the club, a tipsy Wade informs Doug that Rosalind is really Linda Darcy.\n\nDoug's amazed that Rosalind's Linda, and they embrace joyously. They spend even more time together, causing Cyril to grumble that it is in bad taste of her to spend her time with only one club member. The couple attend Rand's Sunday, beach-side sermon, which Rosalind finds very inspirational.\n\nDoug invites Rosalind to his house for Christmas, over her protests that Charmaine would not like it. Cyril gives her an expensive necklace, and tries to kiss her passionately. Rosalind shoves him away over his protests that she will find Doug's party dull. While taking Rosalind to Doug's house, Rand warns Rosalind away from club, saying that Cyril is not any good. At the Duryea's, Doug tells his mother that Rosalind is actually Linda, and that he loves her; she's horrified. During the party, Doug and Rosalind become engaged. Charmaine nearly faints when her friend informs her, but manages to congratulate them.\n\nEvelyn Hammond arrives, recognizing Rosalind, and Doug says that Evelyn is his god-mother. Evelyn says that she wishes to speak with Rosalind that day, and Rosalind finds Evelyn in a sitting room later. They argue, Evelyn indignant that Rosalind took her money and husband's love and now is after her godson, and Rosalind saying that the family bought her off twice, including when she was young and pregnant, but now she's doing all she can with the means to do it. Evelyn threatens to tell Doug, but Rosalind says it won't matter; he'll choose her. Aghast, Evelyn tells Charmaine that Rosalind was Carlton's lover and promises to tell Doug.\n\nWhile giving Rand his Christmas presents, Rand kisses Rosalind, impulsively. She tells him she is engaged, but he is forgiven as it is Christmas. He approves of her engagement, as it means she will leave the club. Upon her return, Charmaine has waiting for Rosalind in her suite and asks what Rosalind and Carlton were to each other. Charmaine breaks down, saying that Carlton loved her, but could not leave Evelyn. Rosalind says that they did not love each other or have an affair. Charmaine makes Rosalind promise never to tell Doug about her affair with Carlton, then dies from an attack, despite Rosalind calling for a doctor.\n\nEvelyn tries to tell Doug about Rosalind's past, but he refuses to hear, going to Rosalind's suite. He asks what caused his mother's heart attack. Rosalind tells him that Charmaine was upset that about the rumors that she was Carlton's mistress; she took the Hammond's money as she thinks they owed it to her. She refuses to tell Doug the identity of his godfather's mistress. He leaves in anger, failing to have the \"proof\" he needs, and Evelyn spreads her rumors. Club members stop attending, due to the scandal.\n\nOn the day of the funeral, Rosalind goes to Rand's house and drinks. He arrives at home when she is falling down drunk and sits her in a chair to sober up. That afternoon, she talks with Doug. He has talked with Evelyn, who does not believe Rosalind's story. He is uncertain over who to believe, but when she refuses to confirm or deny her story, he decides that Rosalind was Carlton's mistress after all. She sends back his engagement ring.\n\nCyril's Cuban partners are agitated that the club's losing money and summon Rosalind to Cyril's office. Despite her surprise that they exist, she agrees to negotiate. The men offer to buy her out with the expectation that she will leave tomorrow. She says that they could not pay for the type of publicity that she has brought them, so they should open it up to the general public and offer her a written contract for more money; they will all make a fortune. They decide to talk it over, and Rosalind and Cyril walk back to her suite. Cyril then offers Rosalind a deal where she seduces men, takes their money, and they all profit; she laughs at him. He kisses her again, despite her repulsion. Wade walks in, pulling Cyril away, and is beaten by Cyril. Wade collapses, informing her and the partners that Cyril has been using two sets of books to cheat both sets of partners.\n\nHis furious partners take Cyril away. Cyril insists their money is in his safe, but pulls out a flare gun instead. He shoots it out the window, alerting the Coast Guard. His partners kill him and kidnap Rosalind, heading to their boat and running into Rand on the beach. Rand fights them, but is overwhelmed and is taken, too. They are kept below-decks, while the partners sail to Cuba. Alerted by the flare, the Coast Guard rushes after their boat and fires on it; Rand sabotages their engine to slow it down. Rosalind and Rand sneak overboard while the partners' boat explodes from shots fired by the Coast Guard. They swim to an island and walk ashore, Rosalind telling him that she wants to stay. They embrace.\n\nCast\n\nProduction\nThe film was based on an unpublished novel by Adele Comandini called Rebel Island. Republic Pictures bought it in January 1954 and assigned Bruce Manning to write the script and Edward Ludwig to direct and produce. Republic, who had been in a production downswing, put the film on its schedule in May 1954. It was part of a slate of six films, the others being Timberjack, Magic Fire, The Admiral Hoskins Story and a film about Texas to be directed by Frank Lloyd.\n\nIn January 1955, Yvonne De Carlo, who appeared in Magic Fire, signed to play the lead. Zachary Scott and John Lund were to be her co stars. Eventually Lund dropped out and was replaced by Howard Duff.\n\nThe film was shot on location in the Bahamas in Trucolor.\n\nSee also\nList of American films of 1956\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1956 films\nAmerican films\nEnglish-language films\nRepublic Pictures films\nFilms scored by Nelson Riddle\nFilms set in the Bahamas\nFilms shot in the Bahamas\n1956 crime drama films\nAmerican crime drama films\nTrucolor films",
"Celia is one of the important characters of Shakespeare's As You Like It.\n\nCelia is the daughter of Duke Frederick and niece of the banished Duke Senior. Celia and Rosalind are cousins but they have sisterly affection.\n\nPhysical appearance \nCelia is beautiful, but with a beauty less sparkling than that of Rosalind. Orlando describes both of them as \"fair and excellent ladies\".\n\nCelia is shorter than her cousin and less majestic in appearance. She has a gentle expression combined with a habitual serious appearance. Hence Rosalind addresses her at one time as \"my pretty little coz\" (), and at another as, \"sad brow and true maid\" ().\n\nLove for Rosalind \n\nCelia's love for Rosalind knows no limits and is frequently referred to in the play. Charles, the wrestler, relates that Celia loves her cousin so much that she would have followed Rosalind into exile in case Rosalind too had been banished along with her father.\n\nLe Beau, the courtier, describes their love as \"dearer than the natural bond of sisters\" (). This shows that her love for cousin is pure and supreme.\n\nCharacter \n\nCelia is silent and reserved. She is more conventional than Rosalind and hence more worldly and prudent. Her silence is in contrast to Rosalind's talkative nature. However, Celia, by her prudence, exercises command over herself as well as over others. When the two cousins are alone, Celia is full of life and humour, but in the presence of others she is content to play the part of a spectator. She first listens and judges what to speak, exactly opposite to Rosalind. Some consider that Celia's individual character has been overlooked by literary critics in favour of the more central character of Rosalind.\n\nMarriage with Oliver \n\nCelia's love for Oliver is sudden, intense and uncontrollable, despite the knowledge of Oliver's past wicked deeds. In this connection, it should be remembered that love in Shakespeare is an irrational passion.\n\nCelia's marriage with Oliver has been criticised by many critics. Stopford Brooke opines that this marriage is against probability because it looks strange that Oliver should change in a moment from the scoundrel. But her marriage with Oliver does not bring disgrace to her character. Oliver was a bad character but has changed into a good one by a sudden stroke. So Celia's marriage with Oliver is not a blot on her character.\n\nAlternative interpretations \nIt has been suggested that Celia's role in the play is \"subversive\", in the sense that she adds to the sexual complications of the plot by her friendship with the cross-dressing Rosalind. Celia effectively sets up home with Rosalind in the forest, requiring no male presence, and her marriage to Oliver may be regarded as a means of prolonging their relationship rather than the result of any affection she feels for him.\n\nPerformance \n\nCelia has been played by various notable actresses on screen. Sophie Stewart played Celia in a 1936 film, Rosalind Knight in the 1963 UK television series, Angharad Rees in the 1978 BBC version of the play directed by Basil Coleman, and Romola Garai in the 2006 production directed by Kenneth Branagh. In a 1985 production by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Celia was played by Fiona Shaw. Sophie Thompson played Celia with the Renaissance Theatre Company, and in 1989 it was her first role with the RSC. In New York City, Cloris Leachman played Celia in 145 performances on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 1950, and Renée Elise Goldsberry played Celia in 2012 at the Delacorte Theater\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n All lines spoken by Celia, Folger Shakespeare Library\n\nFemale Shakespearean characters\nLiterary characters introduced in 1600\nAs You Like It"
] |
[
"Rosalind Franklin",
"Cambridge and World War II",
"what happened with Rosalind and Cambridge?",
"Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos."
] |
C_145dfae88a7144ceb9aa67cc28dcccd4_0
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did he graduate?
| 2 |
Did Roslind Franklin graduate from Cambridge?
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Rosalind Franklin
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Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular B.A. and M.A. degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and helped her to improve her spoken French. Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide for her what to work upon, and at that time was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin Irene Franklin asked to join her in a vacated house of her uncle in Putney. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids. She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her Ph.D. thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge University awarded her a Ph.D. in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers. CANNOTANSWER
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In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams.
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Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognized during her life, for which she has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology".
She graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Disappointed by Norrish’s lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The research on coal helped her earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1945. Moving to Paris in 1947 as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, she became an accomplished X-ray crystallographer. After joining King's College London in 1951 as a research associate, she discovered the key properties of DNA, which eventually facilitated the correct description of the double helix structure of DNA. Owing to disagreement with her director, John Randall, and her colleague Maurice Wilkins, she was compelled to move to Birkbeck College in 1953.
Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA while at King's College London, particularly Photo 51, taken by her student Raymond Gosling, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix for which Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Watson suggested that Franklin would have ideally been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Wilkins but, although there was not yet a rule against posthumous awards, the Nobel Committee generally did not make posthumous nominations.
Working under John Desmond Bernal, Franklin led pioneering work at Birkbeck on the molecular structures of viruses. On the day before she was to unveil the structure of tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels, she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 37 in 1958. Her team member Aaron Klug continued her research, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982.
Early life
Franklin was born on 25 July 1920 in 50 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill, London, into an affluent and influential British Jewish family.
Family
Franklin's father was Ellis Arthur Franklin (1894–1964), a politically liberal London merchant banker who taught at the city's Working Men's College, and her mother was Muriel Frances Waley (1894–1976). Rosalind was the elder daughter and the second child in the family of five children. David (1919–1986) was the eldest brother; Colin (1923–2020), Roland (born 1926), and Jenifer (born 1929) were her younger siblings.
Franklin's paternal great-uncle was Herbert Samuel (later Viscount Samuel), who was the Home Secretary in 1916 and the first practising Jew to serve in the British Cabinet. Her aunt, Helen Caroline Franklin, known in the family as Mamie, was married to Norman de Mattos Bentwich, who was the Attorney General in the British Mandate of Palestine. Helen was active in trade union organisation and the women's suffrage movement and was later a member of the London County Council. Franklin's uncle, Hugh Franklin, was another prominent figure in the suffrage movement, although his actions therein embarrassed the Franklin family. Rosalind's middle name, "Elsie", was in memory of Hugh's first wife, who died in the 1918 flu pandemic. Her family was actively involved with the Working Men's College, where her father taught the subjects of electricity, magnetism, and the history of the Great War in the evenings, later becoming the vice principal.
Franklin's parents helped settle Jewish refugees from Europe who had escaped the Nazis, particularly those from the Kindertransport. They took in two Jewish children to their home, and one of them, a nine-year-old Austrian, Evi Eisenstädter, shared Jenifer's room. (Evi's father Hans Mathias Eisenstädter had been imprisoned in Buchenwald, and after liberation, the family adopted the surname "Ellis".)
Education
From early childhood, Franklin showed exceptional scholastic abilities. At age six, she joined her brother Roland at Norland Place School, a private day school in West London. At that time, her aunt Mamie (Helen Bentwich), described her to her husband: "Rosalind is alarmingly clever – she spends all her time doing arithmetic for pleasure, and invariably gets her sums right." She also developed an early interest in cricket and hockey. At age nine, she entered a boarding school, Lindores School for Young Ladies in Sussex. The school was near the seaside, and the family wanted a good environment for her delicate health.
She was 11 when she went to St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, west London, one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. At St Paul's she excelled in science, Latin, and sports. She also learned German, and became fluent in French, a language she would later find useful. She topped her classes, and won annual awards. Her only educational weakness was in music, for which the school music director, the composer Gustav Holst, once called upon her mother to inquire whether she might have suffered from hearing problems or tonsillitis. With six distinctions, she passed her matriculation in 1938, winning a scholarship for university, the School Leaving Exhibition of £30 a year for three years, and £5 from her grandfather. Her father asked her to give the scholarship to a deserving refugee student.
Cambridge and World War II
Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular BA and MA degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and who helped her to improve her conversational French.
Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide upon the assignment of work for her. At that time he was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she initially stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin, Irene Franklin, proposed that they share living quarters at a vacated house in Putney that belonged to her uncle. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids.
She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her PhD thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge awarded her a PhD in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers.
Career and research
Paris
With World War II ending in 1945, Franklin asked Adrienne Weill for help and to let her know of job openings for "a physical chemist who knows very little physical chemistry, but quite a lot about the holes in coal." At a conference in the autumn of 1946, Weill introduced her to Marcel Mathieu, a director of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the network of institutes that comprise the major part of the scientific research laboratories supported by the French government. This led to her appointment with Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État in Paris. She joined the labo (as referred to by the staff) of Mering on 14 February 1947 as one of the fifteen chercheurs (researchers).
Mering was an X-ray crystallographer who applied X-ray diffraction to the study of rayon and other amorphous substances, in contrast to the thousands of regular crystals that had been studied by this method for many years. He taught her the practical aspects of applying X-ray crystallography to amorphous substances. This presented new challenges in the conduct of experiments and the interpretation of results. Franklin applied them to further problems related to coal and to other carbonaceous materials, in particular the changes to the arrangement of atoms when these are converted to graphite. She published several further papers on this work which has become part of the mainstream of the physics and chemistry of coal and carbon. She coined the terms graphitising and non-graphitising carbon. The coal work was covered in a 1993 monograph, and in the regularly-published textbook Chemistry and Physics of Carbon. Mering continued the study of carbon in various forms, using X-ray diffraction and other methods.
King's College London
In 1950, Franklin was granted a three-year Turner & Newall Fellowship to work at King's College London. In January 1951, she started working as a research associate in the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Biophysics Unit, directed by John Randall. She was originally appointed to work on X-ray diffraction of proteins and lipids in solution, but Randall redirected her work to DNA fibres because of new developments in the field, and she was to be the only experienced experimental diffraction researcher at King's at the time. Randall made this reassignment, even before Franklin started working at King's, because of the pioneering work by DNA researcher Maurice Wilkins, and he reassigned Raymond Gosling, the graduate student who had been working with Wilkins, to be her assistant.
In 1950, Swiss chemist Rudolf Signer in Berne prepared a highly purified DNA sample from calf thymus. He freely distributed the DNA sample, later referred to as the Signer DNA, in early May 1950 at the meeting of the Faraday Society in London, and Wilkins was one of the recipients. Even using crude equipment, Wilkins and Gosling had obtained a good-quality diffraction picture of the DNA sample which sparked further interest in this molecule. But Randall had not indicated to them that he had asked Franklin to take over both the DNA diffraction work and guidance of Gosling's thesis. It was while Wilkins was away on holiday that Randall, in a letter in December 1950, assured Franklin that "as far as the experimental X-ray effort there would be for the moment only yourself and Gosling." Randall's lack of communication about this reassignment significantly contributed to the well documented friction that developed between Wilkins and Franklin. When Wilkins returned, he handed over the Signer DNA and Gosling to Franklin.
Franklin, now working with Gosling, started to apply her expertise in X-ray diffraction techniques to the structure of DNA. She used a new fine-focus X-ray tube and microcamera ordered by Wilkins, but which she refined, adjusted and focused carefully. Drawing upon her physical chemistry background, a critical innovation she applied was making the camera chamber that could be controlled for its humidity using different saturated salt solutions. When Wilkins inquired about this improved technique, she replied in terms which offended him as she had "an air of cool superiority".
Franklin's habit of intensely looking people in the eye while being concise, impatient and direct unnerved many of her colleagues. In stark contrast, Wilkins was very shy, and slowly calculating in speech while he avoided looking anyone directly in the eye. With the ingenious humidity-controlling camera, Franklin was soon able to produce X-ray images of better quality than those of Wilkins. She immediately discovered that the DNA sample could exist in two forms: at a relative humidity higher than 75%, the DNA fibre became long and thin; when it was drier, it became short and fat. She originally referred to the former as "wet" and the latter as "crystalline."
On the structure of the crystalline DNA, Franklin first recorded the analysis in her notebook, which reads: "Evidence for spiral [meaning helical] structure. Straight chain untwisted is highly improbable. Absence of reflections on meridian in χtalline [crystalline] form suggests spiral structure." An immediate discovery from this was that the phosphate group lies outside of the main DNA chain; she however could not make out whether there could be two or three chains. She presented their data at a lecture in November 1951, in King's College London. In her lecture notes, she wrote the following:The results suggest a helical structure (which must be very closely packed) containing 2, 3 or 4 co‐axial nucleic acid chains per helical unit, and having the phosphate groups near the outside.Franklin then named "A" and "B" respectively for the "wet" and "crystalline" forms. (The biological functions of A-DNA were discovered only 60 years later.) Because of the intense personality conflict developing between Franklin and Wilkins, Randall divided the work on DNA. Franklin chose the data rich "A" form while Wilkins selected the "B" form. By the end of 1951 it became generally accepted at King's that the B-DNA was a helix, but after she had recorded an asymmetrical image in May 1952, Franklin became unconvinced that the A-DNA was a helix. In July 1952, as a practical joke on Wilkins (who frequently expressed his view that both forms of DNA were helical), Franklin and Gosling produced a funeral notice regretting the 'death' of helical A-DNA, which runs:It is with great regret that we have to announce the death, on Friday 18th July 1952 of DNA helix (crystalline). Death followed a protracted illness which an intensive course of Besselised [referring to Bessel function that was used to analyse the X-ray diffraction patterns] injections had failed to relieve. A memorial service will be held next Monday or Tuesday. It is hoped that Dr M H F Wilkins will speak in memory of the late helix. [Signed Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling.]During 1952, they worked at applying the Patterson function to the X-ray pictures of DNA they had produced. This was a long and labour-intensive approach but would yield significant insight into the structure of the molecule. Franklin was fully committed to experimental data and was sternly against theoretical or model buildings, as she said, "We are not going to speculate, we are going to wait, we are going to let the spots on this photograph tell us what the [DNA] structure is." The X-ray diffraction pictures, including the landmark Photo 51 taken by Gosling at this time, have been called by John Desmond Bernal as "amongst the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken".
By January 1953, Franklin had reconciled her conflicting data, concluding that both DNA forms had two helices, and had started to write a series of three draft manuscripts, two of which included a double helical DNA backbone (see below). Her two A-DNA manuscripts reached Acta Crystallographica in Copenhagen on 6 March 1953, one day before Crick and Watson had completed their model on B-DNA. She must have mailed them while the Cambridge team was building their model, and certainly had written them before she knew of their work. On 8 July 1953 she modified one of these "in proof" Acta articles, "in light of recent work" by the King's and Cambridge research teams.
The third draft paper was on the B-DNA, dated 17 March 1953, which was discovered years later amongst her papers, by Franklin's Birkbeck colleague, Aaron Klug. He then published in 1974 an evaluation of the draft's close correlation with the third of the original trio of 25 April 1953 Nature DNA articles. Klug designed this paper to complement the first article he had written in 1968 defending Franklin's significant contribution to DNA structure. He had written this first article in response to the incomplete picture of Franklin's work depicted in James Watson's 1968 memoir, The Double Helix.
As vividly described Watson, he travelled to King's on 30 January 1953 carrying a preprint of Linus Pauling's incorrect proposal for DNA structure. Since Wilkins was not in his office, Watson went to Franklin's lab with his urgent message that they should all collaborate before Pauling discovered his error. The unimpressed Franklin became angry when Watson suggested she did not know how to interpret her own data. Watson hastily retreated, backing into Wilkins who had been attracted by the commotion. Wilkins commiserated with his harried friend and then showed Watson Franklin's DNA X-ray image. Watson, in turn, showed Wilkins a prepublication manuscript by Pauling and Robert Corey, which contained a DNA structure remarkably like their first incorrect model.
Discovery of DNA structure
In February 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University had started to build a molecular model of the B-DNA using data similar to that available to both teams at King's. Based on Franklin's lecture in November 1952 that DNA was helical with either two or three stands, they constructed a triple helix model, which was immediately proven to be flawed. Franklin's research was completed by February 1953, ahead of her move to Birkbeck, and her data was critical. Model building had been applied successfully in the elucidation of the structure of the alpha helix by Linus Pauling in 1951, but Franklin was opposed to prematurely building theoretical models, until sufficient data were obtained to properly guide the model building. She took the view that building a model was to be undertaken only after enough of the structure was known. Her conviction was justified by the fact that Pauling and Corey also came up in the late 1952 (published in February 1953) with an erroneous triple helix model.
Ever cautious, she wanted to eliminate misleading possibilities. Photographs of her Birkbeck work table show that she routinely used small molecular models, although certainly not ones on the grand scale successfully used at Cambridge for DNA. In the middle of February 1953, Crick's thesis advisor, Max Perutz, gave Crick a copy of a report written for a Medical Research Council biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952, containing many of Franklin's crystallographic calculations.
Since Franklin had decided to transfer to Birkbeck College and Randall had insisted that all DNA work must stay at King's, Wilkins was given copies of Franklin's diffraction photographs by Gosling. By 28 February 1953, Watson and Crick felt they had solved the problem enough for Crick to proclaim (in the local pub) that they had "found the secret of life". However, they knew they must complete their model before they could be certain.
Watson and Crick finished building their model on 7 March 1953, one day before they received a letter from Wilkins stating that Franklin was finally leaving and they could put "all hands to the pump". This was also one day after Franklin's two A-DNA papers had reached Acta Crystallographica. Wilkins came to see the model the following week, according to Franklin's biographer Brenda Maddox, on 12 March, and allegedly informed Gosling on his return to King's.
One of the most critical and overlooked moments in DNA research was how and when Franklin realised and conceded that B-DNA was a double helical molecule. When Klug first examined Franklin's documents after her death, he initially came to an impression that Franklin was not convinced of the double helical nature until the knowledge of the Cambridge model. But he later discovered the original draft of the manuscript (dated 17 March 1953) from which it became clear that Franklin had already resolved the correct structure. The news of Watson–Crick model reached King's the next day, 18 March, suggesting that Franklin would have learned of it much later since she had moved to Birkbeck. Further scrutiny of her notebook revealed that Franklin had already thought of the helical structure for B-DNA in February 1953 but was not sure of the number of strands, as she wrote: "Evidence for 2-chain (or 1-chain helix)." Her conclusion on the helical nature was evident, though she failed to understand the complete organisation of the DNA strands as the possibility two strands running in opposite directions did not occur to her.
Towards the end of February she began to work out the indications of double strands, as she noted: "Structure B does not fit single helical theory, even for low layer-lines." It soon dawned to her that the B-DNA and A-DNA were structurally similar, and perceived A-DNA as an "unwound version" of B-DNA. She and Gosling wrote a five-paged manuscript on 17 March titled "A Note on Molecular Configuration of Sodium Thymonucleate." After the Watson–Crick model was known, there appeared to be only one (hand-written) modification after the typeset at the end of the text which states that their data was consistent with the model, and appeared as such in the trio of 25 April 1953 Nature articles; the other modification being a deletion of "A Note on" from the title.
Weeks later, on 10 April, Franklin wrote to Crick for permission to see their model. Franklin retained her scepticism for premature model building even after seeing the Watson–Crick model, and remained unimpressed. She is reported to have commented, "It's very pretty, but how are they going to prove it?" As an experimental scientist, Franklin seems to have been interested in producing far greater evidence before publishing-as-proven a proposed model. Accordingly, her response to the Watson–Crick model was in keeping with her cautious approach to science.
Crick and Watson then published their model in Nature on 25 April 1953, in an article describing the double-helical structure of DNA with only a footnote acknowledging "having been stimulated by a general knowledge of Franklin and Wilkins' "unpublished" contribution. Actually, although it was the bare minimum, they had just enough specific knowledge of Franklin and Gosling's data upon which to base their model. As a result of a deal struck by the two laboratory directors, articles by Wilkins and Franklin, which included their X-ray diffraction data, were modified and then published second and third in the same issue of Nature, seemingly only in support of the Crick and Watson theoretical paper which proposed a model for the B-DNA. Most of the scientific community hesitated several years before accepting the double helix proposal. At first mainly geneticists embraced the model because of its obvious genetic implications.
Birkbeck College
Franklin left King's College London in mid-March 1953 for Birkbeck College, in a move that had been planned for some time and that she described (in a letter to Adrienne Weill in Paris) as "moving from a palace to the slums ... but pleasanter all the same". She was recruited by physics department chair John Desmond Bernal, a crystallographer who was a communist, known for promoting women crystallographers. Her new laboratories were housed in 21 Torrington Square, one of a pair of dilapidated and cramped Georgian houses containing several different departments; Franklin frequently took Bernal to task over the careless attitudes of some of the other laboratory staff, notably after workers in the pharmacy department flooded her first-floor laboratory with water on one occasion.
Despite the parting words of Bernal to stop her interest in nucleic acids, she helped Gosling to finish his thesis, although she was no longer his official supervisor. Together they published the first evidence of double helix in the A form of DNA in the 25 July issue of Nature. At the end of 1954, Bernal secured funding for Franklin from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), which enabled her to work as a senior scientist supervising her own research group. John Finch, a physics student from King's College London, subsequently joined Franklin's group, followed by Kenneth Holmes, a Cambridge graduate, in July 1955. Despite the ARC funding, Franklin wrote to Bernal that the existing facilities remained highly unsuited for conducting research "...my desk and lab are on the fourth floor, my X-ray tube in the basement, and I am responsible for the work of four people distributed over the basement, first and second floors on two different staircases."
RNA research
Franklin continued to explore another major nucleic acid, RNA, a molecule equally central to life as DNA. She again used X-ray crystallography to study the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), an RNA virus. Her meeting with Aaron Klug in early 1954 led to a longstanding and successful collaboration. Klug had just then earned his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined Birkbeck in late 1953. In 1955 Franklin published her first major works on TMV in Nature, in which she described that all TMV virus particles were of the same length. This was in direct contradiction to the ideas of the eminent virologist Norman Pirie, though her observation ultimately proved correct.
Franklin assigned the study of the complete structure of TMV to her PhD student Holmes. They soon discovered (published in 1956) that the covering of TMV was protein molecules arranged in helices. Her colleague Klug worked on spherical viruses with his student Finch, with Franklin coordinating and overseeing the work. As a team, from 1956 they started publishing seminal works on TMV, cucumber virus 4 and turnip yellow mosaic virus.
Franklin also had a research assistant, James Watt, subsidised by the National Coal Board and was now the leader of the ARC group at Birkbeck. The Birkbeck team members continued working on RNA viruses affecting several plants, including potato, turnip, tomato and pea. In 1955 the team was joined by an American post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. He worked on the precise location of RNA molecules in TMV. In 1956 he and Franklin published individual but complementary papers in the 10 March issue of Nature, in which they showed that the RNA in TMV is wound along the inner surface of the hollow virus. Caspar was not an enthusiastic writer, and Franklin had to write the entire manuscript for him.
Her research grant from ARC expired at the end of 1957, and she was never given the full salary proposed by Birkbeck. After Bernal requested ARC chairman Lord Rothschild, she was given a one-year extension ending in March 1958.
Expo 58, the first major international fair after World War II, was to be held in Brussels in 1958. Franklin was invited to make a five-foot high model of TMV, which she started in 1957. Her materials included table tennis balls and plastic bicycle handlebar grips. The Brussels world's fair, with an exhibit of her virus model at the International Science Pavilion, opened on 17 April, one day after she died.
Polio virus
In 1956, Franklin visited the University of California, Berkeley, where colleagues suggested her group research the polio virus. In 1957 she applied for a grant from the United States Public Health Service of the National Institutes of Health, which approved £10,000 (equivalent to £ in ) for three years, the largest fund ever received at Birkbeck. In her grant application, Franklin mentioned her new interest in animal virus research. She obtained Bernal's consent in July 1957, though serious concerns were raised after she disclosed her intentions to research live, instead of killed, polio virus at Birkbeck. Eventually, Bernal arranged for the virus to be safely stored at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine during the group's research. With her group, Franklin then commenced deciphering the structure of the polio virus while it was in a crystalline state. She attempted to mount the virus crystals in capillary tubes for X-ray studies, but was forced to end her work due to her rapidly failing health.
After Franklin's death, Klug succeeded her as group leader, and he, Finch and Holmes continued researching the structure of the polio virus. They eventually succeeded in obtaining extremely detailed X-ray images of the virus. In June 1959, Klug and Finch published the group's findings, revealing the polio virus to have icosahedral symmetry, and in the same paper suggested the possibility for all spherical viruses to possess the same symmetry, as it permitted the greatest possible number (60) of identical structural units. The team moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, in 1962, and the old Torrington Square laboratories were demolished four years later, in May 1966.
Personal life
Franklin was best described as an agnostic. Her lack of religious faith apparently did not stem from anyone's influence, rather from her own line of thinking. She developed her scepticism as a young child. Her mother recalled that she refused to believe in the existence of God, and remarked, "Well, anyhow, how do you know He isn't She?" She later made her position clear, now based on her scientific experience, and wrote to her father in 1940:
However, she did not abandon Jewish traditions. As the only Jewish student at Lindores School, she had Hebrew lessons on her own while her friends went to church. She joined the Jewish Society while in her first term at Cambridge, out of respect of her grandfather's request. Franklin confided to her sister that she was "always consciously a Jew".
Franklin loved travelling abroad, particularly trekking. She first "qualified" at Christmas 1929 for a vacation at Menton, France, where her grandfather went to escape the English winter. Her family frequently spent vacations in Wales or Cornwall. A trip to France in 1938 gave her a lasting love for France and its language. She considered the French lifestyle at that time as "vastly superior to that of English". In contrast, she described English people as having "vacant stupid faces and childlike complacency". Her family was almost stuck in Norway in 1939, as World War II was declared on their way home. In another instance, she trekked the French Alps with Jean Kerslake in 1946, which almost cost her her life. She slipped off a slope, and was barely rescued. But she wrote to her mother, "I am quite sure I could wander happily in France forever. I love the people, the country and the food."
She made several professional trips to the United States, and was particularly jovial among her American friends and constantly displayed her sense of humour. William Ginoza of the University of California, Los Angeles, later recalled that she was the opposite of Watson's description of her, and as Maddox comments, Americans enjoyed her "sunny side".
In his book The Double Helix, Watson provides his first-person account of the search for and discovery of DNA. He paints a sympathetic but sometimes critical portrait of Franklin. He praises her intellect and scientific acumen, but portrays her as difficult to work with and careless with her appearance. After introducing her in the book as "Rosalind", he writes that he and his male colleagues usually referred to her as "Rosy", the name people at King's College London used behind her back. She did not want to be called by that name because she had a great-aunt Rosy. In the family, she was called "Ros". To others, she was simply "Rosalind". She made it clear to an American visiting friend, Dorothea Raacke, while sitting with her at Crick's table in The Eagle pub in Cambridge: Raacke asked her how she was to be called and she replied "I'm afraid it will have to be Rosalind", adding "Most definitely not Rosy."
She often expressed her political views. She initially blamed Winston Churchill for inciting the war, but later admired him for his speeches. She actively supported Professor John Ryle as an independent candidate for parliament in the 1940 Cambridge University by-election, but he was unsuccessful.
She did not seem to have an intimate relationship with anyone, and always kept her deepest personal feelings to herself. After her younger days, she avoided close friendship with the opposite sex. In her later years, Evi Ellis, who had shared her bedroom when a child refugee and who was then married to Ernst Wohlgemuth and had moved to Notting Hill from Chicago, tried matchmaking her with Ralph Miliband but failed. Franklin once told Evi that her flatmate asked her for a drink, but she did not understand the intention. She was quite infatuated by her French mentor Mering, who had a wife and a mistress. Mering also admitted that he was captivated by her "intelligence and beauty". According to Anne Sayre, Franklin did confess her feeling for Mering when she was undergoing a second surgery, but Maddox reported that the family denied this. Mering wept when he visited her later, and destroyed all her letters after her death.
Her closest personal affair was probably with her once post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. In 1956, she visited him at his home in Colorado after her tour to University of California, Berkeley, and she was known to remark later that Caspar was one "she might have loved, might have married". In her letter to Sayre, she described him as "an ideal match".
Illness, death, and burial
In mid-1956, while on a work-related trip to the United States, Franklin first began to suspect a health problem. While in New York she found difficulty in zipping her skirt; her stomach had bulged. Back in London she consulted Mair Livingstone, who asked her, "You're not pregnant?" to which she retorted, "I wish I were." Her case was marked "URGENT". An operation on 4 September of the same year revealed two tumours in her abdomen. After this period and other periods of hospitalisation, Franklin spent time convalescing with various friends and family members. These included Anne Sayre, Francis Crick, his wife Odile, with whom Franklin had formed a strong friendship, and finally with the Roland and Nina Franklin family where Rosalind's nieces and nephews bolstered her spirits.
Franklin chose not to stay with her parents because her mother's uncontrollable grief and crying upset her too much. Even while undergoing cancer treatment, Franklin continued to work, and her group continued to produce results – seven papers in 1956 and six more in 1957. At the end of 1957, Franklin again fell ill and she was admitted to the Royal Marsden Hospital. On 2 December, she made her will. She named her three brothers as executors and made her colleague Aaron Klug the principal beneficiary, who would receive £3,000 and her Austin car. Of her other friends, Mair Livingstone would get £2,000, Anne Piper £1,000, and her nurse Miss Griffith £250. The remainder of the estate was to be used for charities.
She returned to work in January 1958, and was also given a promotion to Research Associate in Biophysics on 25 February. She fell ill again on 30 March, and she died on 16 April 1958, in Chelsea, London, of bronchopneumonia, secondary carcinomatosis, and ovarian cancer. Exposure to X-ray radiation is sometimes considered to be a possible factor in her illness.
Other members of her family have died of cancer, and the incidence of gynaecological cancer is known to be disproportionately high among Ashkenazi Jews. Her death certificate states: A Research Scientist, Spinster, Daughter of Ellis Arthur Franklin, a Banker. She was interred on 17 April 1958 in the family plot at Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery at Beaconsfield Road in London Borough of Brent. The inscription on her tombstone reads:
IN MEMORY OF ROSALIND ELSIE FRANKLIN מ' רחל בת ר' יהודה [Rochel/Rachel daughter of Yehuda, her father's Hebrew name] DEARLY LOVED ELDER DAUGHTER OF ELLIS AND MURIEL FRANKLIN 25TH JULY 1920 – 16TH APRIL 1958 SCIENTIST HER RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES ON VIRUSES REMAIN OF LASTING BENEFIT TO MANKIND ת נ צ ב ה [Hebrew initials for "her soul shall be bound in the bundle of life"]
Franklin's will was proven on 30 June, with her estate assessed for probate at £11,278 10s. 9d. (equivalent to £ in ).
Controversies after death
Alleged sexism toward Franklin
Anne Sayre, Franklin's friend and one of her biographers, says in her 1975 book, Rosalind Franklin and DNA: "In 1951 ... King's College London as an institution, was not distinguished for the welcome that it offered to women ... Rosalind ... was unused to purdah [a religious and social institution of female seclusion] ... there was one other woman scientist on the laboratory staff". The molecular biologist Andrzej Stasiak notes: "Sayre's book became widely cited in feminist circles for exposing rampant sexism in science." Farooq Hussain says: "there were seven women in the biophysics department ... Jean Hanson became an FRS, Dame Honor B. Fell, Director of Strangeways Laboratory, supervised the biologists". Maddox states: "Randall ... did have many women on his staff ... they found him ... sympathetic and helpful."
Sayre asserts that "while the male staff at King's lunched in a large, comfortable, rather clubby dining room" the female staff of all ranks "lunched in the student's hall or away from the premises". However, Elkin claims that most of the MRC group (including Franklin) typically ate lunch together in the mixed dining room discussed below. And Maddox says, of Randall: "He liked to see his flock, men and women, come together for morning coffee, and at lunch in the joint dining room, where he ate with them nearly every day." Francis Crick also commented that "her colleagues treated men and women scientists alike".
Sayre also discusses at length Franklin's struggle in pursuing science, particularly her father's concern about women in academic professions. This account had led to accusations of sexism in regard to Ellis Franklin's attitude to his daughter. A good deal of information explicitly claims that he strongly opposed her entering Newnham College. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) biography of Franklin goes further, stating that he refused to pay her fees, and that an aunt stepped in to do that for her. Her sister, Jenifer Glynn, has stated that those stories are myths, and that her parents fully supported Franklin's entire career.
Sexism is said to pervade the memoir of one peer, James Watson, in his book The Double Helix, published 10 years after Franklin's death and after Watson had returned from Cambridge to Harvard. His Cambridge colleague, Peter Pauling, wrote in a letter, "Morris [sic] Wilkins is supposed to be doing this work; Miss Franklin is evidently a fool." Crick acknowledges later, "I'm afraid we always used to adopt – let's say, a patronizing attitude towards her."
Glynn accuses Sayre of erroneously making her sister a feminist heroine, and sees Watson's The Double Helix as the root of what she calls the "Rosalind Industry". She conjectures that the stories of alleged sexism would "have embarrassed her [Rosalind Franklin] almost as much as Watson's account would have upset her", and declared that "she [Rosalind] was never a feminist." Klug and Crick have also concurred that Franklin was definitely not a feminist.
Franklin's letter to her parents in January 1939 is often taken as reflecting her own prejudiced attitude, and the claim that she was "not immune to the sexism rampant in these circles". In the letter, she remarked that one lecturer was "very good, though female". Maddox maintains that was a circumstantial comment rather than an example of gender bias, and that it was a expression of admiration because, at the time, woman teachers of science were a rarity. In fact, Maddox says, Franklin laughed at men who were embarrassed by the appointment of the first female professor, Dorothy Garrod.
Contribution to the model/structure of DNA
Rosalind Franklin's first important contributions to the model popularised by Crick and Watson was her lecture at the seminar in November 1951, where she presented to those present, among them Watson, the two forms of the molecule, type A and type B, her position being that the phosphate units are located in the external part of the molecule. She also specified the amount of water to be found in the molecule in accordance with other parts of it, data that have considerable importance for the stability of the molecule. Franklin was the first to discover and formulate these facts, which in fact constituted the basis for all later attempts to build a model of the molecule. However, Watson, at the time ignorant of the chemistry, failed to comprehend the crucial information, and this led to the construction of a wrong three-helical model.
The other contribution included an X-ray photograph of B-DNA (called Photo 51) taken by Franklin's student Gosling that was briefly shown to Watson by Wilkins in January 1953, and a report written for an MRC biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952 which was shown by Perutz at the Cavendish Laboratory to both Crick and Watson. This MRC report contained data from the King's group, including some of Franklin's and Gosling's work, and was given to Crick – who was working on his thesis on haemoglobin structure – by his thesis supervisor Perutz, a member of the visiting committee.
Sayre's biography of Franklin contains a story alleging that the photograph 51 in question was shown to Watson by Wilkins without Franklin's permission, and that this constituted a case of bad science ethics. Others dispute this story, asserting that Wilkins had been given photograph 51 by Franklin's PhD student Gosling because she was leaving King's to work at Birkbeck, and there was allegedly nothing untoward in this transfer of data to Wilkins because Director Randall had insisted that all DNA work belonged exclusively to King's and had instructed Franklin in a letter to even stop working on it and submit her data. Also, it was implied by Horace Freeland Judson, that Maurice Wilkins had taken the photograph out of Franklin's drawer, but this is also said to be incorrect.
Likewise, Perutz saw "no harm" in showing an MRC report containing the conclusions of Franklin and Gosling's X-ray data analysis to Crick, since it had not been marked as confidential, although "The report was not expected to reach outside eyes". Indeed, after the publication of Watson's The Double Helix exposed Perutz's act, he received so many letters questioning his judgment that he felt the need to both answer them all and to post a general statement in Science excusing himself on the basis of being "inexperienced and casual in administrative matters".
Perutz also claimed that the MRC information was already made available to the Cambridge team when Watson had attended Franklin's seminar in November 1951. A preliminary version of much of the important material contained in the 1952 December MRC report had been presented by Franklin in a talk she had given in November 1951, which Watson had attended but not understood.
The Perutz letter was as said one of three letters, published with letters by Wilkins and Watson, which discussed their various contributions. Watson clarified the importance of the data obtained from the MRC report as he had not recorded these data while attending Franklin's lecture in 1951. The upshot of all this was that when Crick and Watson started to build their model in February 1953 they were working with critical parameters that had been determined by Franklin in 1951, and which she and Gosling had significantly refined in 1952, as well as with published data and other very similar data to those available at King's. It was generally believed that Franklin was never aware that her work had been used during construction of the model, but Gosling asserted in his 2013 interview that, "Yes. Oh, she did know about that."
Recognition of her contribution to the model of DNA
Upon the completion of their model, Crick and Watson had invited Wilkins to be a co-author of their paper describing the structure. Wilkins turned down this offer, as he had taken no part in building the model. He later expressed regret that greater discussion of co-authorship had not taken place as this might have helped to clarify the contribution the work at King's had made to the discovery. There is no doubt that Franklin's experimental data were used by Crick and Watson to build their model of DNA in 1953. Some, including Maddox, have explained this citation omission by suggesting that it may be a question of circumstance, because it would have been very difficult to cite the unpublished work from the MRC report they had seen.
Indeed, a clear timely acknowledgment would have been awkward, given the unorthodox manner in which data were transferred from King's to Cambridge. However, methods were available. Watson and Crick could have cited the MRC report as a personal communication or else cited the Acta articles in press, or most easily, the third Nature paper that they knew was in press. One of the most important accomplishments of Maddox's widely acclaimed biography is that Maddox made a well-received case for inadequate acknowledgement. "Such acknowledgement as they gave her was very muted and always coupled with the name of Wilkins".
Fifteen years after the fact, the first clear recitation of Franklin's contribution appeared as it permeated Watson's account, The Double Helix, although it was buried under descriptions of Watson's (often quite negative) regard towards Franklin during the period of their work on DNA. This attitude is epitomized in the confrontation between Watson and Franklin over a preprint of Pauling's mistaken DNA manuscript. Watson's words impelled Sayre to write her rebuttal, in which the entire chapter nine, "Winner Take All" has the structure of a legal brief dissecting and analyzing the topic of acknowledgement.
Sayre's early analysis was often ignored because of perceived feminist overtones in her book. Watson and Crick did not cite the X-ray diffraction work of Wilkins and Franklin in their original paper, though they admit having "been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M. H. F. Wilkins, Dr. R. E. Franklin and their co-workers at King's College London". In fact, Watson and Crick cited no experimental data at all in support of their model. Franklin and Gosling's publication of the DNA X-ray image, in the same issue of Nature, served as the principal evidence:Thus our general ideas are not inconsistent with the model proposed by Watson and Crick in the preceding communication.
Nobel Prize
Franklin was never nominated for a Nobel Prize. Her work was a crucial part in the discovery of DNA's structure, which along with subsequent related work led to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins being awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962. She had died in 1958, and during her lifetime the DNA structure was not considered to be fully proven. It took Wilkins and his colleagues about seven years to collect enough data to prove and refine the proposed DNA structure. Moreover, its biological significance, as proposed by Watson and Crick, was not established. General acceptance for the DNA double helix and its function did not start until late in the 1950s, leading to Nobel nominations in 1960, 1961, and 1962 for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and in 1962 for Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The first breakthrough was from Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958, who experimentally showed the DNA replication of a bacterium Escherichia coli. In what is now known as the Meselson–Stahl experiment, DNA was found to replicate into two double-stranded helices, with each helix having one of the original DNA strands. This DNA replication was firmly established by 1961 after further demonstration in other species, and of the stepwise chemical reaction. According to the 1961 Crick–Monod letter, this experimental proof, along with Wilkins having initiated the DNA diffraction work, were the reasons why Crick felt that Wilkins should be included in the DNA Nobel Prize.
In 1962 the Nobel Prize was subsequently awarded to Crick, Watson, and Wilkins. Nobel rules now prohibit posthumous nominations (though this statute was not formally in effect until 1974) or splitting of Prizes more than three ways. The award was for their body of work on nucleic acids and not exclusively for the discovery of the structure of DNA. By the time of the award Wilkins had been working on the structure of DNA for more than 10 years, and had done much to confirm the Watson–Crick model. Crick had been working on the genetic code at Cambridge and Watson had worked on RNA for some years. Watson has suggested that ideally Wilkins and Franklin would have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Pauling, who received the Nobel Peace Prize that year, believed and earlier warned the Nobel Committee in 1960 that "it might well be premature to make an award of a Prize to Watson and Crick, because of existing uncertainty about the detailed structure of nucleic acid. I myself feel that it is likely that the general nature of the Watson-Crick structure is correct, but that there is doubt about details." He was partly right as an alternative of Watson-Crick base pairing, called the Hoogsteen base pairing that can form triple DNA strand, was discovered by Karst Hoogsteen in 1963.
Aaron Klug, Franklin's colleague and principal beneficiary in her will, was the sole winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1982, "for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes". This work was exactly what Franklin had started and which she introduced to Klug, and it is highly plausible that, were she alive, she would have shared the Nobel Prize.
Awards and honours
Posthumous recognition
1982, Iota Sigma Pi designated Franklin a National Honorary Member.
1984, St Paul's Girls School established the Rosalind Franklin Technology Centre.
1992, English Heritage placed a blue plaque commemorating Franklin on the building in Drayton Gardens, London, where she lived until her death.
1993, King's College London renamed the Orchard Residence at its Hampstead Campus as Rosalind Franklin Hall.
1993, King's College London placed a blue plaque on its outside wall bearing the inscription: "R. E. Franklin, R. G. Gosling, A. R. Stokes, M. H. F. Wilkins, H. R. Wilson – King's College London – DNA – X-ray diffraction studies – 1953."
1995, Newnham College, Cambridge opened a graduate residence named Rosalind Franklin Building, and put a bust of her in its garden.
1997, Birkbeck, University of London School of Crystallography opened the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory.
1997, a newly discovered asteroid was named 9241 Rosfranklin.
1998, National Portrait Gallery in London added Rosalind Franklin's portrait next to those of Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins.
1999, the Institute of Physics at Portland Place, London, renamed its theatre as Franklin Lecture Theatre.
2000, King's College London opened the Franklin–Wilkins Building in honour of Franklin's and Wilkins's work at the college.
2000, We the Curious (formally @Bristol) features the Rosalind Franklin Room.
2001, the American National Cancer Institute established the Rosalind E. Franklin Award for women in cancer research.
2002, the University of Groningen, supported by the European Union, launched the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship to encourage women researchers to become full university professors.
2003, the Royal Society established the Rosalind Franklin Award (officially the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture) for an outstanding contribution to any area of natural science, engineering or technology. The award consists of a silver-coated medal and a grant of £30,000.
2003, the Royal Society of Chemistry declared King's College London as "National Historic Chemical Landmark" and placed a plaque on the wall near the entrance of the building, with the inscription: "Near this site Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, Raymond Gosling, Alexander Stokes and Herbert Wilson performed experiments that led to the discovery of the structure of DNA. This work revolutionised our understanding of the chemistry behind life itself."
2004, Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, located in North Chicago, Illinois, USA changed its name to the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. It also adopted a new motto "Life in Discovery", and Photo 51 as its logo.
2004, the Gruber Foundation started the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for two female geneticists from all over the world. It carries an annual fund of $25,000, each award is for three years, and selection is made by a joint committee appointed by the Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Human Genetics.
2004, the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and the APS Users Organization (APSUO) started the APSUO Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for young scientists who made contributions through the APS.
2005, the DNA sculpture (donated by James Watson) outside Clare College, Cambridge's Memorial Court incorporates the words "The double helix model was supported by the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins."
2005, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, based in Florida, US, established an annual award the Rosalind Franklin Prize for Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research.
2006, the Rosalind Franklin Society was established in New York by Mary Ann Liebert. The Society aims to recognise, foster, and advance the important contributions of women in the life sciences and affiliated disciplines.
2008, Columbia University awarded an honorary Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Franklin, "for her seminal contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA".
2008, the Institute of Physics established a biennial award the Rosalind Franklin Medal and Prize.
2012, the bioinformatics education software platform Rosalind was named in honour of Franklin.
2012, The Rosalind Franklin Building was opened at Nottingham Trent University.
2013, Google honoured Rosalind Franklin with a doodle, showing her gazing at a double helix structure of DNA with an X-ray of Photo 51 beyond it.
2013, a plaque was placed on the wall of The Eagle pub in Cambridge commemorating Franklin's contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA, on the sixtieth anniversary of Crick and Watson's announcement in the pub.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology was established by Biotechnology Industry Organization (Biotechnology Innovation Organization since 2016) in collaboration with the Rosalind Franklin Society, for an outstanding woman in the field of industrial biotechnology and bioprocessing.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science unveiled a bronze statue of Franklin, created by Julie Rotblatt-Amrany, near its front entrance.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin STEM Elementary was opened in Pasco, Washington, the first science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) elementary school in the district.
2014, the University of Wolverhampton opened its new laboratory building named the Rosalind Franklin Science Building.
2015, Newnham College Boat Club, Cambridge, launched a new racing VIII, naming it the Rosalind Franklin.
2015, the Rosalind Franklin Appathon was launched by University College London as a national app competition for women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine).
2015, a high performance computing and cloud facility in London was named Rosalind.
2016, the British Humanist Association added the Rosalind Franklin Lecture to its annual lecture series, aimed to explore and celebrate the contribution of women towards the promotion and advancement of humanism.
2016, the Rosalind Franklin Prize and Tech Day was held on 23 February in London, organised by University College London, i-sense, UCL Enterprise, the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the UCL Athena Swan Charter.
2017, DSM opened the Rosalind Franklin Biotechnology Center in Delft, the Netherlands.
2017, Historic England gave a heritage listing, at Grade II, to Franklin's tomb at Willesden Jewish Cemetery on the grounds of it being of "special architectural or historic interest". Historic England said that "the tomb commemorates the life and achievements of Rosalind Franklin, a scientist of exceptional distinction, whose pioneering work helped lay the foundations of molecular biology; Franklin’s X-ray observation of DNA contributed to the discovery of its helical structure."
2018, the Rosalind Franklin Institute, an autonomous medical research centre under the join venture of 10 universities and funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation, was launched at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus on 6 June, and was officially opened on 29 September 2021.
2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) named its ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin.
2019, the University of Portsmouth announced that it changed the name James Watson Halls to Rosalind Franklin Halls from 2 September.
2020, Franklin was selected for the Time 100 Women of the Year, for 1953.
2020, the UK Royal Mint released a 50-pence coin in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Franklin’s birth on 25 July. It features a stylized version of Photo 51.
2020, South Norfolk Council renamed a road on the Norwich Research Park in her honour in July 2020. The road is home to the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia's Bob Champion Research and Education Building.
2020, Trinity College Dublin announced that its library had previously held forty busts, all of whom were of men, was commissioning four new busts of women one of whom would be Franklin.
2020, Aston Medical School instituted an annual competition for medical students named the Rosalind Franklin Essay Prize, funded by its alumni and Rosalind's nephew, Daniel Franklin, executive and diplomatic editor of The Economist.
2021, a bronze tondo of Rosalind Franklin was placed on Hampstead Manor and unveiled on 15 March.
2021, the Rosalind Franklin laboratory was opened in the Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 13 July as the largest laboratory for COVID-19 testing under the UK Health Security Agency and National Health Service Test and Trace network, and supported by the University of Warwick.
Cultural references
Franklin's part in the discovery of the nature of DNA was shown in the 1987 TV Movie Life Story, starring Juliet Stevenson as Franklin, and with Tim Pigott-Smith as Crick, Alan Howard as Wilkins and Jeff Goldblum as Watson. This movie portrayed Franklin as somewhat stern, but also alleged that Watson and Crick did use a lot of her work to do theirs.
A 56-minute documentary of the life and scientific contributions of Franklin, DNA – Secret of Photo 51, was broadcast in 2003 on PBS Nova. Narrated by Barbara Flynn, the program features interviews with Wilkins, Gosling, Klug, Maddox, including Franklin's friends Vittorio Luzzati, Caspar, Anne Piper, and Sue Richley. The UK version produced by BBC is titled Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady.
The first episode of another PBS documentary serial, DNA, was aired on 4 January 2004. The episode titled The Secret of Life centres much around the contributions of Franklin. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, it features Watson, Wilkins, Gosling and Peter Pauling (son of Linus Pauling).
A play entitled Rosalind: A Question of Life was written by Deborah Gearing to mark the work of Franklin, and was first performed on 1 November 2005 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and published by Oberon Books in 2006.
Another play, Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, published in 2011, has been produced at several places in the US and in late 2015 was put on at the Noel Coward Theatre, London, with Nicole Kidman playing Franklin. Ziegler's version of the 1951–53 'race' for the structure of DNA sometimes emphasizes the pivotal role of Franklin's research and her personality. Although sometimes altering history for dramatic effect, the play nevertheless illuminates many of the key issues of how science was and is conducted.
False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch is a play about the life of Marie Curie in which Franklin is portrayed as frustrated and angry at the lack of recognition for her scientific contributions. Hostility between the two is also depicted in season 3 of Harvey Girls Forever.
Publications
Rosalind Franklin's most notable publications are listed below. The last two were published posthumously.
See also
Timeline of women in science
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer who discovered the most elemental composition of stars
References
Citations
Sources
Elkin, L. O., Rosalind Franklin and the Double Helix Physics Today March 2003, pp. 42–48.
Holt, J. (2002) "Photo Finish: Rosalind Franklin and the great DNA race" The New Yorker October
Watson, J. Letter to Science, 164, p. 1539, 27 (1969).
Further reading
External links
Recordings by Aaron Klug at Web of Stories:
by Sir Aaron Klug
The first American newspaper coverage of the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Website for television program first broadcast in 2003
Documents from the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Also available at
1920 births
1958 deaths
20th-century British biologists
20th-century British chemists
20th-century English scientists
20th-century British women scientists
Academics of Birkbeck, University of London
Academics of King's College London
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery
Carbon scientists
Civil Defence Service personnel
Crystallographers
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from ovarian cancer
English agnostics
English Jews
English molecular biologists
English physical chemists
English women biologists
English women chemists
Rosalind
Jewish agnostics
Jewish biophysicists
Jewish British scientists
Jewish women scientists
People educated at Norland Place School
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
People from Notting Hill
| true |
[
"This is a list of people associated with the New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science.\n\nNotable faculty\n\nAlumni\n(*did not graduate)\n\nNobel laureates\n\nPulitzer Prize winners\n\nOther\n\n(*did not graduate)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNew York University\n\nLists of people by university or college in New York City\n\nNew York University-related lists",
"This is a list of notable alumni and students, from the University of Coimbra.\n\nAlumni\n\nNoted professors and lecturers\n\nNobel laureates\nEgas Moniz (1874–1955), physician and neurologist; 1949 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology\n\nOthers\nJosé Bonifácio de Andrade e Silva (1763–1838), Brazilian statesman and naturalist\nFélix Avelar Brotero (1744–1828), botanist and professor\nGeorge Buchanan (1506–1582), a Scottish historian and humanist scholar, professor at the Colegio de la Artes\nLuís Wittnich Carrisso (1886-1937), botanist, professor\nAntónio Castanheira Neves (1929), legal philosopher and professor emeritus at the law faculty\nFernão Lopes de Castanheda (1500–1559), historian, bedel and archivist\nAndré de Gouveia (1497–1548), head teacher, humanist and pedagogue\nAlexandre Rodrigues Ferreira (1756–1815), naturalist\nEduardo Lourenço (born 1923), professor, essayist, critic, philosopher, and writer\nPedro Nunes (1502–1578), mathematician\nSidónio Pais (1872–1918), politician; President in 1918; military; professor of mathematics\nCarlos Mota Pinto (1936–1985), Prime Minister\nAntónio de Oliveira Salazar (1889–1970), politician; Prime Minister; Dictator of Portugal, 1932-1968\nFernando Távora (1923–2004), architect and professor\nDomenico Vandelli (1735–1816), Italian naturalist\n\nNoted attendees\nNoted persons who graduated from or otherwise attended the university include:\n\nZeca Afonso (1929–1987), singer, songwriter and poet; left-winger whose music is considered a symbol of the Carnation Revolution\nManuel Alegre (1936), poet; politician; member of the Socialist Party (did not graduate)\nAntónio José de Almeida (1866–1929), politician, President, founder of Lisbon and Porto universities\nNicolau Tolentino de Almeida (1740–1811), foremost Portuguese satirical poet of the 18th century\nJosé de Anchieta (1534–1597), jesuit missionary, apostle of Brazil, writer and poet\nJosé Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta (1832–1897), 19th century explorer and naturalist (did not graduate)\nLeão Ramos Ascensão (1903–1980), integralist politician and writer\nManuela Azevedo (1970), singer\nJoão Botelho (1949), film director (did not graduate)\nLuís de Almeida Braga, (1890–1970), integralist politician and writer\nTeófilo Braga (1843–1924), politician, President, writer and playwright\nLuís Vaz de Camões, (c. 1524–1580), considered Portugal's greatest poet (did not graduate)\nJorge Chaminé (b, 1956), baritone; Human Rights Medal from the UN; Goodwill Ambassador of Music in ME (Music in the Middle East)\nJosé Cid (1942), singer and composer (did not graduate)\nChristopher Clavius (1538–1612), German mathematician and astronomer; main architect of the modern Gregorian calendar\nNarana Coissoró (1933), lawyer and politician\nFausto Correia (1951–2007), politician; member of the Portuguese Parliament and the Government of Portugal; member of the Parliament of the European Union\nJoão de Deus (1830–1896), poet (did not graduate)\nBishop James Warren Doyle (1786–1834), Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin in Ireland, studied for his doctorate in combria\nVergílio Ferreira (1916–1996), writer and teacher\nArmindo Freitas-Magalhães (1966), psychologist and researcher, working on the psychology of the human smile\nAlmeida Garrett (1799–1854), romanticist and writer\nManuel Teixeira Gomes (1860–1941), political figure (did not graduate)\nRuy Luís Gomes (1905–1984), mathematician\nJoão Mário Grilo (1958), film director (did not graduate)\nMiguel Guedes (1972), musician, songwriter and singer\nGregório de Matos e Guerra (1636-1696), poet and lawyer\nBartolomeu de Gusmão (1685–1724), naturalist, recalled for his early work on lighter-than-air ship design\nArtur Jorge (1946), football coach and former football player (did not graduate at this university but at the University of Lisbon)\nGuerra Junqueiro (1850–1923), lawyer, politician, member of the Portuguese House of Representatives, journalist, author and poet\nValentim Loureiro (1938), military major, politician, mayor, former football club chairman (did not graduate)\nFábio Lucindo (1985-), Brazilian voice actor, best-known for his work in anime.\nBernardino Machado (1851–1944), politician, President\nMarquês de Pombal (1699–1782), Prime Minister to King Joseph I of Portugal throughout his reign\nAristides Sousa Mendes (1885–1954), diplomat, known for protecting European Jews as a consul in France during World War II against government orders\nLuís Marques Mendes, (1957), politician; former leader of the Social Democratic Party\nManoel da Nóbrega, (1517–1570), jesuit priest; first Provincial of the Society of Jesus in colonial Brazil; influential in the early history of Brazil; participated in the founding of several cities\nAntónio Nobre (1867–1900), poet (did not graduate)\nAdriano Correia de Oliveira (1942–1982), musician, famous singer and composer of politically engaged folk music in the 1960s-70s (did not graduate)\nCarlos de Oliveira (1921–1981), poet and novelist\nÁlvaro Santos Pereira (1972), economist and professor\nEça de Queiroz (1845–1900), novelist, one of the leading intellectuals of the Generation of 1870\nAntero de Quental (1842–1891), poet, philosopher, political activist\nJosé Hipólito Raposo (1885–1953), integralist politician and writer\nJosé Adriano Pequito Rebelo (1892–1983), integralist politician and writer\nMaria de Belém Roseira (1949), politician (member of the Socialist Party, former minister)\nAntónio de Almeida Santos (1926), politician and minister\nFernando Machado Soares (1930), fado singer, author, judge\nMiguel Torga, pseudonym of Adolfo Correia da Rocha (1907–1995), writer, poet and physician\nJoão Maria Tudela (1929), singer, musician and entertainer (did not graduate)\nSalgado Zenha (1923–1993), left-wing politician and lawyer\n\nReferences\n\nUniversity of Coimbra\n \nCoimbra, University of"
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what happened to her during WW II?
| 3 |
What happened to Rosalind Franklin during WW II?
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Rosalind Franklin
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Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular B.A. and M.A. degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and helped her to improve her spoken French. Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide for her what to work upon, and at that time was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin Irene Franklin asked to join her in a vacated house of her uncle in Putney. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids. She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her Ph.D. thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge University awarded her a Ph.D. in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers. CANNOTANSWER
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Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognized during her life, for which she has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology".
She graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Disappointed by Norrish’s lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The research on coal helped her earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1945. Moving to Paris in 1947 as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, she became an accomplished X-ray crystallographer. After joining King's College London in 1951 as a research associate, she discovered the key properties of DNA, which eventually facilitated the correct description of the double helix structure of DNA. Owing to disagreement with her director, John Randall, and her colleague Maurice Wilkins, she was compelled to move to Birkbeck College in 1953.
Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA while at King's College London, particularly Photo 51, taken by her student Raymond Gosling, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix for which Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Watson suggested that Franklin would have ideally been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Wilkins but, although there was not yet a rule against posthumous awards, the Nobel Committee generally did not make posthumous nominations.
Working under John Desmond Bernal, Franklin led pioneering work at Birkbeck on the molecular structures of viruses. On the day before she was to unveil the structure of tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels, she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 37 in 1958. Her team member Aaron Klug continued her research, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982.
Early life
Franklin was born on 25 July 1920 in 50 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill, London, into an affluent and influential British Jewish family.
Family
Franklin's father was Ellis Arthur Franklin (1894–1964), a politically liberal London merchant banker who taught at the city's Working Men's College, and her mother was Muriel Frances Waley (1894–1976). Rosalind was the elder daughter and the second child in the family of five children. David (1919–1986) was the eldest brother; Colin (1923–2020), Roland (born 1926), and Jenifer (born 1929) were her younger siblings.
Franklin's paternal great-uncle was Herbert Samuel (later Viscount Samuel), who was the Home Secretary in 1916 and the first practising Jew to serve in the British Cabinet. Her aunt, Helen Caroline Franklin, known in the family as Mamie, was married to Norman de Mattos Bentwich, who was the Attorney General in the British Mandate of Palestine. Helen was active in trade union organisation and the women's suffrage movement and was later a member of the London County Council. Franklin's uncle, Hugh Franklin, was another prominent figure in the suffrage movement, although his actions therein embarrassed the Franklin family. Rosalind's middle name, "Elsie", was in memory of Hugh's first wife, who died in the 1918 flu pandemic. Her family was actively involved with the Working Men's College, where her father taught the subjects of electricity, magnetism, and the history of the Great War in the evenings, later becoming the vice principal.
Franklin's parents helped settle Jewish refugees from Europe who had escaped the Nazis, particularly those from the Kindertransport. They took in two Jewish children to their home, and one of them, a nine-year-old Austrian, Evi Eisenstädter, shared Jenifer's room. (Evi's father Hans Mathias Eisenstädter had been imprisoned in Buchenwald, and after liberation, the family adopted the surname "Ellis".)
Education
From early childhood, Franklin showed exceptional scholastic abilities. At age six, she joined her brother Roland at Norland Place School, a private day school in West London. At that time, her aunt Mamie (Helen Bentwich), described her to her husband: "Rosalind is alarmingly clever – she spends all her time doing arithmetic for pleasure, and invariably gets her sums right." She also developed an early interest in cricket and hockey. At age nine, she entered a boarding school, Lindores School for Young Ladies in Sussex. The school was near the seaside, and the family wanted a good environment for her delicate health.
She was 11 when she went to St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, west London, one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. At St Paul's she excelled in science, Latin, and sports. She also learned German, and became fluent in French, a language she would later find useful. She topped her classes, and won annual awards. Her only educational weakness was in music, for which the school music director, the composer Gustav Holst, once called upon her mother to inquire whether she might have suffered from hearing problems or tonsillitis. With six distinctions, she passed her matriculation in 1938, winning a scholarship for university, the School Leaving Exhibition of £30 a year for three years, and £5 from her grandfather. Her father asked her to give the scholarship to a deserving refugee student.
Cambridge and World War II
Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular BA and MA degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and who helped her to improve her conversational French.
Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide upon the assignment of work for her. At that time he was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she initially stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin, Irene Franklin, proposed that they share living quarters at a vacated house in Putney that belonged to her uncle. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids.
She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her PhD thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge awarded her a PhD in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers.
Career and research
Paris
With World War II ending in 1945, Franklin asked Adrienne Weill for help and to let her know of job openings for "a physical chemist who knows very little physical chemistry, but quite a lot about the holes in coal." At a conference in the autumn of 1946, Weill introduced her to Marcel Mathieu, a director of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the network of institutes that comprise the major part of the scientific research laboratories supported by the French government. This led to her appointment with Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État in Paris. She joined the labo (as referred to by the staff) of Mering on 14 February 1947 as one of the fifteen chercheurs (researchers).
Mering was an X-ray crystallographer who applied X-ray diffraction to the study of rayon and other amorphous substances, in contrast to the thousands of regular crystals that had been studied by this method for many years. He taught her the practical aspects of applying X-ray crystallography to amorphous substances. This presented new challenges in the conduct of experiments and the interpretation of results. Franklin applied them to further problems related to coal and to other carbonaceous materials, in particular the changes to the arrangement of atoms when these are converted to graphite. She published several further papers on this work which has become part of the mainstream of the physics and chemistry of coal and carbon. She coined the terms graphitising and non-graphitising carbon. The coal work was covered in a 1993 monograph, and in the regularly-published textbook Chemistry and Physics of Carbon. Mering continued the study of carbon in various forms, using X-ray diffraction and other methods.
King's College London
In 1950, Franklin was granted a three-year Turner & Newall Fellowship to work at King's College London. In January 1951, she started working as a research associate in the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Biophysics Unit, directed by John Randall. She was originally appointed to work on X-ray diffraction of proteins and lipids in solution, but Randall redirected her work to DNA fibres because of new developments in the field, and she was to be the only experienced experimental diffraction researcher at King's at the time. Randall made this reassignment, even before Franklin started working at King's, because of the pioneering work by DNA researcher Maurice Wilkins, and he reassigned Raymond Gosling, the graduate student who had been working with Wilkins, to be her assistant.
In 1950, Swiss chemist Rudolf Signer in Berne prepared a highly purified DNA sample from calf thymus. He freely distributed the DNA sample, later referred to as the Signer DNA, in early May 1950 at the meeting of the Faraday Society in London, and Wilkins was one of the recipients. Even using crude equipment, Wilkins and Gosling had obtained a good-quality diffraction picture of the DNA sample which sparked further interest in this molecule. But Randall had not indicated to them that he had asked Franklin to take over both the DNA diffraction work and guidance of Gosling's thesis. It was while Wilkins was away on holiday that Randall, in a letter in December 1950, assured Franklin that "as far as the experimental X-ray effort there would be for the moment only yourself and Gosling." Randall's lack of communication about this reassignment significantly contributed to the well documented friction that developed between Wilkins and Franklin. When Wilkins returned, he handed over the Signer DNA and Gosling to Franklin.
Franklin, now working with Gosling, started to apply her expertise in X-ray diffraction techniques to the structure of DNA. She used a new fine-focus X-ray tube and microcamera ordered by Wilkins, but which she refined, adjusted and focused carefully. Drawing upon her physical chemistry background, a critical innovation she applied was making the camera chamber that could be controlled for its humidity using different saturated salt solutions. When Wilkins inquired about this improved technique, she replied in terms which offended him as she had "an air of cool superiority".
Franklin's habit of intensely looking people in the eye while being concise, impatient and direct unnerved many of her colleagues. In stark contrast, Wilkins was very shy, and slowly calculating in speech while he avoided looking anyone directly in the eye. With the ingenious humidity-controlling camera, Franklin was soon able to produce X-ray images of better quality than those of Wilkins. She immediately discovered that the DNA sample could exist in two forms: at a relative humidity higher than 75%, the DNA fibre became long and thin; when it was drier, it became short and fat. She originally referred to the former as "wet" and the latter as "crystalline."
On the structure of the crystalline DNA, Franklin first recorded the analysis in her notebook, which reads: "Evidence for spiral [meaning helical] structure. Straight chain untwisted is highly improbable. Absence of reflections on meridian in χtalline [crystalline] form suggests spiral structure." An immediate discovery from this was that the phosphate group lies outside of the main DNA chain; she however could not make out whether there could be two or three chains. She presented their data at a lecture in November 1951, in King's College London. In her lecture notes, she wrote the following:The results suggest a helical structure (which must be very closely packed) containing 2, 3 or 4 co‐axial nucleic acid chains per helical unit, and having the phosphate groups near the outside.Franklin then named "A" and "B" respectively for the "wet" and "crystalline" forms. (The biological functions of A-DNA were discovered only 60 years later.) Because of the intense personality conflict developing between Franklin and Wilkins, Randall divided the work on DNA. Franklin chose the data rich "A" form while Wilkins selected the "B" form. By the end of 1951 it became generally accepted at King's that the B-DNA was a helix, but after she had recorded an asymmetrical image in May 1952, Franklin became unconvinced that the A-DNA was a helix. In July 1952, as a practical joke on Wilkins (who frequently expressed his view that both forms of DNA were helical), Franklin and Gosling produced a funeral notice regretting the 'death' of helical A-DNA, which runs:It is with great regret that we have to announce the death, on Friday 18th July 1952 of DNA helix (crystalline). Death followed a protracted illness which an intensive course of Besselised [referring to Bessel function that was used to analyse the X-ray diffraction patterns] injections had failed to relieve. A memorial service will be held next Monday or Tuesday. It is hoped that Dr M H F Wilkins will speak in memory of the late helix. [Signed Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling.]During 1952, they worked at applying the Patterson function to the X-ray pictures of DNA they had produced. This was a long and labour-intensive approach but would yield significant insight into the structure of the molecule. Franklin was fully committed to experimental data and was sternly against theoretical or model buildings, as she said, "We are not going to speculate, we are going to wait, we are going to let the spots on this photograph tell us what the [DNA] structure is." The X-ray diffraction pictures, including the landmark Photo 51 taken by Gosling at this time, have been called by John Desmond Bernal as "amongst the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken".
By January 1953, Franklin had reconciled her conflicting data, concluding that both DNA forms had two helices, and had started to write a series of three draft manuscripts, two of which included a double helical DNA backbone (see below). Her two A-DNA manuscripts reached Acta Crystallographica in Copenhagen on 6 March 1953, one day before Crick and Watson had completed their model on B-DNA. She must have mailed them while the Cambridge team was building their model, and certainly had written them before she knew of their work. On 8 July 1953 she modified one of these "in proof" Acta articles, "in light of recent work" by the King's and Cambridge research teams.
The third draft paper was on the B-DNA, dated 17 March 1953, which was discovered years later amongst her papers, by Franklin's Birkbeck colleague, Aaron Klug. He then published in 1974 an evaluation of the draft's close correlation with the third of the original trio of 25 April 1953 Nature DNA articles. Klug designed this paper to complement the first article he had written in 1968 defending Franklin's significant contribution to DNA structure. He had written this first article in response to the incomplete picture of Franklin's work depicted in James Watson's 1968 memoir, The Double Helix.
As vividly described Watson, he travelled to King's on 30 January 1953 carrying a preprint of Linus Pauling's incorrect proposal for DNA structure. Since Wilkins was not in his office, Watson went to Franklin's lab with his urgent message that they should all collaborate before Pauling discovered his error. The unimpressed Franklin became angry when Watson suggested she did not know how to interpret her own data. Watson hastily retreated, backing into Wilkins who had been attracted by the commotion. Wilkins commiserated with his harried friend and then showed Watson Franklin's DNA X-ray image. Watson, in turn, showed Wilkins a prepublication manuscript by Pauling and Robert Corey, which contained a DNA structure remarkably like their first incorrect model.
Discovery of DNA structure
In February 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University had started to build a molecular model of the B-DNA using data similar to that available to both teams at King's. Based on Franklin's lecture in November 1952 that DNA was helical with either two or three stands, they constructed a triple helix model, which was immediately proven to be flawed. Franklin's research was completed by February 1953, ahead of her move to Birkbeck, and her data was critical. Model building had been applied successfully in the elucidation of the structure of the alpha helix by Linus Pauling in 1951, but Franklin was opposed to prematurely building theoretical models, until sufficient data were obtained to properly guide the model building. She took the view that building a model was to be undertaken only after enough of the structure was known. Her conviction was justified by the fact that Pauling and Corey also came up in the late 1952 (published in February 1953) with an erroneous triple helix model.
Ever cautious, she wanted to eliminate misleading possibilities. Photographs of her Birkbeck work table show that she routinely used small molecular models, although certainly not ones on the grand scale successfully used at Cambridge for DNA. In the middle of February 1953, Crick's thesis advisor, Max Perutz, gave Crick a copy of a report written for a Medical Research Council biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952, containing many of Franklin's crystallographic calculations.
Since Franklin had decided to transfer to Birkbeck College and Randall had insisted that all DNA work must stay at King's, Wilkins was given copies of Franklin's diffraction photographs by Gosling. By 28 February 1953, Watson and Crick felt they had solved the problem enough for Crick to proclaim (in the local pub) that they had "found the secret of life". However, they knew they must complete their model before they could be certain.
Watson and Crick finished building their model on 7 March 1953, one day before they received a letter from Wilkins stating that Franklin was finally leaving and they could put "all hands to the pump". This was also one day after Franklin's two A-DNA papers had reached Acta Crystallographica. Wilkins came to see the model the following week, according to Franklin's biographer Brenda Maddox, on 12 March, and allegedly informed Gosling on his return to King's.
One of the most critical and overlooked moments in DNA research was how and when Franklin realised and conceded that B-DNA was a double helical molecule. When Klug first examined Franklin's documents after her death, he initially came to an impression that Franklin was not convinced of the double helical nature until the knowledge of the Cambridge model. But he later discovered the original draft of the manuscript (dated 17 March 1953) from which it became clear that Franklin had already resolved the correct structure. The news of Watson–Crick model reached King's the next day, 18 March, suggesting that Franklin would have learned of it much later since she had moved to Birkbeck. Further scrutiny of her notebook revealed that Franklin had already thought of the helical structure for B-DNA in February 1953 but was not sure of the number of strands, as she wrote: "Evidence for 2-chain (or 1-chain helix)." Her conclusion on the helical nature was evident, though she failed to understand the complete organisation of the DNA strands as the possibility two strands running in opposite directions did not occur to her.
Towards the end of February she began to work out the indications of double strands, as she noted: "Structure B does not fit single helical theory, even for low layer-lines." It soon dawned to her that the B-DNA and A-DNA were structurally similar, and perceived A-DNA as an "unwound version" of B-DNA. She and Gosling wrote a five-paged manuscript on 17 March titled "A Note on Molecular Configuration of Sodium Thymonucleate." After the Watson–Crick model was known, there appeared to be only one (hand-written) modification after the typeset at the end of the text which states that their data was consistent with the model, and appeared as such in the trio of 25 April 1953 Nature articles; the other modification being a deletion of "A Note on" from the title.
Weeks later, on 10 April, Franklin wrote to Crick for permission to see their model. Franklin retained her scepticism for premature model building even after seeing the Watson–Crick model, and remained unimpressed. She is reported to have commented, "It's very pretty, but how are they going to prove it?" As an experimental scientist, Franklin seems to have been interested in producing far greater evidence before publishing-as-proven a proposed model. Accordingly, her response to the Watson–Crick model was in keeping with her cautious approach to science.
Crick and Watson then published their model in Nature on 25 April 1953, in an article describing the double-helical structure of DNA with only a footnote acknowledging "having been stimulated by a general knowledge of Franklin and Wilkins' "unpublished" contribution. Actually, although it was the bare minimum, they had just enough specific knowledge of Franklin and Gosling's data upon which to base their model. As a result of a deal struck by the two laboratory directors, articles by Wilkins and Franklin, which included their X-ray diffraction data, were modified and then published second and third in the same issue of Nature, seemingly only in support of the Crick and Watson theoretical paper which proposed a model for the B-DNA. Most of the scientific community hesitated several years before accepting the double helix proposal. At first mainly geneticists embraced the model because of its obvious genetic implications.
Birkbeck College
Franklin left King's College London in mid-March 1953 for Birkbeck College, in a move that had been planned for some time and that she described (in a letter to Adrienne Weill in Paris) as "moving from a palace to the slums ... but pleasanter all the same". She was recruited by physics department chair John Desmond Bernal, a crystallographer who was a communist, known for promoting women crystallographers. Her new laboratories were housed in 21 Torrington Square, one of a pair of dilapidated and cramped Georgian houses containing several different departments; Franklin frequently took Bernal to task over the careless attitudes of some of the other laboratory staff, notably after workers in the pharmacy department flooded her first-floor laboratory with water on one occasion.
Despite the parting words of Bernal to stop her interest in nucleic acids, she helped Gosling to finish his thesis, although she was no longer his official supervisor. Together they published the first evidence of double helix in the A form of DNA in the 25 July issue of Nature. At the end of 1954, Bernal secured funding for Franklin from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), which enabled her to work as a senior scientist supervising her own research group. John Finch, a physics student from King's College London, subsequently joined Franklin's group, followed by Kenneth Holmes, a Cambridge graduate, in July 1955. Despite the ARC funding, Franklin wrote to Bernal that the existing facilities remained highly unsuited for conducting research "...my desk and lab are on the fourth floor, my X-ray tube in the basement, and I am responsible for the work of four people distributed over the basement, first and second floors on two different staircases."
RNA research
Franklin continued to explore another major nucleic acid, RNA, a molecule equally central to life as DNA. She again used X-ray crystallography to study the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), an RNA virus. Her meeting with Aaron Klug in early 1954 led to a longstanding and successful collaboration. Klug had just then earned his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined Birkbeck in late 1953. In 1955 Franklin published her first major works on TMV in Nature, in which she described that all TMV virus particles were of the same length. This was in direct contradiction to the ideas of the eminent virologist Norman Pirie, though her observation ultimately proved correct.
Franklin assigned the study of the complete structure of TMV to her PhD student Holmes. They soon discovered (published in 1956) that the covering of TMV was protein molecules arranged in helices. Her colleague Klug worked on spherical viruses with his student Finch, with Franklin coordinating and overseeing the work. As a team, from 1956 they started publishing seminal works on TMV, cucumber virus 4 and turnip yellow mosaic virus.
Franklin also had a research assistant, James Watt, subsidised by the National Coal Board and was now the leader of the ARC group at Birkbeck. The Birkbeck team members continued working on RNA viruses affecting several plants, including potato, turnip, tomato and pea. In 1955 the team was joined by an American post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. He worked on the precise location of RNA molecules in TMV. In 1956 he and Franklin published individual but complementary papers in the 10 March issue of Nature, in which they showed that the RNA in TMV is wound along the inner surface of the hollow virus. Caspar was not an enthusiastic writer, and Franklin had to write the entire manuscript for him.
Her research grant from ARC expired at the end of 1957, and she was never given the full salary proposed by Birkbeck. After Bernal requested ARC chairman Lord Rothschild, she was given a one-year extension ending in March 1958.
Expo 58, the first major international fair after World War II, was to be held in Brussels in 1958. Franklin was invited to make a five-foot high model of TMV, which she started in 1957. Her materials included table tennis balls and plastic bicycle handlebar grips. The Brussels world's fair, with an exhibit of her virus model at the International Science Pavilion, opened on 17 April, one day after she died.
Polio virus
In 1956, Franklin visited the University of California, Berkeley, where colleagues suggested her group research the polio virus. In 1957 she applied for a grant from the United States Public Health Service of the National Institutes of Health, which approved £10,000 (equivalent to £ in ) for three years, the largest fund ever received at Birkbeck. In her grant application, Franklin mentioned her new interest in animal virus research. She obtained Bernal's consent in July 1957, though serious concerns were raised after she disclosed her intentions to research live, instead of killed, polio virus at Birkbeck. Eventually, Bernal arranged for the virus to be safely stored at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine during the group's research. With her group, Franklin then commenced deciphering the structure of the polio virus while it was in a crystalline state. She attempted to mount the virus crystals in capillary tubes for X-ray studies, but was forced to end her work due to her rapidly failing health.
After Franklin's death, Klug succeeded her as group leader, and he, Finch and Holmes continued researching the structure of the polio virus. They eventually succeeded in obtaining extremely detailed X-ray images of the virus. In June 1959, Klug and Finch published the group's findings, revealing the polio virus to have icosahedral symmetry, and in the same paper suggested the possibility for all spherical viruses to possess the same symmetry, as it permitted the greatest possible number (60) of identical structural units. The team moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, in 1962, and the old Torrington Square laboratories were demolished four years later, in May 1966.
Personal life
Franklin was best described as an agnostic. Her lack of religious faith apparently did not stem from anyone's influence, rather from her own line of thinking. She developed her scepticism as a young child. Her mother recalled that she refused to believe in the existence of God, and remarked, "Well, anyhow, how do you know He isn't She?" She later made her position clear, now based on her scientific experience, and wrote to her father in 1940:
However, she did not abandon Jewish traditions. As the only Jewish student at Lindores School, she had Hebrew lessons on her own while her friends went to church. She joined the Jewish Society while in her first term at Cambridge, out of respect of her grandfather's request. Franklin confided to her sister that she was "always consciously a Jew".
Franklin loved travelling abroad, particularly trekking. She first "qualified" at Christmas 1929 for a vacation at Menton, France, where her grandfather went to escape the English winter. Her family frequently spent vacations in Wales or Cornwall. A trip to France in 1938 gave her a lasting love for France and its language. She considered the French lifestyle at that time as "vastly superior to that of English". In contrast, she described English people as having "vacant stupid faces and childlike complacency". Her family was almost stuck in Norway in 1939, as World War II was declared on their way home. In another instance, she trekked the French Alps with Jean Kerslake in 1946, which almost cost her her life. She slipped off a slope, and was barely rescued. But she wrote to her mother, "I am quite sure I could wander happily in France forever. I love the people, the country and the food."
She made several professional trips to the United States, and was particularly jovial among her American friends and constantly displayed her sense of humour. William Ginoza of the University of California, Los Angeles, later recalled that she was the opposite of Watson's description of her, and as Maddox comments, Americans enjoyed her "sunny side".
In his book The Double Helix, Watson provides his first-person account of the search for and discovery of DNA. He paints a sympathetic but sometimes critical portrait of Franklin. He praises her intellect and scientific acumen, but portrays her as difficult to work with and careless with her appearance. After introducing her in the book as "Rosalind", he writes that he and his male colleagues usually referred to her as "Rosy", the name people at King's College London used behind her back. She did not want to be called by that name because she had a great-aunt Rosy. In the family, she was called "Ros". To others, she was simply "Rosalind". She made it clear to an American visiting friend, Dorothea Raacke, while sitting with her at Crick's table in The Eagle pub in Cambridge: Raacke asked her how she was to be called and she replied "I'm afraid it will have to be Rosalind", adding "Most definitely not Rosy."
She often expressed her political views. She initially blamed Winston Churchill for inciting the war, but later admired him for his speeches. She actively supported Professor John Ryle as an independent candidate for parliament in the 1940 Cambridge University by-election, but he was unsuccessful.
She did not seem to have an intimate relationship with anyone, and always kept her deepest personal feelings to herself. After her younger days, she avoided close friendship with the opposite sex. In her later years, Evi Ellis, who had shared her bedroom when a child refugee and who was then married to Ernst Wohlgemuth and had moved to Notting Hill from Chicago, tried matchmaking her with Ralph Miliband but failed. Franklin once told Evi that her flatmate asked her for a drink, but she did not understand the intention. She was quite infatuated by her French mentor Mering, who had a wife and a mistress. Mering also admitted that he was captivated by her "intelligence and beauty". According to Anne Sayre, Franklin did confess her feeling for Mering when she was undergoing a second surgery, but Maddox reported that the family denied this. Mering wept when he visited her later, and destroyed all her letters after her death.
Her closest personal affair was probably with her once post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. In 1956, she visited him at his home in Colorado after her tour to University of California, Berkeley, and she was known to remark later that Caspar was one "she might have loved, might have married". In her letter to Sayre, she described him as "an ideal match".
Illness, death, and burial
In mid-1956, while on a work-related trip to the United States, Franklin first began to suspect a health problem. While in New York she found difficulty in zipping her skirt; her stomach had bulged. Back in London she consulted Mair Livingstone, who asked her, "You're not pregnant?" to which she retorted, "I wish I were." Her case was marked "URGENT". An operation on 4 September of the same year revealed two tumours in her abdomen. After this period and other periods of hospitalisation, Franklin spent time convalescing with various friends and family members. These included Anne Sayre, Francis Crick, his wife Odile, with whom Franklin had formed a strong friendship, and finally with the Roland and Nina Franklin family where Rosalind's nieces and nephews bolstered her spirits.
Franklin chose not to stay with her parents because her mother's uncontrollable grief and crying upset her too much. Even while undergoing cancer treatment, Franklin continued to work, and her group continued to produce results – seven papers in 1956 and six more in 1957. At the end of 1957, Franklin again fell ill and she was admitted to the Royal Marsden Hospital. On 2 December, she made her will. She named her three brothers as executors and made her colleague Aaron Klug the principal beneficiary, who would receive £3,000 and her Austin car. Of her other friends, Mair Livingstone would get £2,000, Anne Piper £1,000, and her nurse Miss Griffith £250. The remainder of the estate was to be used for charities.
She returned to work in January 1958, and was also given a promotion to Research Associate in Biophysics on 25 February. She fell ill again on 30 March, and she died on 16 April 1958, in Chelsea, London, of bronchopneumonia, secondary carcinomatosis, and ovarian cancer. Exposure to X-ray radiation is sometimes considered to be a possible factor in her illness.
Other members of her family have died of cancer, and the incidence of gynaecological cancer is known to be disproportionately high among Ashkenazi Jews. Her death certificate states: A Research Scientist, Spinster, Daughter of Ellis Arthur Franklin, a Banker. She was interred on 17 April 1958 in the family plot at Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery at Beaconsfield Road in London Borough of Brent. The inscription on her tombstone reads:
IN MEMORY OF ROSALIND ELSIE FRANKLIN מ' רחל בת ר' יהודה [Rochel/Rachel daughter of Yehuda, her father's Hebrew name] DEARLY LOVED ELDER DAUGHTER OF ELLIS AND MURIEL FRANKLIN 25TH JULY 1920 – 16TH APRIL 1958 SCIENTIST HER RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES ON VIRUSES REMAIN OF LASTING BENEFIT TO MANKIND ת נ צ ב ה [Hebrew initials for "her soul shall be bound in the bundle of life"]
Franklin's will was proven on 30 June, with her estate assessed for probate at £11,278 10s. 9d. (equivalent to £ in ).
Controversies after death
Alleged sexism toward Franklin
Anne Sayre, Franklin's friend and one of her biographers, says in her 1975 book, Rosalind Franklin and DNA: "In 1951 ... King's College London as an institution, was not distinguished for the welcome that it offered to women ... Rosalind ... was unused to purdah [a religious and social institution of female seclusion] ... there was one other woman scientist on the laboratory staff". The molecular biologist Andrzej Stasiak notes: "Sayre's book became widely cited in feminist circles for exposing rampant sexism in science." Farooq Hussain says: "there were seven women in the biophysics department ... Jean Hanson became an FRS, Dame Honor B. Fell, Director of Strangeways Laboratory, supervised the biologists". Maddox states: "Randall ... did have many women on his staff ... they found him ... sympathetic and helpful."
Sayre asserts that "while the male staff at King's lunched in a large, comfortable, rather clubby dining room" the female staff of all ranks "lunched in the student's hall or away from the premises". However, Elkin claims that most of the MRC group (including Franklin) typically ate lunch together in the mixed dining room discussed below. And Maddox says, of Randall: "He liked to see his flock, men and women, come together for morning coffee, and at lunch in the joint dining room, where he ate with them nearly every day." Francis Crick also commented that "her colleagues treated men and women scientists alike".
Sayre also discusses at length Franklin's struggle in pursuing science, particularly her father's concern about women in academic professions. This account had led to accusations of sexism in regard to Ellis Franklin's attitude to his daughter. A good deal of information explicitly claims that he strongly opposed her entering Newnham College. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) biography of Franklin goes further, stating that he refused to pay her fees, and that an aunt stepped in to do that for her. Her sister, Jenifer Glynn, has stated that those stories are myths, and that her parents fully supported Franklin's entire career.
Sexism is said to pervade the memoir of one peer, James Watson, in his book The Double Helix, published 10 years after Franklin's death and after Watson had returned from Cambridge to Harvard. His Cambridge colleague, Peter Pauling, wrote in a letter, "Morris [sic] Wilkins is supposed to be doing this work; Miss Franklin is evidently a fool." Crick acknowledges later, "I'm afraid we always used to adopt – let's say, a patronizing attitude towards her."
Glynn accuses Sayre of erroneously making her sister a feminist heroine, and sees Watson's The Double Helix as the root of what she calls the "Rosalind Industry". She conjectures that the stories of alleged sexism would "have embarrassed her [Rosalind Franklin] almost as much as Watson's account would have upset her", and declared that "she [Rosalind] was never a feminist." Klug and Crick have also concurred that Franklin was definitely not a feminist.
Franklin's letter to her parents in January 1939 is often taken as reflecting her own prejudiced attitude, and the claim that she was "not immune to the sexism rampant in these circles". In the letter, she remarked that one lecturer was "very good, though female". Maddox maintains that was a circumstantial comment rather than an example of gender bias, and that it was a expression of admiration because, at the time, woman teachers of science were a rarity. In fact, Maddox says, Franklin laughed at men who were embarrassed by the appointment of the first female professor, Dorothy Garrod.
Contribution to the model/structure of DNA
Rosalind Franklin's first important contributions to the model popularised by Crick and Watson was her lecture at the seminar in November 1951, where she presented to those present, among them Watson, the two forms of the molecule, type A and type B, her position being that the phosphate units are located in the external part of the molecule. She also specified the amount of water to be found in the molecule in accordance with other parts of it, data that have considerable importance for the stability of the molecule. Franklin was the first to discover and formulate these facts, which in fact constituted the basis for all later attempts to build a model of the molecule. However, Watson, at the time ignorant of the chemistry, failed to comprehend the crucial information, and this led to the construction of a wrong three-helical model.
The other contribution included an X-ray photograph of B-DNA (called Photo 51) taken by Franklin's student Gosling that was briefly shown to Watson by Wilkins in January 1953, and a report written for an MRC biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952 which was shown by Perutz at the Cavendish Laboratory to both Crick and Watson. This MRC report contained data from the King's group, including some of Franklin's and Gosling's work, and was given to Crick – who was working on his thesis on haemoglobin structure – by his thesis supervisor Perutz, a member of the visiting committee.
Sayre's biography of Franklin contains a story alleging that the photograph 51 in question was shown to Watson by Wilkins without Franklin's permission, and that this constituted a case of bad science ethics. Others dispute this story, asserting that Wilkins had been given photograph 51 by Franklin's PhD student Gosling because she was leaving King's to work at Birkbeck, and there was allegedly nothing untoward in this transfer of data to Wilkins because Director Randall had insisted that all DNA work belonged exclusively to King's and had instructed Franklin in a letter to even stop working on it and submit her data. Also, it was implied by Horace Freeland Judson, that Maurice Wilkins had taken the photograph out of Franklin's drawer, but this is also said to be incorrect.
Likewise, Perutz saw "no harm" in showing an MRC report containing the conclusions of Franklin and Gosling's X-ray data analysis to Crick, since it had not been marked as confidential, although "The report was not expected to reach outside eyes". Indeed, after the publication of Watson's The Double Helix exposed Perutz's act, he received so many letters questioning his judgment that he felt the need to both answer them all and to post a general statement in Science excusing himself on the basis of being "inexperienced and casual in administrative matters".
Perutz also claimed that the MRC information was already made available to the Cambridge team when Watson had attended Franklin's seminar in November 1951. A preliminary version of much of the important material contained in the 1952 December MRC report had been presented by Franklin in a talk she had given in November 1951, which Watson had attended but not understood.
The Perutz letter was as said one of three letters, published with letters by Wilkins and Watson, which discussed their various contributions. Watson clarified the importance of the data obtained from the MRC report as he had not recorded these data while attending Franklin's lecture in 1951. The upshot of all this was that when Crick and Watson started to build their model in February 1953 they were working with critical parameters that had been determined by Franklin in 1951, and which she and Gosling had significantly refined in 1952, as well as with published data and other very similar data to those available at King's. It was generally believed that Franklin was never aware that her work had been used during construction of the model, but Gosling asserted in his 2013 interview that, "Yes. Oh, she did know about that."
Recognition of her contribution to the model of DNA
Upon the completion of their model, Crick and Watson had invited Wilkins to be a co-author of their paper describing the structure. Wilkins turned down this offer, as he had taken no part in building the model. He later expressed regret that greater discussion of co-authorship had not taken place as this might have helped to clarify the contribution the work at King's had made to the discovery. There is no doubt that Franklin's experimental data were used by Crick and Watson to build their model of DNA in 1953. Some, including Maddox, have explained this citation omission by suggesting that it may be a question of circumstance, because it would have been very difficult to cite the unpublished work from the MRC report they had seen.
Indeed, a clear timely acknowledgment would have been awkward, given the unorthodox manner in which data were transferred from King's to Cambridge. However, methods were available. Watson and Crick could have cited the MRC report as a personal communication or else cited the Acta articles in press, or most easily, the third Nature paper that they knew was in press. One of the most important accomplishments of Maddox's widely acclaimed biography is that Maddox made a well-received case for inadequate acknowledgement. "Such acknowledgement as they gave her was very muted and always coupled with the name of Wilkins".
Fifteen years after the fact, the first clear recitation of Franklin's contribution appeared as it permeated Watson's account, The Double Helix, although it was buried under descriptions of Watson's (often quite negative) regard towards Franklin during the period of their work on DNA. This attitude is epitomized in the confrontation between Watson and Franklin over a preprint of Pauling's mistaken DNA manuscript. Watson's words impelled Sayre to write her rebuttal, in which the entire chapter nine, "Winner Take All" has the structure of a legal brief dissecting and analyzing the topic of acknowledgement.
Sayre's early analysis was often ignored because of perceived feminist overtones in her book. Watson and Crick did not cite the X-ray diffraction work of Wilkins and Franklin in their original paper, though they admit having "been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M. H. F. Wilkins, Dr. R. E. Franklin and their co-workers at King's College London". In fact, Watson and Crick cited no experimental data at all in support of their model. Franklin and Gosling's publication of the DNA X-ray image, in the same issue of Nature, served as the principal evidence:Thus our general ideas are not inconsistent with the model proposed by Watson and Crick in the preceding communication.
Nobel Prize
Franklin was never nominated for a Nobel Prize. Her work was a crucial part in the discovery of DNA's structure, which along with subsequent related work led to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins being awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962. She had died in 1958, and during her lifetime the DNA structure was not considered to be fully proven. It took Wilkins and his colleagues about seven years to collect enough data to prove and refine the proposed DNA structure. Moreover, its biological significance, as proposed by Watson and Crick, was not established. General acceptance for the DNA double helix and its function did not start until late in the 1950s, leading to Nobel nominations in 1960, 1961, and 1962 for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and in 1962 for Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The first breakthrough was from Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958, who experimentally showed the DNA replication of a bacterium Escherichia coli. In what is now known as the Meselson–Stahl experiment, DNA was found to replicate into two double-stranded helices, with each helix having one of the original DNA strands. This DNA replication was firmly established by 1961 after further demonstration in other species, and of the stepwise chemical reaction. According to the 1961 Crick–Monod letter, this experimental proof, along with Wilkins having initiated the DNA diffraction work, were the reasons why Crick felt that Wilkins should be included in the DNA Nobel Prize.
In 1962 the Nobel Prize was subsequently awarded to Crick, Watson, and Wilkins. Nobel rules now prohibit posthumous nominations (though this statute was not formally in effect until 1974) or splitting of Prizes more than three ways. The award was for their body of work on nucleic acids and not exclusively for the discovery of the structure of DNA. By the time of the award Wilkins had been working on the structure of DNA for more than 10 years, and had done much to confirm the Watson–Crick model. Crick had been working on the genetic code at Cambridge and Watson had worked on RNA for some years. Watson has suggested that ideally Wilkins and Franklin would have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Pauling, who received the Nobel Peace Prize that year, believed and earlier warned the Nobel Committee in 1960 that "it might well be premature to make an award of a Prize to Watson and Crick, because of existing uncertainty about the detailed structure of nucleic acid. I myself feel that it is likely that the general nature of the Watson-Crick structure is correct, but that there is doubt about details." He was partly right as an alternative of Watson-Crick base pairing, called the Hoogsteen base pairing that can form triple DNA strand, was discovered by Karst Hoogsteen in 1963.
Aaron Klug, Franklin's colleague and principal beneficiary in her will, was the sole winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1982, "for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes". This work was exactly what Franklin had started and which she introduced to Klug, and it is highly plausible that, were she alive, she would have shared the Nobel Prize.
Awards and honours
Posthumous recognition
1982, Iota Sigma Pi designated Franklin a National Honorary Member.
1984, St Paul's Girls School established the Rosalind Franklin Technology Centre.
1992, English Heritage placed a blue plaque commemorating Franklin on the building in Drayton Gardens, London, where she lived until her death.
1993, King's College London renamed the Orchard Residence at its Hampstead Campus as Rosalind Franklin Hall.
1993, King's College London placed a blue plaque on its outside wall bearing the inscription: "R. E. Franklin, R. G. Gosling, A. R. Stokes, M. H. F. Wilkins, H. R. Wilson – King's College London – DNA – X-ray diffraction studies – 1953."
1995, Newnham College, Cambridge opened a graduate residence named Rosalind Franklin Building, and put a bust of her in its garden.
1997, Birkbeck, University of London School of Crystallography opened the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory.
1997, a newly discovered asteroid was named 9241 Rosfranklin.
1998, National Portrait Gallery in London added Rosalind Franklin's portrait next to those of Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins.
1999, the Institute of Physics at Portland Place, London, renamed its theatre as Franklin Lecture Theatre.
2000, King's College London opened the Franklin–Wilkins Building in honour of Franklin's and Wilkins's work at the college.
2000, We the Curious (formally @Bristol) features the Rosalind Franklin Room.
2001, the American National Cancer Institute established the Rosalind E. Franklin Award for women in cancer research.
2002, the University of Groningen, supported by the European Union, launched the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship to encourage women researchers to become full university professors.
2003, the Royal Society established the Rosalind Franklin Award (officially the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture) for an outstanding contribution to any area of natural science, engineering or technology. The award consists of a silver-coated medal and a grant of £30,000.
2003, the Royal Society of Chemistry declared King's College London as "National Historic Chemical Landmark" and placed a plaque on the wall near the entrance of the building, with the inscription: "Near this site Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, Raymond Gosling, Alexander Stokes and Herbert Wilson performed experiments that led to the discovery of the structure of DNA. This work revolutionised our understanding of the chemistry behind life itself."
2004, Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, located in North Chicago, Illinois, USA changed its name to the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. It also adopted a new motto "Life in Discovery", and Photo 51 as its logo.
2004, the Gruber Foundation started the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for two female geneticists from all over the world. It carries an annual fund of $25,000, each award is for three years, and selection is made by a joint committee appointed by the Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Human Genetics.
2004, the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and the APS Users Organization (APSUO) started the APSUO Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for young scientists who made contributions through the APS.
2005, the DNA sculpture (donated by James Watson) outside Clare College, Cambridge's Memorial Court incorporates the words "The double helix model was supported by the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins."
2005, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, based in Florida, US, established an annual award the Rosalind Franklin Prize for Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research.
2006, the Rosalind Franklin Society was established in New York by Mary Ann Liebert. The Society aims to recognise, foster, and advance the important contributions of women in the life sciences and affiliated disciplines.
2008, Columbia University awarded an honorary Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Franklin, "for her seminal contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA".
2008, the Institute of Physics established a biennial award the Rosalind Franklin Medal and Prize.
2012, the bioinformatics education software platform Rosalind was named in honour of Franklin.
2012, The Rosalind Franklin Building was opened at Nottingham Trent University.
2013, Google honoured Rosalind Franklin with a doodle, showing her gazing at a double helix structure of DNA with an X-ray of Photo 51 beyond it.
2013, a plaque was placed on the wall of The Eagle pub in Cambridge commemorating Franklin's contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA, on the sixtieth anniversary of Crick and Watson's announcement in the pub.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology was established by Biotechnology Industry Organization (Biotechnology Innovation Organization since 2016) in collaboration with the Rosalind Franklin Society, for an outstanding woman in the field of industrial biotechnology and bioprocessing.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science unveiled a bronze statue of Franklin, created by Julie Rotblatt-Amrany, near its front entrance.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin STEM Elementary was opened in Pasco, Washington, the first science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) elementary school in the district.
2014, the University of Wolverhampton opened its new laboratory building named the Rosalind Franklin Science Building.
2015, Newnham College Boat Club, Cambridge, launched a new racing VIII, naming it the Rosalind Franklin.
2015, the Rosalind Franklin Appathon was launched by University College London as a national app competition for women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine).
2015, a high performance computing and cloud facility in London was named Rosalind.
2016, the British Humanist Association added the Rosalind Franklin Lecture to its annual lecture series, aimed to explore and celebrate the contribution of women towards the promotion and advancement of humanism.
2016, the Rosalind Franklin Prize and Tech Day was held on 23 February in London, organised by University College London, i-sense, UCL Enterprise, the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the UCL Athena Swan Charter.
2017, DSM opened the Rosalind Franklin Biotechnology Center in Delft, the Netherlands.
2017, Historic England gave a heritage listing, at Grade II, to Franklin's tomb at Willesden Jewish Cemetery on the grounds of it being of "special architectural or historic interest". Historic England said that "the tomb commemorates the life and achievements of Rosalind Franklin, a scientist of exceptional distinction, whose pioneering work helped lay the foundations of molecular biology; Franklin’s X-ray observation of DNA contributed to the discovery of its helical structure."
2018, the Rosalind Franklin Institute, an autonomous medical research centre under the join venture of 10 universities and funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation, was launched at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus on 6 June, and was officially opened on 29 September 2021.
2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) named its ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin.
2019, the University of Portsmouth announced that it changed the name James Watson Halls to Rosalind Franklin Halls from 2 September.
2020, Franklin was selected for the Time 100 Women of the Year, for 1953.
2020, the UK Royal Mint released a 50-pence coin in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Franklin’s birth on 25 July. It features a stylized version of Photo 51.
2020, South Norfolk Council renamed a road on the Norwich Research Park in her honour in July 2020. The road is home to the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia's Bob Champion Research and Education Building.
2020, Trinity College Dublin announced that its library had previously held forty busts, all of whom were of men, was commissioning four new busts of women one of whom would be Franklin.
2020, Aston Medical School instituted an annual competition for medical students named the Rosalind Franklin Essay Prize, funded by its alumni and Rosalind's nephew, Daniel Franklin, executive and diplomatic editor of The Economist.
2021, a bronze tondo of Rosalind Franklin was placed on Hampstead Manor and unveiled on 15 March.
2021, the Rosalind Franklin laboratory was opened in the Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 13 July as the largest laboratory for COVID-19 testing under the UK Health Security Agency and National Health Service Test and Trace network, and supported by the University of Warwick.
Cultural references
Franklin's part in the discovery of the nature of DNA was shown in the 1987 TV Movie Life Story, starring Juliet Stevenson as Franklin, and with Tim Pigott-Smith as Crick, Alan Howard as Wilkins and Jeff Goldblum as Watson. This movie portrayed Franklin as somewhat stern, but also alleged that Watson and Crick did use a lot of her work to do theirs.
A 56-minute documentary of the life and scientific contributions of Franklin, DNA – Secret of Photo 51, was broadcast in 2003 on PBS Nova. Narrated by Barbara Flynn, the program features interviews with Wilkins, Gosling, Klug, Maddox, including Franklin's friends Vittorio Luzzati, Caspar, Anne Piper, and Sue Richley. The UK version produced by BBC is titled Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady.
The first episode of another PBS documentary serial, DNA, was aired on 4 January 2004. The episode titled The Secret of Life centres much around the contributions of Franklin. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, it features Watson, Wilkins, Gosling and Peter Pauling (son of Linus Pauling).
A play entitled Rosalind: A Question of Life was written by Deborah Gearing to mark the work of Franklin, and was first performed on 1 November 2005 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and published by Oberon Books in 2006.
Another play, Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, published in 2011, has been produced at several places in the US and in late 2015 was put on at the Noel Coward Theatre, London, with Nicole Kidman playing Franklin. Ziegler's version of the 1951–53 'race' for the structure of DNA sometimes emphasizes the pivotal role of Franklin's research and her personality. Although sometimes altering history for dramatic effect, the play nevertheless illuminates many of the key issues of how science was and is conducted.
False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch is a play about the life of Marie Curie in which Franklin is portrayed as frustrated and angry at the lack of recognition for her scientific contributions. Hostility between the two is also depicted in season 3 of Harvey Girls Forever.
Publications
Rosalind Franklin's most notable publications are listed below. The last two were published posthumously.
See also
Timeline of women in science
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer who discovered the most elemental composition of stars
References
Citations
Sources
Elkin, L. O., Rosalind Franklin and the Double Helix Physics Today March 2003, pp. 42–48.
Holt, J. (2002) "Photo Finish: Rosalind Franklin and the great DNA race" The New Yorker October
Watson, J. Letter to Science, 164, p. 1539, 27 (1969).
Further reading
External links
Recordings by Aaron Klug at Web of Stories:
by Sir Aaron Klug
The first American newspaper coverage of the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Website for television program first broadcast in 2003
Documents from the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Also available at
1920 births
1958 deaths
20th-century British biologists
20th-century British chemists
20th-century English scientists
20th-century British women scientists
Academics of Birkbeck, University of London
Academics of King's College London
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery
Carbon scientists
Civil Defence Service personnel
Crystallographers
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from ovarian cancer
English agnostics
English Jews
English molecular biologists
English physical chemists
English women biologists
English women chemists
Rosalind
Jewish agnostics
Jewish biophysicists
Jewish British scientists
Jewish women scientists
People educated at Norland Place School
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
People from Notting Hill
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Rosalind Franklin
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Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular B.A. and M.A. degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and helped her to improve her spoken French. Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide for her what to work upon, and at that time was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin Irene Franklin asked to join her in a vacated house of her uncle in Putney. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids. She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her Ph.D. thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge University awarded her a Ph.D. in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers. CANNOTANSWER
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joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
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Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognized during her life, for which she has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology".
She graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Disappointed by Norrish’s lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The research on coal helped her earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1945. Moving to Paris in 1947 as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, she became an accomplished X-ray crystallographer. After joining King's College London in 1951 as a research associate, she discovered the key properties of DNA, which eventually facilitated the correct description of the double helix structure of DNA. Owing to disagreement with her director, John Randall, and her colleague Maurice Wilkins, she was compelled to move to Birkbeck College in 1953.
Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA while at King's College London, particularly Photo 51, taken by her student Raymond Gosling, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix for which Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Watson suggested that Franklin would have ideally been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Wilkins but, although there was not yet a rule against posthumous awards, the Nobel Committee generally did not make posthumous nominations.
Working under John Desmond Bernal, Franklin led pioneering work at Birkbeck on the molecular structures of viruses. On the day before she was to unveil the structure of tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels, she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 37 in 1958. Her team member Aaron Klug continued her research, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982.
Early life
Franklin was born on 25 July 1920 in 50 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill, London, into an affluent and influential British Jewish family.
Family
Franklin's father was Ellis Arthur Franklin (1894–1964), a politically liberal London merchant banker who taught at the city's Working Men's College, and her mother was Muriel Frances Waley (1894–1976). Rosalind was the elder daughter and the second child in the family of five children. David (1919–1986) was the eldest brother; Colin (1923–2020), Roland (born 1926), and Jenifer (born 1929) were her younger siblings.
Franklin's paternal great-uncle was Herbert Samuel (later Viscount Samuel), who was the Home Secretary in 1916 and the first practising Jew to serve in the British Cabinet. Her aunt, Helen Caroline Franklin, known in the family as Mamie, was married to Norman de Mattos Bentwich, who was the Attorney General in the British Mandate of Palestine. Helen was active in trade union organisation and the women's suffrage movement and was later a member of the London County Council. Franklin's uncle, Hugh Franklin, was another prominent figure in the suffrage movement, although his actions therein embarrassed the Franklin family. Rosalind's middle name, "Elsie", was in memory of Hugh's first wife, who died in the 1918 flu pandemic. Her family was actively involved with the Working Men's College, where her father taught the subjects of electricity, magnetism, and the history of the Great War in the evenings, later becoming the vice principal.
Franklin's parents helped settle Jewish refugees from Europe who had escaped the Nazis, particularly those from the Kindertransport. They took in two Jewish children to their home, and one of them, a nine-year-old Austrian, Evi Eisenstädter, shared Jenifer's room. (Evi's father Hans Mathias Eisenstädter had been imprisoned in Buchenwald, and after liberation, the family adopted the surname "Ellis".)
Education
From early childhood, Franklin showed exceptional scholastic abilities. At age six, she joined her brother Roland at Norland Place School, a private day school in West London. At that time, her aunt Mamie (Helen Bentwich), described her to her husband: "Rosalind is alarmingly clever – she spends all her time doing arithmetic for pleasure, and invariably gets her sums right." She also developed an early interest in cricket and hockey. At age nine, she entered a boarding school, Lindores School for Young Ladies in Sussex. The school was near the seaside, and the family wanted a good environment for her delicate health.
She was 11 when she went to St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, west London, one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. At St Paul's she excelled in science, Latin, and sports. She also learned German, and became fluent in French, a language she would later find useful. She topped her classes, and won annual awards. Her only educational weakness was in music, for which the school music director, the composer Gustav Holst, once called upon her mother to inquire whether she might have suffered from hearing problems or tonsillitis. With six distinctions, she passed her matriculation in 1938, winning a scholarship for university, the School Leaving Exhibition of £30 a year for three years, and £5 from her grandfather. Her father asked her to give the scholarship to a deserving refugee student.
Cambridge and World War II
Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular BA and MA degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and who helped her to improve her conversational French.
Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide upon the assignment of work for her. At that time he was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she initially stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin, Irene Franklin, proposed that they share living quarters at a vacated house in Putney that belonged to her uncle. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids.
She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her PhD thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge awarded her a PhD in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers.
Career and research
Paris
With World War II ending in 1945, Franklin asked Adrienne Weill for help and to let her know of job openings for "a physical chemist who knows very little physical chemistry, but quite a lot about the holes in coal." At a conference in the autumn of 1946, Weill introduced her to Marcel Mathieu, a director of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the network of institutes that comprise the major part of the scientific research laboratories supported by the French government. This led to her appointment with Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État in Paris. She joined the labo (as referred to by the staff) of Mering on 14 February 1947 as one of the fifteen chercheurs (researchers).
Mering was an X-ray crystallographer who applied X-ray diffraction to the study of rayon and other amorphous substances, in contrast to the thousands of regular crystals that had been studied by this method for many years. He taught her the practical aspects of applying X-ray crystallography to amorphous substances. This presented new challenges in the conduct of experiments and the interpretation of results. Franklin applied them to further problems related to coal and to other carbonaceous materials, in particular the changes to the arrangement of atoms when these are converted to graphite. She published several further papers on this work which has become part of the mainstream of the physics and chemistry of coal and carbon. She coined the terms graphitising and non-graphitising carbon. The coal work was covered in a 1993 monograph, and in the regularly-published textbook Chemistry and Physics of Carbon. Mering continued the study of carbon in various forms, using X-ray diffraction and other methods.
King's College London
In 1950, Franklin was granted a three-year Turner & Newall Fellowship to work at King's College London. In January 1951, she started working as a research associate in the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Biophysics Unit, directed by John Randall. She was originally appointed to work on X-ray diffraction of proteins and lipids in solution, but Randall redirected her work to DNA fibres because of new developments in the field, and she was to be the only experienced experimental diffraction researcher at King's at the time. Randall made this reassignment, even before Franklin started working at King's, because of the pioneering work by DNA researcher Maurice Wilkins, and he reassigned Raymond Gosling, the graduate student who had been working with Wilkins, to be her assistant.
In 1950, Swiss chemist Rudolf Signer in Berne prepared a highly purified DNA sample from calf thymus. He freely distributed the DNA sample, later referred to as the Signer DNA, in early May 1950 at the meeting of the Faraday Society in London, and Wilkins was one of the recipients. Even using crude equipment, Wilkins and Gosling had obtained a good-quality diffraction picture of the DNA sample which sparked further interest in this molecule. But Randall had not indicated to them that he had asked Franklin to take over both the DNA diffraction work and guidance of Gosling's thesis. It was while Wilkins was away on holiday that Randall, in a letter in December 1950, assured Franklin that "as far as the experimental X-ray effort there would be for the moment only yourself and Gosling." Randall's lack of communication about this reassignment significantly contributed to the well documented friction that developed between Wilkins and Franklin. When Wilkins returned, he handed over the Signer DNA and Gosling to Franklin.
Franklin, now working with Gosling, started to apply her expertise in X-ray diffraction techniques to the structure of DNA. She used a new fine-focus X-ray tube and microcamera ordered by Wilkins, but which she refined, adjusted and focused carefully. Drawing upon her physical chemistry background, a critical innovation she applied was making the camera chamber that could be controlled for its humidity using different saturated salt solutions. When Wilkins inquired about this improved technique, she replied in terms which offended him as she had "an air of cool superiority".
Franklin's habit of intensely looking people in the eye while being concise, impatient and direct unnerved many of her colleagues. In stark contrast, Wilkins was very shy, and slowly calculating in speech while he avoided looking anyone directly in the eye. With the ingenious humidity-controlling camera, Franklin was soon able to produce X-ray images of better quality than those of Wilkins. She immediately discovered that the DNA sample could exist in two forms: at a relative humidity higher than 75%, the DNA fibre became long and thin; when it was drier, it became short and fat. She originally referred to the former as "wet" and the latter as "crystalline."
On the structure of the crystalline DNA, Franklin first recorded the analysis in her notebook, which reads: "Evidence for spiral [meaning helical] structure. Straight chain untwisted is highly improbable. Absence of reflections on meridian in χtalline [crystalline] form suggests spiral structure." An immediate discovery from this was that the phosphate group lies outside of the main DNA chain; she however could not make out whether there could be two or three chains. She presented their data at a lecture in November 1951, in King's College London. In her lecture notes, she wrote the following:The results suggest a helical structure (which must be very closely packed) containing 2, 3 or 4 co‐axial nucleic acid chains per helical unit, and having the phosphate groups near the outside.Franklin then named "A" and "B" respectively for the "wet" and "crystalline" forms. (The biological functions of A-DNA were discovered only 60 years later.) Because of the intense personality conflict developing between Franklin and Wilkins, Randall divided the work on DNA. Franklin chose the data rich "A" form while Wilkins selected the "B" form. By the end of 1951 it became generally accepted at King's that the B-DNA was a helix, but after she had recorded an asymmetrical image in May 1952, Franklin became unconvinced that the A-DNA was a helix. In July 1952, as a practical joke on Wilkins (who frequently expressed his view that both forms of DNA were helical), Franklin and Gosling produced a funeral notice regretting the 'death' of helical A-DNA, which runs:It is with great regret that we have to announce the death, on Friday 18th July 1952 of DNA helix (crystalline). Death followed a protracted illness which an intensive course of Besselised [referring to Bessel function that was used to analyse the X-ray diffraction patterns] injections had failed to relieve. A memorial service will be held next Monday or Tuesday. It is hoped that Dr M H F Wilkins will speak in memory of the late helix. [Signed Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling.]During 1952, they worked at applying the Patterson function to the X-ray pictures of DNA they had produced. This was a long and labour-intensive approach but would yield significant insight into the structure of the molecule. Franklin was fully committed to experimental data and was sternly against theoretical or model buildings, as she said, "We are not going to speculate, we are going to wait, we are going to let the spots on this photograph tell us what the [DNA] structure is." The X-ray diffraction pictures, including the landmark Photo 51 taken by Gosling at this time, have been called by John Desmond Bernal as "amongst the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken".
By January 1953, Franklin had reconciled her conflicting data, concluding that both DNA forms had two helices, and had started to write a series of three draft manuscripts, two of which included a double helical DNA backbone (see below). Her two A-DNA manuscripts reached Acta Crystallographica in Copenhagen on 6 March 1953, one day before Crick and Watson had completed their model on B-DNA. She must have mailed them while the Cambridge team was building their model, and certainly had written them before she knew of their work. On 8 July 1953 she modified one of these "in proof" Acta articles, "in light of recent work" by the King's and Cambridge research teams.
The third draft paper was on the B-DNA, dated 17 March 1953, which was discovered years later amongst her papers, by Franklin's Birkbeck colleague, Aaron Klug. He then published in 1974 an evaluation of the draft's close correlation with the third of the original trio of 25 April 1953 Nature DNA articles. Klug designed this paper to complement the first article he had written in 1968 defending Franklin's significant contribution to DNA structure. He had written this first article in response to the incomplete picture of Franklin's work depicted in James Watson's 1968 memoir, The Double Helix.
As vividly described Watson, he travelled to King's on 30 January 1953 carrying a preprint of Linus Pauling's incorrect proposal for DNA structure. Since Wilkins was not in his office, Watson went to Franklin's lab with his urgent message that they should all collaborate before Pauling discovered his error. The unimpressed Franklin became angry when Watson suggested she did not know how to interpret her own data. Watson hastily retreated, backing into Wilkins who had been attracted by the commotion. Wilkins commiserated with his harried friend and then showed Watson Franklin's DNA X-ray image. Watson, in turn, showed Wilkins a prepublication manuscript by Pauling and Robert Corey, which contained a DNA structure remarkably like their first incorrect model.
Discovery of DNA structure
In February 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University had started to build a molecular model of the B-DNA using data similar to that available to both teams at King's. Based on Franklin's lecture in November 1952 that DNA was helical with either two or three stands, they constructed a triple helix model, which was immediately proven to be flawed. Franklin's research was completed by February 1953, ahead of her move to Birkbeck, and her data was critical. Model building had been applied successfully in the elucidation of the structure of the alpha helix by Linus Pauling in 1951, but Franklin was opposed to prematurely building theoretical models, until sufficient data were obtained to properly guide the model building. She took the view that building a model was to be undertaken only after enough of the structure was known. Her conviction was justified by the fact that Pauling and Corey also came up in the late 1952 (published in February 1953) with an erroneous triple helix model.
Ever cautious, she wanted to eliminate misleading possibilities. Photographs of her Birkbeck work table show that she routinely used small molecular models, although certainly not ones on the grand scale successfully used at Cambridge for DNA. In the middle of February 1953, Crick's thesis advisor, Max Perutz, gave Crick a copy of a report written for a Medical Research Council biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952, containing many of Franklin's crystallographic calculations.
Since Franklin had decided to transfer to Birkbeck College and Randall had insisted that all DNA work must stay at King's, Wilkins was given copies of Franklin's diffraction photographs by Gosling. By 28 February 1953, Watson and Crick felt they had solved the problem enough for Crick to proclaim (in the local pub) that they had "found the secret of life". However, they knew they must complete their model before they could be certain.
Watson and Crick finished building their model on 7 March 1953, one day before they received a letter from Wilkins stating that Franklin was finally leaving and they could put "all hands to the pump". This was also one day after Franklin's two A-DNA papers had reached Acta Crystallographica. Wilkins came to see the model the following week, according to Franklin's biographer Brenda Maddox, on 12 March, and allegedly informed Gosling on his return to King's.
One of the most critical and overlooked moments in DNA research was how and when Franklin realised and conceded that B-DNA was a double helical molecule. When Klug first examined Franklin's documents after her death, he initially came to an impression that Franklin was not convinced of the double helical nature until the knowledge of the Cambridge model. But he later discovered the original draft of the manuscript (dated 17 March 1953) from which it became clear that Franklin had already resolved the correct structure. The news of Watson–Crick model reached King's the next day, 18 March, suggesting that Franklin would have learned of it much later since she had moved to Birkbeck. Further scrutiny of her notebook revealed that Franklin had already thought of the helical structure for B-DNA in February 1953 but was not sure of the number of strands, as she wrote: "Evidence for 2-chain (or 1-chain helix)." Her conclusion on the helical nature was evident, though she failed to understand the complete organisation of the DNA strands as the possibility two strands running in opposite directions did not occur to her.
Towards the end of February she began to work out the indications of double strands, as she noted: "Structure B does not fit single helical theory, even for low layer-lines." It soon dawned to her that the B-DNA and A-DNA were structurally similar, and perceived A-DNA as an "unwound version" of B-DNA. She and Gosling wrote a five-paged manuscript on 17 March titled "A Note on Molecular Configuration of Sodium Thymonucleate." After the Watson–Crick model was known, there appeared to be only one (hand-written) modification after the typeset at the end of the text which states that their data was consistent with the model, and appeared as such in the trio of 25 April 1953 Nature articles; the other modification being a deletion of "A Note on" from the title.
Weeks later, on 10 April, Franklin wrote to Crick for permission to see their model. Franklin retained her scepticism for premature model building even after seeing the Watson–Crick model, and remained unimpressed. She is reported to have commented, "It's very pretty, but how are they going to prove it?" As an experimental scientist, Franklin seems to have been interested in producing far greater evidence before publishing-as-proven a proposed model. Accordingly, her response to the Watson–Crick model was in keeping with her cautious approach to science.
Crick and Watson then published their model in Nature on 25 April 1953, in an article describing the double-helical structure of DNA with only a footnote acknowledging "having been stimulated by a general knowledge of Franklin and Wilkins' "unpublished" contribution. Actually, although it was the bare minimum, they had just enough specific knowledge of Franklin and Gosling's data upon which to base their model. As a result of a deal struck by the two laboratory directors, articles by Wilkins and Franklin, which included their X-ray diffraction data, were modified and then published second and third in the same issue of Nature, seemingly only in support of the Crick and Watson theoretical paper which proposed a model for the B-DNA. Most of the scientific community hesitated several years before accepting the double helix proposal. At first mainly geneticists embraced the model because of its obvious genetic implications.
Birkbeck College
Franklin left King's College London in mid-March 1953 for Birkbeck College, in a move that had been planned for some time and that she described (in a letter to Adrienne Weill in Paris) as "moving from a palace to the slums ... but pleasanter all the same". She was recruited by physics department chair John Desmond Bernal, a crystallographer who was a communist, known for promoting women crystallographers. Her new laboratories were housed in 21 Torrington Square, one of a pair of dilapidated and cramped Georgian houses containing several different departments; Franklin frequently took Bernal to task over the careless attitudes of some of the other laboratory staff, notably after workers in the pharmacy department flooded her first-floor laboratory with water on one occasion.
Despite the parting words of Bernal to stop her interest in nucleic acids, she helped Gosling to finish his thesis, although she was no longer his official supervisor. Together they published the first evidence of double helix in the A form of DNA in the 25 July issue of Nature. At the end of 1954, Bernal secured funding for Franklin from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), which enabled her to work as a senior scientist supervising her own research group. John Finch, a physics student from King's College London, subsequently joined Franklin's group, followed by Kenneth Holmes, a Cambridge graduate, in July 1955. Despite the ARC funding, Franklin wrote to Bernal that the existing facilities remained highly unsuited for conducting research "...my desk and lab are on the fourth floor, my X-ray tube in the basement, and I am responsible for the work of four people distributed over the basement, first and second floors on two different staircases."
RNA research
Franklin continued to explore another major nucleic acid, RNA, a molecule equally central to life as DNA. She again used X-ray crystallography to study the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), an RNA virus. Her meeting with Aaron Klug in early 1954 led to a longstanding and successful collaboration. Klug had just then earned his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined Birkbeck in late 1953. In 1955 Franklin published her first major works on TMV in Nature, in which she described that all TMV virus particles were of the same length. This was in direct contradiction to the ideas of the eminent virologist Norman Pirie, though her observation ultimately proved correct.
Franklin assigned the study of the complete structure of TMV to her PhD student Holmes. They soon discovered (published in 1956) that the covering of TMV was protein molecules arranged in helices. Her colleague Klug worked on spherical viruses with his student Finch, with Franklin coordinating and overseeing the work. As a team, from 1956 they started publishing seminal works on TMV, cucumber virus 4 and turnip yellow mosaic virus.
Franklin also had a research assistant, James Watt, subsidised by the National Coal Board and was now the leader of the ARC group at Birkbeck. The Birkbeck team members continued working on RNA viruses affecting several plants, including potato, turnip, tomato and pea. In 1955 the team was joined by an American post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. He worked on the precise location of RNA molecules in TMV. In 1956 he and Franklin published individual but complementary papers in the 10 March issue of Nature, in which they showed that the RNA in TMV is wound along the inner surface of the hollow virus. Caspar was not an enthusiastic writer, and Franklin had to write the entire manuscript for him.
Her research grant from ARC expired at the end of 1957, and she was never given the full salary proposed by Birkbeck. After Bernal requested ARC chairman Lord Rothschild, she was given a one-year extension ending in March 1958.
Expo 58, the first major international fair after World War II, was to be held in Brussels in 1958. Franklin was invited to make a five-foot high model of TMV, which she started in 1957. Her materials included table tennis balls and plastic bicycle handlebar grips. The Brussels world's fair, with an exhibit of her virus model at the International Science Pavilion, opened on 17 April, one day after she died.
Polio virus
In 1956, Franklin visited the University of California, Berkeley, where colleagues suggested her group research the polio virus. In 1957 she applied for a grant from the United States Public Health Service of the National Institutes of Health, which approved £10,000 (equivalent to £ in ) for three years, the largest fund ever received at Birkbeck. In her grant application, Franklin mentioned her new interest in animal virus research. She obtained Bernal's consent in July 1957, though serious concerns were raised after she disclosed her intentions to research live, instead of killed, polio virus at Birkbeck. Eventually, Bernal arranged for the virus to be safely stored at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine during the group's research. With her group, Franklin then commenced deciphering the structure of the polio virus while it was in a crystalline state. She attempted to mount the virus crystals in capillary tubes for X-ray studies, but was forced to end her work due to her rapidly failing health.
After Franklin's death, Klug succeeded her as group leader, and he, Finch and Holmes continued researching the structure of the polio virus. They eventually succeeded in obtaining extremely detailed X-ray images of the virus. In June 1959, Klug and Finch published the group's findings, revealing the polio virus to have icosahedral symmetry, and in the same paper suggested the possibility for all spherical viruses to possess the same symmetry, as it permitted the greatest possible number (60) of identical structural units. The team moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, in 1962, and the old Torrington Square laboratories were demolished four years later, in May 1966.
Personal life
Franklin was best described as an agnostic. Her lack of religious faith apparently did not stem from anyone's influence, rather from her own line of thinking. She developed her scepticism as a young child. Her mother recalled that she refused to believe in the existence of God, and remarked, "Well, anyhow, how do you know He isn't She?" She later made her position clear, now based on her scientific experience, and wrote to her father in 1940:
However, she did not abandon Jewish traditions. As the only Jewish student at Lindores School, she had Hebrew lessons on her own while her friends went to church. She joined the Jewish Society while in her first term at Cambridge, out of respect of her grandfather's request. Franklin confided to her sister that she was "always consciously a Jew".
Franklin loved travelling abroad, particularly trekking. She first "qualified" at Christmas 1929 for a vacation at Menton, France, where her grandfather went to escape the English winter. Her family frequently spent vacations in Wales or Cornwall. A trip to France in 1938 gave her a lasting love for France and its language. She considered the French lifestyle at that time as "vastly superior to that of English". In contrast, she described English people as having "vacant stupid faces and childlike complacency". Her family was almost stuck in Norway in 1939, as World War II was declared on their way home. In another instance, she trekked the French Alps with Jean Kerslake in 1946, which almost cost her her life. She slipped off a slope, and was barely rescued. But she wrote to her mother, "I am quite sure I could wander happily in France forever. I love the people, the country and the food."
She made several professional trips to the United States, and was particularly jovial among her American friends and constantly displayed her sense of humour. William Ginoza of the University of California, Los Angeles, later recalled that she was the opposite of Watson's description of her, and as Maddox comments, Americans enjoyed her "sunny side".
In his book The Double Helix, Watson provides his first-person account of the search for and discovery of DNA. He paints a sympathetic but sometimes critical portrait of Franklin. He praises her intellect and scientific acumen, but portrays her as difficult to work with and careless with her appearance. After introducing her in the book as "Rosalind", he writes that he and his male colleagues usually referred to her as "Rosy", the name people at King's College London used behind her back. She did not want to be called by that name because she had a great-aunt Rosy. In the family, she was called "Ros". To others, she was simply "Rosalind". She made it clear to an American visiting friend, Dorothea Raacke, while sitting with her at Crick's table in The Eagle pub in Cambridge: Raacke asked her how she was to be called and she replied "I'm afraid it will have to be Rosalind", adding "Most definitely not Rosy."
She often expressed her political views. She initially blamed Winston Churchill for inciting the war, but later admired him for his speeches. She actively supported Professor John Ryle as an independent candidate for parliament in the 1940 Cambridge University by-election, but he was unsuccessful.
She did not seem to have an intimate relationship with anyone, and always kept her deepest personal feelings to herself. After her younger days, she avoided close friendship with the opposite sex. In her later years, Evi Ellis, who had shared her bedroom when a child refugee and who was then married to Ernst Wohlgemuth and had moved to Notting Hill from Chicago, tried matchmaking her with Ralph Miliband but failed. Franklin once told Evi that her flatmate asked her for a drink, but she did not understand the intention. She was quite infatuated by her French mentor Mering, who had a wife and a mistress. Mering also admitted that he was captivated by her "intelligence and beauty". According to Anne Sayre, Franklin did confess her feeling for Mering when she was undergoing a second surgery, but Maddox reported that the family denied this. Mering wept when he visited her later, and destroyed all her letters after her death.
Her closest personal affair was probably with her once post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. In 1956, she visited him at his home in Colorado after her tour to University of California, Berkeley, and she was known to remark later that Caspar was one "she might have loved, might have married". In her letter to Sayre, she described him as "an ideal match".
Illness, death, and burial
In mid-1956, while on a work-related trip to the United States, Franklin first began to suspect a health problem. While in New York she found difficulty in zipping her skirt; her stomach had bulged. Back in London she consulted Mair Livingstone, who asked her, "You're not pregnant?" to which she retorted, "I wish I were." Her case was marked "URGENT". An operation on 4 September of the same year revealed two tumours in her abdomen. After this period and other periods of hospitalisation, Franklin spent time convalescing with various friends and family members. These included Anne Sayre, Francis Crick, his wife Odile, with whom Franklin had formed a strong friendship, and finally with the Roland and Nina Franklin family where Rosalind's nieces and nephews bolstered her spirits.
Franklin chose not to stay with her parents because her mother's uncontrollable grief and crying upset her too much. Even while undergoing cancer treatment, Franklin continued to work, and her group continued to produce results – seven papers in 1956 and six more in 1957. At the end of 1957, Franklin again fell ill and she was admitted to the Royal Marsden Hospital. On 2 December, she made her will. She named her three brothers as executors and made her colleague Aaron Klug the principal beneficiary, who would receive £3,000 and her Austin car. Of her other friends, Mair Livingstone would get £2,000, Anne Piper £1,000, and her nurse Miss Griffith £250. The remainder of the estate was to be used for charities.
She returned to work in January 1958, and was also given a promotion to Research Associate in Biophysics on 25 February. She fell ill again on 30 March, and she died on 16 April 1958, in Chelsea, London, of bronchopneumonia, secondary carcinomatosis, and ovarian cancer. Exposure to X-ray radiation is sometimes considered to be a possible factor in her illness.
Other members of her family have died of cancer, and the incidence of gynaecological cancer is known to be disproportionately high among Ashkenazi Jews. Her death certificate states: A Research Scientist, Spinster, Daughter of Ellis Arthur Franklin, a Banker. She was interred on 17 April 1958 in the family plot at Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery at Beaconsfield Road in London Borough of Brent. The inscription on her tombstone reads:
IN MEMORY OF ROSALIND ELSIE FRANKLIN מ' רחל בת ר' יהודה [Rochel/Rachel daughter of Yehuda, her father's Hebrew name] DEARLY LOVED ELDER DAUGHTER OF ELLIS AND MURIEL FRANKLIN 25TH JULY 1920 – 16TH APRIL 1958 SCIENTIST HER RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES ON VIRUSES REMAIN OF LASTING BENEFIT TO MANKIND ת נ צ ב ה [Hebrew initials for "her soul shall be bound in the bundle of life"]
Franklin's will was proven on 30 June, with her estate assessed for probate at £11,278 10s. 9d. (equivalent to £ in ).
Controversies after death
Alleged sexism toward Franklin
Anne Sayre, Franklin's friend and one of her biographers, says in her 1975 book, Rosalind Franklin and DNA: "In 1951 ... King's College London as an institution, was not distinguished for the welcome that it offered to women ... Rosalind ... was unused to purdah [a religious and social institution of female seclusion] ... there was one other woman scientist on the laboratory staff". The molecular biologist Andrzej Stasiak notes: "Sayre's book became widely cited in feminist circles for exposing rampant sexism in science." Farooq Hussain says: "there were seven women in the biophysics department ... Jean Hanson became an FRS, Dame Honor B. Fell, Director of Strangeways Laboratory, supervised the biologists". Maddox states: "Randall ... did have many women on his staff ... they found him ... sympathetic and helpful."
Sayre asserts that "while the male staff at King's lunched in a large, comfortable, rather clubby dining room" the female staff of all ranks "lunched in the student's hall or away from the premises". However, Elkin claims that most of the MRC group (including Franklin) typically ate lunch together in the mixed dining room discussed below. And Maddox says, of Randall: "He liked to see his flock, men and women, come together for morning coffee, and at lunch in the joint dining room, where he ate with them nearly every day." Francis Crick also commented that "her colleagues treated men and women scientists alike".
Sayre also discusses at length Franklin's struggle in pursuing science, particularly her father's concern about women in academic professions. This account had led to accusations of sexism in regard to Ellis Franklin's attitude to his daughter. A good deal of information explicitly claims that he strongly opposed her entering Newnham College. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) biography of Franklin goes further, stating that he refused to pay her fees, and that an aunt stepped in to do that for her. Her sister, Jenifer Glynn, has stated that those stories are myths, and that her parents fully supported Franklin's entire career.
Sexism is said to pervade the memoir of one peer, James Watson, in his book The Double Helix, published 10 years after Franklin's death and after Watson had returned from Cambridge to Harvard. His Cambridge colleague, Peter Pauling, wrote in a letter, "Morris [sic] Wilkins is supposed to be doing this work; Miss Franklin is evidently a fool." Crick acknowledges later, "I'm afraid we always used to adopt – let's say, a patronizing attitude towards her."
Glynn accuses Sayre of erroneously making her sister a feminist heroine, and sees Watson's The Double Helix as the root of what she calls the "Rosalind Industry". She conjectures that the stories of alleged sexism would "have embarrassed her [Rosalind Franklin] almost as much as Watson's account would have upset her", and declared that "she [Rosalind] was never a feminist." Klug and Crick have also concurred that Franklin was definitely not a feminist.
Franklin's letter to her parents in January 1939 is often taken as reflecting her own prejudiced attitude, and the claim that she was "not immune to the sexism rampant in these circles". In the letter, she remarked that one lecturer was "very good, though female". Maddox maintains that was a circumstantial comment rather than an example of gender bias, and that it was a expression of admiration because, at the time, woman teachers of science were a rarity. In fact, Maddox says, Franklin laughed at men who were embarrassed by the appointment of the first female professor, Dorothy Garrod.
Contribution to the model/structure of DNA
Rosalind Franklin's first important contributions to the model popularised by Crick and Watson was her lecture at the seminar in November 1951, where she presented to those present, among them Watson, the two forms of the molecule, type A and type B, her position being that the phosphate units are located in the external part of the molecule. She also specified the amount of water to be found in the molecule in accordance with other parts of it, data that have considerable importance for the stability of the molecule. Franklin was the first to discover and formulate these facts, which in fact constituted the basis for all later attempts to build a model of the molecule. However, Watson, at the time ignorant of the chemistry, failed to comprehend the crucial information, and this led to the construction of a wrong three-helical model.
The other contribution included an X-ray photograph of B-DNA (called Photo 51) taken by Franklin's student Gosling that was briefly shown to Watson by Wilkins in January 1953, and a report written for an MRC biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952 which was shown by Perutz at the Cavendish Laboratory to both Crick and Watson. This MRC report contained data from the King's group, including some of Franklin's and Gosling's work, and was given to Crick – who was working on his thesis on haemoglobin structure – by his thesis supervisor Perutz, a member of the visiting committee.
Sayre's biography of Franklin contains a story alleging that the photograph 51 in question was shown to Watson by Wilkins without Franklin's permission, and that this constituted a case of bad science ethics. Others dispute this story, asserting that Wilkins had been given photograph 51 by Franklin's PhD student Gosling because she was leaving King's to work at Birkbeck, and there was allegedly nothing untoward in this transfer of data to Wilkins because Director Randall had insisted that all DNA work belonged exclusively to King's and had instructed Franklin in a letter to even stop working on it and submit her data. Also, it was implied by Horace Freeland Judson, that Maurice Wilkins had taken the photograph out of Franklin's drawer, but this is also said to be incorrect.
Likewise, Perutz saw "no harm" in showing an MRC report containing the conclusions of Franklin and Gosling's X-ray data analysis to Crick, since it had not been marked as confidential, although "The report was not expected to reach outside eyes". Indeed, after the publication of Watson's The Double Helix exposed Perutz's act, he received so many letters questioning his judgment that he felt the need to both answer them all and to post a general statement in Science excusing himself on the basis of being "inexperienced and casual in administrative matters".
Perutz also claimed that the MRC information was already made available to the Cambridge team when Watson had attended Franklin's seminar in November 1951. A preliminary version of much of the important material contained in the 1952 December MRC report had been presented by Franklin in a talk she had given in November 1951, which Watson had attended but not understood.
The Perutz letter was as said one of three letters, published with letters by Wilkins and Watson, which discussed their various contributions. Watson clarified the importance of the data obtained from the MRC report as he had not recorded these data while attending Franklin's lecture in 1951. The upshot of all this was that when Crick and Watson started to build their model in February 1953 they were working with critical parameters that had been determined by Franklin in 1951, and which she and Gosling had significantly refined in 1952, as well as with published data and other very similar data to those available at King's. It was generally believed that Franklin was never aware that her work had been used during construction of the model, but Gosling asserted in his 2013 interview that, "Yes. Oh, she did know about that."
Recognition of her contribution to the model of DNA
Upon the completion of their model, Crick and Watson had invited Wilkins to be a co-author of their paper describing the structure. Wilkins turned down this offer, as he had taken no part in building the model. He later expressed regret that greater discussion of co-authorship had not taken place as this might have helped to clarify the contribution the work at King's had made to the discovery. There is no doubt that Franklin's experimental data were used by Crick and Watson to build their model of DNA in 1953. Some, including Maddox, have explained this citation omission by suggesting that it may be a question of circumstance, because it would have been very difficult to cite the unpublished work from the MRC report they had seen.
Indeed, a clear timely acknowledgment would have been awkward, given the unorthodox manner in which data were transferred from King's to Cambridge. However, methods were available. Watson and Crick could have cited the MRC report as a personal communication or else cited the Acta articles in press, or most easily, the third Nature paper that they knew was in press. One of the most important accomplishments of Maddox's widely acclaimed biography is that Maddox made a well-received case for inadequate acknowledgement. "Such acknowledgement as they gave her was very muted and always coupled with the name of Wilkins".
Fifteen years after the fact, the first clear recitation of Franklin's contribution appeared as it permeated Watson's account, The Double Helix, although it was buried under descriptions of Watson's (often quite negative) regard towards Franklin during the period of their work on DNA. This attitude is epitomized in the confrontation between Watson and Franklin over a preprint of Pauling's mistaken DNA manuscript. Watson's words impelled Sayre to write her rebuttal, in which the entire chapter nine, "Winner Take All" has the structure of a legal brief dissecting and analyzing the topic of acknowledgement.
Sayre's early analysis was often ignored because of perceived feminist overtones in her book. Watson and Crick did not cite the X-ray diffraction work of Wilkins and Franklin in their original paper, though they admit having "been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M. H. F. Wilkins, Dr. R. E. Franklin and their co-workers at King's College London". In fact, Watson and Crick cited no experimental data at all in support of their model. Franklin and Gosling's publication of the DNA X-ray image, in the same issue of Nature, served as the principal evidence:Thus our general ideas are not inconsistent with the model proposed by Watson and Crick in the preceding communication.
Nobel Prize
Franklin was never nominated for a Nobel Prize. Her work was a crucial part in the discovery of DNA's structure, which along with subsequent related work led to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins being awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962. She had died in 1958, and during her lifetime the DNA structure was not considered to be fully proven. It took Wilkins and his colleagues about seven years to collect enough data to prove and refine the proposed DNA structure. Moreover, its biological significance, as proposed by Watson and Crick, was not established. General acceptance for the DNA double helix and its function did not start until late in the 1950s, leading to Nobel nominations in 1960, 1961, and 1962 for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and in 1962 for Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The first breakthrough was from Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958, who experimentally showed the DNA replication of a bacterium Escherichia coli. In what is now known as the Meselson–Stahl experiment, DNA was found to replicate into two double-stranded helices, with each helix having one of the original DNA strands. This DNA replication was firmly established by 1961 after further demonstration in other species, and of the stepwise chemical reaction. According to the 1961 Crick–Monod letter, this experimental proof, along with Wilkins having initiated the DNA diffraction work, were the reasons why Crick felt that Wilkins should be included in the DNA Nobel Prize.
In 1962 the Nobel Prize was subsequently awarded to Crick, Watson, and Wilkins. Nobel rules now prohibit posthumous nominations (though this statute was not formally in effect until 1974) or splitting of Prizes more than three ways. The award was for their body of work on nucleic acids and not exclusively for the discovery of the structure of DNA. By the time of the award Wilkins had been working on the structure of DNA for more than 10 years, and had done much to confirm the Watson–Crick model. Crick had been working on the genetic code at Cambridge and Watson had worked on RNA for some years. Watson has suggested that ideally Wilkins and Franklin would have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Pauling, who received the Nobel Peace Prize that year, believed and earlier warned the Nobel Committee in 1960 that "it might well be premature to make an award of a Prize to Watson and Crick, because of existing uncertainty about the detailed structure of nucleic acid. I myself feel that it is likely that the general nature of the Watson-Crick structure is correct, but that there is doubt about details." He was partly right as an alternative of Watson-Crick base pairing, called the Hoogsteen base pairing that can form triple DNA strand, was discovered by Karst Hoogsteen in 1963.
Aaron Klug, Franklin's colleague and principal beneficiary in her will, was the sole winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1982, "for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes". This work was exactly what Franklin had started and which she introduced to Klug, and it is highly plausible that, were she alive, she would have shared the Nobel Prize.
Awards and honours
Posthumous recognition
1982, Iota Sigma Pi designated Franklin a National Honorary Member.
1984, St Paul's Girls School established the Rosalind Franklin Technology Centre.
1992, English Heritage placed a blue plaque commemorating Franklin on the building in Drayton Gardens, London, where she lived until her death.
1993, King's College London renamed the Orchard Residence at its Hampstead Campus as Rosalind Franklin Hall.
1993, King's College London placed a blue plaque on its outside wall bearing the inscription: "R. E. Franklin, R. G. Gosling, A. R. Stokes, M. H. F. Wilkins, H. R. Wilson – King's College London – DNA – X-ray diffraction studies – 1953."
1995, Newnham College, Cambridge opened a graduate residence named Rosalind Franklin Building, and put a bust of her in its garden.
1997, Birkbeck, University of London School of Crystallography opened the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory.
1997, a newly discovered asteroid was named 9241 Rosfranklin.
1998, National Portrait Gallery in London added Rosalind Franklin's portrait next to those of Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins.
1999, the Institute of Physics at Portland Place, London, renamed its theatre as Franklin Lecture Theatre.
2000, King's College London opened the Franklin–Wilkins Building in honour of Franklin's and Wilkins's work at the college.
2000, We the Curious (formally @Bristol) features the Rosalind Franklin Room.
2001, the American National Cancer Institute established the Rosalind E. Franklin Award for women in cancer research.
2002, the University of Groningen, supported by the European Union, launched the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship to encourage women researchers to become full university professors.
2003, the Royal Society established the Rosalind Franklin Award (officially the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture) for an outstanding contribution to any area of natural science, engineering or technology. The award consists of a silver-coated medal and a grant of £30,000.
2003, the Royal Society of Chemistry declared King's College London as "National Historic Chemical Landmark" and placed a plaque on the wall near the entrance of the building, with the inscription: "Near this site Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, Raymond Gosling, Alexander Stokes and Herbert Wilson performed experiments that led to the discovery of the structure of DNA. This work revolutionised our understanding of the chemistry behind life itself."
2004, Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, located in North Chicago, Illinois, USA changed its name to the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. It also adopted a new motto "Life in Discovery", and Photo 51 as its logo.
2004, the Gruber Foundation started the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for two female geneticists from all over the world. It carries an annual fund of $25,000, each award is for three years, and selection is made by a joint committee appointed by the Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Human Genetics.
2004, the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and the APS Users Organization (APSUO) started the APSUO Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for young scientists who made contributions through the APS.
2005, the DNA sculpture (donated by James Watson) outside Clare College, Cambridge's Memorial Court incorporates the words "The double helix model was supported by the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins."
2005, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, based in Florida, US, established an annual award the Rosalind Franklin Prize for Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research.
2006, the Rosalind Franklin Society was established in New York by Mary Ann Liebert. The Society aims to recognise, foster, and advance the important contributions of women in the life sciences and affiliated disciplines.
2008, Columbia University awarded an honorary Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Franklin, "for her seminal contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA".
2008, the Institute of Physics established a biennial award the Rosalind Franklin Medal and Prize.
2012, the bioinformatics education software platform Rosalind was named in honour of Franklin.
2012, The Rosalind Franklin Building was opened at Nottingham Trent University.
2013, Google honoured Rosalind Franklin with a doodle, showing her gazing at a double helix structure of DNA with an X-ray of Photo 51 beyond it.
2013, a plaque was placed on the wall of The Eagle pub in Cambridge commemorating Franklin's contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA, on the sixtieth anniversary of Crick and Watson's announcement in the pub.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology was established by Biotechnology Industry Organization (Biotechnology Innovation Organization since 2016) in collaboration with the Rosalind Franklin Society, for an outstanding woman in the field of industrial biotechnology and bioprocessing.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science unveiled a bronze statue of Franklin, created by Julie Rotblatt-Amrany, near its front entrance.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin STEM Elementary was opened in Pasco, Washington, the first science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) elementary school in the district.
2014, the University of Wolverhampton opened its new laboratory building named the Rosalind Franklin Science Building.
2015, Newnham College Boat Club, Cambridge, launched a new racing VIII, naming it the Rosalind Franklin.
2015, the Rosalind Franklin Appathon was launched by University College London as a national app competition for women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine).
2015, a high performance computing and cloud facility in London was named Rosalind.
2016, the British Humanist Association added the Rosalind Franklin Lecture to its annual lecture series, aimed to explore and celebrate the contribution of women towards the promotion and advancement of humanism.
2016, the Rosalind Franklin Prize and Tech Day was held on 23 February in London, organised by University College London, i-sense, UCL Enterprise, the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the UCL Athena Swan Charter.
2017, DSM opened the Rosalind Franklin Biotechnology Center in Delft, the Netherlands.
2017, Historic England gave a heritage listing, at Grade II, to Franklin's tomb at Willesden Jewish Cemetery on the grounds of it being of "special architectural or historic interest". Historic England said that "the tomb commemorates the life and achievements of Rosalind Franklin, a scientist of exceptional distinction, whose pioneering work helped lay the foundations of molecular biology; Franklin’s X-ray observation of DNA contributed to the discovery of its helical structure."
2018, the Rosalind Franklin Institute, an autonomous medical research centre under the join venture of 10 universities and funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation, was launched at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus on 6 June, and was officially opened on 29 September 2021.
2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) named its ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin.
2019, the University of Portsmouth announced that it changed the name James Watson Halls to Rosalind Franklin Halls from 2 September.
2020, Franklin was selected for the Time 100 Women of the Year, for 1953.
2020, the UK Royal Mint released a 50-pence coin in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Franklin’s birth on 25 July. It features a stylized version of Photo 51.
2020, South Norfolk Council renamed a road on the Norwich Research Park in her honour in July 2020. The road is home to the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia's Bob Champion Research and Education Building.
2020, Trinity College Dublin announced that its library had previously held forty busts, all of whom were of men, was commissioning four new busts of women one of whom would be Franklin.
2020, Aston Medical School instituted an annual competition for medical students named the Rosalind Franklin Essay Prize, funded by its alumni and Rosalind's nephew, Daniel Franklin, executive and diplomatic editor of The Economist.
2021, a bronze tondo of Rosalind Franklin was placed on Hampstead Manor and unveiled on 15 March.
2021, the Rosalind Franklin laboratory was opened in the Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 13 July as the largest laboratory for COVID-19 testing under the UK Health Security Agency and National Health Service Test and Trace network, and supported by the University of Warwick.
Cultural references
Franklin's part in the discovery of the nature of DNA was shown in the 1987 TV Movie Life Story, starring Juliet Stevenson as Franklin, and with Tim Pigott-Smith as Crick, Alan Howard as Wilkins and Jeff Goldblum as Watson. This movie portrayed Franklin as somewhat stern, but also alleged that Watson and Crick did use a lot of her work to do theirs.
A 56-minute documentary of the life and scientific contributions of Franklin, DNA – Secret of Photo 51, was broadcast in 2003 on PBS Nova. Narrated by Barbara Flynn, the program features interviews with Wilkins, Gosling, Klug, Maddox, including Franklin's friends Vittorio Luzzati, Caspar, Anne Piper, and Sue Richley. The UK version produced by BBC is titled Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady.
The first episode of another PBS documentary serial, DNA, was aired on 4 January 2004. The episode titled The Secret of Life centres much around the contributions of Franklin. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, it features Watson, Wilkins, Gosling and Peter Pauling (son of Linus Pauling).
A play entitled Rosalind: A Question of Life was written by Deborah Gearing to mark the work of Franklin, and was first performed on 1 November 2005 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and published by Oberon Books in 2006.
Another play, Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, published in 2011, has been produced at several places in the US and in late 2015 was put on at the Noel Coward Theatre, London, with Nicole Kidman playing Franklin. Ziegler's version of the 1951–53 'race' for the structure of DNA sometimes emphasizes the pivotal role of Franklin's research and her personality. Although sometimes altering history for dramatic effect, the play nevertheless illuminates many of the key issues of how science was and is conducted.
False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch is a play about the life of Marie Curie in which Franklin is portrayed as frustrated and angry at the lack of recognition for her scientific contributions. Hostility between the two is also depicted in season 3 of Harvey Girls Forever.
Publications
Rosalind Franklin's most notable publications are listed below. The last two were published posthumously.
See also
Timeline of women in science
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer who discovered the most elemental composition of stars
References
Citations
Sources
Elkin, L. O., Rosalind Franklin and the Double Helix Physics Today March 2003, pp. 42–48.
Holt, J. (2002) "Photo Finish: Rosalind Franklin and the great DNA race" The New Yorker October
Watson, J. Letter to Science, 164, p. 1539, 27 (1969).
Further reading
External links
Recordings by Aaron Klug at Web of Stories:
by Sir Aaron Klug
The first American newspaper coverage of the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Website for television program first broadcast in 2003
Documents from the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Also available at
1920 births
1958 deaths
20th-century British biologists
20th-century British chemists
20th-century English scientists
20th-century British women scientists
Academics of Birkbeck, University of London
Academics of King's College London
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery
Carbon scientists
Civil Defence Service personnel
Crystallographers
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from ovarian cancer
English agnostics
English Jews
English molecular biologists
English physical chemists
English women biologists
English women chemists
Rosalind
Jewish agnostics
Jewish biophysicists
Jewish British scientists
Jewish women scientists
People educated at Norland Place School
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
People from Notting Hill
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"Frances Vernon (1963–1991) was a British novelist. She was the daughter of the tenth Baron Vernon.\n\nNovels\nVernon was encouraged in her writing by her first cousin, the photographer and author Michael Marten. She wrote her first novel Privileged Children (1982) at the age of sixteen. It won the Author's Club First Novel Award. She studied briefly at New Hall, Cambridge (now Murray Edwards College, Cambridge) but soon left to continue her writing. \nShe produced five more novels: Gentlemen and Players (1984), The Bohemian Girl (1985), A Desirable Husband (1987), The Marquis of Westmarch (1989) and finally The Fall of Doctor Onslow (1994), which was published three years after her death. Lucasta Miller for the Independent described it as \"both a tragic reminder of what she might have gone on to do, and a testimony to what she did achieve\".\n\nDepression and suicide\nVernon suffered from depression, which worsened towards the end of her life. She was seeing a psychotherapist for about five years before her death. She suffered in particular from a fear of travelling.\nVernon committed suicide on 11 July 1991. She had promised her psychiatrist not to use the pills he had prescribed her for her depression but instead used her own \"herbal\" concoction.\n\nNotes\n\nSources\n\n \n \n\n1963 births\nEnglish women novelists\nAlumni of New Hall, Cambridge\n20th-century English novelists\n20th-century English women writers\n1991 suicides",
"June Monica Lindsey ( Broomhead, June 7, 1922 – November 4, 2021) was a British-Canadian physical chemist. Whilst working on X-ray crystallography at the University of Cambridge, Lindsey was influential in the elucidation of the structure of DNA. She solved the structures of the purines, adenine and guanine. Her depiction of intramolecular hydrogen bonds in adenine crystals was central to Watson and Crick's elucidation of the double helical structure of DNA.\n\nEducation and early career\nJune Broomhead was born in Doncaster, England in June 1922. She joined the University of Cambridge, UK, in 1941. She completed her degree in 1944, and joined the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. World War II forced her to leave her research career, however. She was encouraged to become a teacher and spent two years teaching science in a school. She returned to Cambridge in 1946.\n\nShe completed undergraduate courses at Newnham College, but Cambridge did not give women undergraduate degrees until 1948. She was awarded her doctorate in 1950.\n\nShe solved the crystal structure of a complex of adenine and guanine. She delineated the shape and dimensions of the two nitrogenous subunits of DNA. She proposed that complementary nucleobases are bound together by hydrogen bonds, work that was expanded by Bill Cochran. Her research, particularly the prediction of hydrogen bonds, was researched and used by Watson and Crick to determine the structure of DNA. They created cardboard models based on the dimensions from Lindsey's crystal structures. Francis Crick worked opposite Lindsey at the University of Cambridge. They did not recognise the contributions of Lindsey in their discovery of the molecular structure of nucleic acids.\n\nCareer \nAfter being awarded her Ph.D., Lindsey moved to the University of Oxford, where she worked as a postdoctoral scholar with Dorothy Hodgkin on Vitamin B12. Lindsey moved to Canada in 1951. Before she left, Lawrence Bragg wrote to her requesting that she join him working on experimental and theoretical crystallography. In a letter, he wrote: “We badly need your hands to tackle knotty crystallographic problems, both experimental and theoretical. I wish all these things had come up while you were still with us; they would have been just in your line.”\n\nShe worked at the National Research Council on the structure of codeine and morphine. Her husband, George Lindsey, was stationed in Montreal. Lindsey left her career in crystallography to look after her two children. They moved to Italy on a NATO mission in 1961.\n\nLindsey collected her bachelor's degree in 1998, 50 years after completing it.\n\nBelated recognition \nAlex MacKenzie, a pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, who knew Lindsey as a family friend, asked her about her career. She told him about her 1940s work on crystallography, which inspired him to research her scientific contributions. MacKenzie was amazed by what he found and did not want her work to go unnoticed; it is \"something we should shout from the mountaintops\". He led the rediscovery of her contributions to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA.\n\nPersonal life\nLindsey died in Ottawa on November 4, 2021, at the age of 99. She was predeceased by her husband, George.\n\nReferences \n\n1922 births\n2021 deaths\nAcademics of the University of Oxford\nAlumni of the University of Cambridge\nBritish emigrants to Canada\nCrystallographers\nWomen biochemists\nPeople from Doncaster"
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what did she work on in the laboratory?
| 5 |
What did Rosalind Franklin work on in the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge?
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Rosalind Franklin
|
Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular B.A. and M.A. degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and helped her to improve her spoken French. Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide for her what to work upon, and at that time was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin Irene Franklin asked to join her in a vacated house of her uncle in Putney. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids. She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her Ph.D. thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge University awarded her a Ph.D. in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers. CANNOTANSWER
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She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density.
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Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognized during her life, for which she has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology".
She graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Disappointed by Norrish’s lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The research on coal helped her earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1945. Moving to Paris in 1947 as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, she became an accomplished X-ray crystallographer. After joining King's College London in 1951 as a research associate, she discovered the key properties of DNA, which eventually facilitated the correct description of the double helix structure of DNA. Owing to disagreement with her director, John Randall, and her colleague Maurice Wilkins, she was compelled to move to Birkbeck College in 1953.
Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA while at King's College London, particularly Photo 51, taken by her student Raymond Gosling, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix for which Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Watson suggested that Franklin would have ideally been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Wilkins but, although there was not yet a rule against posthumous awards, the Nobel Committee generally did not make posthumous nominations.
Working under John Desmond Bernal, Franklin led pioneering work at Birkbeck on the molecular structures of viruses. On the day before she was to unveil the structure of tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels, she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 37 in 1958. Her team member Aaron Klug continued her research, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982.
Early life
Franklin was born on 25 July 1920 in 50 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill, London, into an affluent and influential British Jewish family.
Family
Franklin's father was Ellis Arthur Franklin (1894–1964), a politically liberal London merchant banker who taught at the city's Working Men's College, and her mother was Muriel Frances Waley (1894–1976). Rosalind was the elder daughter and the second child in the family of five children. David (1919–1986) was the eldest brother; Colin (1923–2020), Roland (born 1926), and Jenifer (born 1929) were her younger siblings.
Franklin's paternal great-uncle was Herbert Samuel (later Viscount Samuel), who was the Home Secretary in 1916 and the first practising Jew to serve in the British Cabinet. Her aunt, Helen Caroline Franklin, known in the family as Mamie, was married to Norman de Mattos Bentwich, who was the Attorney General in the British Mandate of Palestine. Helen was active in trade union organisation and the women's suffrage movement and was later a member of the London County Council. Franklin's uncle, Hugh Franklin, was another prominent figure in the suffrage movement, although his actions therein embarrassed the Franklin family. Rosalind's middle name, "Elsie", was in memory of Hugh's first wife, who died in the 1918 flu pandemic. Her family was actively involved with the Working Men's College, where her father taught the subjects of electricity, magnetism, and the history of the Great War in the evenings, later becoming the vice principal.
Franklin's parents helped settle Jewish refugees from Europe who had escaped the Nazis, particularly those from the Kindertransport. They took in two Jewish children to their home, and one of them, a nine-year-old Austrian, Evi Eisenstädter, shared Jenifer's room. (Evi's father Hans Mathias Eisenstädter had been imprisoned in Buchenwald, and after liberation, the family adopted the surname "Ellis".)
Education
From early childhood, Franklin showed exceptional scholastic abilities. At age six, she joined her brother Roland at Norland Place School, a private day school in West London. At that time, her aunt Mamie (Helen Bentwich), described her to her husband: "Rosalind is alarmingly clever – she spends all her time doing arithmetic for pleasure, and invariably gets her sums right." She also developed an early interest in cricket and hockey. At age nine, she entered a boarding school, Lindores School for Young Ladies in Sussex. The school was near the seaside, and the family wanted a good environment for her delicate health.
She was 11 when she went to St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, west London, one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. At St Paul's she excelled in science, Latin, and sports. She also learned German, and became fluent in French, a language she would later find useful. She topped her classes, and won annual awards. Her only educational weakness was in music, for which the school music director, the composer Gustav Holst, once called upon her mother to inquire whether she might have suffered from hearing problems or tonsillitis. With six distinctions, she passed her matriculation in 1938, winning a scholarship for university, the School Leaving Exhibition of £30 a year for three years, and £5 from her grandfather. Her father asked her to give the scholarship to a deserving refugee student.
Cambridge and World War II
Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular BA and MA degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and who helped her to improve her conversational French.
Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide upon the assignment of work for her. At that time he was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she initially stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin, Irene Franklin, proposed that they share living quarters at a vacated house in Putney that belonged to her uncle. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids.
She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her PhD thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge awarded her a PhD in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers.
Career and research
Paris
With World War II ending in 1945, Franklin asked Adrienne Weill for help and to let her know of job openings for "a physical chemist who knows very little physical chemistry, but quite a lot about the holes in coal." At a conference in the autumn of 1946, Weill introduced her to Marcel Mathieu, a director of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the network of institutes that comprise the major part of the scientific research laboratories supported by the French government. This led to her appointment with Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État in Paris. She joined the labo (as referred to by the staff) of Mering on 14 February 1947 as one of the fifteen chercheurs (researchers).
Mering was an X-ray crystallographer who applied X-ray diffraction to the study of rayon and other amorphous substances, in contrast to the thousands of regular crystals that had been studied by this method for many years. He taught her the practical aspects of applying X-ray crystallography to amorphous substances. This presented new challenges in the conduct of experiments and the interpretation of results. Franklin applied them to further problems related to coal and to other carbonaceous materials, in particular the changes to the arrangement of atoms when these are converted to graphite. She published several further papers on this work which has become part of the mainstream of the physics and chemistry of coal and carbon. She coined the terms graphitising and non-graphitising carbon. The coal work was covered in a 1993 monograph, and in the regularly-published textbook Chemistry and Physics of Carbon. Mering continued the study of carbon in various forms, using X-ray diffraction and other methods.
King's College London
In 1950, Franklin was granted a three-year Turner & Newall Fellowship to work at King's College London. In January 1951, she started working as a research associate in the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Biophysics Unit, directed by John Randall. She was originally appointed to work on X-ray diffraction of proteins and lipids in solution, but Randall redirected her work to DNA fibres because of new developments in the field, and she was to be the only experienced experimental diffraction researcher at King's at the time. Randall made this reassignment, even before Franklin started working at King's, because of the pioneering work by DNA researcher Maurice Wilkins, and he reassigned Raymond Gosling, the graduate student who had been working with Wilkins, to be her assistant.
In 1950, Swiss chemist Rudolf Signer in Berne prepared a highly purified DNA sample from calf thymus. He freely distributed the DNA sample, later referred to as the Signer DNA, in early May 1950 at the meeting of the Faraday Society in London, and Wilkins was one of the recipients. Even using crude equipment, Wilkins and Gosling had obtained a good-quality diffraction picture of the DNA sample which sparked further interest in this molecule. But Randall had not indicated to them that he had asked Franklin to take over both the DNA diffraction work and guidance of Gosling's thesis. It was while Wilkins was away on holiday that Randall, in a letter in December 1950, assured Franklin that "as far as the experimental X-ray effort there would be for the moment only yourself and Gosling." Randall's lack of communication about this reassignment significantly contributed to the well documented friction that developed between Wilkins and Franklin. When Wilkins returned, he handed over the Signer DNA and Gosling to Franklin.
Franklin, now working with Gosling, started to apply her expertise in X-ray diffraction techniques to the structure of DNA. She used a new fine-focus X-ray tube and microcamera ordered by Wilkins, but which she refined, adjusted and focused carefully. Drawing upon her physical chemistry background, a critical innovation she applied was making the camera chamber that could be controlled for its humidity using different saturated salt solutions. When Wilkins inquired about this improved technique, she replied in terms which offended him as she had "an air of cool superiority".
Franklin's habit of intensely looking people in the eye while being concise, impatient and direct unnerved many of her colleagues. In stark contrast, Wilkins was very shy, and slowly calculating in speech while he avoided looking anyone directly in the eye. With the ingenious humidity-controlling camera, Franklin was soon able to produce X-ray images of better quality than those of Wilkins. She immediately discovered that the DNA sample could exist in two forms: at a relative humidity higher than 75%, the DNA fibre became long and thin; when it was drier, it became short and fat. She originally referred to the former as "wet" and the latter as "crystalline."
On the structure of the crystalline DNA, Franklin first recorded the analysis in her notebook, which reads: "Evidence for spiral [meaning helical] structure. Straight chain untwisted is highly improbable. Absence of reflections on meridian in χtalline [crystalline] form suggests spiral structure." An immediate discovery from this was that the phosphate group lies outside of the main DNA chain; she however could not make out whether there could be two or three chains. She presented their data at a lecture in November 1951, in King's College London. In her lecture notes, she wrote the following:The results suggest a helical structure (which must be very closely packed) containing 2, 3 or 4 co‐axial nucleic acid chains per helical unit, and having the phosphate groups near the outside.Franklin then named "A" and "B" respectively for the "wet" and "crystalline" forms. (The biological functions of A-DNA were discovered only 60 years later.) Because of the intense personality conflict developing between Franklin and Wilkins, Randall divided the work on DNA. Franklin chose the data rich "A" form while Wilkins selected the "B" form. By the end of 1951 it became generally accepted at King's that the B-DNA was a helix, but after she had recorded an asymmetrical image in May 1952, Franklin became unconvinced that the A-DNA was a helix. In July 1952, as a practical joke on Wilkins (who frequently expressed his view that both forms of DNA were helical), Franklin and Gosling produced a funeral notice regretting the 'death' of helical A-DNA, which runs:It is with great regret that we have to announce the death, on Friday 18th July 1952 of DNA helix (crystalline). Death followed a protracted illness which an intensive course of Besselised [referring to Bessel function that was used to analyse the X-ray diffraction patterns] injections had failed to relieve. A memorial service will be held next Monday or Tuesday. It is hoped that Dr M H F Wilkins will speak in memory of the late helix. [Signed Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling.]During 1952, they worked at applying the Patterson function to the X-ray pictures of DNA they had produced. This was a long and labour-intensive approach but would yield significant insight into the structure of the molecule. Franklin was fully committed to experimental data and was sternly against theoretical or model buildings, as she said, "We are not going to speculate, we are going to wait, we are going to let the spots on this photograph tell us what the [DNA] structure is." The X-ray diffraction pictures, including the landmark Photo 51 taken by Gosling at this time, have been called by John Desmond Bernal as "amongst the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken".
By January 1953, Franklin had reconciled her conflicting data, concluding that both DNA forms had two helices, and had started to write a series of three draft manuscripts, two of which included a double helical DNA backbone (see below). Her two A-DNA manuscripts reached Acta Crystallographica in Copenhagen on 6 March 1953, one day before Crick and Watson had completed their model on B-DNA. She must have mailed them while the Cambridge team was building their model, and certainly had written them before she knew of their work. On 8 July 1953 she modified one of these "in proof" Acta articles, "in light of recent work" by the King's and Cambridge research teams.
The third draft paper was on the B-DNA, dated 17 March 1953, which was discovered years later amongst her papers, by Franklin's Birkbeck colleague, Aaron Klug. He then published in 1974 an evaluation of the draft's close correlation with the third of the original trio of 25 April 1953 Nature DNA articles. Klug designed this paper to complement the first article he had written in 1968 defending Franklin's significant contribution to DNA structure. He had written this first article in response to the incomplete picture of Franklin's work depicted in James Watson's 1968 memoir, The Double Helix.
As vividly described Watson, he travelled to King's on 30 January 1953 carrying a preprint of Linus Pauling's incorrect proposal for DNA structure. Since Wilkins was not in his office, Watson went to Franklin's lab with his urgent message that they should all collaborate before Pauling discovered his error. The unimpressed Franklin became angry when Watson suggested she did not know how to interpret her own data. Watson hastily retreated, backing into Wilkins who had been attracted by the commotion. Wilkins commiserated with his harried friend and then showed Watson Franklin's DNA X-ray image. Watson, in turn, showed Wilkins a prepublication manuscript by Pauling and Robert Corey, which contained a DNA structure remarkably like their first incorrect model.
Discovery of DNA structure
In February 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University had started to build a molecular model of the B-DNA using data similar to that available to both teams at King's. Based on Franklin's lecture in November 1952 that DNA was helical with either two or three stands, they constructed a triple helix model, which was immediately proven to be flawed. Franklin's research was completed by February 1953, ahead of her move to Birkbeck, and her data was critical. Model building had been applied successfully in the elucidation of the structure of the alpha helix by Linus Pauling in 1951, but Franklin was opposed to prematurely building theoretical models, until sufficient data were obtained to properly guide the model building. She took the view that building a model was to be undertaken only after enough of the structure was known. Her conviction was justified by the fact that Pauling and Corey also came up in the late 1952 (published in February 1953) with an erroneous triple helix model.
Ever cautious, she wanted to eliminate misleading possibilities. Photographs of her Birkbeck work table show that she routinely used small molecular models, although certainly not ones on the grand scale successfully used at Cambridge for DNA. In the middle of February 1953, Crick's thesis advisor, Max Perutz, gave Crick a copy of a report written for a Medical Research Council biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952, containing many of Franklin's crystallographic calculations.
Since Franklin had decided to transfer to Birkbeck College and Randall had insisted that all DNA work must stay at King's, Wilkins was given copies of Franklin's diffraction photographs by Gosling. By 28 February 1953, Watson and Crick felt they had solved the problem enough for Crick to proclaim (in the local pub) that they had "found the secret of life". However, they knew they must complete their model before they could be certain.
Watson and Crick finished building their model on 7 March 1953, one day before they received a letter from Wilkins stating that Franklin was finally leaving and they could put "all hands to the pump". This was also one day after Franklin's two A-DNA papers had reached Acta Crystallographica. Wilkins came to see the model the following week, according to Franklin's biographer Brenda Maddox, on 12 March, and allegedly informed Gosling on his return to King's.
One of the most critical and overlooked moments in DNA research was how and when Franklin realised and conceded that B-DNA was a double helical molecule. When Klug first examined Franklin's documents after her death, he initially came to an impression that Franklin was not convinced of the double helical nature until the knowledge of the Cambridge model. But he later discovered the original draft of the manuscript (dated 17 March 1953) from which it became clear that Franklin had already resolved the correct structure. The news of Watson–Crick model reached King's the next day, 18 March, suggesting that Franklin would have learned of it much later since she had moved to Birkbeck. Further scrutiny of her notebook revealed that Franklin had already thought of the helical structure for B-DNA in February 1953 but was not sure of the number of strands, as she wrote: "Evidence for 2-chain (or 1-chain helix)." Her conclusion on the helical nature was evident, though she failed to understand the complete organisation of the DNA strands as the possibility two strands running in opposite directions did not occur to her.
Towards the end of February she began to work out the indications of double strands, as she noted: "Structure B does not fit single helical theory, even for low layer-lines." It soon dawned to her that the B-DNA and A-DNA were structurally similar, and perceived A-DNA as an "unwound version" of B-DNA. She and Gosling wrote a five-paged manuscript on 17 March titled "A Note on Molecular Configuration of Sodium Thymonucleate." After the Watson–Crick model was known, there appeared to be only one (hand-written) modification after the typeset at the end of the text which states that their data was consistent with the model, and appeared as such in the trio of 25 April 1953 Nature articles; the other modification being a deletion of "A Note on" from the title.
Weeks later, on 10 April, Franklin wrote to Crick for permission to see their model. Franklin retained her scepticism for premature model building even after seeing the Watson–Crick model, and remained unimpressed. She is reported to have commented, "It's very pretty, but how are they going to prove it?" As an experimental scientist, Franklin seems to have been interested in producing far greater evidence before publishing-as-proven a proposed model. Accordingly, her response to the Watson–Crick model was in keeping with her cautious approach to science.
Crick and Watson then published their model in Nature on 25 April 1953, in an article describing the double-helical structure of DNA with only a footnote acknowledging "having been stimulated by a general knowledge of Franklin and Wilkins' "unpublished" contribution. Actually, although it was the bare minimum, they had just enough specific knowledge of Franklin and Gosling's data upon which to base their model. As a result of a deal struck by the two laboratory directors, articles by Wilkins and Franklin, which included their X-ray diffraction data, were modified and then published second and third in the same issue of Nature, seemingly only in support of the Crick and Watson theoretical paper which proposed a model for the B-DNA. Most of the scientific community hesitated several years before accepting the double helix proposal. At first mainly geneticists embraced the model because of its obvious genetic implications.
Birkbeck College
Franklin left King's College London in mid-March 1953 for Birkbeck College, in a move that had been planned for some time and that she described (in a letter to Adrienne Weill in Paris) as "moving from a palace to the slums ... but pleasanter all the same". She was recruited by physics department chair John Desmond Bernal, a crystallographer who was a communist, known for promoting women crystallographers. Her new laboratories were housed in 21 Torrington Square, one of a pair of dilapidated and cramped Georgian houses containing several different departments; Franklin frequently took Bernal to task over the careless attitudes of some of the other laboratory staff, notably after workers in the pharmacy department flooded her first-floor laboratory with water on one occasion.
Despite the parting words of Bernal to stop her interest in nucleic acids, she helped Gosling to finish his thesis, although she was no longer his official supervisor. Together they published the first evidence of double helix in the A form of DNA in the 25 July issue of Nature. At the end of 1954, Bernal secured funding for Franklin from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), which enabled her to work as a senior scientist supervising her own research group. John Finch, a physics student from King's College London, subsequently joined Franklin's group, followed by Kenneth Holmes, a Cambridge graduate, in July 1955. Despite the ARC funding, Franklin wrote to Bernal that the existing facilities remained highly unsuited for conducting research "...my desk and lab are on the fourth floor, my X-ray tube in the basement, and I am responsible for the work of four people distributed over the basement, first and second floors on two different staircases."
RNA research
Franklin continued to explore another major nucleic acid, RNA, a molecule equally central to life as DNA. She again used X-ray crystallography to study the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), an RNA virus. Her meeting with Aaron Klug in early 1954 led to a longstanding and successful collaboration. Klug had just then earned his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined Birkbeck in late 1953. In 1955 Franklin published her first major works on TMV in Nature, in which she described that all TMV virus particles were of the same length. This was in direct contradiction to the ideas of the eminent virologist Norman Pirie, though her observation ultimately proved correct.
Franklin assigned the study of the complete structure of TMV to her PhD student Holmes. They soon discovered (published in 1956) that the covering of TMV was protein molecules arranged in helices. Her colleague Klug worked on spherical viruses with his student Finch, with Franklin coordinating and overseeing the work. As a team, from 1956 they started publishing seminal works on TMV, cucumber virus 4 and turnip yellow mosaic virus.
Franklin also had a research assistant, James Watt, subsidised by the National Coal Board and was now the leader of the ARC group at Birkbeck. The Birkbeck team members continued working on RNA viruses affecting several plants, including potato, turnip, tomato and pea. In 1955 the team was joined by an American post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. He worked on the precise location of RNA molecules in TMV. In 1956 he and Franklin published individual but complementary papers in the 10 March issue of Nature, in which they showed that the RNA in TMV is wound along the inner surface of the hollow virus. Caspar was not an enthusiastic writer, and Franklin had to write the entire manuscript for him.
Her research grant from ARC expired at the end of 1957, and she was never given the full salary proposed by Birkbeck. After Bernal requested ARC chairman Lord Rothschild, she was given a one-year extension ending in March 1958.
Expo 58, the first major international fair after World War II, was to be held in Brussels in 1958. Franklin was invited to make a five-foot high model of TMV, which she started in 1957. Her materials included table tennis balls and plastic bicycle handlebar grips. The Brussels world's fair, with an exhibit of her virus model at the International Science Pavilion, opened on 17 April, one day after she died.
Polio virus
In 1956, Franklin visited the University of California, Berkeley, where colleagues suggested her group research the polio virus. In 1957 she applied for a grant from the United States Public Health Service of the National Institutes of Health, which approved £10,000 (equivalent to £ in ) for three years, the largest fund ever received at Birkbeck. In her grant application, Franklin mentioned her new interest in animal virus research. She obtained Bernal's consent in July 1957, though serious concerns were raised after she disclosed her intentions to research live, instead of killed, polio virus at Birkbeck. Eventually, Bernal arranged for the virus to be safely stored at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine during the group's research. With her group, Franklin then commenced deciphering the structure of the polio virus while it was in a crystalline state. She attempted to mount the virus crystals in capillary tubes for X-ray studies, but was forced to end her work due to her rapidly failing health.
After Franklin's death, Klug succeeded her as group leader, and he, Finch and Holmes continued researching the structure of the polio virus. They eventually succeeded in obtaining extremely detailed X-ray images of the virus. In June 1959, Klug and Finch published the group's findings, revealing the polio virus to have icosahedral symmetry, and in the same paper suggested the possibility for all spherical viruses to possess the same symmetry, as it permitted the greatest possible number (60) of identical structural units. The team moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, in 1962, and the old Torrington Square laboratories were demolished four years later, in May 1966.
Personal life
Franklin was best described as an agnostic. Her lack of religious faith apparently did not stem from anyone's influence, rather from her own line of thinking. She developed her scepticism as a young child. Her mother recalled that she refused to believe in the existence of God, and remarked, "Well, anyhow, how do you know He isn't She?" She later made her position clear, now based on her scientific experience, and wrote to her father in 1940:
However, she did not abandon Jewish traditions. As the only Jewish student at Lindores School, she had Hebrew lessons on her own while her friends went to church. She joined the Jewish Society while in her first term at Cambridge, out of respect of her grandfather's request. Franklin confided to her sister that she was "always consciously a Jew".
Franklin loved travelling abroad, particularly trekking. She first "qualified" at Christmas 1929 for a vacation at Menton, France, where her grandfather went to escape the English winter. Her family frequently spent vacations in Wales or Cornwall. A trip to France in 1938 gave her a lasting love for France and its language. She considered the French lifestyle at that time as "vastly superior to that of English". In contrast, she described English people as having "vacant stupid faces and childlike complacency". Her family was almost stuck in Norway in 1939, as World War II was declared on their way home. In another instance, she trekked the French Alps with Jean Kerslake in 1946, which almost cost her her life. She slipped off a slope, and was barely rescued. But she wrote to her mother, "I am quite sure I could wander happily in France forever. I love the people, the country and the food."
She made several professional trips to the United States, and was particularly jovial among her American friends and constantly displayed her sense of humour. William Ginoza of the University of California, Los Angeles, later recalled that she was the opposite of Watson's description of her, and as Maddox comments, Americans enjoyed her "sunny side".
In his book The Double Helix, Watson provides his first-person account of the search for and discovery of DNA. He paints a sympathetic but sometimes critical portrait of Franklin. He praises her intellect and scientific acumen, but portrays her as difficult to work with and careless with her appearance. After introducing her in the book as "Rosalind", he writes that he and his male colleagues usually referred to her as "Rosy", the name people at King's College London used behind her back. She did not want to be called by that name because she had a great-aunt Rosy. In the family, she was called "Ros". To others, she was simply "Rosalind". She made it clear to an American visiting friend, Dorothea Raacke, while sitting with her at Crick's table in The Eagle pub in Cambridge: Raacke asked her how she was to be called and she replied "I'm afraid it will have to be Rosalind", adding "Most definitely not Rosy."
She often expressed her political views. She initially blamed Winston Churchill for inciting the war, but later admired him for his speeches. She actively supported Professor John Ryle as an independent candidate for parliament in the 1940 Cambridge University by-election, but he was unsuccessful.
She did not seem to have an intimate relationship with anyone, and always kept her deepest personal feelings to herself. After her younger days, she avoided close friendship with the opposite sex. In her later years, Evi Ellis, who had shared her bedroom when a child refugee and who was then married to Ernst Wohlgemuth and had moved to Notting Hill from Chicago, tried matchmaking her with Ralph Miliband but failed. Franklin once told Evi that her flatmate asked her for a drink, but she did not understand the intention. She was quite infatuated by her French mentor Mering, who had a wife and a mistress. Mering also admitted that he was captivated by her "intelligence and beauty". According to Anne Sayre, Franklin did confess her feeling for Mering when she was undergoing a second surgery, but Maddox reported that the family denied this. Mering wept when he visited her later, and destroyed all her letters after her death.
Her closest personal affair was probably with her once post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. In 1956, she visited him at his home in Colorado after her tour to University of California, Berkeley, and she was known to remark later that Caspar was one "she might have loved, might have married". In her letter to Sayre, she described him as "an ideal match".
Illness, death, and burial
In mid-1956, while on a work-related trip to the United States, Franklin first began to suspect a health problem. While in New York she found difficulty in zipping her skirt; her stomach had bulged. Back in London she consulted Mair Livingstone, who asked her, "You're not pregnant?" to which she retorted, "I wish I were." Her case was marked "URGENT". An operation on 4 September of the same year revealed two tumours in her abdomen. After this period and other periods of hospitalisation, Franklin spent time convalescing with various friends and family members. These included Anne Sayre, Francis Crick, his wife Odile, with whom Franklin had formed a strong friendship, and finally with the Roland and Nina Franklin family where Rosalind's nieces and nephews bolstered her spirits.
Franklin chose not to stay with her parents because her mother's uncontrollable grief and crying upset her too much. Even while undergoing cancer treatment, Franklin continued to work, and her group continued to produce results – seven papers in 1956 and six more in 1957. At the end of 1957, Franklin again fell ill and she was admitted to the Royal Marsden Hospital. On 2 December, she made her will. She named her three brothers as executors and made her colleague Aaron Klug the principal beneficiary, who would receive £3,000 and her Austin car. Of her other friends, Mair Livingstone would get £2,000, Anne Piper £1,000, and her nurse Miss Griffith £250. The remainder of the estate was to be used for charities.
She returned to work in January 1958, and was also given a promotion to Research Associate in Biophysics on 25 February. She fell ill again on 30 March, and she died on 16 April 1958, in Chelsea, London, of bronchopneumonia, secondary carcinomatosis, and ovarian cancer. Exposure to X-ray radiation is sometimes considered to be a possible factor in her illness.
Other members of her family have died of cancer, and the incidence of gynaecological cancer is known to be disproportionately high among Ashkenazi Jews. Her death certificate states: A Research Scientist, Spinster, Daughter of Ellis Arthur Franklin, a Banker. She was interred on 17 April 1958 in the family plot at Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery at Beaconsfield Road in London Borough of Brent. The inscription on her tombstone reads:
IN MEMORY OF ROSALIND ELSIE FRANKLIN מ' רחל בת ר' יהודה [Rochel/Rachel daughter of Yehuda, her father's Hebrew name] DEARLY LOVED ELDER DAUGHTER OF ELLIS AND MURIEL FRANKLIN 25TH JULY 1920 – 16TH APRIL 1958 SCIENTIST HER RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES ON VIRUSES REMAIN OF LASTING BENEFIT TO MANKIND ת נ צ ב ה [Hebrew initials for "her soul shall be bound in the bundle of life"]
Franklin's will was proven on 30 June, with her estate assessed for probate at £11,278 10s. 9d. (equivalent to £ in ).
Controversies after death
Alleged sexism toward Franklin
Anne Sayre, Franklin's friend and one of her biographers, says in her 1975 book, Rosalind Franklin and DNA: "In 1951 ... King's College London as an institution, was not distinguished for the welcome that it offered to women ... Rosalind ... was unused to purdah [a religious and social institution of female seclusion] ... there was one other woman scientist on the laboratory staff". The molecular biologist Andrzej Stasiak notes: "Sayre's book became widely cited in feminist circles for exposing rampant sexism in science." Farooq Hussain says: "there were seven women in the biophysics department ... Jean Hanson became an FRS, Dame Honor B. Fell, Director of Strangeways Laboratory, supervised the biologists". Maddox states: "Randall ... did have many women on his staff ... they found him ... sympathetic and helpful."
Sayre asserts that "while the male staff at King's lunched in a large, comfortable, rather clubby dining room" the female staff of all ranks "lunched in the student's hall or away from the premises". However, Elkin claims that most of the MRC group (including Franklin) typically ate lunch together in the mixed dining room discussed below. And Maddox says, of Randall: "He liked to see his flock, men and women, come together for morning coffee, and at lunch in the joint dining room, where he ate with them nearly every day." Francis Crick also commented that "her colleagues treated men and women scientists alike".
Sayre also discusses at length Franklin's struggle in pursuing science, particularly her father's concern about women in academic professions. This account had led to accusations of sexism in regard to Ellis Franklin's attitude to his daughter. A good deal of information explicitly claims that he strongly opposed her entering Newnham College. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) biography of Franklin goes further, stating that he refused to pay her fees, and that an aunt stepped in to do that for her. Her sister, Jenifer Glynn, has stated that those stories are myths, and that her parents fully supported Franklin's entire career.
Sexism is said to pervade the memoir of one peer, James Watson, in his book The Double Helix, published 10 years after Franklin's death and after Watson had returned from Cambridge to Harvard. His Cambridge colleague, Peter Pauling, wrote in a letter, "Morris [sic] Wilkins is supposed to be doing this work; Miss Franklin is evidently a fool." Crick acknowledges later, "I'm afraid we always used to adopt – let's say, a patronizing attitude towards her."
Glynn accuses Sayre of erroneously making her sister a feminist heroine, and sees Watson's The Double Helix as the root of what she calls the "Rosalind Industry". She conjectures that the stories of alleged sexism would "have embarrassed her [Rosalind Franklin] almost as much as Watson's account would have upset her", and declared that "she [Rosalind] was never a feminist." Klug and Crick have also concurred that Franklin was definitely not a feminist.
Franklin's letter to her parents in January 1939 is often taken as reflecting her own prejudiced attitude, and the claim that she was "not immune to the sexism rampant in these circles". In the letter, she remarked that one lecturer was "very good, though female". Maddox maintains that was a circumstantial comment rather than an example of gender bias, and that it was a expression of admiration because, at the time, woman teachers of science were a rarity. In fact, Maddox says, Franklin laughed at men who were embarrassed by the appointment of the first female professor, Dorothy Garrod.
Contribution to the model/structure of DNA
Rosalind Franklin's first important contributions to the model popularised by Crick and Watson was her lecture at the seminar in November 1951, where she presented to those present, among them Watson, the two forms of the molecule, type A and type B, her position being that the phosphate units are located in the external part of the molecule. She also specified the amount of water to be found in the molecule in accordance with other parts of it, data that have considerable importance for the stability of the molecule. Franklin was the first to discover and formulate these facts, which in fact constituted the basis for all later attempts to build a model of the molecule. However, Watson, at the time ignorant of the chemistry, failed to comprehend the crucial information, and this led to the construction of a wrong three-helical model.
The other contribution included an X-ray photograph of B-DNA (called Photo 51) taken by Franklin's student Gosling that was briefly shown to Watson by Wilkins in January 1953, and a report written for an MRC biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952 which was shown by Perutz at the Cavendish Laboratory to both Crick and Watson. This MRC report contained data from the King's group, including some of Franklin's and Gosling's work, and was given to Crick – who was working on his thesis on haemoglobin structure – by his thesis supervisor Perutz, a member of the visiting committee.
Sayre's biography of Franklin contains a story alleging that the photograph 51 in question was shown to Watson by Wilkins without Franklin's permission, and that this constituted a case of bad science ethics. Others dispute this story, asserting that Wilkins had been given photograph 51 by Franklin's PhD student Gosling because she was leaving King's to work at Birkbeck, and there was allegedly nothing untoward in this transfer of data to Wilkins because Director Randall had insisted that all DNA work belonged exclusively to King's and had instructed Franklin in a letter to even stop working on it and submit her data. Also, it was implied by Horace Freeland Judson, that Maurice Wilkins had taken the photograph out of Franklin's drawer, but this is also said to be incorrect.
Likewise, Perutz saw "no harm" in showing an MRC report containing the conclusions of Franklin and Gosling's X-ray data analysis to Crick, since it had not been marked as confidential, although "The report was not expected to reach outside eyes". Indeed, after the publication of Watson's The Double Helix exposed Perutz's act, he received so many letters questioning his judgment that he felt the need to both answer them all and to post a general statement in Science excusing himself on the basis of being "inexperienced and casual in administrative matters".
Perutz also claimed that the MRC information was already made available to the Cambridge team when Watson had attended Franklin's seminar in November 1951. A preliminary version of much of the important material contained in the 1952 December MRC report had been presented by Franklin in a talk she had given in November 1951, which Watson had attended but not understood.
The Perutz letter was as said one of three letters, published with letters by Wilkins and Watson, which discussed their various contributions. Watson clarified the importance of the data obtained from the MRC report as he had not recorded these data while attending Franklin's lecture in 1951. The upshot of all this was that when Crick and Watson started to build their model in February 1953 they were working with critical parameters that had been determined by Franklin in 1951, and which she and Gosling had significantly refined in 1952, as well as with published data and other very similar data to those available at King's. It was generally believed that Franklin was never aware that her work had been used during construction of the model, but Gosling asserted in his 2013 interview that, "Yes. Oh, she did know about that."
Recognition of her contribution to the model of DNA
Upon the completion of their model, Crick and Watson had invited Wilkins to be a co-author of their paper describing the structure. Wilkins turned down this offer, as he had taken no part in building the model. He later expressed regret that greater discussion of co-authorship had not taken place as this might have helped to clarify the contribution the work at King's had made to the discovery. There is no doubt that Franklin's experimental data were used by Crick and Watson to build their model of DNA in 1953. Some, including Maddox, have explained this citation omission by suggesting that it may be a question of circumstance, because it would have been very difficult to cite the unpublished work from the MRC report they had seen.
Indeed, a clear timely acknowledgment would have been awkward, given the unorthodox manner in which data were transferred from King's to Cambridge. However, methods were available. Watson and Crick could have cited the MRC report as a personal communication or else cited the Acta articles in press, or most easily, the third Nature paper that they knew was in press. One of the most important accomplishments of Maddox's widely acclaimed biography is that Maddox made a well-received case for inadequate acknowledgement. "Such acknowledgement as they gave her was very muted and always coupled with the name of Wilkins".
Fifteen years after the fact, the first clear recitation of Franklin's contribution appeared as it permeated Watson's account, The Double Helix, although it was buried under descriptions of Watson's (often quite negative) regard towards Franklin during the period of their work on DNA. This attitude is epitomized in the confrontation between Watson and Franklin over a preprint of Pauling's mistaken DNA manuscript. Watson's words impelled Sayre to write her rebuttal, in which the entire chapter nine, "Winner Take All" has the structure of a legal brief dissecting and analyzing the topic of acknowledgement.
Sayre's early analysis was often ignored because of perceived feminist overtones in her book. Watson and Crick did not cite the X-ray diffraction work of Wilkins and Franklin in their original paper, though they admit having "been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M. H. F. Wilkins, Dr. R. E. Franklin and their co-workers at King's College London". In fact, Watson and Crick cited no experimental data at all in support of their model. Franklin and Gosling's publication of the DNA X-ray image, in the same issue of Nature, served as the principal evidence:Thus our general ideas are not inconsistent with the model proposed by Watson and Crick in the preceding communication.
Nobel Prize
Franklin was never nominated for a Nobel Prize. Her work was a crucial part in the discovery of DNA's structure, which along with subsequent related work led to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins being awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962. She had died in 1958, and during her lifetime the DNA structure was not considered to be fully proven. It took Wilkins and his colleagues about seven years to collect enough data to prove and refine the proposed DNA structure. Moreover, its biological significance, as proposed by Watson and Crick, was not established. General acceptance for the DNA double helix and its function did not start until late in the 1950s, leading to Nobel nominations in 1960, 1961, and 1962 for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and in 1962 for Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The first breakthrough was from Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958, who experimentally showed the DNA replication of a bacterium Escherichia coli. In what is now known as the Meselson–Stahl experiment, DNA was found to replicate into two double-stranded helices, with each helix having one of the original DNA strands. This DNA replication was firmly established by 1961 after further demonstration in other species, and of the stepwise chemical reaction. According to the 1961 Crick–Monod letter, this experimental proof, along with Wilkins having initiated the DNA diffraction work, were the reasons why Crick felt that Wilkins should be included in the DNA Nobel Prize.
In 1962 the Nobel Prize was subsequently awarded to Crick, Watson, and Wilkins. Nobel rules now prohibit posthumous nominations (though this statute was not formally in effect until 1974) or splitting of Prizes more than three ways. The award was for their body of work on nucleic acids and not exclusively for the discovery of the structure of DNA. By the time of the award Wilkins had been working on the structure of DNA for more than 10 years, and had done much to confirm the Watson–Crick model. Crick had been working on the genetic code at Cambridge and Watson had worked on RNA for some years. Watson has suggested that ideally Wilkins and Franklin would have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Pauling, who received the Nobel Peace Prize that year, believed and earlier warned the Nobel Committee in 1960 that "it might well be premature to make an award of a Prize to Watson and Crick, because of existing uncertainty about the detailed structure of nucleic acid. I myself feel that it is likely that the general nature of the Watson-Crick structure is correct, but that there is doubt about details." He was partly right as an alternative of Watson-Crick base pairing, called the Hoogsteen base pairing that can form triple DNA strand, was discovered by Karst Hoogsteen in 1963.
Aaron Klug, Franklin's colleague and principal beneficiary in her will, was the sole winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1982, "for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes". This work was exactly what Franklin had started and which she introduced to Klug, and it is highly plausible that, were she alive, she would have shared the Nobel Prize.
Awards and honours
Posthumous recognition
1982, Iota Sigma Pi designated Franklin a National Honorary Member.
1984, St Paul's Girls School established the Rosalind Franklin Technology Centre.
1992, English Heritage placed a blue plaque commemorating Franklin on the building in Drayton Gardens, London, where she lived until her death.
1993, King's College London renamed the Orchard Residence at its Hampstead Campus as Rosalind Franklin Hall.
1993, King's College London placed a blue plaque on its outside wall bearing the inscription: "R. E. Franklin, R. G. Gosling, A. R. Stokes, M. H. F. Wilkins, H. R. Wilson – King's College London – DNA – X-ray diffraction studies – 1953."
1995, Newnham College, Cambridge opened a graduate residence named Rosalind Franklin Building, and put a bust of her in its garden.
1997, Birkbeck, University of London School of Crystallography opened the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory.
1997, a newly discovered asteroid was named 9241 Rosfranklin.
1998, National Portrait Gallery in London added Rosalind Franklin's portrait next to those of Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins.
1999, the Institute of Physics at Portland Place, London, renamed its theatre as Franklin Lecture Theatre.
2000, King's College London opened the Franklin–Wilkins Building in honour of Franklin's and Wilkins's work at the college.
2000, We the Curious (formally @Bristol) features the Rosalind Franklin Room.
2001, the American National Cancer Institute established the Rosalind E. Franklin Award for women in cancer research.
2002, the University of Groningen, supported by the European Union, launched the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship to encourage women researchers to become full university professors.
2003, the Royal Society established the Rosalind Franklin Award (officially the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture) for an outstanding contribution to any area of natural science, engineering or technology. The award consists of a silver-coated medal and a grant of £30,000.
2003, the Royal Society of Chemistry declared King's College London as "National Historic Chemical Landmark" and placed a plaque on the wall near the entrance of the building, with the inscription: "Near this site Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, Raymond Gosling, Alexander Stokes and Herbert Wilson performed experiments that led to the discovery of the structure of DNA. This work revolutionised our understanding of the chemistry behind life itself."
2004, Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, located in North Chicago, Illinois, USA changed its name to the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. It also adopted a new motto "Life in Discovery", and Photo 51 as its logo.
2004, the Gruber Foundation started the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for two female geneticists from all over the world. It carries an annual fund of $25,000, each award is for three years, and selection is made by a joint committee appointed by the Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Human Genetics.
2004, the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and the APS Users Organization (APSUO) started the APSUO Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for young scientists who made contributions through the APS.
2005, the DNA sculpture (donated by James Watson) outside Clare College, Cambridge's Memorial Court incorporates the words "The double helix model was supported by the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins."
2005, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, based in Florida, US, established an annual award the Rosalind Franklin Prize for Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research.
2006, the Rosalind Franklin Society was established in New York by Mary Ann Liebert. The Society aims to recognise, foster, and advance the important contributions of women in the life sciences and affiliated disciplines.
2008, Columbia University awarded an honorary Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Franklin, "for her seminal contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA".
2008, the Institute of Physics established a biennial award the Rosalind Franklin Medal and Prize.
2012, the bioinformatics education software platform Rosalind was named in honour of Franklin.
2012, The Rosalind Franklin Building was opened at Nottingham Trent University.
2013, Google honoured Rosalind Franklin with a doodle, showing her gazing at a double helix structure of DNA with an X-ray of Photo 51 beyond it.
2013, a plaque was placed on the wall of The Eagle pub in Cambridge commemorating Franklin's contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA, on the sixtieth anniversary of Crick and Watson's announcement in the pub.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology was established by Biotechnology Industry Organization (Biotechnology Innovation Organization since 2016) in collaboration with the Rosalind Franklin Society, for an outstanding woman in the field of industrial biotechnology and bioprocessing.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science unveiled a bronze statue of Franklin, created by Julie Rotblatt-Amrany, near its front entrance.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin STEM Elementary was opened in Pasco, Washington, the first science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) elementary school in the district.
2014, the University of Wolverhampton opened its new laboratory building named the Rosalind Franklin Science Building.
2015, Newnham College Boat Club, Cambridge, launched a new racing VIII, naming it the Rosalind Franklin.
2015, the Rosalind Franklin Appathon was launched by University College London as a national app competition for women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine).
2015, a high performance computing and cloud facility in London was named Rosalind.
2016, the British Humanist Association added the Rosalind Franklin Lecture to its annual lecture series, aimed to explore and celebrate the contribution of women towards the promotion and advancement of humanism.
2016, the Rosalind Franklin Prize and Tech Day was held on 23 February in London, organised by University College London, i-sense, UCL Enterprise, the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the UCL Athena Swan Charter.
2017, DSM opened the Rosalind Franklin Biotechnology Center in Delft, the Netherlands.
2017, Historic England gave a heritage listing, at Grade II, to Franklin's tomb at Willesden Jewish Cemetery on the grounds of it being of "special architectural or historic interest". Historic England said that "the tomb commemorates the life and achievements of Rosalind Franklin, a scientist of exceptional distinction, whose pioneering work helped lay the foundations of molecular biology; Franklin’s X-ray observation of DNA contributed to the discovery of its helical structure."
2018, the Rosalind Franklin Institute, an autonomous medical research centre under the join venture of 10 universities and funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation, was launched at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus on 6 June, and was officially opened on 29 September 2021.
2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) named its ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin.
2019, the University of Portsmouth announced that it changed the name James Watson Halls to Rosalind Franklin Halls from 2 September.
2020, Franklin was selected for the Time 100 Women of the Year, for 1953.
2020, the UK Royal Mint released a 50-pence coin in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Franklin’s birth on 25 July. It features a stylized version of Photo 51.
2020, South Norfolk Council renamed a road on the Norwich Research Park in her honour in July 2020. The road is home to the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia's Bob Champion Research and Education Building.
2020, Trinity College Dublin announced that its library had previously held forty busts, all of whom were of men, was commissioning four new busts of women one of whom would be Franklin.
2020, Aston Medical School instituted an annual competition for medical students named the Rosalind Franklin Essay Prize, funded by its alumni and Rosalind's nephew, Daniel Franklin, executive and diplomatic editor of The Economist.
2021, a bronze tondo of Rosalind Franklin was placed on Hampstead Manor and unveiled on 15 March.
2021, the Rosalind Franklin laboratory was opened in the Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 13 July as the largest laboratory for COVID-19 testing under the UK Health Security Agency and National Health Service Test and Trace network, and supported by the University of Warwick.
Cultural references
Franklin's part in the discovery of the nature of DNA was shown in the 1987 TV Movie Life Story, starring Juliet Stevenson as Franklin, and with Tim Pigott-Smith as Crick, Alan Howard as Wilkins and Jeff Goldblum as Watson. This movie portrayed Franklin as somewhat stern, but also alleged that Watson and Crick did use a lot of her work to do theirs.
A 56-minute documentary of the life and scientific contributions of Franklin, DNA – Secret of Photo 51, was broadcast in 2003 on PBS Nova. Narrated by Barbara Flynn, the program features interviews with Wilkins, Gosling, Klug, Maddox, including Franklin's friends Vittorio Luzzati, Caspar, Anne Piper, and Sue Richley. The UK version produced by BBC is titled Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady.
The first episode of another PBS documentary serial, DNA, was aired on 4 January 2004. The episode titled The Secret of Life centres much around the contributions of Franklin. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, it features Watson, Wilkins, Gosling and Peter Pauling (son of Linus Pauling).
A play entitled Rosalind: A Question of Life was written by Deborah Gearing to mark the work of Franklin, and was first performed on 1 November 2005 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and published by Oberon Books in 2006.
Another play, Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, published in 2011, has been produced at several places in the US and in late 2015 was put on at the Noel Coward Theatre, London, with Nicole Kidman playing Franklin. Ziegler's version of the 1951–53 'race' for the structure of DNA sometimes emphasizes the pivotal role of Franklin's research and her personality. Although sometimes altering history for dramatic effect, the play nevertheless illuminates many of the key issues of how science was and is conducted.
False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch is a play about the life of Marie Curie in which Franklin is portrayed as frustrated and angry at the lack of recognition for her scientific contributions. Hostility between the two is also depicted in season 3 of Harvey Girls Forever.
Publications
Rosalind Franklin's most notable publications are listed below. The last two were published posthumously.
See also
Timeline of women in science
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer who discovered the most elemental composition of stars
References
Citations
Sources
Elkin, L. O., Rosalind Franklin and the Double Helix Physics Today March 2003, pp. 42–48.
Holt, J. (2002) "Photo Finish: Rosalind Franklin and the great DNA race" The New Yorker October
Watson, J. Letter to Science, 164, p. 1539, 27 (1969).
Further reading
External links
Recordings by Aaron Klug at Web of Stories:
by Sir Aaron Klug
The first American newspaper coverage of the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Website for television program first broadcast in 2003
Documents from the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Also available at
1920 births
1958 deaths
20th-century British biologists
20th-century British chemists
20th-century English scientists
20th-century British women scientists
Academics of Birkbeck, University of London
Academics of King's College London
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery
Carbon scientists
Civil Defence Service personnel
Crystallographers
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from ovarian cancer
English agnostics
English Jews
English molecular biologists
English physical chemists
English women biologists
English women chemists
Rosalind
Jewish agnostics
Jewish biophysicists
Jewish British scientists
Jewish women scientists
People educated at Norland Place School
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
People from Notting Hill
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"Dr. Lara K. Mahal is the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Glycomics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She is also a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alberta. She is notable both for her pioneering work establishing lectin microarrays as a new technology for glycomics, her work on miRNA regulation of glycosylation and her graduate work with Professor Carolyn R. Bertozzi on unnatural carbohydrate incorporation. Work in her laboratory focuses on understanding the role of carbohydrates in human health using systems- and chemical biology-based approaches\n\nAcademia\nProfessor Mahal received her B.A. in Chemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1995. As an undergraduate, she worked on organic free radical chemistry in the laboratory of Professor Rebecca Braslau. In 1995, Professor Mahal joined the newly formed laboratory of Professor Bertozzi at the University of California, Berkeley where she worked on the incorporation of unnatural functionalized sialic acid derivatives onto the surface of cells. For this landmark work, Professor Mahal was awarded and American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Pre-doctoral Fellowship. After graduating in 2001, Professor Mahal did postdoctoral research on neuronal exocytosis in the laboratory of Professor Jim Rothman at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Center. During this time Professor Mahal was a Jane Coffins Child Cancer Research Fellow.\n\nIn 2003, Professor Mahal joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Tenured in 2009, she then joined the faculty of New York University as an Associate Professor of Chemistry in the Biomedical Chemistry Institute. She was promoted to Professor in 2016. In 2019, Professor Mahal became the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Glycomics at the University of Alberta. Beyond the CERC, Professor Mahal has received several major awards, including the Beckman Young Investigators Award (2004), an NSF Career Award (2007), the Sloan Foundation Fellowship (2008), the 2008 NIH Director's New Innovator Award and the Horace S. Isbell Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry (2017).\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nUniversity of Texas at Austin faculty\nUniversity of California, Santa Cruz alumni\nUniversity of California, Berkeley alumni\nNew York University faculty",
"Ellen Louise Mertz (20 July 1896 — 29 December 1987) was one of Denmark's first female geologists and the country's first engineering geologist. \nShe undertook pioneering investigative work for the Danish State Railways in the late 1920s in connection with the construction of the Little Belt Bridge (completed in 1929) and was the first to propose what later became the Danish Geotechnical Institute.\n\nBiography\nMertz was born on the Engestofte estate on the island of Lolland where her father, Ludvig Olsen (1861–1928), was the estate manager. In her late teens, she served an apprenticeship on a farm in the north of Jutland, but in fact she aspired to become an engineer. \nIn 1916, she entered the Polytechnic School in Copenhagen, completing the first stage of her civil engineering course in 1919. As she had spent some time undertaking laboratory work for Geological Survey of Denmark (Danmarks Geologiske Undersøgelse: DGU), Victor Madsen, the director, advised her to study geology. As a result, although she did not complete a recognized course of study, she was able to participate constructively in the development of engineering geology.\n\nWhile on a study trip to Stockholm in 1921, Mertz became acquainted with the field of geotechnical investigation, a completely new concept for Denmark. Its development had resulted from collaboration between engineers and geologists after a Swedish dam had collapsed in 1914. Together, the experts were able to come up with proposals for preventing such disasters in the future. Although their final report was not published until 1922, Mertz was able to benefit from their work. On her return to Denmark, she promoted collaboration between the Danish State Railways and the Geological Survey. As a result, in the late 1920s she was charged to undertake a geological study as a basis for the construction of the Little Belt Bridge.\n\nIn 1930, the Geological Survey and the Danish Railways established a geotechnical laboratory in which Mertz and a railway engineer collaborated, especially on bridge building investigations. From the start, Mertz participated in feasibility studies on a total of eight bridges, all of which were completed in the 1930s. Her initiatives led to the creation of the Geotechnical Survey of Denmark in 1943. It was located in the Danish Railways' administrative building in Copenhagen and was established under the authority of the Academy of Technical Sciences. She continued to work in her geotechnical laboratory until 1969 while maintaining close contacts with the Geotechnical Survey and its staff.\n\nIn 1958, she was appointed departmental geologist at the Geotechnical Survey. Collaboration between geologists and engineers led to the creation of a new branch of science, engineering geology. Mertz, a pioneer in the field, became known in Scandinavia as the \"Mother of Engineering Geology\". She promoted the new field through lectures and courses at the Technical High School and similar institutions.\n\nAwards\nFor her contributions to geology, Mertz received the following awards:\n1966: The Order of Dannebrog\n1974: the Technical University's gold medal\n\nSelected publications\nAmong her publications, Mertz compiled a series of nine studies on the geological conditions of the towns of Denmark beginning with Helsingør in 1969 and culminating with Korsør in 1985.\n\nReferences\n\nLiterature\n\n1896 births\n1987 deaths\nDanish women scientists\n20th-century women scientists\nDanish geologists\nDanish women geologists\n20th-century Danish scientists\n20th-century geologists"
] |
[
"Rosalind Franklin",
"Cambridge and World War II",
"what happened with Rosalind and Cambridge?",
"Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos.",
"did he graduate?",
"In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams.",
"what happened to her during WW II?",
"I don't know.",
"what did she do after Cambridge?",
"joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.",
"what did she work on in the laboratory?",
"She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density."
] |
C_145dfae88a7144ceb9aa67cc28dcccd4_0
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did she win any awards or prizes?
| 6 |
Did Rosalind Franklin win any awards or prizes?
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Rosalind Franklin
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Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular B.A. and M.A. degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and helped her to improve her spoken French. Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide for her what to work upon, and at that time was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin Irene Franklin asked to join her in a vacated house of her uncle in Putney. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids. She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her Ph.D. thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge University awarded her a Ph.D. in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognized during her life, for which she has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology".
She graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Disappointed by Norrish’s lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The research on coal helped her earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1945. Moving to Paris in 1947 as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, she became an accomplished X-ray crystallographer. After joining King's College London in 1951 as a research associate, she discovered the key properties of DNA, which eventually facilitated the correct description of the double helix structure of DNA. Owing to disagreement with her director, John Randall, and her colleague Maurice Wilkins, she was compelled to move to Birkbeck College in 1953.
Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA while at King's College London, particularly Photo 51, taken by her student Raymond Gosling, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix for which Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Watson suggested that Franklin would have ideally been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Wilkins but, although there was not yet a rule against posthumous awards, the Nobel Committee generally did not make posthumous nominations.
Working under John Desmond Bernal, Franklin led pioneering work at Birkbeck on the molecular structures of viruses. On the day before she was to unveil the structure of tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels, she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 37 in 1958. Her team member Aaron Klug continued her research, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982.
Early life
Franklin was born on 25 July 1920 in 50 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill, London, into an affluent and influential British Jewish family.
Family
Franklin's father was Ellis Arthur Franklin (1894–1964), a politically liberal London merchant banker who taught at the city's Working Men's College, and her mother was Muriel Frances Waley (1894–1976). Rosalind was the elder daughter and the second child in the family of five children. David (1919–1986) was the eldest brother; Colin (1923–2020), Roland (born 1926), and Jenifer (born 1929) were her younger siblings.
Franklin's paternal great-uncle was Herbert Samuel (later Viscount Samuel), who was the Home Secretary in 1916 and the first practising Jew to serve in the British Cabinet. Her aunt, Helen Caroline Franklin, known in the family as Mamie, was married to Norman de Mattos Bentwich, who was the Attorney General in the British Mandate of Palestine. Helen was active in trade union organisation and the women's suffrage movement and was later a member of the London County Council. Franklin's uncle, Hugh Franklin, was another prominent figure in the suffrage movement, although his actions therein embarrassed the Franklin family. Rosalind's middle name, "Elsie", was in memory of Hugh's first wife, who died in the 1918 flu pandemic. Her family was actively involved with the Working Men's College, where her father taught the subjects of electricity, magnetism, and the history of the Great War in the evenings, later becoming the vice principal.
Franklin's parents helped settle Jewish refugees from Europe who had escaped the Nazis, particularly those from the Kindertransport. They took in two Jewish children to their home, and one of them, a nine-year-old Austrian, Evi Eisenstädter, shared Jenifer's room. (Evi's father Hans Mathias Eisenstädter had been imprisoned in Buchenwald, and after liberation, the family adopted the surname "Ellis".)
Education
From early childhood, Franklin showed exceptional scholastic abilities. At age six, she joined her brother Roland at Norland Place School, a private day school in West London. At that time, her aunt Mamie (Helen Bentwich), described her to her husband: "Rosalind is alarmingly clever – she spends all her time doing arithmetic for pleasure, and invariably gets her sums right." She also developed an early interest in cricket and hockey. At age nine, she entered a boarding school, Lindores School for Young Ladies in Sussex. The school was near the seaside, and the family wanted a good environment for her delicate health.
She was 11 when she went to St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, west London, one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. At St Paul's she excelled in science, Latin, and sports. She also learned German, and became fluent in French, a language she would later find useful. She topped her classes, and won annual awards. Her only educational weakness was in music, for which the school music director, the composer Gustav Holst, once called upon her mother to inquire whether she might have suffered from hearing problems or tonsillitis. With six distinctions, she passed her matriculation in 1938, winning a scholarship for university, the School Leaving Exhibition of £30 a year for three years, and £5 from her grandfather. Her father asked her to give the scholarship to a deserving refugee student.
Cambridge and World War II
Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular BA and MA degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and who helped her to improve her conversational French.
Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide upon the assignment of work for her. At that time he was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she initially stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin, Irene Franklin, proposed that they share living quarters at a vacated house in Putney that belonged to her uncle. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids.
She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her PhD thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge awarded her a PhD in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers.
Career and research
Paris
With World War II ending in 1945, Franklin asked Adrienne Weill for help and to let her know of job openings for "a physical chemist who knows very little physical chemistry, but quite a lot about the holes in coal." At a conference in the autumn of 1946, Weill introduced her to Marcel Mathieu, a director of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the network of institutes that comprise the major part of the scientific research laboratories supported by the French government. This led to her appointment with Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État in Paris. She joined the labo (as referred to by the staff) of Mering on 14 February 1947 as one of the fifteen chercheurs (researchers).
Mering was an X-ray crystallographer who applied X-ray diffraction to the study of rayon and other amorphous substances, in contrast to the thousands of regular crystals that had been studied by this method for many years. He taught her the practical aspects of applying X-ray crystallography to amorphous substances. This presented new challenges in the conduct of experiments and the interpretation of results. Franklin applied them to further problems related to coal and to other carbonaceous materials, in particular the changes to the arrangement of atoms when these are converted to graphite. She published several further papers on this work which has become part of the mainstream of the physics and chemistry of coal and carbon. She coined the terms graphitising and non-graphitising carbon. The coal work was covered in a 1993 monograph, and in the regularly-published textbook Chemistry and Physics of Carbon. Mering continued the study of carbon in various forms, using X-ray diffraction and other methods.
King's College London
In 1950, Franklin was granted a three-year Turner & Newall Fellowship to work at King's College London. In January 1951, she started working as a research associate in the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Biophysics Unit, directed by John Randall. She was originally appointed to work on X-ray diffraction of proteins and lipids in solution, but Randall redirected her work to DNA fibres because of new developments in the field, and she was to be the only experienced experimental diffraction researcher at King's at the time. Randall made this reassignment, even before Franklin started working at King's, because of the pioneering work by DNA researcher Maurice Wilkins, and he reassigned Raymond Gosling, the graduate student who had been working with Wilkins, to be her assistant.
In 1950, Swiss chemist Rudolf Signer in Berne prepared a highly purified DNA sample from calf thymus. He freely distributed the DNA sample, later referred to as the Signer DNA, in early May 1950 at the meeting of the Faraday Society in London, and Wilkins was one of the recipients. Even using crude equipment, Wilkins and Gosling had obtained a good-quality diffraction picture of the DNA sample which sparked further interest in this molecule. But Randall had not indicated to them that he had asked Franklin to take over both the DNA diffraction work and guidance of Gosling's thesis. It was while Wilkins was away on holiday that Randall, in a letter in December 1950, assured Franklin that "as far as the experimental X-ray effort there would be for the moment only yourself and Gosling." Randall's lack of communication about this reassignment significantly contributed to the well documented friction that developed between Wilkins and Franklin. When Wilkins returned, he handed over the Signer DNA and Gosling to Franklin.
Franklin, now working with Gosling, started to apply her expertise in X-ray diffraction techniques to the structure of DNA. She used a new fine-focus X-ray tube and microcamera ordered by Wilkins, but which she refined, adjusted and focused carefully. Drawing upon her physical chemistry background, a critical innovation she applied was making the camera chamber that could be controlled for its humidity using different saturated salt solutions. When Wilkins inquired about this improved technique, she replied in terms which offended him as she had "an air of cool superiority".
Franklin's habit of intensely looking people in the eye while being concise, impatient and direct unnerved many of her colleagues. In stark contrast, Wilkins was very shy, and slowly calculating in speech while he avoided looking anyone directly in the eye. With the ingenious humidity-controlling camera, Franklin was soon able to produce X-ray images of better quality than those of Wilkins. She immediately discovered that the DNA sample could exist in two forms: at a relative humidity higher than 75%, the DNA fibre became long and thin; when it was drier, it became short and fat. She originally referred to the former as "wet" and the latter as "crystalline."
On the structure of the crystalline DNA, Franklin first recorded the analysis in her notebook, which reads: "Evidence for spiral [meaning helical] structure. Straight chain untwisted is highly improbable. Absence of reflections on meridian in χtalline [crystalline] form suggests spiral structure." An immediate discovery from this was that the phosphate group lies outside of the main DNA chain; she however could not make out whether there could be two or three chains. She presented their data at a lecture in November 1951, in King's College London. In her lecture notes, she wrote the following:The results suggest a helical structure (which must be very closely packed) containing 2, 3 or 4 co‐axial nucleic acid chains per helical unit, and having the phosphate groups near the outside.Franklin then named "A" and "B" respectively for the "wet" and "crystalline" forms. (The biological functions of A-DNA were discovered only 60 years later.) Because of the intense personality conflict developing between Franklin and Wilkins, Randall divided the work on DNA. Franklin chose the data rich "A" form while Wilkins selected the "B" form. By the end of 1951 it became generally accepted at King's that the B-DNA was a helix, but after she had recorded an asymmetrical image in May 1952, Franklin became unconvinced that the A-DNA was a helix. In July 1952, as a practical joke on Wilkins (who frequently expressed his view that both forms of DNA were helical), Franklin and Gosling produced a funeral notice regretting the 'death' of helical A-DNA, which runs:It is with great regret that we have to announce the death, on Friday 18th July 1952 of DNA helix (crystalline). Death followed a protracted illness which an intensive course of Besselised [referring to Bessel function that was used to analyse the X-ray diffraction patterns] injections had failed to relieve. A memorial service will be held next Monday or Tuesday. It is hoped that Dr M H F Wilkins will speak in memory of the late helix. [Signed Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling.]During 1952, they worked at applying the Patterson function to the X-ray pictures of DNA they had produced. This was a long and labour-intensive approach but would yield significant insight into the structure of the molecule. Franklin was fully committed to experimental data and was sternly against theoretical or model buildings, as she said, "We are not going to speculate, we are going to wait, we are going to let the spots on this photograph tell us what the [DNA] structure is." The X-ray diffraction pictures, including the landmark Photo 51 taken by Gosling at this time, have been called by John Desmond Bernal as "amongst the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken".
By January 1953, Franklin had reconciled her conflicting data, concluding that both DNA forms had two helices, and had started to write a series of three draft manuscripts, two of which included a double helical DNA backbone (see below). Her two A-DNA manuscripts reached Acta Crystallographica in Copenhagen on 6 March 1953, one day before Crick and Watson had completed their model on B-DNA. She must have mailed them while the Cambridge team was building their model, and certainly had written them before she knew of their work. On 8 July 1953 she modified one of these "in proof" Acta articles, "in light of recent work" by the King's and Cambridge research teams.
The third draft paper was on the B-DNA, dated 17 March 1953, which was discovered years later amongst her papers, by Franklin's Birkbeck colleague, Aaron Klug. He then published in 1974 an evaluation of the draft's close correlation with the third of the original trio of 25 April 1953 Nature DNA articles. Klug designed this paper to complement the first article he had written in 1968 defending Franklin's significant contribution to DNA structure. He had written this first article in response to the incomplete picture of Franklin's work depicted in James Watson's 1968 memoir, The Double Helix.
As vividly described Watson, he travelled to King's on 30 January 1953 carrying a preprint of Linus Pauling's incorrect proposal for DNA structure. Since Wilkins was not in his office, Watson went to Franklin's lab with his urgent message that they should all collaborate before Pauling discovered his error. The unimpressed Franklin became angry when Watson suggested she did not know how to interpret her own data. Watson hastily retreated, backing into Wilkins who had been attracted by the commotion. Wilkins commiserated with his harried friend and then showed Watson Franklin's DNA X-ray image. Watson, in turn, showed Wilkins a prepublication manuscript by Pauling and Robert Corey, which contained a DNA structure remarkably like their first incorrect model.
Discovery of DNA structure
In February 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University had started to build a molecular model of the B-DNA using data similar to that available to both teams at King's. Based on Franklin's lecture in November 1952 that DNA was helical with either two or three stands, they constructed a triple helix model, which was immediately proven to be flawed. Franklin's research was completed by February 1953, ahead of her move to Birkbeck, and her data was critical. Model building had been applied successfully in the elucidation of the structure of the alpha helix by Linus Pauling in 1951, but Franklin was opposed to prematurely building theoretical models, until sufficient data were obtained to properly guide the model building. She took the view that building a model was to be undertaken only after enough of the structure was known. Her conviction was justified by the fact that Pauling and Corey also came up in the late 1952 (published in February 1953) with an erroneous triple helix model.
Ever cautious, she wanted to eliminate misleading possibilities. Photographs of her Birkbeck work table show that she routinely used small molecular models, although certainly not ones on the grand scale successfully used at Cambridge for DNA. In the middle of February 1953, Crick's thesis advisor, Max Perutz, gave Crick a copy of a report written for a Medical Research Council biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952, containing many of Franklin's crystallographic calculations.
Since Franklin had decided to transfer to Birkbeck College and Randall had insisted that all DNA work must stay at King's, Wilkins was given copies of Franklin's diffraction photographs by Gosling. By 28 February 1953, Watson and Crick felt they had solved the problem enough for Crick to proclaim (in the local pub) that they had "found the secret of life". However, they knew they must complete their model before they could be certain.
Watson and Crick finished building their model on 7 March 1953, one day before they received a letter from Wilkins stating that Franklin was finally leaving and they could put "all hands to the pump". This was also one day after Franklin's two A-DNA papers had reached Acta Crystallographica. Wilkins came to see the model the following week, according to Franklin's biographer Brenda Maddox, on 12 March, and allegedly informed Gosling on his return to King's.
One of the most critical and overlooked moments in DNA research was how and when Franklin realised and conceded that B-DNA was a double helical molecule. When Klug first examined Franklin's documents after her death, he initially came to an impression that Franklin was not convinced of the double helical nature until the knowledge of the Cambridge model. But he later discovered the original draft of the manuscript (dated 17 March 1953) from which it became clear that Franklin had already resolved the correct structure. The news of Watson–Crick model reached King's the next day, 18 March, suggesting that Franklin would have learned of it much later since she had moved to Birkbeck. Further scrutiny of her notebook revealed that Franklin had already thought of the helical structure for B-DNA in February 1953 but was not sure of the number of strands, as she wrote: "Evidence for 2-chain (or 1-chain helix)." Her conclusion on the helical nature was evident, though she failed to understand the complete organisation of the DNA strands as the possibility two strands running in opposite directions did not occur to her.
Towards the end of February she began to work out the indications of double strands, as she noted: "Structure B does not fit single helical theory, even for low layer-lines." It soon dawned to her that the B-DNA and A-DNA were structurally similar, and perceived A-DNA as an "unwound version" of B-DNA. She and Gosling wrote a five-paged manuscript on 17 March titled "A Note on Molecular Configuration of Sodium Thymonucleate." After the Watson–Crick model was known, there appeared to be only one (hand-written) modification after the typeset at the end of the text which states that their data was consistent with the model, and appeared as such in the trio of 25 April 1953 Nature articles; the other modification being a deletion of "A Note on" from the title.
Weeks later, on 10 April, Franklin wrote to Crick for permission to see their model. Franklin retained her scepticism for premature model building even after seeing the Watson–Crick model, and remained unimpressed. She is reported to have commented, "It's very pretty, but how are they going to prove it?" As an experimental scientist, Franklin seems to have been interested in producing far greater evidence before publishing-as-proven a proposed model. Accordingly, her response to the Watson–Crick model was in keeping with her cautious approach to science.
Crick and Watson then published their model in Nature on 25 April 1953, in an article describing the double-helical structure of DNA with only a footnote acknowledging "having been stimulated by a general knowledge of Franklin and Wilkins' "unpublished" contribution. Actually, although it was the bare minimum, they had just enough specific knowledge of Franklin and Gosling's data upon which to base their model. As a result of a deal struck by the two laboratory directors, articles by Wilkins and Franklin, which included their X-ray diffraction data, were modified and then published second and third in the same issue of Nature, seemingly only in support of the Crick and Watson theoretical paper which proposed a model for the B-DNA. Most of the scientific community hesitated several years before accepting the double helix proposal. At first mainly geneticists embraced the model because of its obvious genetic implications.
Birkbeck College
Franklin left King's College London in mid-March 1953 for Birkbeck College, in a move that had been planned for some time and that she described (in a letter to Adrienne Weill in Paris) as "moving from a palace to the slums ... but pleasanter all the same". She was recruited by physics department chair John Desmond Bernal, a crystallographer who was a communist, known for promoting women crystallographers. Her new laboratories were housed in 21 Torrington Square, one of a pair of dilapidated and cramped Georgian houses containing several different departments; Franklin frequently took Bernal to task over the careless attitudes of some of the other laboratory staff, notably after workers in the pharmacy department flooded her first-floor laboratory with water on one occasion.
Despite the parting words of Bernal to stop her interest in nucleic acids, she helped Gosling to finish his thesis, although she was no longer his official supervisor. Together they published the first evidence of double helix in the A form of DNA in the 25 July issue of Nature. At the end of 1954, Bernal secured funding for Franklin from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), which enabled her to work as a senior scientist supervising her own research group. John Finch, a physics student from King's College London, subsequently joined Franklin's group, followed by Kenneth Holmes, a Cambridge graduate, in July 1955. Despite the ARC funding, Franklin wrote to Bernal that the existing facilities remained highly unsuited for conducting research "...my desk and lab are on the fourth floor, my X-ray tube in the basement, and I am responsible for the work of four people distributed over the basement, first and second floors on two different staircases."
RNA research
Franklin continued to explore another major nucleic acid, RNA, a molecule equally central to life as DNA. She again used X-ray crystallography to study the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), an RNA virus. Her meeting with Aaron Klug in early 1954 led to a longstanding and successful collaboration. Klug had just then earned his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined Birkbeck in late 1953. In 1955 Franklin published her first major works on TMV in Nature, in which she described that all TMV virus particles were of the same length. This was in direct contradiction to the ideas of the eminent virologist Norman Pirie, though her observation ultimately proved correct.
Franklin assigned the study of the complete structure of TMV to her PhD student Holmes. They soon discovered (published in 1956) that the covering of TMV was protein molecules arranged in helices. Her colleague Klug worked on spherical viruses with his student Finch, with Franklin coordinating and overseeing the work. As a team, from 1956 they started publishing seminal works on TMV, cucumber virus 4 and turnip yellow mosaic virus.
Franklin also had a research assistant, James Watt, subsidised by the National Coal Board and was now the leader of the ARC group at Birkbeck. The Birkbeck team members continued working on RNA viruses affecting several plants, including potato, turnip, tomato and pea. In 1955 the team was joined by an American post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. He worked on the precise location of RNA molecules in TMV. In 1956 he and Franklin published individual but complementary papers in the 10 March issue of Nature, in which they showed that the RNA in TMV is wound along the inner surface of the hollow virus. Caspar was not an enthusiastic writer, and Franklin had to write the entire manuscript for him.
Her research grant from ARC expired at the end of 1957, and she was never given the full salary proposed by Birkbeck. After Bernal requested ARC chairman Lord Rothschild, she was given a one-year extension ending in March 1958.
Expo 58, the first major international fair after World War II, was to be held in Brussels in 1958. Franklin was invited to make a five-foot high model of TMV, which she started in 1957. Her materials included table tennis balls and plastic bicycle handlebar grips. The Brussels world's fair, with an exhibit of her virus model at the International Science Pavilion, opened on 17 April, one day after she died.
Polio virus
In 1956, Franklin visited the University of California, Berkeley, where colleagues suggested her group research the polio virus. In 1957 she applied for a grant from the United States Public Health Service of the National Institutes of Health, which approved £10,000 (equivalent to £ in ) for three years, the largest fund ever received at Birkbeck. In her grant application, Franklin mentioned her new interest in animal virus research. She obtained Bernal's consent in July 1957, though serious concerns were raised after she disclosed her intentions to research live, instead of killed, polio virus at Birkbeck. Eventually, Bernal arranged for the virus to be safely stored at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine during the group's research. With her group, Franklin then commenced deciphering the structure of the polio virus while it was in a crystalline state. She attempted to mount the virus crystals in capillary tubes for X-ray studies, but was forced to end her work due to her rapidly failing health.
After Franklin's death, Klug succeeded her as group leader, and he, Finch and Holmes continued researching the structure of the polio virus. They eventually succeeded in obtaining extremely detailed X-ray images of the virus. In June 1959, Klug and Finch published the group's findings, revealing the polio virus to have icosahedral symmetry, and in the same paper suggested the possibility for all spherical viruses to possess the same symmetry, as it permitted the greatest possible number (60) of identical structural units. The team moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, in 1962, and the old Torrington Square laboratories were demolished four years later, in May 1966.
Personal life
Franklin was best described as an agnostic. Her lack of religious faith apparently did not stem from anyone's influence, rather from her own line of thinking. She developed her scepticism as a young child. Her mother recalled that she refused to believe in the existence of God, and remarked, "Well, anyhow, how do you know He isn't She?" She later made her position clear, now based on her scientific experience, and wrote to her father in 1940:
However, she did not abandon Jewish traditions. As the only Jewish student at Lindores School, she had Hebrew lessons on her own while her friends went to church. She joined the Jewish Society while in her first term at Cambridge, out of respect of her grandfather's request. Franklin confided to her sister that she was "always consciously a Jew".
Franklin loved travelling abroad, particularly trekking. She first "qualified" at Christmas 1929 for a vacation at Menton, France, where her grandfather went to escape the English winter. Her family frequently spent vacations in Wales or Cornwall. A trip to France in 1938 gave her a lasting love for France and its language. She considered the French lifestyle at that time as "vastly superior to that of English". In contrast, she described English people as having "vacant stupid faces and childlike complacency". Her family was almost stuck in Norway in 1939, as World War II was declared on their way home. In another instance, she trekked the French Alps with Jean Kerslake in 1946, which almost cost her her life. She slipped off a slope, and was barely rescued. But she wrote to her mother, "I am quite sure I could wander happily in France forever. I love the people, the country and the food."
She made several professional trips to the United States, and was particularly jovial among her American friends and constantly displayed her sense of humour. William Ginoza of the University of California, Los Angeles, later recalled that she was the opposite of Watson's description of her, and as Maddox comments, Americans enjoyed her "sunny side".
In his book The Double Helix, Watson provides his first-person account of the search for and discovery of DNA. He paints a sympathetic but sometimes critical portrait of Franklin. He praises her intellect and scientific acumen, but portrays her as difficult to work with and careless with her appearance. After introducing her in the book as "Rosalind", he writes that he and his male colleagues usually referred to her as "Rosy", the name people at King's College London used behind her back. She did not want to be called by that name because she had a great-aunt Rosy. In the family, she was called "Ros". To others, she was simply "Rosalind". She made it clear to an American visiting friend, Dorothea Raacke, while sitting with her at Crick's table in The Eagle pub in Cambridge: Raacke asked her how she was to be called and she replied "I'm afraid it will have to be Rosalind", adding "Most definitely not Rosy."
She often expressed her political views. She initially blamed Winston Churchill for inciting the war, but later admired him for his speeches. She actively supported Professor John Ryle as an independent candidate for parliament in the 1940 Cambridge University by-election, but he was unsuccessful.
She did not seem to have an intimate relationship with anyone, and always kept her deepest personal feelings to herself. After her younger days, she avoided close friendship with the opposite sex. In her later years, Evi Ellis, who had shared her bedroom when a child refugee and who was then married to Ernst Wohlgemuth and had moved to Notting Hill from Chicago, tried matchmaking her with Ralph Miliband but failed. Franklin once told Evi that her flatmate asked her for a drink, but she did not understand the intention. She was quite infatuated by her French mentor Mering, who had a wife and a mistress. Mering also admitted that he was captivated by her "intelligence and beauty". According to Anne Sayre, Franklin did confess her feeling for Mering when she was undergoing a second surgery, but Maddox reported that the family denied this. Mering wept when he visited her later, and destroyed all her letters after her death.
Her closest personal affair was probably with her once post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. In 1956, she visited him at his home in Colorado after her tour to University of California, Berkeley, and she was known to remark later that Caspar was one "she might have loved, might have married". In her letter to Sayre, she described him as "an ideal match".
Illness, death, and burial
In mid-1956, while on a work-related trip to the United States, Franklin first began to suspect a health problem. While in New York she found difficulty in zipping her skirt; her stomach had bulged. Back in London she consulted Mair Livingstone, who asked her, "You're not pregnant?" to which she retorted, "I wish I were." Her case was marked "URGENT". An operation on 4 September of the same year revealed two tumours in her abdomen. After this period and other periods of hospitalisation, Franklin spent time convalescing with various friends and family members. These included Anne Sayre, Francis Crick, his wife Odile, with whom Franklin had formed a strong friendship, and finally with the Roland and Nina Franklin family where Rosalind's nieces and nephews bolstered her spirits.
Franklin chose not to stay with her parents because her mother's uncontrollable grief and crying upset her too much. Even while undergoing cancer treatment, Franklin continued to work, and her group continued to produce results – seven papers in 1956 and six more in 1957. At the end of 1957, Franklin again fell ill and she was admitted to the Royal Marsden Hospital. On 2 December, she made her will. She named her three brothers as executors and made her colleague Aaron Klug the principal beneficiary, who would receive £3,000 and her Austin car. Of her other friends, Mair Livingstone would get £2,000, Anne Piper £1,000, and her nurse Miss Griffith £250. The remainder of the estate was to be used for charities.
She returned to work in January 1958, and was also given a promotion to Research Associate in Biophysics on 25 February. She fell ill again on 30 March, and she died on 16 April 1958, in Chelsea, London, of bronchopneumonia, secondary carcinomatosis, and ovarian cancer. Exposure to X-ray radiation is sometimes considered to be a possible factor in her illness.
Other members of her family have died of cancer, and the incidence of gynaecological cancer is known to be disproportionately high among Ashkenazi Jews. Her death certificate states: A Research Scientist, Spinster, Daughter of Ellis Arthur Franklin, a Banker. She was interred on 17 April 1958 in the family plot at Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery at Beaconsfield Road in London Borough of Brent. The inscription on her tombstone reads:
IN MEMORY OF ROSALIND ELSIE FRANKLIN מ' רחל בת ר' יהודה [Rochel/Rachel daughter of Yehuda, her father's Hebrew name] DEARLY LOVED ELDER DAUGHTER OF ELLIS AND MURIEL FRANKLIN 25TH JULY 1920 – 16TH APRIL 1958 SCIENTIST HER RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES ON VIRUSES REMAIN OF LASTING BENEFIT TO MANKIND ת נ צ ב ה [Hebrew initials for "her soul shall be bound in the bundle of life"]
Franklin's will was proven on 30 June, with her estate assessed for probate at £11,278 10s. 9d. (equivalent to £ in ).
Controversies after death
Alleged sexism toward Franklin
Anne Sayre, Franklin's friend and one of her biographers, says in her 1975 book, Rosalind Franklin and DNA: "In 1951 ... King's College London as an institution, was not distinguished for the welcome that it offered to women ... Rosalind ... was unused to purdah [a religious and social institution of female seclusion] ... there was one other woman scientist on the laboratory staff". The molecular biologist Andrzej Stasiak notes: "Sayre's book became widely cited in feminist circles for exposing rampant sexism in science." Farooq Hussain says: "there were seven women in the biophysics department ... Jean Hanson became an FRS, Dame Honor B. Fell, Director of Strangeways Laboratory, supervised the biologists". Maddox states: "Randall ... did have many women on his staff ... they found him ... sympathetic and helpful."
Sayre asserts that "while the male staff at King's lunched in a large, comfortable, rather clubby dining room" the female staff of all ranks "lunched in the student's hall or away from the premises". However, Elkin claims that most of the MRC group (including Franklin) typically ate lunch together in the mixed dining room discussed below. And Maddox says, of Randall: "He liked to see his flock, men and women, come together for morning coffee, and at lunch in the joint dining room, where he ate with them nearly every day." Francis Crick also commented that "her colleagues treated men and women scientists alike".
Sayre also discusses at length Franklin's struggle in pursuing science, particularly her father's concern about women in academic professions. This account had led to accusations of sexism in regard to Ellis Franklin's attitude to his daughter. A good deal of information explicitly claims that he strongly opposed her entering Newnham College. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) biography of Franklin goes further, stating that he refused to pay her fees, and that an aunt stepped in to do that for her. Her sister, Jenifer Glynn, has stated that those stories are myths, and that her parents fully supported Franklin's entire career.
Sexism is said to pervade the memoir of one peer, James Watson, in his book The Double Helix, published 10 years after Franklin's death and after Watson had returned from Cambridge to Harvard. His Cambridge colleague, Peter Pauling, wrote in a letter, "Morris [sic] Wilkins is supposed to be doing this work; Miss Franklin is evidently a fool." Crick acknowledges later, "I'm afraid we always used to adopt – let's say, a patronizing attitude towards her."
Glynn accuses Sayre of erroneously making her sister a feminist heroine, and sees Watson's The Double Helix as the root of what she calls the "Rosalind Industry". She conjectures that the stories of alleged sexism would "have embarrassed her [Rosalind Franklin] almost as much as Watson's account would have upset her", and declared that "she [Rosalind] was never a feminist." Klug and Crick have also concurred that Franklin was definitely not a feminist.
Franklin's letter to her parents in January 1939 is often taken as reflecting her own prejudiced attitude, and the claim that she was "not immune to the sexism rampant in these circles". In the letter, she remarked that one lecturer was "very good, though female". Maddox maintains that was a circumstantial comment rather than an example of gender bias, and that it was a expression of admiration because, at the time, woman teachers of science were a rarity. In fact, Maddox says, Franklin laughed at men who were embarrassed by the appointment of the first female professor, Dorothy Garrod.
Contribution to the model/structure of DNA
Rosalind Franklin's first important contributions to the model popularised by Crick and Watson was her lecture at the seminar in November 1951, where she presented to those present, among them Watson, the two forms of the molecule, type A and type B, her position being that the phosphate units are located in the external part of the molecule. She also specified the amount of water to be found in the molecule in accordance with other parts of it, data that have considerable importance for the stability of the molecule. Franklin was the first to discover and formulate these facts, which in fact constituted the basis for all later attempts to build a model of the molecule. However, Watson, at the time ignorant of the chemistry, failed to comprehend the crucial information, and this led to the construction of a wrong three-helical model.
The other contribution included an X-ray photograph of B-DNA (called Photo 51) taken by Franklin's student Gosling that was briefly shown to Watson by Wilkins in January 1953, and a report written for an MRC biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952 which was shown by Perutz at the Cavendish Laboratory to both Crick and Watson. This MRC report contained data from the King's group, including some of Franklin's and Gosling's work, and was given to Crick – who was working on his thesis on haemoglobin structure – by his thesis supervisor Perutz, a member of the visiting committee.
Sayre's biography of Franklin contains a story alleging that the photograph 51 in question was shown to Watson by Wilkins without Franklin's permission, and that this constituted a case of bad science ethics. Others dispute this story, asserting that Wilkins had been given photograph 51 by Franklin's PhD student Gosling because she was leaving King's to work at Birkbeck, and there was allegedly nothing untoward in this transfer of data to Wilkins because Director Randall had insisted that all DNA work belonged exclusively to King's and had instructed Franklin in a letter to even stop working on it and submit her data. Also, it was implied by Horace Freeland Judson, that Maurice Wilkins had taken the photograph out of Franklin's drawer, but this is also said to be incorrect.
Likewise, Perutz saw "no harm" in showing an MRC report containing the conclusions of Franklin and Gosling's X-ray data analysis to Crick, since it had not been marked as confidential, although "The report was not expected to reach outside eyes". Indeed, after the publication of Watson's The Double Helix exposed Perutz's act, he received so many letters questioning his judgment that he felt the need to both answer them all and to post a general statement in Science excusing himself on the basis of being "inexperienced and casual in administrative matters".
Perutz also claimed that the MRC information was already made available to the Cambridge team when Watson had attended Franklin's seminar in November 1951. A preliminary version of much of the important material contained in the 1952 December MRC report had been presented by Franklin in a talk she had given in November 1951, which Watson had attended but not understood.
The Perutz letter was as said one of three letters, published with letters by Wilkins and Watson, which discussed their various contributions. Watson clarified the importance of the data obtained from the MRC report as he had not recorded these data while attending Franklin's lecture in 1951. The upshot of all this was that when Crick and Watson started to build their model in February 1953 they were working with critical parameters that had been determined by Franklin in 1951, and which she and Gosling had significantly refined in 1952, as well as with published data and other very similar data to those available at King's. It was generally believed that Franklin was never aware that her work had been used during construction of the model, but Gosling asserted in his 2013 interview that, "Yes. Oh, she did know about that."
Recognition of her contribution to the model of DNA
Upon the completion of their model, Crick and Watson had invited Wilkins to be a co-author of their paper describing the structure. Wilkins turned down this offer, as he had taken no part in building the model. He later expressed regret that greater discussion of co-authorship had not taken place as this might have helped to clarify the contribution the work at King's had made to the discovery. There is no doubt that Franklin's experimental data were used by Crick and Watson to build their model of DNA in 1953. Some, including Maddox, have explained this citation omission by suggesting that it may be a question of circumstance, because it would have been very difficult to cite the unpublished work from the MRC report they had seen.
Indeed, a clear timely acknowledgment would have been awkward, given the unorthodox manner in which data were transferred from King's to Cambridge. However, methods were available. Watson and Crick could have cited the MRC report as a personal communication or else cited the Acta articles in press, or most easily, the third Nature paper that they knew was in press. One of the most important accomplishments of Maddox's widely acclaimed biography is that Maddox made a well-received case for inadequate acknowledgement. "Such acknowledgement as they gave her was very muted and always coupled with the name of Wilkins".
Fifteen years after the fact, the first clear recitation of Franklin's contribution appeared as it permeated Watson's account, The Double Helix, although it was buried under descriptions of Watson's (often quite negative) regard towards Franklin during the period of their work on DNA. This attitude is epitomized in the confrontation between Watson and Franklin over a preprint of Pauling's mistaken DNA manuscript. Watson's words impelled Sayre to write her rebuttal, in which the entire chapter nine, "Winner Take All" has the structure of a legal brief dissecting and analyzing the topic of acknowledgement.
Sayre's early analysis was often ignored because of perceived feminist overtones in her book. Watson and Crick did not cite the X-ray diffraction work of Wilkins and Franklin in their original paper, though they admit having "been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M. H. F. Wilkins, Dr. R. E. Franklin and their co-workers at King's College London". In fact, Watson and Crick cited no experimental data at all in support of their model. Franklin and Gosling's publication of the DNA X-ray image, in the same issue of Nature, served as the principal evidence:Thus our general ideas are not inconsistent with the model proposed by Watson and Crick in the preceding communication.
Nobel Prize
Franklin was never nominated for a Nobel Prize. Her work was a crucial part in the discovery of DNA's structure, which along with subsequent related work led to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins being awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962. She had died in 1958, and during her lifetime the DNA structure was not considered to be fully proven. It took Wilkins and his colleagues about seven years to collect enough data to prove and refine the proposed DNA structure. Moreover, its biological significance, as proposed by Watson and Crick, was not established. General acceptance for the DNA double helix and its function did not start until late in the 1950s, leading to Nobel nominations in 1960, 1961, and 1962 for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and in 1962 for Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The first breakthrough was from Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958, who experimentally showed the DNA replication of a bacterium Escherichia coli. In what is now known as the Meselson–Stahl experiment, DNA was found to replicate into two double-stranded helices, with each helix having one of the original DNA strands. This DNA replication was firmly established by 1961 after further demonstration in other species, and of the stepwise chemical reaction. According to the 1961 Crick–Monod letter, this experimental proof, along with Wilkins having initiated the DNA diffraction work, were the reasons why Crick felt that Wilkins should be included in the DNA Nobel Prize.
In 1962 the Nobel Prize was subsequently awarded to Crick, Watson, and Wilkins. Nobel rules now prohibit posthumous nominations (though this statute was not formally in effect until 1974) or splitting of Prizes more than three ways. The award was for their body of work on nucleic acids and not exclusively for the discovery of the structure of DNA. By the time of the award Wilkins had been working on the structure of DNA for more than 10 years, and had done much to confirm the Watson–Crick model. Crick had been working on the genetic code at Cambridge and Watson had worked on RNA for some years. Watson has suggested that ideally Wilkins and Franklin would have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Pauling, who received the Nobel Peace Prize that year, believed and earlier warned the Nobel Committee in 1960 that "it might well be premature to make an award of a Prize to Watson and Crick, because of existing uncertainty about the detailed structure of nucleic acid. I myself feel that it is likely that the general nature of the Watson-Crick structure is correct, but that there is doubt about details." He was partly right as an alternative of Watson-Crick base pairing, called the Hoogsteen base pairing that can form triple DNA strand, was discovered by Karst Hoogsteen in 1963.
Aaron Klug, Franklin's colleague and principal beneficiary in her will, was the sole winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1982, "for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes". This work was exactly what Franklin had started and which she introduced to Klug, and it is highly plausible that, were she alive, she would have shared the Nobel Prize.
Awards and honours
Posthumous recognition
1982, Iota Sigma Pi designated Franklin a National Honorary Member.
1984, St Paul's Girls School established the Rosalind Franklin Technology Centre.
1992, English Heritage placed a blue plaque commemorating Franklin on the building in Drayton Gardens, London, where she lived until her death.
1993, King's College London renamed the Orchard Residence at its Hampstead Campus as Rosalind Franklin Hall.
1993, King's College London placed a blue plaque on its outside wall bearing the inscription: "R. E. Franklin, R. G. Gosling, A. R. Stokes, M. H. F. Wilkins, H. R. Wilson – King's College London – DNA – X-ray diffraction studies – 1953."
1995, Newnham College, Cambridge opened a graduate residence named Rosalind Franklin Building, and put a bust of her in its garden.
1997, Birkbeck, University of London School of Crystallography opened the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory.
1997, a newly discovered asteroid was named 9241 Rosfranklin.
1998, National Portrait Gallery in London added Rosalind Franklin's portrait next to those of Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins.
1999, the Institute of Physics at Portland Place, London, renamed its theatre as Franklin Lecture Theatre.
2000, King's College London opened the Franklin–Wilkins Building in honour of Franklin's and Wilkins's work at the college.
2000, We the Curious (formally @Bristol) features the Rosalind Franklin Room.
2001, the American National Cancer Institute established the Rosalind E. Franklin Award for women in cancer research.
2002, the University of Groningen, supported by the European Union, launched the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship to encourage women researchers to become full university professors.
2003, the Royal Society established the Rosalind Franklin Award (officially the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture) for an outstanding contribution to any area of natural science, engineering or technology. The award consists of a silver-coated medal and a grant of £30,000.
2003, the Royal Society of Chemistry declared King's College London as "National Historic Chemical Landmark" and placed a plaque on the wall near the entrance of the building, with the inscription: "Near this site Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, Raymond Gosling, Alexander Stokes and Herbert Wilson performed experiments that led to the discovery of the structure of DNA. This work revolutionised our understanding of the chemistry behind life itself."
2004, Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, located in North Chicago, Illinois, USA changed its name to the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. It also adopted a new motto "Life in Discovery", and Photo 51 as its logo.
2004, the Gruber Foundation started the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for two female geneticists from all over the world. It carries an annual fund of $25,000, each award is for three years, and selection is made by a joint committee appointed by the Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Human Genetics.
2004, the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and the APS Users Organization (APSUO) started the APSUO Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for young scientists who made contributions through the APS.
2005, the DNA sculpture (donated by James Watson) outside Clare College, Cambridge's Memorial Court incorporates the words "The double helix model was supported by the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins."
2005, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, based in Florida, US, established an annual award the Rosalind Franklin Prize for Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research.
2006, the Rosalind Franklin Society was established in New York by Mary Ann Liebert. The Society aims to recognise, foster, and advance the important contributions of women in the life sciences and affiliated disciplines.
2008, Columbia University awarded an honorary Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Franklin, "for her seminal contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA".
2008, the Institute of Physics established a biennial award the Rosalind Franklin Medal and Prize.
2012, the bioinformatics education software platform Rosalind was named in honour of Franklin.
2012, The Rosalind Franklin Building was opened at Nottingham Trent University.
2013, Google honoured Rosalind Franklin with a doodle, showing her gazing at a double helix structure of DNA with an X-ray of Photo 51 beyond it.
2013, a plaque was placed on the wall of The Eagle pub in Cambridge commemorating Franklin's contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA, on the sixtieth anniversary of Crick and Watson's announcement in the pub.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology was established by Biotechnology Industry Organization (Biotechnology Innovation Organization since 2016) in collaboration with the Rosalind Franklin Society, for an outstanding woman in the field of industrial biotechnology and bioprocessing.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science unveiled a bronze statue of Franklin, created by Julie Rotblatt-Amrany, near its front entrance.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin STEM Elementary was opened in Pasco, Washington, the first science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) elementary school in the district.
2014, the University of Wolverhampton opened its new laboratory building named the Rosalind Franklin Science Building.
2015, Newnham College Boat Club, Cambridge, launched a new racing VIII, naming it the Rosalind Franklin.
2015, the Rosalind Franklin Appathon was launched by University College London as a national app competition for women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine).
2015, a high performance computing and cloud facility in London was named Rosalind.
2016, the British Humanist Association added the Rosalind Franklin Lecture to its annual lecture series, aimed to explore and celebrate the contribution of women towards the promotion and advancement of humanism.
2016, the Rosalind Franklin Prize and Tech Day was held on 23 February in London, organised by University College London, i-sense, UCL Enterprise, the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the UCL Athena Swan Charter.
2017, DSM opened the Rosalind Franklin Biotechnology Center in Delft, the Netherlands.
2017, Historic England gave a heritage listing, at Grade II, to Franklin's tomb at Willesden Jewish Cemetery on the grounds of it being of "special architectural or historic interest". Historic England said that "the tomb commemorates the life and achievements of Rosalind Franklin, a scientist of exceptional distinction, whose pioneering work helped lay the foundations of molecular biology; Franklin’s X-ray observation of DNA contributed to the discovery of its helical structure."
2018, the Rosalind Franklin Institute, an autonomous medical research centre under the join venture of 10 universities and funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation, was launched at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus on 6 June, and was officially opened on 29 September 2021.
2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) named its ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin.
2019, the University of Portsmouth announced that it changed the name James Watson Halls to Rosalind Franklin Halls from 2 September.
2020, Franklin was selected for the Time 100 Women of the Year, for 1953.
2020, the UK Royal Mint released a 50-pence coin in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Franklin’s birth on 25 July. It features a stylized version of Photo 51.
2020, South Norfolk Council renamed a road on the Norwich Research Park in her honour in July 2020. The road is home to the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia's Bob Champion Research and Education Building.
2020, Trinity College Dublin announced that its library had previously held forty busts, all of whom were of men, was commissioning four new busts of women one of whom would be Franklin.
2020, Aston Medical School instituted an annual competition for medical students named the Rosalind Franklin Essay Prize, funded by its alumni and Rosalind's nephew, Daniel Franklin, executive and diplomatic editor of The Economist.
2021, a bronze tondo of Rosalind Franklin was placed on Hampstead Manor and unveiled on 15 March.
2021, the Rosalind Franklin laboratory was opened in the Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 13 July as the largest laboratory for COVID-19 testing under the UK Health Security Agency and National Health Service Test and Trace network, and supported by the University of Warwick.
Cultural references
Franklin's part in the discovery of the nature of DNA was shown in the 1987 TV Movie Life Story, starring Juliet Stevenson as Franklin, and with Tim Pigott-Smith as Crick, Alan Howard as Wilkins and Jeff Goldblum as Watson. This movie portrayed Franklin as somewhat stern, but also alleged that Watson and Crick did use a lot of her work to do theirs.
A 56-minute documentary of the life and scientific contributions of Franklin, DNA – Secret of Photo 51, was broadcast in 2003 on PBS Nova. Narrated by Barbara Flynn, the program features interviews with Wilkins, Gosling, Klug, Maddox, including Franklin's friends Vittorio Luzzati, Caspar, Anne Piper, and Sue Richley. The UK version produced by BBC is titled Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady.
The first episode of another PBS documentary serial, DNA, was aired on 4 January 2004. The episode titled The Secret of Life centres much around the contributions of Franklin. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, it features Watson, Wilkins, Gosling and Peter Pauling (son of Linus Pauling).
A play entitled Rosalind: A Question of Life was written by Deborah Gearing to mark the work of Franklin, and was first performed on 1 November 2005 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and published by Oberon Books in 2006.
Another play, Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, published in 2011, has been produced at several places in the US and in late 2015 was put on at the Noel Coward Theatre, London, with Nicole Kidman playing Franklin. Ziegler's version of the 1951–53 'race' for the structure of DNA sometimes emphasizes the pivotal role of Franklin's research and her personality. Although sometimes altering history for dramatic effect, the play nevertheless illuminates many of the key issues of how science was and is conducted.
False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch is a play about the life of Marie Curie in which Franklin is portrayed as frustrated and angry at the lack of recognition for her scientific contributions. Hostility between the two is also depicted in season 3 of Harvey Girls Forever.
Publications
Rosalind Franklin's most notable publications are listed below. The last two were published posthumously.
See also
Timeline of women in science
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer who discovered the most elemental composition of stars
References
Citations
Sources
Elkin, L. O., Rosalind Franklin and the Double Helix Physics Today March 2003, pp. 42–48.
Holt, J. (2002) "Photo Finish: Rosalind Franklin and the great DNA race" The New Yorker October
Watson, J. Letter to Science, 164, p. 1539, 27 (1969).
Further reading
External links
Recordings by Aaron Klug at Web of Stories:
by Sir Aaron Klug
The first American newspaper coverage of the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Website for television program first broadcast in 2003
Documents from the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Also available at
1920 births
1958 deaths
20th-century British biologists
20th-century British chemists
20th-century English scientists
20th-century British women scientists
Academics of Birkbeck, University of London
Academics of King's College London
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery
Carbon scientists
Civil Defence Service personnel
Crystallographers
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from ovarian cancer
English agnostics
English Jews
English molecular biologists
English physical chemists
English women biologists
English women chemists
Rosalind
Jewish agnostics
Jewish biophysicists
Jewish British scientists
Jewish women scientists
People educated at Norland Place School
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
People from Notting Hill
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"Winners of the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 were:\n\nJournalism awards\n\nLetters, Drama and Music Awards\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \"The Pulitzer Prizes\". The New York Times.\n \"Washington Post and Los Angeles Times Each Win Three Pulitzer Prizes\". The New York Times.\n \"Letters, Drama and Music Awards\". The New York Times.\n\nPulitzer Prizes by year\nPulitzer Prize\nPulitzer Prize\nPulitzer Prize, 2003",
"The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Arts.\n\nThe Wolf Prizes in physics and chemistry are often considered the second most prestigious awards in those fields, after the Nobel Prize. The prize in physics has gained a reputation for identifying future winners of the Nobel Prize – from the 26 prizes awarded between 1978 and 2010, fourteen winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, five of those in the following year.\n\nLaureates\n\nSee also\n\n List of physics awards\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n List of Wolf Prize laureates, Wolf Foundation\n \n \n Wolf Prizes 2015 \n Jerusalempost - Wolf Prizes 2016\n Jerusalempost - Wolf Prizes 2017\n Jerusalempost - Wolf Prizes 2018\n\nPhysics\nPhysics awards\nLists of Israeli award winners\nAwards established in 1978\nIsraeli science and technology awards\n1978 establishments in Israel"
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"did he graduate?",
"In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams.",
"what happened to her during WW II?",
"I don't know.",
"what did she do after Cambridge?",
"joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.",
"what did she work on in the laboratory?",
"She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density.",
"did she win any awards or prizes?",
"I don't know."
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C_145dfae88a7144ceb9aa67cc28dcccd4_0
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is there anything relevant with Rosalind and WWII?
| 7 |
Is there anything relevant with Rosalind Franklin and WWII?
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Rosalind Franklin
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Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular B.A. and M.A. degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and helped her to improve her spoken French. Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide for her what to work upon, and at that time was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin Irene Franklin asked to join her in a vacated house of her uncle in Putney. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids. She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her Ph.D. thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge University awarded her a Ph.D. in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers. CANNOTANSWER
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With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids.
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Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognized during her life, for which she has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology".
She graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Disappointed by Norrish’s lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The research on coal helped her earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1945. Moving to Paris in 1947 as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, she became an accomplished X-ray crystallographer. After joining King's College London in 1951 as a research associate, she discovered the key properties of DNA, which eventually facilitated the correct description of the double helix structure of DNA. Owing to disagreement with her director, John Randall, and her colleague Maurice Wilkins, she was compelled to move to Birkbeck College in 1953.
Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA while at King's College London, particularly Photo 51, taken by her student Raymond Gosling, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix for which Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Watson suggested that Franklin would have ideally been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Wilkins but, although there was not yet a rule against posthumous awards, the Nobel Committee generally did not make posthumous nominations.
Working under John Desmond Bernal, Franklin led pioneering work at Birkbeck on the molecular structures of viruses. On the day before she was to unveil the structure of tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels, she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 37 in 1958. Her team member Aaron Klug continued her research, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982.
Early life
Franklin was born on 25 July 1920 in 50 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill, London, into an affluent and influential British Jewish family.
Family
Franklin's father was Ellis Arthur Franklin (1894–1964), a politically liberal London merchant banker who taught at the city's Working Men's College, and her mother was Muriel Frances Waley (1894–1976). Rosalind was the elder daughter and the second child in the family of five children. David (1919–1986) was the eldest brother; Colin (1923–2020), Roland (born 1926), and Jenifer (born 1929) were her younger siblings.
Franklin's paternal great-uncle was Herbert Samuel (later Viscount Samuel), who was the Home Secretary in 1916 and the first practising Jew to serve in the British Cabinet. Her aunt, Helen Caroline Franklin, known in the family as Mamie, was married to Norman de Mattos Bentwich, who was the Attorney General in the British Mandate of Palestine. Helen was active in trade union organisation and the women's suffrage movement and was later a member of the London County Council. Franklin's uncle, Hugh Franklin, was another prominent figure in the suffrage movement, although his actions therein embarrassed the Franklin family. Rosalind's middle name, "Elsie", was in memory of Hugh's first wife, who died in the 1918 flu pandemic. Her family was actively involved with the Working Men's College, where her father taught the subjects of electricity, magnetism, and the history of the Great War in the evenings, later becoming the vice principal.
Franklin's parents helped settle Jewish refugees from Europe who had escaped the Nazis, particularly those from the Kindertransport. They took in two Jewish children to their home, and one of them, a nine-year-old Austrian, Evi Eisenstädter, shared Jenifer's room. (Evi's father Hans Mathias Eisenstädter had been imprisoned in Buchenwald, and after liberation, the family adopted the surname "Ellis".)
Education
From early childhood, Franklin showed exceptional scholastic abilities. At age six, she joined her brother Roland at Norland Place School, a private day school in West London. At that time, her aunt Mamie (Helen Bentwich), described her to her husband: "Rosalind is alarmingly clever – she spends all her time doing arithmetic for pleasure, and invariably gets her sums right." She also developed an early interest in cricket and hockey. At age nine, she entered a boarding school, Lindores School for Young Ladies in Sussex. The school was near the seaside, and the family wanted a good environment for her delicate health.
She was 11 when she went to St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, west London, one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. At St Paul's she excelled in science, Latin, and sports. She also learned German, and became fluent in French, a language she would later find useful. She topped her classes, and won annual awards. Her only educational weakness was in music, for which the school music director, the composer Gustav Holst, once called upon her mother to inquire whether she might have suffered from hearing problems or tonsillitis. With six distinctions, she passed her matriculation in 1938, winning a scholarship for university, the School Leaving Exhibition of £30 a year for three years, and £5 from her grandfather. Her father asked her to give the scholarship to a deserving refugee student.
Cambridge and World War II
Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular BA and MA degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and who helped her to improve her conversational French.
Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide upon the assignment of work for her. At that time he was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she initially stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin, Irene Franklin, proposed that they share living quarters at a vacated house in Putney that belonged to her uncle. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids.
She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her PhD thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge awarded her a PhD in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers.
Career and research
Paris
With World War II ending in 1945, Franklin asked Adrienne Weill for help and to let her know of job openings for "a physical chemist who knows very little physical chemistry, but quite a lot about the holes in coal." At a conference in the autumn of 1946, Weill introduced her to Marcel Mathieu, a director of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the network of institutes that comprise the major part of the scientific research laboratories supported by the French government. This led to her appointment with Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État in Paris. She joined the labo (as referred to by the staff) of Mering on 14 February 1947 as one of the fifteen chercheurs (researchers).
Mering was an X-ray crystallographer who applied X-ray diffraction to the study of rayon and other amorphous substances, in contrast to the thousands of regular crystals that had been studied by this method for many years. He taught her the practical aspects of applying X-ray crystallography to amorphous substances. This presented new challenges in the conduct of experiments and the interpretation of results. Franklin applied them to further problems related to coal and to other carbonaceous materials, in particular the changes to the arrangement of atoms when these are converted to graphite. She published several further papers on this work which has become part of the mainstream of the physics and chemistry of coal and carbon. She coined the terms graphitising and non-graphitising carbon. The coal work was covered in a 1993 monograph, and in the regularly-published textbook Chemistry and Physics of Carbon. Mering continued the study of carbon in various forms, using X-ray diffraction and other methods.
King's College London
In 1950, Franklin was granted a three-year Turner & Newall Fellowship to work at King's College London. In January 1951, she started working as a research associate in the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Biophysics Unit, directed by John Randall. She was originally appointed to work on X-ray diffraction of proteins and lipids in solution, but Randall redirected her work to DNA fibres because of new developments in the field, and she was to be the only experienced experimental diffraction researcher at King's at the time. Randall made this reassignment, even before Franklin started working at King's, because of the pioneering work by DNA researcher Maurice Wilkins, and he reassigned Raymond Gosling, the graduate student who had been working with Wilkins, to be her assistant.
In 1950, Swiss chemist Rudolf Signer in Berne prepared a highly purified DNA sample from calf thymus. He freely distributed the DNA sample, later referred to as the Signer DNA, in early May 1950 at the meeting of the Faraday Society in London, and Wilkins was one of the recipients. Even using crude equipment, Wilkins and Gosling had obtained a good-quality diffraction picture of the DNA sample which sparked further interest in this molecule. But Randall had not indicated to them that he had asked Franklin to take over both the DNA diffraction work and guidance of Gosling's thesis. It was while Wilkins was away on holiday that Randall, in a letter in December 1950, assured Franklin that "as far as the experimental X-ray effort there would be for the moment only yourself and Gosling." Randall's lack of communication about this reassignment significantly contributed to the well documented friction that developed between Wilkins and Franklin. When Wilkins returned, he handed over the Signer DNA and Gosling to Franklin.
Franklin, now working with Gosling, started to apply her expertise in X-ray diffraction techniques to the structure of DNA. She used a new fine-focus X-ray tube and microcamera ordered by Wilkins, but which she refined, adjusted and focused carefully. Drawing upon her physical chemistry background, a critical innovation she applied was making the camera chamber that could be controlled for its humidity using different saturated salt solutions. When Wilkins inquired about this improved technique, she replied in terms which offended him as she had "an air of cool superiority".
Franklin's habit of intensely looking people in the eye while being concise, impatient and direct unnerved many of her colleagues. In stark contrast, Wilkins was very shy, and slowly calculating in speech while he avoided looking anyone directly in the eye. With the ingenious humidity-controlling camera, Franklin was soon able to produce X-ray images of better quality than those of Wilkins. She immediately discovered that the DNA sample could exist in two forms: at a relative humidity higher than 75%, the DNA fibre became long and thin; when it was drier, it became short and fat. She originally referred to the former as "wet" and the latter as "crystalline."
On the structure of the crystalline DNA, Franklin first recorded the analysis in her notebook, which reads: "Evidence for spiral [meaning helical] structure. Straight chain untwisted is highly improbable. Absence of reflections on meridian in χtalline [crystalline] form suggests spiral structure." An immediate discovery from this was that the phosphate group lies outside of the main DNA chain; she however could not make out whether there could be two or three chains. She presented their data at a lecture in November 1951, in King's College London. In her lecture notes, she wrote the following:The results suggest a helical structure (which must be very closely packed) containing 2, 3 or 4 co‐axial nucleic acid chains per helical unit, and having the phosphate groups near the outside.Franklin then named "A" and "B" respectively for the "wet" and "crystalline" forms. (The biological functions of A-DNA were discovered only 60 years later.) Because of the intense personality conflict developing between Franklin and Wilkins, Randall divided the work on DNA. Franklin chose the data rich "A" form while Wilkins selected the "B" form. By the end of 1951 it became generally accepted at King's that the B-DNA was a helix, but after she had recorded an asymmetrical image in May 1952, Franklin became unconvinced that the A-DNA was a helix. In July 1952, as a practical joke on Wilkins (who frequently expressed his view that both forms of DNA were helical), Franklin and Gosling produced a funeral notice regretting the 'death' of helical A-DNA, which runs:It is with great regret that we have to announce the death, on Friday 18th July 1952 of DNA helix (crystalline). Death followed a protracted illness which an intensive course of Besselised [referring to Bessel function that was used to analyse the X-ray diffraction patterns] injections had failed to relieve. A memorial service will be held next Monday or Tuesday. It is hoped that Dr M H F Wilkins will speak in memory of the late helix. [Signed Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling.]During 1952, they worked at applying the Patterson function to the X-ray pictures of DNA they had produced. This was a long and labour-intensive approach but would yield significant insight into the structure of the molecule. Franklin was fully committed to experimental data and was sternly against theoretical or model buildings, as she said, "We are not going to speculate, we are going to wait, we are going to let the spots on this photograph tell us what the [DNA] structure is." The X-ray diffraction pictures, including the landmark Photo 51 taken by Gosling at this time, have been called by John Desmond Bernal as "amongst the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken".
By January 1953, Franklin had reconciled her conflicting data, concluding that both DNA forms had two helices, and had started to write a series of three draft manuscripts, two of which included a double helical DNA backbone (see below). Her two A-DNA manuscripts reached Acta Crystallographica in Copenhagen on 6 March 1953, one day before Crick and Watson had completed their model on B-DNA. She must have mailed them while the Cambridge team was building their model, and certainly had written them before she knew of their work. On 8 July 1953 she modified one of these "in proof" Acta articles, "in light of recent work" by the King's and Cambridge research teams.
The third draft paper was on the B-DNA, dated 17 March 1953, which was discovered years later amongst her papers, by Franklin's Birkbeck colleague, Aaron Klug. He then published in 1974 an evaluation of the draft's close correlation with the third of the original trio of 25 April 1953 Nature DNA articles. Klug designed this paper to complement the first article he had written in 1968 defending Franklin's significant contribution to DNA structure. He had written this first article in response to the incomplete picture of Franklin's work depicted in James Watson's 1968 memoir, The Double Helix.
As vividly described Watson, he travelled to King's on 30 January 1953 carrying a preprint of Linus Pauling's incorrect proposal for DNA structure. Since Wilkins was not in his office, Watson went to Franklin's lab with his urgent message that they should all collaborate before Pauling discovered his error. The unimpressed Franklin became angry when Watson suggested she did not know how to interpret her own data. Watson hastily retreated, backing into Wilkins who had been attracted by the commotion. Wilkins commiserated with his harried friend and then showed Watson Franklin's DNA X-ray image. Watson, in turn, showed Wilkins a prepublication manuscript by Pauling and Robert Corey, which contained a DNA structure remarkably like their first incorrect model.
Discovery of DNA structure
In February 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University had started to build a molecular model of the B-DNA using data similar to that available to both teams at King's. Based on Franklin's lecture in November 1952 that DNA was helical with either two or three stands, they constructed a triple helix model, which was immediately proven to be flawed. Franklin's research was completed by February 1953, ahead of her move to Birkbeck, and her data was critical. Model building had been applied successfully in the elucidation of the structure of the alpha helix by Linus Pauling in 1951, but Franklin was opposed to prematurely building theoretical models, until sufficient data were obtained to properly guide the model building. She took the view that building a model was to be undertaken only after enough of the structure was known. Her conviction was justified by the fact that Pauling and Corey also came up in the late 1952 (published in February 1953) with an erroneous triple helix model.
Ever cautious, she wanted to eliminate misleading possibilities. Photographs of her Birkbeck work table show that she routinely used small molecular models, although certainly not ones on the grand scale successfully used at Cambridge for DNA. In the middle of February 1953, Crick's thesis advisor, Max Perutz, gave Crick a copy of a report written for a Medical Research Council biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952, containing many of Franklin's crystallographic calculations.
Since Franklin had decided to transfer to Birkbeck College and Randall had insisted that all DNA work must stay at King's, Wilkins was given copies of Franklin's diffraction photographs by Gosling. By 28 February 1953, Watson and Crick felt they had solved the problem enough for Crick to proclaim (in the local pub) that they had "found the secret of life". However, they knew they must complete their model before they could be certain.
Watson and Crick finished building their model on 7 March 1953, one day before they received a letter from Wilkins stating that Franklin was finally leaving and they could put "all hands to the pump". This was also one day after Franklin's two A-DNA papers had reached Acta Crystallographica. Wilkins came to see the model the following week, according to Franklin's biographer Brenda Maddox, on 12 March, and allegedly informed Gosling on his return to King's.
One of the most critical and overlooked moments in DNA research was how and when Franklin realised and conceded that B-DNA was a double helical molecule. When Klug first examined Franklin's documents after her death, he initially came to an impression that Franklin was not convinced of the double helical nature until the knowledge of the Cambridge model. But he later discovered the original draft of the manuscript (dated 17 March 1953) from which it became clear that Franklin had already resolved the correct structure. The news of Watson–Crick model reached King's the next day, 18 March, suggesting that Franklin would have learned of it much later since she had moved to Birkbeck. Further scrutiny of her notebook revealed that Franklin had already thought of the helical structure for B-DNA in February 1953 but was not sure of the number of strands, as she wrote: "Evidence for 2-chain (or 1-chain helix)." Her conclusion on the helical nature was evident, though she failed to understand the complete organisation of the DNA strands as the possibility two strands running in opposite directions did not occur to her.
Towards the end of February she began to work out the indications of double strands, as she noted: "Structure B does not fit single helical theory, even for low layer-lines." It soon dawned to her that the B-DNA and A-DNA were structurally similar, and perceived A-DNA as an "unwound version" of B-DNA. She and Gosling wrote a five-paged manuscript on 17 March titled "A Note on Molecular Configuration of Sodium Thymonucleate." After the Watson–Crick model was known, there appeared to be only one (hand-written) modification after the typeset at the end of the text which states that their data was consistent with the model, and appeared as such in the trio of 25 April 1953 Nature articles; the other modification being a deletion of "A Note on" from the title.
Weeks later, on 10 April, Franklin wrote to Crick for permission to see their model. Franklin retained her scepticism for premature model building even after seeing the Watson–Crick model, and remained unimpressed. She is reported to have commented, "It's very pretty, but how are they going to prove it?" As an experimental scientist, Franklin seems to have been interested in producing far greater evidence before publishing-as-proven a proposed model. Accordingly, her response to the Watson–Crick model was in keeping with her cautious approach to science.
Crick and Watson then published their model in Nature on 25 April 1953, in an article describing the double-helical structure of DNA with only a footnote acknowledging "having been stimulated by a general knowledge of Franklin and Wilkins' "unpublished" contribution. Actually, although it was the bare minimum, they had just enough specific knowledge of Franklin and Gosling's data upon which to base their model. As a result of a deal struck by the two laboratory directors, articles by Wilkins and Franklin, which included their X-ray diffraction data, were modified and then published second and third in the same issue of Nature, seemingly only in support of the Crick and Watson theoretical paper which proposed a model for the B-DNA. Most of the scientific community hesitated several years before accepting the double helix proposal. At first mainly geneticists embraced the model because of its obvious genetic implications.
Birkbeck College
Franklin left King's College London in mid-March 1953 for Birkbeck College, in a move that had been planned for some time and that she described (in a letter to Adrienne Weill in Paris) as "moving from a palace to the slums ... but pleasanter all the same". She was recruited by physics department chair John Desmond Bernal, a crystallographer who was a communist, known for promoting women crystallographers. Her new laboratories were housed in 21 Torrington Square, one of a pair of dilapidated and cramped Georgian houses containing several different departments; Franklin frequently took Bernal to task over the careless attitudes of some of the other laboratory staff, notably after workers in the pharmacy department flooded her first-floor laboratory with water on one occasion.
Despite the parting words of Bernal to stop her interest in nucleic acids, she helped Gosling to finish his thesis, although she was no longer his official supervisor. Together they published the first evidence of double helix in the A form of DNA in the 25 July issue of Nature. At the end of 1954, Bernal secured funding for Franklin from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), which enabled her to work as a senior scientist supervising her own research group. John Finch, a physics student from King's College London, subsequently joined Franklin's group, followed by Kenneth Holmes, a Cambridge graduate, in July 1955. Despite the ARC funding, Franklin wrote to Bernal that the existing facilities remained highly unsuited for conducting research "...my desk and lab are on the fourth floor, my X-ray tube in the basement, and I am responsible for the work of four people distributed over the basement, first and second floors on two different staircases."
RNA research
Franklin continued to explore another major nucleic acid, RNA, a molecule equally central to life as DNA. She again used X-ray crystallography to study the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), an RNA virus. Her meeting with Aaron Klug in early 1954 led to a longstanding and successful collaboration. Klug had just then earned his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined Birkbeck in late 1953. In 1955 Franklin published her first major works on TMV in Nature, in which she described that all TMV virus particles were of the same length. This was in direct contradiction to the ideas of the eminent virologist Norman Pirie, though her observation ultimately proved correct.
Franklin assigned the study of the complete structure of TMV to her PhD student Holmes. They soon discovered (published in 1956) that the covering of TMV was protein molecules arranged in helices. Her colleague Klug worked on spherical viruses with his student Finch, with Franklin coordinating and overseeing the work. As a team, from 1956 they started publishing seminal works on TMV, cucumber virus 4 and turnip yellow mosaic virus.
Franklin also had a research assistant, James Watt, subsidised by the National Coal Board and was now the leader of the ARC group at Birkbeck. The Birkbeck team members continued working on RNA viruses affecting several plants, including potato, turnip, tomato and pea. In 1955 the team was joined by an American post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. He worked on the precise location of RNA molecules in TMV. In 1956 he and Franklin published individual but complementary papers in the 10 March issue of Nature, in which they showed that the RNA in TMV is wound along the inner surface of the hollow virus. Caspar was not an enthusiastic writer, and Franklin had to write the entire manuscript for him.
Her research grant from ARC expired at the end of 1957, and she was never given the full salary proposed by Birkbeck. After Bernal requested ARC chairman Lord Rothschild, she was given a one-year extension ending in March 1958.
Expo 58, the first major international fair after World War II, was to be held in Brussels in 1958. Franklin was invited to make a five-foot high model of TMV, which she started in 1957. Her materials included table tennis balls and plastic bicycle handlebar grips. The Brussels world's fair, with an exhibit of her virus model at the International Science Pavilion, opened on 17 April, one day after she died.
Polio virus
In 1956, Franklin visited the University of California, Berkeley, where colleagues suggested her group research the polio virus. In 1957 she applied for a grant from the United States Public Health Service of the National Institutes of Health, which approved £10,000 (equivalent to £ in ) for three years, the largest fund ever received at Birkbeck. In her grant application, Franklin mentioned her new interest in animal virus research. She obtained Bernal's consent in July 1957, though serious concerns were raised after she disclosed her intentions to research live, instead of killed, polio virus at Birkbeck. Eventually, Bernal arranged for the virus to be safely stored at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine during the group's research. With her group, Franklin then commenced deciphering the structure of the polio virus while it was in a crystalline state. She attempted to mount the virus crystals in capillary tubes for X-ray studies, but was forced to end her work due to her rapidly failing health.
After Franklin's death, Klug succeeded her as group leader, and he, Finch and Holmes continued researching the structure of the polio virus. They eventually succeeded in obtaining extremely detailed X-ray images of the virus. In June 1959, Klug and Finch published the group's findings, revealing the polio virus to have icosahedral symmetry, and in the same paper suggested the possibility for all spherical viruses to possess the same symmetry, as it permitted the greatest possible number (60) of identical structural units. The team moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, in 1962, and the old Torrington Square laboratories were demolished four years later, in May 1966.
Personal life
Franklin was best described as an agnostic. Her lack of religious faith apparently did not stem from anyone's influence, rather from her own line of thinking. She developed her scepticism as a young child. Her mother recalled that she refused to believe in the existence of God, and remarked, "Well, anyhow, how do you know He isn't She?" She later made her position clear, now based on her scientific experience, and wrote to her father in 1940:
However, she did not abandon Jewish traditions. As the only Jewish student at Lindores School, she had Hebrew lessons on her own while her friends went to church. She joined the Jewish Society while in her first term at Cambridge, out of respect of her grandfather's request. Franklin confided to her sister that she was "always consciously a Jew".
Franklin loved travelling abroad, particularly trekking. She first "qualified" at Christmas 1929 for a vacation at Menton, France, where her grandfather went to escape the English winter. Her family frequently spent vacations in Wales or Cornwall. A trip to France in 1938 gave her a lasting love for France and its language. She considered the French lifestyle at that time as "vastly superior to that of English". In contrast, she described English people as having "vacant stupid faces and childlike complacency". Her family was almost stuck in Norway in 1939, as World War II was declared on their way home. In another instance, she trekked the French Alps with Jean Kerslake in 1946, which almost cost her her life. She slipped off a slope, and was barely rescued. But she wrote to her mother, "I am quite sure I could wander happily in France forever. I love the people, the country and the food."
She made several professional trips to the United States, and was particularly jovial among her American friends and constantly displayed her sense of humour. William Ginoza of the University of California, Los Angeles, later recalled that she was the opposite of Watson's description of her, and as Maddox comments, Americans enjoyed her "sunny side".
In his book The Double Helix, Watson provides his first-person account of the search for and discovery of DNA. He paints a sympathetic but sometimes critical portrait of Franklin. He praises her intellect and scientific acumen, but portrays her as difficult to work with and careless with her appearance. After introducing her in the book as "Rosalind", he writes that he and his male colleagues usually referred to her as "Rosy", the name people at King's College London used behind her back. She did not want to be called by that name because she had a great-aunt Rosy. In the family, she was called "Ros". To others, she was simply "Rosalind". She made it clear to an American visiting friend, Dorothea Raacke, while sitting with her at Crick's table in The Eagle pub in Cambridge: Raacke asked her how she was to be called and she replied "I'm afraid it will have to be Rosalind", adding "Most definitely not Rosy."
She often expressed her political views. She initially blamed Winston Churchill for inciting the war, but later admired him for his speeches. She actively supported Professor John Ryle as an independent candidate for parliament in the 1940 Cambridge University by-election, but he was unsuccessful.
She did not seem to have an intimate relationship with anyone, and always kept her deepest personal feelings to herself. After her younger days, she avoided close friendship with the opposite sex. In her later years, Evi Ellis, who had shared her bedroom when a child refugee and who was then married to Ernst Wohlgemuth and had moved to Notting Hill from Chicago, tried matchmaking her with Ralph Miliband but failed. Franklin once told Evi that her flatmate asked her for a drink, but she did not understand the intention. She was quite infatuated by her French mentor Mering, who had a wife and a mistress. Mering also admitted that he was captivated by her "intelligence and beauty". According to Anne Sayre, Franklin did confess her feeling for Mering when she was undergoing a second surgery, but Maddox reported that the family denied this. Mering wept when he visited her later, and destroyed all her letters after her death.
Her closest personal affair was probably with her once post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. In 1956, she visited him at his home in Colorado after her tour to University of California, Berkeley, and she was known to remark later that Caspar was one "she might have loved, might have married". In her letter to Sayre, she described him as "an ideal match".
Illness, death, and burial
In mid-1956, while on a work-related trip to the United States, Franklin first began to suspect a health problem. While in New York she found difficulty in zipping her skirt; her stomach had bulged. Back in London she consulted Mair Livingstone, who asked her, "You're not pregnant?" to which she retorted, "I wish I were." Her case was marked "URGENT". An operation on 4 September of the same year revealed two tumours in her abdomen. After this period and other periods of hospitalisation, Franklin spent time convalescing with various friends and family members. These included Anne Sayre, Francis Crick, his wife Odile, with whom Franklin had formed a strong friendship, and finally with the Roland and Nina Franklin family where Rosalind's nieces and nephews bolstered her spirits.
Franklin chose not to stay with her parents because her mother's uncontrollable grief and crying upset her too much. Even while undergoing cancer treatment, Franklin continued to work, and her group continued to produce results – seven papers in 1956 and six more in 1957. At the end of 1957, Franklin again fell ill and she was admitted to the Royal Marsden Hospital. On 2 December, she made her will. She named her three brothers as executors and made her colleague Aaron Klug the principal beneficiary, who would receive £3,000 and her Austin car. Of her other friends, Mair Livingstone would get £2,000, Anne Piper £1,000, and her nurse Miss Griffith £250. The remainder of the estate was to be used for charities.
She returned to work in January 1958, and was also given a promotion to Research Associate in Biophysics on 25 February. She fell ill again on 30 March, and she died on 16 April 1958, in Chelsea, London, of bronchopneumonia, secondary carcinomatosis, and ovarian cancer. Exposure to X-ray radiation is sometimes considered to be a possible factor in her illness.
Other members of her family have died of cancer, and the incidence of gynaecological cancer is known to be disproportionately high among Ashkenazi Jews. Her death certificate states: A Research Scientist, Spinster, Daughter of Ellis Arthur Franklin, a Banker. She was interred on 17 April 1958 in the family plot at Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery at Beaconsfield Road in London Borough of Brent. The inscription on her tombstone reads:
IN MEMORY OF ROSALIND ELSIE FRANKLIN מ' רחל בת ר' יהודה [Rochel/Rachel daughter of Yehuda, her father's Hebrew name] DEARLY LOVED ELDER DAUGHTER OF ELLIS AND MURIEL FRANKLIN 25TH JULY 1920 – 16TH APRIL 1958 SCIENTIST HER RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES ON VIRUSES REMAIN OF LASTING BENEFIT TO MANKIND ת נ צ ב ה [Hebrew initials for "her soul shall be bound in the bundle of life"]
Franklin's will was proven on 30 June, with her estate assessed for probate at £11,278 10s. 9d. (equivalent to £ in ).
Controversies after death
Alleged sexism toward Franklin
Anne Sayre, Franklin's friend and one of her biographers, says in her 1975 book, Rosalind Franklin and DNA: "In 1951 ... King's College London as an institution, was not distinguished for the welcome that it offered to women ... Rosalind ... was unused to purdah [a religious and social institution of female seclusion] ... there was one other woman scientist on the laboratory staff". The molecular biologist Andrzej Stasiak notes: "Sayre's book became widely cited in feminist circles for exposing rampant sexism in science." Farooq Hussain says: "there were seven women in the biophysics department ... Jean Hanson became an FRS, Dame Honor B. Fell, Director of Strangeways Laboratory, supervised the biologists". Maddox states: "Randall ... did have many women on his staff ... they found him ... sympathetic and helpful."
Sayre asserts that "while the male staff at King's lunched in a large, comfortable, rather clubby dining room" the female staff of all ranks "lunched in the student's hall or away from the premises". However, Elkin claims that most of the MRC group (including Franklin) typically ate lunch together in the mixed dining room discussed below. And Maddox says, of Randall: "He liked to see his flock, men and women, come together for morning coffee, and at lunch in the joint dining room, where he ate with them nearly every day." Francis Crick also commented that "her colleagues treated men and women scientists alike".
Sayre also discusses at length Franklin's struggle in pursuing science, particularly her father's concern about women in academic professions. This account had led to accusations of sexism in regard to Ellis Franklin's attitude to his daughter. A good deal of information explicitly claims that he strongly opposed her entering Newnham College. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) biography of Franklin goes further, stating that he refused to pay her fees, and that an aunt stepped in to do that for her. Her sister, Jenifer Glynn, has stated that those stories are myths, and that her parents fully supported Franklin's entire career.
Sexism is said to pervade the memoir of one peer, James Watson, in his book The Double Helix, published 10 years after Franklin's death and after Watson had returned from Cambridge to Harvard. His Cambridge colleague, Peter Pauling, wrote in a letter, "Morris [sic] Wilkins is supposed to be doing this work; Miss Franklin is evidently a fool." Crick acknowledges later, "I'm afraid we always used to adopt – let's say, a patronizing attitude towards her."
Glynn accuses Sayre of erroneously making her sister a feminist heroine, and sees Watson's The Double Helix as the root of what she calls the "Rosalind Industry". She conjectures that the stories of alleged sexism would "have embarrassed her [Rosalind Franklin] almost as much as Watson's account would have upset her", and declared that "she [Rosalind] was never a feminist." Klug and Crick have also concurred that Franklin was definitely not a feminist.
Franklin's letter to her parents in January 1939 is often taken as reflecting her own prejudiced attitude, and the claim that she was "not immune to the sexism rampant in these circles". In the letter, she remarked that one lecturer was "very good, though female". Maddox maintains that was a circumstantial comment rather than an example of gender bias, and that it was a expression of admiration because, at the time, woman teachers of science were a rarity. In fact, Maddox says, Franklin laughed at men who were embarrassed by the appointment of the first female professor, Dorothy Garrod.
Contribution to the model/structure of DNA
Rosalind Franklin's first important contributions to the model popularised by Crick and Watson was her lecture at the seminar in November 1951, where she presented to those present, among them Watson, the two forms of the molecule, type A and type B, her position being that the phosphate units are located in the external part of the molecule. She also specified the amount of water to be found in the molecule in accordance with other parts of it, data that have considerable importance for the stability of the molecule. Franklin was the first to discover and formulate these facts, which in fact constituted the basis for all later attempts to build a model of the molecule. However, Watson, at the time ignorant of the chemistry, failed to comprehend the crucial information, and this led to the construction of a wrong three-helical model.
The other contribution included an X-ray photograph of B-DNA (called Photo 51) taken by Franklin's student Gosling that was briefly shown to Watson by Wilkins in January 1953, and a report written for an MRC biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952 which was shown by Perutz at the Cavendish Laboratory to both Crick and Watson. This MRC report contained data from the King's group, including some of Franklin's and Gosling's work, and was given to Crick – who was working on his thesis on haemoglobin structure – by his thesis supervisor Perutz, a member of the visiting committee.
Sayre's biography of Franklin contains a story alleging that the photograph 51 in question was shown to Watson by Wilkins without Franklin's permission, and that this constituted a case of bad science ethics. Others dispute this story, asserting that Wilkins had been given photograph 51 by Franklin's PhD student Gosling because she was leaving King's to work at Birkbeck, and there was allegedly nothing untoward in this transfer of data to Wilkins because Director Randall had insisted that all DNA work belonged exclusively to King's and had instructed Franklin in a letter to even stop working on it and submit her data. Also, it was implied by Horace Freeland Judson, that Maurice Wilkins had taken the photograph out of Franklin's drawer, but this is also said to be incorrect.
Likewise, Perutz saw "no harm" in showing an MRC report containing the conclusions of Franklin and Gosling's X-ray data analysis to Crick, since it had not been marked as confidential, although "The report was not expected to reach outside eyes". Indeed, after the publication of Watson's The Double Helix exposed Perutz's act, he received so many letters questioning his judgment that he felt the need to both answer them all and to post a general statement in Science excusing himself on the basis of being "inexperienced and casual in administrative matters".
Perutz also claimed that the MRC information was already made available to the Cambridge team when Watson had attended Franklin's seminar in November 1951. A preliminary version of much of the important material contained in the 1952 December MRC report had been presented by Franklin in a talk she had given in November 1951, which Watson had attended but not understood.
The Perutz letter was as said one of three letters, published with letters by Wilkins and Watson, which discussed their various contributions. Watson clarified the importance of the data obtained from the MRC report as he had not recorded these data while attending Franklin's lecture in 1951. The upshot of all this was that when Crick and Watson started to build their model in February 1953 they were working with critical parameters that had been determined by Franklin in 1951, and which she and Gosling had significantly refined in 1952, as well as with published data and other very similar data to those available at King's. It was generally believed that Franklin was never aware that her work had been used during construction of the model, but Gosling asserted in his 2013 interview that, "Yes. Oh, she did know about that."
Recognition of her contribution to the model of DNA
Upon the completion of their model, Crick and Watson had invited Wilkins to be a co-author of their paper describing the structure. Wilkins turned down this offer, as he had taken no part in building the model. He later expressed regret that greater discussion of co-authorship had not taken place as this might have helped to clarify the contribution the work at King's had made to the discovery. There is no doubt that Franklin's experimental data were used by Crick and Watson to build their model of DNA in 1953. Some, including Maddox, have explained this citation omission by suggesting that it may be a question of circumstance, because it would have been very difficult to cite the unpublished work from the MRC report they had seen.
Indeed, a clear timely acknowledgment would have been awkward, given the unorthodox manner in which data were transferred from King's to Cambridge. However, methods were available. Watson and Crick could have cited the MRC report as a personal communication or else cited the Acta articles in press, or most easily, the third Nature paper that they knew was in press. One of the most important accomplishments of Maddox's widely acclaimed biography is that Maddox made a well-received case for inadequate acknowledgement. "Such acknowledgement as they gave her was very muted and always coupled with the name of Wilkins".
Fifteen years after the fact, the first clear recitation of Franklin's contribution appeared as it permeated Watson's account, The Double Helix, although it was buried under descriptions of Watson's (often quite negative) regard towards Franklin during the period of their work on DNA. This attitude is epitomized in the confrontation between Watson and Franklin over a preprint of Pauling's mistaken DNA manuscript. Watson's words impelled Sayre to write her rebuttal, in which the entire chapter nine, "Winner Take All" has the structure of a legal brief dissecting and analyzing the topic of acknowledgement.
Sayre's early analysis was often ignored because of perceived feminist overtones in her book. Watson and Crick did not cite the X-ray diffraction work of Wilkins and Franklin in their original paper, though they admit having "been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M. H. F. Wilkins, Dr. R. E. Franklin and their co-workers at King's College London". In fact, Watson and Crick cited no experimental data at all in support of their model. Franklin and Gosling's publication of the DNA X-ray image, in the same issue of Nature, served as the principal evidence:Thus our general ideas are not inconsistent with the model proposed by Watson and Crick in the preceding communication.
Nobel Prize
Franklin was never nominated for a Nobel Prize. Her work was a crucial part in the discovery of DNA's structure, which along with subsequent related work led to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins being awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962. She had died in 1958, and during her lifetime the DNA structure was not considered to be fully proven. It took Wilkins and his colleagues about seven years to collect enough data to prove and refine the proposed DNA structure. Moreover, its biological significance, as proposed by Watson and Crick, was not established. General acceptance for the DNA double helix and its function did not start until late in the 1950s, leading to Nobel nominations in 1960, 1961, and 1962 for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and in 1962 for Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The first breakthrough was from Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958, who experimentally showed the DNA replication of a bacterium Escherichia coli. In what is now known as the Meselson–Stahl experiment, DNA was found to replicate into two double-stranded helices, with each helix having one of the original DNA strands. This DNA replication was firmly established by 1961 after further demonstration in other species, and of the stepwise chemical reaction. According to the 1961 Crick–Monod letter, this experimental proof, along with Wilkins having initiated the DNA diffraction work, were the reasons why Crick felt that Wilkins should be included in the DNA Nobel Prize.
In 1962 the Nobel Prize was subsequently awarded to Crick, Watson, and Wilkins. Nobel rules now prohibit posthumous nominations (though this statute was not formally in effect until 1974) or splitting of Prizes more than three ways. The award was for their body of work on nucleic acids and not exclusively for the discovery of the structure of DNA. By the time of the award Wilkins had been working on the structure of DNA for more than 10 years, and had done much to confirm the Watson–Crick model. Crick had been working on the genetic code at Cambridge and Watson had worked on RNA for some years. Watson has suggested that ideally Wilkins and Franklin would have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Pauling, who received the Nobel Peace Prize that year, believed and earlier warned the Nobel Committee in 1960 that "it might well be premature to make an award of a Prize to Watson and Crick, because of existing uncertainty about the detailed structure of nucleic acid. I myself feel that it is likely that the general nature of the Watson-Crick structure is correct, but that there is doubt about details." He was partly right as an alternative of Watson-Crick base pairing, called the Hoogsteen base pairing that can form triple DNA strand, was discovered by Karst Hoogsteen in 1963.
Aaron Klug, Franklin's colleague and principal beneficiary in her will, was the sole winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1982, "for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes". This work was exactly what Franklin had started and which she introduced to Klug, and it is highly plausible that, were she alive, she would have shared the Nobel Prize.
Awards and honours
Posthumous recognition
1982, Iota Sigma Pi designated Franklin a National Honorary Member.
1984, St Paul's Girls School established the Rosalind Franklin Technology Centre.
1992, English Heritage placed a blue plaque commemorating Franklin on the building in Drayton Gardens, London, where she lived until her death.
1993, King's College London renamed the Orchard Residence at its Hampstead Campus as Rosalind Franklin Hall.
1993, King's College London placed a blue plaque on its outside wall bearing the inscription: "R. E. Franklin, R. G. Gosling, A. R. Stokes, M. H. F. Wilkins, H. R. Wilson – King's College London – DNA – X-ray diffraction studies – 1953."
1995, Newnham College, Cambridge opened a graduate residence named Rosalind Franklin Building, and put a bust of her in its garden.
1997, Birkbeck, University of London School of Crystallography opened the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory.
1997, a newly discovered asteroid was named 9241 Rosfranklin.
1998, National Portrait Gallery in London added Rosalind Franklin's portrait next to those of Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins.
1999, the Institute of Physics at Portland Place, London, renamed its theatre as Franklin Lecture Theatre.
2000, King's College London opened the Franklin–Wilkins Building in honour of Franklin's and Wilkins's work at the college.
2000, We the Curious (formally @Bristol) features the Rosalind Franklin Room.
2001, the American National Cancer Institute established the Rosalind E. Franklin Award for women in cancer research.
2002, the University of Groningen, supported by the European Union, launched the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship to encourage women researchers to become full university professors.
2003, the Royal Society established the Rosalind Franklin Award (officially the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture) for an outstanding contribution to any area of natural science, engineering or technology. The award consists of a silver-coated medal and a grant of £30,000.
2003, the Royal Society of Chemistry declared King's College London as "National Historic Chemical Landmark" and placed a plaque on the wall near the entrance of the building, with the inscription: "Near this site Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, Raymond Gosling, Alexander Stokes and Herbert Wilson performed experiments that led to the discovery of the structure of DNA. This work revolutionised our understanding of the chemistry behind life itself."
2004, Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, located in North Chicago, Illinois, USA changed its name to the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. It also adopted a new motto "Life in Discovery", and Photo 51 as its logo.
2004, the Gruber Foundation started the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for two female geneticists from all over the world. It carries an annual fund of $25,000, each award is for three years, and selection is made by a joint committee appointed by the Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Human Genetics.
2004, the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and the APS Users Organization (APSUO) started the APSUO Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for young scientists who made contributions through the APS.
2005, the DNA sculpture (donated by James Watson) outside Clare College, Cambridge's Memorial Court incorporates the words "The double helix model was supported by the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins."
2005, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, based in Florida, US, established an annual award the Rosalind Franklin Prize for Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research.
2006, the Rosalind Franklin Society was established in New York by Mary Ann Liebert. The Society aims to recognise, foster, and advance the important contributions of women in the life sciences and affiliated disciplines.
2008, Columbia University awarded an honorary Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Franklin, "for her seminal contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA".
2008, the Institute of Physics established a biennial award the Rosalind Franklin Medal and Prize.
2012, the bioinformatics education software platform Rosalind was named in honour of Franklin.
2012, The Rosalind Franklin Building was opened at Nottingham Trent University.
2013, Google honoured Rosalind Franklin with a doodle, showing her gazing at a double helix structure of DNA with an X-ray of Photo 51 beyond it.
2013, a plaque was placed on the wall of The Eagle pub in Cambridge commemorating Franklin's contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA, on the sixtieth anniversary of Crick and Watson's announcement in the pub.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology was established by Biotechnology Industry Organization (Biotechnology Innovation Organization since 2016) in collaboration with the Rosalind Franklin Society, for an outstanding woman in the field of industrial biotechnology and bioprocessing.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science unveiled a bronze statue of Franklin, created by Julie Rotblatt-Amrany, near its front entrance.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin STEM Elementary was opened in Pasco, Washington, the first science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) elementary school in the district.
2014, the University of Wolverhampton opened its new laboratory building named the Rosalind Franklin Science Building.
2015, Newnham College Boat Club, Cambridge, launched a new racing VIII, naming it the Rosalind Franklin.
2015, the Rosalind Franklin Appathon was launched by University College London as a national app competition for women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine).
2015, a high performance computing and cloud facility in London was named Rosalind.
2016, the British Humanist Association added the Rosalind Franklin Lecture to its annual lecture series, aimed to explore and celebrate the contribution of women towards the promotion and advancement of humanism.
2016, the Rosalind Franklin Prize and Tech Day was held on 23 February in London, organised by University College London, i-sense, UCL Enterprise, the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the UCL Athena Swan Charter.
2017, DSM opened the Rosalind Franklin Biotechnology Center in Delft, the Netherlands.
2017, Historic England gave a heritage listing, at Grade II, to Franklin's tomb at Willesden Jewish Cemetery on the grounds of it being of "special architectural or historic interest". Historic England said that "the tomb commemorates the life and achievements of Rosalind Franklin, a scientist of exceptional distinction, whose pioneering work helped lay the foundations of molecular biology; Franklin’s X-ray observation of DNA contributed to the discovery of its helical structure."
2018, the Rosalind Franklin Institute, an autonomous medical research centre under the join venture of 10 universities and funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation, was launched at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus on 6 June, and was officially opened on 29 September 2021.
2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) named its ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin.
2019, the University of Portsmouth announced that it changed the name James Watson Halls to Rosalind Franklin Halls from 2 September.
2020, Franklin was selected for the Time 100 Women of the Year, for 1953.
2020, the UK Royal Mint released a 50-pence coin in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Franklin’s birth on 25 July. It features a stylized version of Photo 51.
2020, South Norfolk Council renamed a road on the Norwich Research Park in her honour in July 2020. The road is home to the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia's Bob Champion Research and Education Building.
2020, Trinity College Dublin announced that its library had previously held forty busts, all of whom were of men, was commissioning four new busts of women one of whom would be Franklin.
2020, Aston Medical School instituted an annual competition for medical students named the Rosalind Franklin Essay Prize, funded by its alumni and Rosalind's nephew, Daniel Franklin, executive and diplomatic editor of The Economist.
2021, a bronze tondo of Rosalind Franklin was placed on Hampstead Manor and unveiled on 15 March.
2021, the Rosalind Franklin laboratory was opened in the Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 13 July as the largest laboratory for COVID-19 testing under the UK Health Security Agency and National Health Service Test and Trace network, and supported by the University of Warwick.
Cultural references
Franklin's part in the discovery of the nature of DNA was shown in the 1987 TV Movie Life Story, starring Juliet Stevenson as Franklin, and with Tim Pigott-Smith as Crick, Alan Howard as Wilkins and Jeff Goldblum as Watson. This movie portrayed Franklin as somewhat stern, but also alleged that Watson and Crick did use a lot of her work to do theirs.
A 56-minute documentary of the life and scientific contributions of Franklin, DNA – Secret of Photo 51, was broadcast in 2003 on PBS Nova. Narrated by Barbara Flynn, the program features interviews with Wilkins, Gosling, Klug, Maddox, including Franklin's friends Vittorio Luzzati, Caspar, Anne Piper, and Sue Richley. The UK version produced by BBC is titled Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady.
The first episode of another PBS documentary serial, DNA, was aired on 4 January 2004. The episode titled The Secret of Life centres much around the contributions of Franklin. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, it features Watson, Wilkins, Gosling and Peter Pauling (son of Linus Pauling).
A play entitled Rosalind: A Question of Life was written by Deborah Gearing to mark the work of Franklin, and was first performed on 1 November 2005 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and published by Oberon Books in 2006.
Another play, Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, published in 2011, has been produced at several places in the US and in late 2015 was put on at the Noel Coward Theatre, London, with Nicole Kidman playing Franklin. Ziegler's version of the 1951–53 'race' for the structure of DNA sometimes emphasizes the pivotal role of Franklin's research and her personality. Although sometimes altering history for dramatic effect, the play nevertheless illuminates many of the key issues of how science was and is conducted.
False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch is a play about the life of Marie Curie in which Franklin is portrayed as frustrated and angry at the lack of recognition for her scientific contributions. Hostility between the two is also depicted in season 3 of Harvey Girls Forever.
Publications
Rosalind Franklin's most notable publications are listed below. The last two were published posthumously.
See also
Timeline of women in science
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer who discovered the most elemental composition of stars
References
Citations
Sources
Elkin, L. O., Rosalind Franklin and the Double Helix Physics Today March 2003, pp. 42–48.
Holt, J. (2002) "Photo Finish: Rosalind Franklin and the great DNA race" The New Yorker October
Watson, J. Letter to Science, 164, p. 1539, 27 (1969).
Further reading
External links
Recordings by Aaron Klug at Web of Stories:
by Sir Aaron Klug
The first American newspaper coverage of the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Website for television program first broadcast in 2003
Documents from the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Also available at
1920 births
1958 deaths
20th-century British biologists
20th-century British chemists
20th-century English scientists
20th-century British women scientists
Academics of Birkbeck, University of London
Academics of King's College London
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery
Carbon scientists
Civil Defence Service personnel
Crystallographers
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from ovarian cancer
English agnostics
English Jews
English molecular biologists
English physical chemists
English women biologists
English women chemists
Rosalind
Jewish agnostics
Jewish biophysicists
Jewish British scientists
Jewish women scientists
People educated at Norland Place School
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
People from Notting Hill
| true |
[
"Lake Rosalind is a small inland lake located in Bruce County, Ontario, Canada between the towns of Hanover and Walkerton. Lake Rosalind and the interconnected Marl Lake to its south are manmade lakes that were created by the excavation of marl for local cement plants in the early 1900s and the construction of dams later in 1939 and 1946. Both lakes are relatively shallow and small in area (38 hectares and 14 hectares, respectively). Marl Lake receives Lake Rosalind's overflow through a culvert, and there is also an interconnected \"North Lake\" to the north of Lake Rosalind. Almost the entire lakefront is developed, with mostly small properties that have been \"urbanized\" with hardened shorelines and manicured lawns. The high level of development resulted from the proximity of Hanover and Walkerton and excellent road system in the area.\n\nThe major source of water for the lake is from groundwater aquifers; there are no major streams or creeks that flow into the lake. There is minimal surface runoff from surrounding land, which is used for agricultural purposes. Lake Rosalind is considered a headwater lake and provides water for the Saugeen River. Little forest cover remains around the lake. In the fall of 2006, Lake Rosalind was infested with blue-green algae, which put a sudden halt to all water-related activities. Over the winter the algae died off, but residents are urged to not use lawn fertilizers and to keep their shoreline natural.\n\nExternal links\n\nLakes of Ontario",
"Orlando is a fictional character and one of the male leads in the comedy As You Like It (1599/1600) by William Shakespeare.\n\nOrlando is the youngest son of the deceased Sir Rowland de Bois and is the brother of Oliver. He is brave, chivalrous, tender, modest, smart, strong, and handsome. He resents the harsh treatment he receives at Oliver's hands and laments how Oliver has denied him an education and the money is rightfully owed. Nevertheless, he is successful in expressing his love for Rosalind to her before he escapes to the Forest of Arden with his servant Adam.\n\nAt the start of the play Orlando is indignant to the harsh treatment of his brother Oliver, and he is unaware of Oliver's plot to kill him during a wrestling match. Though he wins the match he angers Duke Frederick, and therefore he flees the court to live in the Forest of Arden. There, he is accepted into the circle of the usurped Duke Senior and begins to find freedom in life in the forest. A more poetic side to him comes out as he leaves poems on trees to Rosalind. When Rosalind sees these poems she strikes up a relationship with him as Ganymede, and the two act out a relationship between Orlando and Rosalind under the guise that it will cure Orlando of his love for her. By the end of the story he is married to Rosalind and reinstated in his wealth and station.\n\nHe is portrayed as exceptionally strong in both body and in his devotion to love. It is these qualities that make Rosalind fall in love with him.\n\nLaurence Olivier played the character in a 1936 film adaptation of the play with Elizabeth Bergner opposite him as Rosalind.\n\nReferences\n\nMale Shakespearean characters\nLiterary characters introduced in 1600\nFictional nobility\nAs You Like It"
] |
[
"Rosalind Franklin",
"Cambridge and World War II",
"what happened with Rosalind and Cambridge?",
"Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos.",
"did he graduate?",
"In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams.",
"what happened to her during WW II?",
"I don't know.",
"what did she do after Cambridge?",
"joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.",
"what did she work on in the laboratory?",
"She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density.",
"did she win any awards or prizes?",
"I don't know.",
"is there anything relevant with Rosalind and WWII?",
"With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids."
] |
C_145dfae88a7144ceb9aa67cc28dcccd4_0
|
who was Irene?
| 8 |
Who was the Irene Rosalind Franklin volunteered with as an Air Raid Warden during WWII?
|
Rosalind Franklin
|
Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular B.A. and M.A. degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and helped her to improve her spoken French. Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide for her what to work upon, and at that time was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin Irene Franklin asked to join her in a vacated house of her uncle in Putney. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids. She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her Ph.D. thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge University awarded her a Ph.D. in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers. CANNOTANSWER
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her cousin Irene Franklin
|
Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognized during her life, for which she has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology".
She graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Disappointed by Norrish’s lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The research on coal helped her earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1945. Moving to Paris in 1947 as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, she became an accomplished X-ray crystallographer. After joining King's College London in 1951 as a research associate, she discovered the key properties of DNA, which eventually facilitated the correct description of the double helix structure of DNA. Owing to disagreement with her director, John Randall, and her colleague Maurice Wilkins, she was compelled to move to Birkbeck College in 1953.
Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA while at King's College London, particularly Photo 51, taken by her student Raymond Gosling, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix for which Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Watson suggested that Franklin would have ideally been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Wilkins but, although there was not yet a rule against posthumous awards, the Nobel Committee generally did not make posthumous nominations.
Working under John Desmond Bernal, Franklin led pioneering work at Birkbeck on the molecular structures of viruses. On the day before she was to unveil the structure of tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels, she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 37 in 1958. Her team member Aaron Klug continued her research, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982.
Early life
Franklin was born on 25 July 1920 in 50 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill, London, into an affluent and influential British Jewish family.
Family
Franklin's father was Ellis Arthur Franklin (1894–1964), a politically liberal London merchant banker who taught at the city's Working Men's College, and her mother was Muriel Frances Waley (1894–1976). Rosalind was the elder daughter and the second child in the family of five children. David (1919–1986) was the eldest brother; Colin (1923–2020), Roland (born 1926), and Jenifer (born 1929) were her younger siblings.
Franklin's paternal great-uncle was Herbert Samuel (later Viscount Samuel), who was the Home Secretary in 1916 and the first practising Jew to serve in the British Cabinet. Her aunt, Helen Caroline Franklin, known in the family as Mamie, was married to Norman de Mattos Bentwich, who was the Attorney General in the British Mandate of Palestine. Helen was active in trade union organisation and the women's suffrage movement and was later a member of the London County Council. Franklin's uncle, Hugh Franklin, was another prominent figure in the suffrage movement, although his actions therein embarrassed the Franklin family. Rosalind's middle name, "Elsie", was in memory of Hugh's first wife, who died in the 1918 flu pandemic. Her family was actively involved with the Working Men's College, where her father taught the subjects of electricity, magnetism, and the history of the Great War in the evenings, later becoming the vice principal.
Franklin's parents helped settle Jewish refugees from Europe who had escaped the Nazis, particularly those from the Kindertransport. They took in two Jewish children to their home, and one of them, a nine-year-old Austrian, Evi Eisenstädter, shared Jenifer's room. (Evi's father Hans Mathias Eisenstädter had been imprisoned in Buchenwald, and after liberation, the family adopted the surname "Ellis".)
Education
From early childhood, Franklin showed exceptional scholastic abilities. At age six, she joined her brother Roland at Norland Place School, a private day school in West London. At that time, her aunt Mamie (Helen Bentwich), described her to her husband: "Rosalind is alarmingly clever – she spends all her time doing arithmetic for pleasure, and invariably gets her sums right." She also developed an early interest in cricket and hockey. At age nine, she entered a boarding school, Lindores School for Young Ladies in Sussex. The school was near the seaside, and the family wanted a good environment for her delicate health.
She was 11 when she went to St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, west London, one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. At St Paul's she excelled in science, Latin, and sports. She also learned German, and became fluent in French, a language she would later find useful. She topped her classes, and won annual awards. Her only educational weakness was in music, for which the school music director, the composer Gustav Holst, once called upon her mother to inquire whether she might have suffered from hearing problems or tonsillitis. With six distinctions, she passed her matriculation in 1938, winning a scholarship for university, the School Leaving Exhibition of £30 a year for three years, and £5 from her grandfather. Her father asked her to give the scholarship to a deserving refugee student.
Cambridge and World War II
Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos. There she met the spectroscopist Bill Price, who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941, she was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular BA and MA degrees to women from 1947, and the previous women graduates retroactively received these. In her last year at Cambridge, she met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie, who had a huge influence on her life and career and who helped her to improve her conversational French.
Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In her one year of work there, she did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide upon the assignment of work for her. At that time he was succumbing to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, she fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt, both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research, she initially stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin, Irene Franklin, proposed that they share living quarters at a vacated house in Putney that belonged to her uncle. With Irene, she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids.
She studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks. This work was the basis of her PhD thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge awarded her a PhD in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers.
Career and research
Paris
With World War II ending in 1945, Franklin asked Adrienne Weill for help and to let her know of job openings for "a physical chemist who knows very little physical chemistry, but quite a lot about the holes in coal." At a conference in the autumn of 1946, Weill introduced her to Marcel Mathieu, a director of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the network of institutes that comprise the major part of the scientific research laboratories supported by the French government. This led to her appointment with Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État in Paris. She joined the labo (as referred to by the staff) of Mering on 14 February 1947 as one of the fifteen chercheurs (researchers).
Mering was an X-ray crystallographer who applied X-ray diffraction to the study of rayon and other amorphous substances, in contrast to the thousands of regular crystals that had been studied by this method for many years. He taught her the practical aspects of applying X-ray crystallography to amorphous substances. This presented new challenges in the conduct of experiments and the interpretation of results. Franklin applied them to further problems related to coal and to other carbonaceous materials, in particular the changes to the arrangement of atoms when these are converted to graphite. She published several further papers on this work which has become part of the mainstream of the physics and chemistry of coal and carbon. She coined the terms graphitising and non-graphitising carbon. The coal work was covered in a 1993 monograph, and in the regularly-published textbook Chemistry and Physics of Carbon. Mering continued the study of carbon in various forms, using X-ray diffraction and other methods.
King's College London
In 1950, Franklin was granted a three-year Turner & Newall Fellowship to work at King's College London. In January 1951, she started working as a research associate in the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Biophysics Unit, directed by John Randall. She was originally appointed to work on X-ray diffraction of proteins and lipids in solution, but Randall redirected her work to DNA fibres because of new developments in the field, and she was to be the only experienced experimental diffraction researcher at King's at the time. Randall made this reassignment, even before Franklin started working at King's, because of the pioneering work by DNA researcher Maurice Wilkins, and he reassigned Raymond Gosling, the graduate student who had been working with Wilkins, to be her assistant.
In 1950, Swiss chemist Rudolf Signer in Berne prepared a highly purified DNA sample from calf thymus. He freely distributed the DNA sample, later referred to as the Signer DNA, in early May 1950 at the meeting of the Faraday Society in London, and Wilkins was one of the recipients. Even using crude equipment, Wilkins and Gosling had obtained a good-quality diffraction picture of the DNA sample which sparked further interest in this molecule. But Randall had not indicated to them that he had asked Franklin to take over both the DNA diffraction work and guidance of Gosling's thesis. It was while Wilkins was away on holiday that Randall, in a letter in December 1950, assured Franklin that "as far as the experimental X-ray effort there would be for the moment only yourself and Gosling." Randall's lack of communication about this reassignment significantly contributed to the well documented friction that developed between Wilkins and Franklin. When Wilkins returned, he handed over the Signer DNA and Gosling to Franklin.
Franklin, now working with Gosling, started to apply her expertise in X-ray diffraction techniques to the structure of DNA. She used a new fine-focus X-ray tube and microcamera ordered by Wilkins, but which she refined, adjusted and focused carefully. Drawing upon her physical chemistry background, a critical innovation she applied was making the camera chamber that could be controlled for its humidity using different saturated salt solutions. When Wilkins inquired about this improved technique, she replied in terms which offended him as she had "an air of cool superiority".
Franklin's habit of intensely looking people in the eye while being concise, impatient and direct unnerved many of her colleagues. In stark contrast, Wilkins was very shy, and slowly calculating in speech while he avoided looking anyone directly in the eye. With the ingenious humidity-controlling camera, Franklin was soon able to produce X-ray images of better quality than those of Wilkins. She immediately discovered that the DNA sample could exist in two forms: at a relative humidity higher than 75%, the DNA fibre became long and thin; when it was drier, it became short and fat. She originally referred to the former as "wet" and the latter as "crystalline."
On the structure of the crystalline DNA, Franklin first recorded the analysis in her notebook, which reads: "Evidence for spiral [meaning helical] structure. Straight chain untwisted is highly improbable. Absence of reflections on meridian in χtalline [crystalline] form suggests spiral structure." An immediate discovery from this was that the phosphate group lies outside of the main DNA chain; she however could not make out whether there could be two or three chains. She presented their data at a lecture in November 1951, in King's College London. In her lecture notes, she wrote the following:The results suggest a helical structure (which must be very closely packed) containing 2, 3 or 4 co‐axial nucleic acid chains per helical unit, and having the phosphate groups near the outside.Franklin then named "A" and "B" respectively for the "wet" and "crystalline" forms. (The biological functions of A-DNA were discovered only 60 years later.) Because of the intense personality conflict developing between Franklin and Wilkins, Randall divided the work on DNA. Franklin chose the data rich "A" form while Wilkins selected the "B" form. By the end of 1951 it became generally accepted at King's that the B-DNA was a helix, but after she had recorded an asymmetrical image in May 1952, Franklin became unconvinced that the A-DNA was a helix. In July 1952, as a practical joke on Wilkins (who frequently expressed his view that both forms of DNA were helical), Franklin and Gosling produced a funeral notice regretting the 'death' of helical A-DNA, which runs:It is with great regret that we have to announce the death, on Friday 18th July 1952 of DNA helix (crystalline). Death followed a protracted illness which an intensive course of Besselised [referring to Bessel function that was used to analyse the X-ray diffraction patterns] injections had failed to relieve. A memorial service will be held next Monday or Tuesday. It is hoped that Dr M H F Wilkins will speak in memory of the late helix. [Signed Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling.]During 1952, they worked at applying the Patterson function to the X-ray pictures of DNA they had produced. This was a long and labour-intensive approach but would yield significant insight into the structure of the molecule. Franklin was fully committed to experimental data and was sternly against theoretical or model buildings, as she said, "We are not going to speculate, we are going to wait, we are going to let the spots on this photograph tell us what the [DNA] structure is." The X-ray diffraction pictures, including the landmark Photo 51 taken by Gosling at this time, have been called by John Desmond Bernal as "amongst the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken".
By January 1953, Franklin had reconciled her conflicting data, concluding that both DNA forms had two helices, and had started to write a series of three draft manuscripts, two of which included a double helical DNA backbone (see below). Her two A-DNA manuscripts reached Acta Crystallographica in Copenhagen on 6 March 1953, one day before Crick and Watson had completed their model on B-DNA. She must have mailed them while the Cambridge team was building their model, and certainly had written them before she knew of their work. On 8 July 1953 she modified one of these "in proof" Acta articles, "in light of recent work" by the King's and Cambridge research teams.
The third draft paper was on the B-DNA, dated 17 March 1953, which was discovered years later amongst her papers, by Franklin's Birkbeck colleague, Aaron Klug. He then published in 1974 an evaluation of the draft's close correlation with the third of the original trio of 25 April 1953 Nature DNA articles. Klug designed this paper to complement the first article he had written in 1968 defending Franklin's significant contribution to DNA structure. He had written this first article in response to the incomplete picture of Franklin's work depicted in James Watson's 1968 memoir, The Double Helix.
As vividly described Watson, he travelled to King's on 30 January 1953 carrying a preprint of Linus Pauling's incorrect proposal for DNA structure. Since Wilkins was not in his office, Watson went to Franklin's lab with his urgent message that they should all collaborate before Pauling discovered his error. The unimpressed Franklin became angry when Watson suggested she did not know how to interpret her own data. Watson hastily retreated, backing into Wilkins who had been attracted by the commotion. Wilkins commiserated with his harried friend and then showed Watson Franklin's DNA X-ray image. Watson, in turn, showed Wilkins a prepublication manuscript by Pauling and Robert Corey, which contained a DNA structure remarkably like their first incorrect model.
Discovery of DNA structure
In February 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University had started to build a molecular model of the B-DNA using data similar to that available to both teams at King's. Based on Franklin's lecture in November 1952 that DNA was helical with either two or three stands, they constructed a triple helix model, which was immediately proven to be flawed. Franklin's research was completed by February 1953, ahead of her move to Birkbeck, and her data was critical. Model building had been applied successfully in the elucidation of the structure of the alpha helix by Linus Pauling in 1951, but Franklin was opposed to prematurely building theoretical models, until sufficient data were obtained to properly guide the model building. She took the view that building a model was to be undertaken only after enough of the structure was known. Her conviction was justified by the fact that Pauling and Corey also came up in the late 1952 (published in February 1953) with an erroneous triple helix model.
Ever cautious, she wanted to eliminate misleading possibilities. Photographs of her Birkbeck work table show that she routinely used small molecular models, although certainly not ones on the grand scale successfully used at Cambridge for DNA. In the middle of February 1953, Crick's thesis advisor, Max Perutz, gave Crick a copy of a report written for a Medical Research Council biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952, containing many of Franklin's crystallographic calculations.
Since Franklin had decided to transfer to Birkbeck College and Randall had insisted that all DNA work must stay at King's, Wilkins was given copies of Franklin's diffraction photographs by Gosling. By 28 February 1953, Watson and Crick felt they had solved the problem enough for Crick to proclaim (in the local pub) that they had "found the secret of life". However, they knew they must complete their model before they could be certain.
Watson and Crick finished building their model on 7 March 1953, one day before they received a letter from Wilkins stating that Franklin was finally leaving and they could put "all hands to the pump". This was also one day after Franklin's two A-DNA papers had reached Acta Crystallographica. Wilkins came to see the model the following week, according to Franklin's biographer Brenda Maddox, on 12 March, and allegedly informed Gosling on his return to King's.
One of the most critical and overlooked moments in DNA research was how and when Franklin realised and conceded that B-DNA was a double helical molecule. When Klug first examined Franklin's documents after her death, he initially came to an impression that Franklin was not convinced of the double helical nature until the knowledge of the Cambridge model. But he later discovered the original draft of the manuscript (dated 17 March 1953) from which it became clear that Franklin had already resolved the correct structure. The news of Watson–Crick model reached King's the next day, 18 March, suggesting that Franklin would have learned of it much later since she had moved to Birkbeck. Further scrutiny of her notebook revealed that Franklin had already thought of the helical structure for B-DNA in February 1953 but was not sure of the number of strands, as she wrote: "Evidence for 2-chain (or 1-chain helix)." Her conclusion on the helical nature was evident, though she failed to understand the complete organisation of the DNA strands as the possibility two strands running in opposite directions did not occur to her.
Towards the end of February she began to work out the indications of double strands, as she noted: "Structure B does not fit single helical theory, even for low layer-lines." It soon dawned to her that the B-DNA and A-DNA were structurally similar, and perceived A-DNA as an "unwound version" of B-DNA. She and Gosling wrote a five-paged manuscript on 17 March titled "A Note on Molecular Configuration of Sodium Thymonucleate." After the Watson–Crick model was known, there appeared to be only one (hand-written) modification after the typeset at the end of the text which states that their data was consistent with the model, and appeared as such in the trio of 25 April 1953 Nature articles; the other modification being a deletion of "A Note on" from the title.
Weeks later, on 10 April, Franklin wrote to Crick for permission to see their model. Franklin retained her scepticism for premature model building even after seeing the Watson–Crick model, and remained unimpressed. She is reported to have commented, "It's very pretty, but how are they going to prove it?" As an experimental scientist, Franklin seems to have been interested in producing far greater evidence before publishing-as-proven a proposed model. Accordingly, her response to the Watson–Crick model was in keeping with her cautious approach to science.
Crick and Watson then published their model in Nature on 25 April 1953, in an article describing the double-helical structure of DNA with only a footnote acknowledging "having been stimulated by a general knowledge of Franklin and Wilkins' "unpublished" contribution. Actually, although it was the bare minimum, they had just enough specific knowledge of Franklin and Gosling's data upon which to base their model. As a result of a deal struck by the two laboratory directors, articles by Wilkins and Franklin, which included their X-ray diffraction data, were modified and then published second and third in the same issue of Nature, seemingly only in support of the Crick and Watson theoretical paper which proposed a model for the B-DNA. Most of the scientific community hesitated several years before accepting the double helix proposal. At first mainly geneticists embraced the model because of its obvious genetic implications.
Birkbeck College
Franklin left King's College London in mid-March 1953 for Birkbeck College, in a move that had been planned for some time and that she described (in a letter to Adrienne Weill in Paris) as "moving from a palace to the slums ... but pleasanter all the same". She was recruited by physics department chair John Desmond Bernal, a crystallographer who was a communist, known for promoting women crystallographers. Her new laboratories were housed in 21 Torrington Square, one of a pair of dilapidated and cramped Georgian houses containing several different departments; Franklin frequently took Bernal to task over the careless attitudes of some of the other laboratory staff, notably after workers in the pharmacy department flooded her first-floor laboratory with water on one occasion.
Despite the parting words of Bernal to stop her interest in nucleic acids, she helped Gosling to finish his thesis, although she was no longer his official supervisor. Together they published the first evidence of double helix in the A form of DNA in the 25 July issue of Nature. At the end of 1954, Bernal secured funding for Franklin from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), which enabled her to work as a senior scientist supervising her own research group. John Finch, a physics student from King's College London, subsequently joined Franklin's group, followed by Kenneth Holmes, a Cambridge graduate, in July 1955. Despite the ARC funding, Franklin wrote to Bernal that the existing facilities remained highly unsuited for conducting research "...my desk and lab are on the fourth floor, my X-ray tube in the basement, and I am responsible for the work of four people distributed over the basement, first and second floors on two different staircases."
RNA research
Franklin continued to explore another major nucleic acid, RNA, a molecule equally central to life as DNA. She again used X-ray crystallography to study the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), an RNA virus. Her meeting with Aaron Klug in early 1954 led to a longstanding and successful collaboration. Klug had just then earned his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined Birkbeck in late 1953. In 1955 Franklin published her first major works on TMV in Nature, in which she described that all TMV virus particles were of the same length. This was in direct contradiction to the ideas of the eminent virologist Norman Pirie, though her observation ultimately proved correct.
Franklin assigned the study of the complete structure of TMV to her PhD student Holmes. They soon discovered (published in 1956) that the covering of TMV was protein molecules arranged in helices. Her colleague Klug worked on spherical viruses with his student Finch, with Franklin coordinating and overseeing the work. As a team, from 1956 they started publishing seminal works on TMV, cucumber virus 4 and turnip yellow mosaic virus.
Franklin also had a research assistant, James Watt, subsidised by the National Coal Board and was now the leader of the ARC group at Birkbeck. The Birkbeck team members continued working on RNA viruses affecting several plants, including potato, turnip, tomato and pea. In 1955 the team was joined by an American post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. He worked on the precise location of RNA molecules in TMV. In 1956 he and Franklin published individual but complementary papers in the 10 March issue of Nature, in which they showed that the RNA in TMV is wound along the inner surface of the hollow virus. Caspar was not an enthusiastic writer, and Franklin had to write the entire manuscript for him.
Her research grant from ARC expired at the end of 1957, and she was never given the full salary proposed by Birkbeck. After Bernal requested ARC chairman Lord Rothschild, she was given a one-year extension ending in March 1958.
Expo 58, the first major international fair after World War II, was to be held in Brussels in 1958. Franklin was invited to make a five-foot high model of TMV, which she started in 1957. Her materials included table tennis balls and plastic bicycle handlebar grips. The Brussels world's fair, with an exhibit of her virus model at the International Science Pavilion, opened on 17 April, one day after she died.
Polio virus
In 1956, Franklin visited the University of California, Berkeley, where colleagues suggested her group research the polio virus. In 1957 she applied for a grant from the United States Public Health Service of the National Institutes of Health, which approved £10,000 (equivalent to £ in ) for three years, the largest fund ever received at Birkbeck. In her grant application, Franklin mentioned her new interest in animal virus research. She obtained Bernal's consent in July 1957, though serious concerns were raised after she disclosed her intentions to research live, instead of killed, polio virus at Birkbeck. Eventually, Bernal arranged for the virus to be safely stored at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine during the group's research. With her group, Franklin then commenced deciphering the structure of the polio virus while it was in a crystalline state. She attempted to mount the virus crystals in capillary tubes for X-ray studies, but was forced to end her work due to her rapidly failing health.
After Franklin's death, Klug succeeded her as group leader, and he, Finch and Holmes continued researching the structure of the polio virus. They eventually succeeded in obtaining extremely detailed X-ray images of the virus. In June 1959, Klug and Finch published the group's findings, revealing the polio virus to have icosahedral symmetry, and in the same paper suggested the possibility for all spherical viruses to possess the same symmetry, as it permitted the greatest possible number (60) of identical structural units. The team moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, in 1962, and the old Torrington Square laboratories were demolished four years later, in May 1966.
Personal life
Franklin was best described as an agnostic. Her lack of religious faith apparently did not stem from anyone's influence, rather from her own line of thinking. She developed her scepticism as a young child. Her mother recalled that she refused to believe in the existence of God, and remarked, "Well, anyhow, how do you know He isn't She?" She later made her position clear, now based on her scientific experience, and wrote to her father in 1940:
However, she did not abandon Jewish traditions. As the only Jewish student at Lindores School, she had Hebrew lessons on her own while her friends went to church. She joined the Jewish Society while in her first term at Cambridge, out of respect of her grandfather's request. Franklin confided to her sister that she was "always consciously a Jew".
Franklin loved travelling abroad, particularly trekking. She first "qualified" at Christmas 1929 for a vacation at Menton, France, where her grandfather went to escape the English winter. Her family frequently spent vacations in Wales or Cornwall. A trip to France in 1938 gave her a lasting love for France and its language. She considered the French lifestyle at that time as "vastly superior to that of English". In contrast, she described English people as having "vacant stupid faces and childlike complacency". Her family was almost stuck in Norway in 1939, as World War II was declared on their way home. In another instance, she trekked the French Alps with Jean Kerslake in 1946, which almost cost her her life. She slipped off a slope, and was barely rescued. But she wrote to her mother, "I am quite sure I could wander happily in France forever. I love the people, the country and the food."
She made several professional trips to the United States, and was particularly jovial among her American friends and constantly displayed her sense of humour. William Ginoza of the University of California, Los Angeles, later recalled that she was the opposite of Watson's description of her, and as Maddox comments, Americans enjoyed her "sunny side".
In his book The Double Helix, Watson provides his first-person account of the search for and discovery of DNA. He paints a sympathetic but sometimes critical portrait of Franklin. He praises her intellect and scientific acumen, but portrays her as difficult to work with and careless with her appearance. After introducing her in the book as "Rosalind", he writes that he and his male colleagues usually referred to her as "Rosy", the name people at King's College London used behind her back. She did not want to be called by that name because she had a great-aunt Rosy. In the family, she was called "Ros". To others, she was simply "Rosalind". She made it clear to an American visiting friend, Dorothea Raacke, while sitting with her at Crick's table in The Eagle pub in Cambridge: Raacke asked her how she was to be called and she replied "I'm afraid it will have to be Rosalind", adding "Most definitely not Rosy."
She often expressed her political views. She initially blamed Winston Churchill for inciting the war, but later admired him for his speeches. She actively supported Professor John Ryle as an independent candidate for parliament in the 1940 Cambridge University by-election, but he was unsuccessful.
She did not seem to have an intimate relationship with anyone, and always kept her deepest personal feelings to herself. After her younger days, she avoided close friendship with the opposite sex. In her later years, Evi Ellis, who had shared her bedroom when a child refugee and who was then married to Ernst Wohlgemuth and had moved to Notting Hill from Chicago, tried matchmaking her with Ralph Miliband but failed. Franklin once told Evi that her flatmate asked her for a drink, but she did not understand the intention. She was quite infatuated by her French mentor Mering, who had a wife and a mistress. Mering also admitted that he was captivated by her "intelligence and beauty". According to Anne Sayre, Franklin did confess her feeling for Mering when she was undergoing a second surgery, but Maddox reported that the family denied this. Mering wept when he visited her later, and destroyed all her letters after her death.
Her closest personal affair was probably with her once post-doctoral student Donald Caspar. In 1956, she visited him at his home in Colorado after her tour to University of California, Berkeley, and she was known to remark later that Caspar was one "she might have loved, might have married". In her letter to Sayre, she described him as "an ideal match".
Illness, death, and burial
In mid-1956, while on a work-related trip to the United States, Franklin first began to suspect a health problem. While in New York she found difficulty in zipping her skirt; her stomach had bulged. Back in London she consulted Mair Livingstone, who asked her, "You're not pregnant?" to which she retorted, "I wish I were." Her case was marked "URGENT". An operation on 4 September of the same year revealed two tumours in her abdomen. After this period and other periods of hospitalisation, Franklin spent time convalescing with various friends and family members. These included Anne Sayre, Francis Crick, his wife Odile, with whom Franklin had formed a strong friendship, and finally with the Roland and Nina Franklin family where Rosalind's nieces and nephews bolstered her spirits.
Franklin chose not to stay with her parents because her mother's uncontrollable grief and crying upset her too much. Even while undergoing cancer treatment, Franklin continued to work, and her group continued to produce results – seven papers in 1956 and six more in 1957. At the end of 1957, Franklin again fell ill and she was admitted to the Royal Marsden Hospital. On 2 December, she made her will. She named her three brothers as executors and made her colleague Aaron Klug the principal beneficiary, who would receive £3,000 and her Austin car. Of her other friends, Mair Livingstone would get £2,000, Anne Piper £1,000, and her nurse Miss Griffith £250. The remainder of the estate was to be used for charities.
She returned to work in January 1958, and was also given a promotion to Research Associate in Biophysics on 25 February. She fell ill again on 30 March, and she died on 16 April 1958, in Chelsea, London, of bronchopneumonia, secondary carcinomatosis, and ovarian cancer. Exposure to X-ray radiation is sometimes considered to be a possible factor in her illness.
Other members of her family have died of cancer, and the incidence of gynaecological cancer is known to be disproportionately high among Ashkenazi Jews. Her death certificate states: A Research Scientist, Spinster, Daughter of Ellis Arthur Franklin, a Banker. She was interred on 17 April 1958 in the family plot at Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery at Beaconsfield Road in London Borough of Brent. The inscription on her tombstone reads:
IN MEMORY OF ROSALIND ELSIE FRANKLIN מ' רחל בת ר' יהודה [Rochel/Rachel daughter of Yehuda, her father's Hebrew name] DEARLY LOVED ELDER DAUGHTER OF ELLIS AND MURIEL FRANKLIN 25TH JULY 1920 – 16TH APRIL 1958 SCIENTIST HER RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES ON VIRUSES REMAIN OF LASTING BENEFIT TO MANKIND ת נ צ ב ה [Hebrew initials for "her soul shall be bound in the bundle of life"]
Franklin's will was proven on 30 June, with her estate assessed for probate at £11,278 10s. 9d. (equivalent to £ in ).
Controversies after death
Alleged sexism toward Franklin
Anne Sayre, Franklin's friend and one of her biographers, says in her 1975 book, Rosalind Franklin and DNA: "In 1951 ... King's College London as an institution, was not distinguished for the welcome that it offered to women ... Rosalind ... was unused to purdah [a religious and social institution of female seclusion] ... there was one other woman scientist on the laboratory staff". The molecular biologist Andrzej Stasiak notes: "Sayre's book became widely cited in feminist circles for exposing rampant sexism in science." Farooq Hussain says: "there were seven women in the biophysics department ... Jean Hanson became an FRS, Dame Honor B. Fell, Director of Strangeways Laboratory, supervised the biologists". Maddox states: "Randall ... did have many women on his staff ... they found him ... sympathetic and helpful."
Sayre asserts that "while the male staff at King's lunched in a large, comfortable, rather clubby dining room" the female staff of all ranks "lunched in the student's hall or away from the premises". However, Elkin claims that most of the MRC group (including Franklin) typically ate lunch together in the mixed dining room discussed below. And Maddox says, of Randall: "He liked to see his flock, men and women, come together for morning coffee, and at lunch in the joint dining room, where he ate with them nearly every day." Francis Crick also commented that "her colleagues treated men and women scientists alike".
Sayre also discusses at length Franklin's struggle in pursuing science, particularly her father's concern about women in academic professions. This account had led to accusations of sexism in regard to Ellis Franklin's attitude to his daughter. A good deal of information explicitly claims that he strongly opposed her entering Newnham College. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) biography of Franklin goes further, stating that he refused to pay her fees, and that an aunt stepped in to do that for her. Her sister, Jenifer Glynn, has stated that those stories are myths, and that her parents fully supported Franklin's entire career.
Sexism is said to pervade the memoir of one peer, James Watson, in his book The Double Helix, published 10 years after Franklin's death and after Watson had returned from Cambridge to Harvard. His Cambridge colleague, Peter Pauling, wrote in a letter, "Morris [sic] Wilkins is supposed to be doing this work; Miss Franklin is evidently a fool." Crick acknowledges later, "I'm afraid we always used to adopt – let's say, a patronizing attitude towards her."
Glynn accuses Sayre of erroneously making her sister a feminist heroine, and sees Watson's The Double Helix as the root of what she calls the "Rosalind Industry". She conjectures that the stories of alleged sexism would "have embarrassed her [Rosalind Franklin] almost as much as Watson's account would have upset her", and declared that "she [Rosalind] was never a feminist." Klug and Crick have also concurred that Franklin was definitely not a feminist.
Franklin's letter to her parents in January 1939 is often taken as reflecting her own prejudiced attitude, and the claim that she was "not immune to the sexism rampant in these circles". In the letter, she remarked that one lecturer was "very good, though female". Maddox maintains that was a circumstantial comment rather than an example of gender bias, and that it was a expression of admiration because, at the time, woman teachers of science were a rarity. In fact, Maddox says, Franklin laughed at men who were embarrassed by the appointment of the first female professor, Dorothy Garrod.
Contribution to the model/structure of DNA
Rosalind Franklin's first important contributions to the model popularised by Crick and Watson was her lecture at the seminar in November 1951, where she presented to those present, among them Watson, the two forms of the molecule, type A and type B, her position being that the phosphate units are located in the external part of the molecule. She also specified the amount of water to be found in the molecule in accordance with other parts of it, data that have considerable importance for the stability of the molecule. Franklin was the first to discover and formulate these facts, which in fact constituted the basis for all later attempts to build a model of the molecule. However, Watson, at the time ignorant of the chemistry, failed to comprehend the crucial information, and this led to the construction of a wrong three-helical model.
The other contribution included an X-ray photograph of B-DNA (called Photo 51) taken by Franklin's student Gosling that was briefly shown to Watson by Wilkins in January 1953, and a report written for an MRC biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952 which was shown by Perutz at the Cavendish Laboratory to both Crick and Watson. This MRC report contained data from the King's group, including some of Franklin's and Gosling's work, and was given to Crick – who was working on his thesis on haemoglobin structure – by his thesis supervisor Perutz, a member of the visiting committee.
Sayre's biography of Franklin contains a story alleging that the photograph 51 in question was shown to Watson by Wilkins without Franklin's permission, and that this constituted a case of bad science ethics. Others dispute this story, asserting that Wilkins had been given photograph 51 by Franklin's PhD student Gosling because she was leaving King's to work at Birkbeck, and there was allegedly nothing untoward in this transfer of data to Wilkins because Director Randall had insisted that all DNA work belonged exclusively to King's and had instructed Franklin in a letter to even stop working on it and submit her data. Also, it was implied by Horace Freeland Judson, that Maurice Wilkins had taken the photograph out of Franklin's drawer, but this is also said to be incorrect.
Likewise, Perutz saw "no harm" in showing an MRC report containing the conclusions of Franklin and Gosling's X-ray data analysis to Crick, since it had not been marked as confidential, although "The report was not expected to reach outside eyes". Indeed, after the publication of Watson's The Double Helix exposed Perutz's act, he received so many letters questioning his judgment that he felt the need to both answer them all and to post a general statement in Science excusing himself on the basis of being "inexperienced and casual in administrative matters".
Perutz also claimed that the MRC information was already made available to the Cambridge team when Watson had attended Franklin's seminar in November 1951. A preliminary version of much of the important material contained in the 1952 December MRC report had been presented by Franklin in a talk she had given in November 1951, which Watson had attended but not understood.
The Perutz letter was as said one of three letters, published with letters by Wilkins and Watson, which discussed their various contributions. Watson clarified the importance of the data obtained from the MRC report as he had not recorded these data while attending Franklin's lecture in 1951. The upshot of all this was that when Crick and Watson started to build their model in February 1953 they were working with critical parameters that had been determined by Franklin in 1951, and which she and Gosling had significantly refined in 1952, as well as with published data and other very similar data to those available at King's. It was generally believed that Franklin was never aware that her work had been used during construction of the model, but Gosling asserted in his 2013 interview that, "Yes. Oh, she did know about that."
Recognition of her contribution to the model of DNA
Upon the completion of their model, Crick and Watson had invited Wilkins to be a co-author of their paper describing the structure. Wilkins turned down this offer, as he had taken no part in building the model. He later expressed regret that greater discussion of co-authorship had not taken place as this might have helped to clarify the contribution the work at King's had made to the discovery. There is no doubt that Franklin's experimental data were used by Crick and Watson to build their model of DNA in 1953. Some, including Maddox, have explained this citation omission by suggesting that it may be a question of circumstance, because it would have been very difficult to cite the unpublished work from the MRC report they had seen.
Indeed, a clear timely acknowledgment would have been awkward, given the unorthodox manner in which data were transferred from King's to Cambridge. However, methods were available. Watson and Crick could have cited the MRC report as a personal communication or else cited the Acta articles in press, or most easily, the third Nature paper that they knew was in press. One of the most important accomplishments of Maddox's widely acclaimed biography is that Maddox made a well-received case for inadequate acknowledgement. "Such acknowledgement as they gave her was very muted and always coupled with the name of Wilkins".
Fifteen years after the fact, the first clear recitation of Franklin's contribution appeared as it permeated Watson's account, The Double Helix, although it was buried under descriptions of Watson's (often quite negative) regard towards Franklin during the period of their work on DNA. This attitude is epitomized in the confrontation between Watson and Franklin over a preprint of Pauling's mistaken DNA manuscript. Watson's words impelled Sayre to write her rebuttal, in which the entire chapter nine, "Winner Take All" has the structure of a legal brief dissecting and analyzing the topic of acknowledgement.
Sayre's early analysis was often ignored because of perceived feminist overtones in her book. Watson and Crick did not cite the X-ray diffraction work of Wilkins and Franklin in their original paper, though they admit having "been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M. H. F. Wilkins, Dr. R. E. Franklin and their co-workers at King's College London". In fact, Watson and Crick cited no experimental data at all in support of their model. Franklin and Gosling's publication of the DNA X-ray image, in the same issue of Nature, served as the principal evidence:Thus our general ideas are not inconsistent with the model proposed by Watson and Crick in the preceding communication.
Nobel Prize
Franklin was never nominated for a Nobel Prize. Her work was a crucial part in the discovery of DNA's structure, which along with subsequent related work led to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins being awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962. She had died in 1958, and during her lifetime the DNA structure was not considered to be fully proven. It took Wilkins and his colleagues about seven years to collect enough data to prove and refine the proposed DNA structure. Moreover, its biological significance, as proposed by Watson and Crick, was not established. General acceptance for the DNA double helix and its function did not start until late in the 1950s, leading to Nobel nominations in 1960, 1961, and 1962 for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and in 1962 for Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The first breakthrough was from Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958, who experimentally showed the DNA replication of a bacterium Escherichia coli. In what is now known as the Meselson–Stahl experiment, DNA was found to replicate into two double-stranded helices, with each helix having one of the original DNA strands. This DNA replication was firmly established by 1961 after further demonstration in other species, and of the stepwise chemical reaction. According to the 1961 Crick–Monod letter, this experimental proof, along with Wilkins having initiated the DNA diffraction work, were the reasons why Crick felt that Wilkins should be included in the DNA Nobel Prize.
In 1962 the Nobel Prize was subsequently awarded to Crick, Watson, and Wilkins. Nobel rules now prohibit posthumous nominations (though this statute was not formally in effect until 1974) or splitting of Prizes more than three ways. The award was for their body of work on nucleic acids and not exclusively for the discovery of the structure of DNA. By the time of the award Wilkins had been working on the structure of DNA for more than 10 years, and had done much to confirm the Watson–Crick model. Crick had been working on the genetic code at Cambridge and Watson had worked on RNA for some years. Watson has suggested that ideally Wilkins and Franklin would have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Pauling, who received the Nobel Peace Prize that year, believed and earlier warned the Nobel Committee in 1960 that "it might well be premature to make an award of a Prize to Watson and Crick, because of existing uncertainty about the detailed structure of nucleic acid. I myself feel that it is likely that the general nature of the Watson-Crick structure is correct, but that there is doubt about details." He was partly right as an alternative of Watson-Crick base pairing, called the Hoogsteen base pairing that can form triple DNA strand, was discovered by Karst Hoogsteen in 1963.
Aaron Klug, Franklin's colleague and principal beneficiary in her will, was the sole winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1982, "for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes". This work was exactly what Franklin had started and which she introduced to Klug, and it is highly plausible that, were she alive, she would have shared the Nobel Prize.
Awards and honours
Posthumous recognition
1982, Iota Sigma Pi designated Franklin a National Honorary Member.
1984, St Paul's Girls School established the Rosalind Franklin Technology Centre.
1992, English Heritage placed a blue plaque commemorating Franklin on the building in Drayton Gardens, London, where she lived until her death.
1993, King's College London renamed the Orchard Residence at its Hampstead Campus as Rosalind Franklin Hall.
1993, King's College London placed a blue plaque on its outside wall bearing the inscription: "R. E. Franklin, R. G. Gosling, A. R. Stokes, M. H. F. Wilkins, H. R. Wilson – King's College London – DNA – X-ray diffraction studies – 1953."
1995, Newnham College, Cambridge opened a graduate residence named Rosalind Franklin Building, and put a bust of her in its garden.
1997, Birkbeck, University of London School of Crystallography opened the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory.
1997, a newly discovered asteroid was named 9241 Rosfranklin.
1998, National Portrait Gallery in London added Rosalind Franklin's portrait next to those of Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins.
1999, the Institute of Physics at Portland Place, London, renamed its theatre as Franklin Lecture Theatre.
2000, King's College London opened the Franklin–Wilkins Building in honour of Franklin's and Wilkins's work at the college.
2000, We the Curious (formally @Bristol) features the Rosalind Franklin Room.
2001, the American National Cancer Institute established the Rosalind E. Franklin Award for women in cancer research.
2002, the University of Groningen, supported by the European Union, launched the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship to encourage women researchers to become full university professors.
2003, the Royal Society established the Rosalind Franklin Award (officially the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture) for an outstanding contribution to any area of natural science, engineering or technology. The award consists of a silver-coated medal and a grant of £30,000.
2003, the Royal Society of Chemistry declared King's College London as "National Historic Chemical Landmark" and placed a plaque on the wall near the entrance of the building, with the inscription: "Near this site Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, Raymond Gosling, Alexander Stokes and Herbert Wilson performed experiments that led to the discovery of the structure of DNA. This work revolutionised our understanding of the chemistry behind life itself."
2004, Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, located in North Chicago, Illinois, USA changed its name to the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. It also adopted a new motto "Life in Discovery", and Photo 51 as its logo.
2004, the Gruber Foundation started the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for two female geneticists from all over the world. It carries an annual fund of $25,000, each award is for three years, and selection is made by a joint committee appointed by the Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Human Genetics.
2004, the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and the APS Users Organization (APSUO) started the APSUO Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for young scientists who made contributions through the APS.
2005, the DNA sculpture (donated by James Watson) outside Clare College, Cambridge's Memorial Court incorporates the words "The double helix model was supported by the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins."
2005, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, based in Florida, US, established an annual award the Rosalind Franklin Prize for Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research.
2006, the Rosalind Franklin Society was established in New York by Mary Ann Liebert. The Society aims to recognise, foster, and advance the important contributions of women in the life sciences and affiliated disciplines.
2008, Columbia University awarded an honorary Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Franklin, "for her seminal contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA".
2008, the Institute of Physics established a biennial award the Rosalind Franklin Medal and Prize.
2012, the bioinformatics education software platform Rosalind was named in honour of Franklin.
2012, The Rosalind Franklin Building was opened at Nottingham Trent University.
2013, Google honoured Rosalind Franklin with a doodle, showing her gazing at a double helix structure of DNA with an X-ray of Photo 51 beyond it.
2013, a plaque was placed on the wall of The Eagle pub in Cambridge commemorating Franklin's contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA, on the sixtieth anniversary of Crick and Watson's announcement in the pub.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology was established by Biotechnology Industry Organization (Biotechnology Innovation Organization since 2016) in collaboration with the Rosalind Franklin Society, for an outstanding woman in the field of industrial biotechnology and bioprocessing.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science unveiled a bronze statue of Franklin, created by Julie Rotblatt-Amrany, near its front entrance.
2014, the Rosalind Franklin STEM Elementary was opened in Pasco, Washington, the first science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) elementary school in the district.
2014, the University of Wolverhampton opened its new laboratory building named the Rosalind Franklin Science Building.
2015, Newnham College Boat Club, Cambridge, launched a new racing VIII, naming it the Rosalind Franklin.
2015, the Rosalind Franklin Appathon was launched by University College London as a national app competition for women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine).
2015, a high performance computing and cloud facility in London was named Rosalind.
2016, the British Humanist Association added the Rosalind Franklin Lecture to its annual lecture series, aimed to explore and celebrate the contribution of women towards the promotion and advancement of humanism.
2016, the Rosalind Franklin Prize and Tech Day was held on 23 February in London, organised by University College London, i-sense, UCL Enterprise, the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the UCL Athena Swan Charter.
2017, DSM opened the Rosalind Franklin Biotechnology Center in Delft, the Netherlands.
2017, Historic England gave a heritage listing, at Grade II, to Franklin's tomb at Willesden Jewish Cemetery on the grounds of it being of "special architectural or historic interest". Historic England said that "the tomb commemorates the life and achievements of Rosalind Franklin, a scientist of exceptional distinction, whose pioneering work helped lay the foundations of molecular biology; Franklin’s X-ray observation of DNA contributed to the discovery of its helical structure."
2018, the Rosalind Franklin Institute, an autonomous medical research centre under the join venture of 10 universities and funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation, was launched at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus on 6 June, and was officially opened on 29 September 2021.
2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) named its ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin.
2019, the University of Portsmouth announced that it changed the name James Watson Halls to Rosalind Franklin Halls from 2 September.
2020, Franklin was selected for the Time 100 Women of the Year, for 1953.
2020, the UK Royal Mint released a 50-pence coin in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Franklin’s birth on 25 July. It features a stylized version of Photo 51.
2020, South Norfolk Council renamed a road on the Norwich Research Park in her honour in July 2020. The road is home to the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia's Bob Champion Research and Education Building.
2020, Trinity College Dublin announced that its library had previously held forty busts, all of whom were of men, was commissioning four new busts of women one of whom would be Franklin.
2020, Aston Medical School instituted an annual competition for medical students named the Rosalind Franklin Essay Prize, funded by its alumni and Rosalind's nephew, Daniel Franklin, executive and diplomatic editor of The Economist.
2021, a bronze tondo of Rosalind Franklin was placed on Hampstead Manor and unveiled on 15 March.
2021, the Rosalind Franklin laboratory was opened in the Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 13 July as the largest laboratory for COVID-19 testing under the UK Health Security Agency and National Health Service Test and Trace network, and supported by the University of Warwick.
Cultural references
Franklin's part in the discovery of the nature of DNA was shown in the 1987 TV Movie Life Story, starring Juliet Stevenson as Franklin, and with Tim Pigott-Smith as Crick, Alan Howard as Wilkins and Jeff Goldblum as Watson. This movie portrayed Franklin as somewhat stern, but also alleged that Watson and Crick did use a lot of her work to do theirs.
A 56-minute documentary of the life and scientific contributions of Franklin, DNA – Secret of Photo 51, was broadcast in 2003 on PBS Nova. Narrated by Barbara Flynn, the program features interviews with Wilkins, Gosling, Klug, Maddox, including Franklin's friends Vittorio Luzzati, Caspar, Anne Piper, and Sue Richley. The UK version produced by BBC is titled Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady.
The first episode of another PBS documentary serial, DNA, was aired on 4 January 2004. The episode titled The Secret of Life centres much around the contributions of Franklin. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, it features Watson, Wilkins, Gosling and Peter Pauling (son of Linus Pauling).
A play entitled Rosalind: A Question of Life was written by Deborah Gearing to mark the work of Franklin, and was first performed on 1 November 2005 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and published by Oberon Books in 2006.
Another play, Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, published in 2011, has been produced at several places in the US and in late 2015 was put on at the Noel Coward Theatre, London, with Nicole Kidman playing Franklin. Ziegler's version of the 1951–53 'race' for the structure of DNA sometimes emphasizes the pivotal role of Franklin's research and her personality. Although sometimes altering history for dramatic effect, the play nevertheless illuminates many of the key issues of how science was and is conducted.
False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch is a play about the life of Marie Curie in which Franklin is portrayed as frustrated and angry at the lack of recognition for her scientific contributions. Hostility between the two is also depicted in season 3 of Harvey Girls Forever.
Publications
Rosalind Franklin's most notable publications are listed below. The last two were published posthumously.
See also
Timeline of women in science
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer who discovered the most elemental composition of stars
References
Citations
Sources
Elkin, L. O., Rosalind Franklin and the Double Helix Physics Today March 2003, pp. 42–48.
Holt, J. (2002) "Photo Finish: Rosalind Franklin and the great DNA race" The New Yorker October
Watson, J. Letter to Science, 164, p. 1539, 27 (1969).
Further reading
External links
Recordings by Aaron Klug at Web of Stories:
by Sir Aaron Klug
The first American newspaper coverage of the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Website for television program first broadcast in 2003
Documents from the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Also available at
1920 births
1958 deaths
20th-century British biologists
20th-century British chemists
20th-century English scientists
20th-century British women scientists
Academics of Birkbeck, University of London
Academics of King's College London
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery
Carbon scientists
Civil Defence Service personnel
Crystallographers
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from ovarian cancer
English agnostics
English Jews
English molecular biologists
English physical chemists
English women biologists
English women chemists
Rosalind
Jewish agnostics
Jewish biophysicists
Jewish British scientists
Jewish women scientists
People educated at Norland Place School
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
People from Notting Hill
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"Irene Komnene Doukaina or Eirene Komnene Doukaina (, ) was an Empress of Bulgaria during the Second Bulgarian Empire and Byzantine princess. She was the third wife of tsar Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria. She was the mother of tsar Michael Asen I of Bulgaria.\n\nLife \nIrene was daughter of despotēs Theodore Komnenos Doukas, ruler of Epirus, and Maria Petraliphaina (sister of the sebastokratōr John Petraliphas). In 1230 Irene and her family were captured by the troops of tsar Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria in the battle of Klokotnitsa and they were taken in Tarnovo, where Irene grew up in the Palace. Irene became known for her beauty and the widowed tsar fell in love with her. They married in 1237. According to a Byzantine author, Ivan Asen II loved Irene \"no less than Antony loved Cleopatra\", and she may have been his mistress for some years before their marriage in 1237. By marrying Irene, Ivan Asen II would have broken church canons, as his daughter, Maria Asanina Komnena, from his marriage to Anna (Anisia) was married to Irene's uncle, Manuel of Thessalonica. There is some evidence that the Bulgarian church opposed the marriage and that a patriarch (called either Spiridon or Vissarion) was deposed or executed by the irate tsar.\n\nIrene and Ivan Asen II had three children:\n Anna (or Theodora), who married the sebastokratōr Peter before 1253.\n Maria, who married Mitso Asen, who succeeded as emperor of Bulgaria 1256–1257.\n Michael Asen I, who succeeded as emperor of Bulgaria (1246–1256).\n\nIn 1241 Ivan Asen II died and he was succeeded by Kaliman I of Bulgaria, his son by his second wife Anna Maria of Hungary. Kaliman I was poisoned in 1246 and the throne went to Michael Asen I, the son of Irene. According to one theory Irene poisoned her stepson in order to secure the throne for Michael II. It is assumed that Irene took over the government as tsarina-regent because her son was still a child when he ascended the throne, but there is little evidence to prove this hypothesis.\n\nIrene retired to a monastery under the monastic name Xenia. She was expelled from Bulgaria after the death of her son in 1256 and spent the rest of her life in her family's land around Thessaloniki.\n\nReferences\n\nSources \n \n \n\nBulgarian consorts\n13th-century births\n13th-century deaths\nKomnenodoukas dynasty\n13th-century Bulgarian women\n13th-century Byzantine women",
"Saint Irene of Rome (died 288 AD) was a Christian woman in the Roman Empire during the reign of Diocletian. She was the wife of Saint Castulus. According to Christian legend, she attended to Saint Sebastian after he was wounded by Mauretanian archers.\n\nBiography \n\nIrene was the wife of Saint Castulus who, according to tradition, was in the service of the Roman emperor. She was later widowed when Castulus was martyred for practicing Christianity and converting others to the religion. After the death of her husband, Irene continued to be active in the Christian community in Rome. According to hagiography, when Saint Sebastian was shot with arrows for practicing Christianity, Irene tended his wounds.\n\nSaint Sebastian Tended by Saint Irene was the subject of many paintings by Benedetto Luti and others.\n\nGallery\n\nReferences \n\n288 deaths\n3rd-century Christian martyrs\nLate Ancient Christian female saints\nItalian Roman Catholic saints\nSaints from Roman Italy\nYear of birth unknown"
] |
[
"Alanis Morissette",
"1998-2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged"
] |
C_19751c82ebc942199a9b544e136a460e_1
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Was she infatuated with a junkie?
| 1 |
Was Alanis Morissette infatuated with a junkie?
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Alanis Morissette
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Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard. Privately, the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies--a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year. The "So Pure" video features actor Dash Mihok, with whom Morissette was in a relationship at the time. Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", "Hope", "Innocence", and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Alanis toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999). CANNOTANSWER
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Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.
|
Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two mildly successful dance-pop albums. Afterward, as part of a recording deal, she moved to Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. In 1995, she released Jagged Little Pill, an alt rock-oriented album with the elements of post-grunge, which sold more than 33 million copies globally and is her most critically acclaimed work to date. This earned her Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1996 and was made into a rock musical of the same name in 2017, which also earned 15 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical. The album also listed in 2003 and 2020 editions of the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Guide. Her highly anticipated, more experimental follow-up, electronic-infused album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998.
Morissette assumed creative control and producing duties for her subsequent studio albums, including Under Rug Swept (2002), So-Called Chaos (2004), Flavors of Entanglement (2008), and Havoc and Bright Lights (2012). Her latest album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, was released in 2020. Her well-known singles reached top 40 in the major charts around the world, including 10 top-40 hits in the UK, 3 top-10 in the US and Australia, 12 top-10 hits in her native Canada, "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", "Head Over Feet", "Uninvited", "Thank U" and "Hands Clean". She also holds the record of the most No. 1s on the weekly Billboard Alternative Songs chart among any female soloist, group leader or duo member. Morissette won 7 Grammy Awards, 14 Juno Awards, 1 Brit Award and has sold more than 75 million records worldwide and has been dubbed the "Queen of Alt-Rock Angst" by Rolling Stone.
Early life
Morissette was born June 1, 1974, at Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to teacher Georgia Mary Ann ( Feuerstein) of Hungarian descent and high-school principal and French teacher Alan Richard Morissette. She has two brothers: older brother Chad is a business entrepreneur, and twin brother (12 minutes older) Wade Morissette is a musician. Her father is of French and Irish descent, whereas her mother has Hungarian and Jewish ancestry. Her parents were teachers in a military school and due to their work often had to move. Between the ages of three and six she lived with her parents in Lahr (Black Forest), Germany.
When she was six years old, she returned to Ottawa and started to play the piano. In 1981, at the age of seven, she began dance lessons. Morissette had a Catholic upbringing. She attended Holy Family Catholic School for elementary school and Immaculata High School for Grades 7 and 8 before completing the rest of her high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute. She appeared on the children's television sketch comedy You Can't Do That on Television for five episodes when she was in junior high school.
Music career
1987–1992: Alanis and Now Is the Time
Morissette recorded her first demo called "Fate Stay with Me", produced by Lindsay Thomas Morgan at Marigold Studios in Toronto, engineered by Rich Dodson of Canadian classic rock band The Stampeders. A second demo tape was recorded on cassette in August 1989 and sent to Geffen Records, but the tape has never been heard as it was stolen, among other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989.
In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer, Leslie Howe. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top 20 on the RPM singles chart. Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top 40. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada; comparisons to Tiffany were also common. During the same period, she was a concert opening act for rapper Vanilla Ice. Morissette was nominated for three 1992 Juno Awards: Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year (which she won), Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording (both for "Too Hot").
In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a ballad-driven record that featured less glitzy production than Alanis and contained more thoughtful lyrics. Morissette wrote the songs with the album's producer, Leslie Howe, and Serge Côté. She said of the album, "People could go, 'Boo, hiss, hiss, this girl's like another Tiffany or whatever.' But the way I look at it ... people will like your next album if it's a kick-ass one." As with Alanis (1991), Now Is the Time (1992) was released only in Canada and produced three top 40 singles—"An Emotion Away", the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" as well as "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time". The industry considered it a commercial failure, however, since it sold only a little more than half the copies of her first album. With her two-album deal with MCA Records Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract.
1993–1997: Jagged Little Pill
In 1993, Morissette's publisher Leeds Levy at MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch. Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character and her lyrics. At the time she was still living at home with her parents. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people. After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto. Her publisher funded part of her development and when she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he believed in her talent enough to let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records. In the same year she learned how to play guitar. According to manager Welch, every label they approached, apart from Maverick, declined to sign Morissette.
Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected only to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation improved quickly when KROQ-FM, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single, featuring Flea and Dave Navarro. The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics, and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hits helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand in My Pocket" followed, and the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, kept Jagged Little Pill (1995) in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. Jagged Little Pill sold more than 16 million copies in the U.S.; it sold 33 million worldwide, making it the second biggest-selling album by a female artist (behind Shania Twain's Come On Over).
Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum and produced four RPM chart-toppers: "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", and "Head over Feet". The album was also a bestseller in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill (1995) was credited with opening doors for female singers such as Tracy Bonham, Fiona Apple, Meredith Brooks, Shakira, Pink, Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne and Florence Welch. She was criticized for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, and her previous disco pop albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability. Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 16th Brit Awards she won Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.
Following the album release in 1995, Morissette embarked on an 18-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, who later joined the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. Radiohead joined as an opening act in the summer of 1996. "Ironic" was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards—Record of the Year and Best Music Video, Short Form—and won Single of the Year at the 1997 Juno Awards, where Morissette also won Songwriter of the Year and the International Achievement Award. The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which was co-directed by Morissette and chronicled the bulk of her tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form.
Following the tour, Morissette began practicing Iyengar Yoga for balance. After the last December 1996 show, she went to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two friends. She said the trip was "incredible".
1998–2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged
Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.
The label hoped to sell 1 million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies—a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year.
Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", where she paid homage to her roots by singing in Hungarian, "Hope", "Innocence" and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Morissette toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999).
2001–2005: Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos
In 2001, Morissette was featured with Stephanie McKay on the Tricky song "Excess", which is on his album Blowback. Morissette released her fifth studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her career, she took on the role of sole writer and producer of an album. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney, and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments; additional contributions came from Eric Avery, Dean DeLeo, Flea, and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually going platinum in Canada and selling one million copies in the U.S. It produced the hit single "Hands Clean", which topped the Canadian Singles Chart and received substantial radio play; for her work on "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", Morissette won a Juno Award for Producer of the Year. A second single, "Precious Illusions", was released, but it did not garner significant success outside Canada or U.S. hot AC radio.
Later in 2002, Morissette released the combination package Feast on Scraps, which includes a DVD of live concert and backstage documentary footage directed by her and a CD containing eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions. Preceded by the single "Simple Together", it sold roughly 70,000 copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year.
Morissette hosted the Juno Awards of 2004 dressed in a bathrobe, which she took off to reveal a flesh-colored bodysuit, a response to the era of censorship in the U.S. caused by Janet Jackson's breast-flash incident during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Morissette released her sixth studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again, and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and pop music producer John Shanks. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews, and it became Morissette's lowest seller in the U.S. The lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on Adult Top 40 radio in America and was moderately popular elsewhere, particularly in Canada, although it failed to reach the top 40 on the U.S. Hot 100. Because the first line of the song includes the word "asshole", American radio stations refused to play it, and the single version was changed to include the word "nightmare" instead. Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared considerably worse, although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a U.S. club hit. Morissette embarked on a U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians Barenaked Ladies, working with the non-profit environmental organization Reverb.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill (1995), Morissette released a studio acoustic version, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, in June 2005. The album was released exclusively through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run. The limited availability led to a dispute between Maverick Records and HMV North America, who retaliated by removing Morissette's other albums from sale for the duration of Starbucks's exclusive six-week sale. , Jagged Little Pill Acoustic had sold 372,000 copies in the U.S., and a video for "Hand in My Pocket" received rotation on VH1 in America. The accompanying tour ran for two months in mid-2005, with Morissette playing small theatre venues. During the same period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. The singer opened for The Rolling Stones for a few dates of their A Bigger Bang Tour in the autumn of 2005.
Morissette released the greatest hits album Alanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005. The lead single and only new track, a cover of Seal's "Crazy", was an Adult Top 40 and dance hit in the U.S., but achieved only minimal chart success elsewhere. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimidation" and "Can't Not". (A reworked version of "Can't Not" had also appeared on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.) The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". , The Collection had sold 373,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. That same year, Morissette contributed the song "Wunderkind" to the soundtrack of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
2006–2010: Flavors of Entanglement
2006 marked the first year in Morissette's musical career without a single concert appearance showcasing her own songs, with the exception of an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January when she performed "Wunderkind".
On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a tongue-in-cheek cover of The Black Eyed Peas's selection "My Humps", which she recorded in a slow, mournful voice, accompanied only by a piano. The accompanying YouTube-hosted video, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who act as if attempting to touch her breasts, had received 16,465,653 views as of February 15, 2009. Morissette did not take any interviews for a time to explain the song, and it was theorized that she did it as an April Fools' Day joke. Black Eyed Peas vocalist Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson responded by sending Morissette a buttocks-shaped cake with an approving note. On the verge of the release of her following album, she finally elaborated on how the video came to be, citing that she became very much emotionally loaded while recording her new songs one after the other and one day she wished she could do a simple song like "My Humps" and the joke just took a life of its own.
Morissette performed at a gig for The Nightwatchman, a.k.a. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles in April 2007. The following June, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada", the American and Canadian national anthems, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks in Ottawa, Ontario. (The NHL requires arenas to perform both the American and Canadian national anthems at games involving teams from both countries.) In early 2008, Morissette participated in a tour with Matchbox Twenty and Mutemath as a special guest.
Morissette's seventh studio album, Flavors of Entanglement, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth, was released in mid-2008. She has stated that in late 2008, she would embark on a North American headlining tour, but in the meantime she would be promoting the album internationally by performing at shows and festivals and making television and radio appearances. The album's first single was "Underneath", a video for which was submitted to the 2007 Elevate Film Festival, the purpose of which festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth. On October 3, 2008, Morissette released the video for her latest single, "Not as We".
Morissette contributed to 1 Giant Leap, performing "Arrival" with Zap Mama and she has released an acoustic version of her song "Still" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief in support of the 2010 Haiti earthquake crisis. In 2008 she contributed a recording of "Versions of Violence" for the album Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace to promote peace. Morissette has also recorded a cover of the 1984 Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias hit, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", re-written as "To All the Boys I've Loved Before". Nelson played rhythm guitar on the recording. In April 2010, Morissette released the song "I Remain", which she wrote for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time soundtrack. On May 26, 2010, the season finale of American Idol, Morissette performed a duet of her song "You Oughta Know" with Runner Up Crystal Bowersox. Morissette left Maverick Records after all promotion for Flavors was completed.
2011–2016: Havoc and Bright Lights and Jagged Little Pill 20th anniversary
On November 20, 2011, Morissette appeared at the American Music Awards. When asked about the new album during a short interview, she said she had recorded 31 songs, and that the album would "likely be out next year, probably [in] summertime". On December 21, 2011, Morissette performed a duet of "Uninvited" with finalist Josh Krajcik during the performance finale of the X-Factor.
Morissette embarked on a European tour for the summer of 2012, according to Alanis.com. In early May 2012, a new song called "Magical Child" appeared on a Starbucks compilation called Every Mother Counts.
On May 2, 2012, Morissette revealed through her Facebook account that her eighth studio album, entitled Havoc and Bright Lights, would be released in August 2012, on new label Collective Sounds, distributed by Sony's RED Distribution. On the same day, Billboard specified the date as August 28 and revealed the album would contain twelve tracks. The album's lead single, "Guardian", was released on iTunes on May 15, 2012, and hit the radio airwaves four days prior to this. The single had minor success in North America, charting the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in the US and almost reaching the top 40 in Canada. However, the song did become a hit in several countries in Europe. "Receive", the second single off the album, was released early December the same year.Morissette received the UCLA Spring Sing's George and Ira Gershwin Award on May 16, 2014, at Pauley Pavilion. On her website starting in the summer of 2014, in celebration of her fortieth birthday, the LP record for her song "Big Sur" was offered for sale, which was previously available on the Target edition of her 2012 album, Havoc and Bright Lights. July 25, 2014, was the start of the ten-show Intimate and Acoustic tour.
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the release of Jagged Little Pill, a new four-disc collector's edition was released on October 30, 2015. The four-disc edition includes remastered audio of the original album as well as an entire disc of 10 unreleased demos from the era, handpicked by Morissette from her archives, offering a deeper and more personal look at the classic album. Also included is a previously unreleased concert from 1995 as well as 2005's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic.
2017–present: Such Pretty Forks in the Road
In August 2017, Morissette teased a song titled "I Miss The Band" while on tour. On October 27, 2017, she premiered a new song entitled "Rest", which was released officially in May 2021, and performed "Castle of Glass" with members of the band No Doubt and Mike Shinoda at the Linkin Park and Friends – Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington memorial concert. In November 2017, she tweeted that she was writing 22 songs with Michael Farrell.
On March 16, 2018, Morissette performed a new song called "Ablaze" during her 2018 tour. In October 2018, she revealed on social media that she had written 23 new songs, and hinted at a new album with hashtag "#alanismorissettenewrecord2019", after a six-year hiatus. Song titles from the writing session include "Reckoning", "Diagnosis", "Her" and "Legacy". On May 5, 2018, Jagged Little Pill, a jukebox musical featuring Morissette's songs, premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the American Repertory Theater. Morissette contributed two new songs to the musical, "Smiling" and "Predator". The musical transferred to Broadway in fall of 2019, starting previews on November 3 and opening on December 5 at the Broadhurst Theatre. The production received fifteen Tony Award nominations, the most of any production that season.
In June 2019, Morissette went into studio in Los Angeles. According to an interview, she had written all the songs, and "Smiling" would be included on the new album, likely to be released early 2020. On August 8, 2019, she revealed that the new album was produced by Alex Hope and Catherine Marks. On December 1, 2019, Morissette announced her first studio album in eight years, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, set for release on May 1, 2020. The first single off the record, "Reasons I Drink", was released on December 2, 2019.
Morissette was featured on Halsey's song "Alanis' Interlude", released on January 17, 2020. On February 5, 2020, she revealed that her upcoming album was mixed by Chris Dugan. The second single from the album, "Smiling", was released on February 20, 2020. On April 15, 2020, Morissette announced that the album's release would be postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on July 31, 2020.
Morissette was originally scheduled to embark on a world tour for 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill in June 2020 with Garbage and Liz Phair, both already opened for Morissette in 1999 during Junkie Tour. The latter cancelled her shows in North America and was replaced by Cat Power instead. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to summer 2021.
Acting career
In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress in five episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. She appeared on stage with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988.
In 1999, Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since 1993, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack. Morissette reprised her role as God for a post-credits scene in Smith's next film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, to literally close the book on the View Askewniverse. She also appeared in the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm, appeared in the play The Vagina Monologues, and had brief cameos playing herself in the Brazilian hit soap operas Celebridade and Malhação.
In late 2003, Morissette appeared in the Off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent. In April 2006, MTV News reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 until May 28.
She expanded her acting credentials with the July 2004 release of the Cole Porter biographical film De-Lovely, in which she performed the song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" and had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer. In February 2005, she made a guest appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation with Dogma co-star Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith. Also in 2005, Morissette, then engaged to Ryan Reynolds, made a cameo appearance as "herself" as a former client of Reynolds' character in the film Just Friends. This scene was deleted from the theatrical release, and is only available on the DVD.
In 2006, she guest-starred in an episode of Lifetime's Lovespring International as a homeless woman named Lucinda, three episodes of FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a lesbian named Poppy, and the mockumentary-documentary Pittsburgh as herself.
Morissette has appeared in eight episodes of Weeds, playing Dr. Audra Kitson, a "no-nonsense obstetrician" who treats pregnant main character Nancy Botwin. Her first episode aired in July 2009.
In early 2010, Morissette returned to the stage, performing a one-night engagement in An Oak Tree, an experimental play in Los Angeles. The performance was a sell-out. In April 2010, Morissette was confirmed in the cast of Weeds season six, performing again her role as Dr. Audra Kitson.
Morissette also starred in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth. Morissette plays Sylvia, an ordinary woman in unexpected remission from lymphoma. Morissette stated that she is "...a big fan of Philip K. Dick's poetic and expansively imaginative books" and that she "feel[s] blessed to portray Sylvia, and to be part of this story being told in film".
She appeared as Amanda, a former bandmate of main character Ava Alexander (played by Maya Rudolph), in one episode of NBC's Up All Night on February 16, 2012. Rudolph officiated as minister for Morissette's wedding with both performing the explicit version of their hit hip hop song "Back It Up (Beep Beep)".
In 2014, Morissette played the role of Marisa Damia, the lover of architect and designer Eileen Gray, in the film The Price of Desire, directed by Mary McGuckian.
In 2021, Morissette was featured as a recurring character on adult-animation show The Great North.
Other work
In October 2015, Conversation with Alanis Morissette features conversations with different individuals from different schools and walks of life discussing everything from psychology to art to spirituality to design to health and well-being, to relationships (whether they be romantic or colleagueship or parent with children relationships). The monthly podcast is currently available to download on iTunes and free to listen to on YouTube.
In January 2016, she began a short-lived advice column in The Guardian newspaper.
In May 2018, the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, Massachusetts) premiered Jagged Little Pill, a musical with music by Morissette and Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, book by Diablo Cody, and directed by Diane Paulus.
Jagged, a documentary film about Morissette and Jagged Little Pill by filmmaker Alison Klayman, premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival before airing on HBO as part of the Music Box series of documentary films about music history.
Personal life
Morissette was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Canada. She became a US citizen in 2005, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. Morissette has since then been a practising Buddhist.
Throughout her teen years and 20s, Morissette suffered from depression and various eating disorders. She recovered from them and started to eat a healthier diet. In 2009, she ran a marathon promoting awareness for the National Eating Disorders Association.
In the 2021 documentary Jagged, Morissette said that multiple men committed statutory rape against her when she was 15 years old.
Over a period of seven years, Morissette's business manager Jonathan Schwartz stole over $5 million from her. He confessed to doing so in April 2017 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
On October 22, 2019, Morissette shared her nearly decade-long experience with postpartum depression on CBS This Morning.
In 1996, Morissette bought a home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. She also had an apartment in Ottawa and a home in Malibu, the latter of which was affected by the Woolsey Fire. In 2019, she and her family moved to Northern California, stating in an interview with The New York Times that she was "finally done with living in Los Angeles".
Relationships
Morissette dated actor and comedian Dave Coulier for a short time in the early 1990s. In a 2008 interview, Coulier said he was the ex-boyfriend who inspired Morissette's song "You Oughta Know"; Morissette has not commented on the subject of the song.
Morissette met Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds at Drew Barrymore's birthday party in 2002, and the couple began dating soon afterwards. They announced their engagement in June 2004. In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had decided to end their engagement. Morissette has stated that her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the breakup, saying that "it was cathartic."
On May 22, 2010, Morissette married rapper Mario "Souleye" Treadway in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home. The couple have three children, a son born in 2010,
a daughter born in 2016,
and another son born in 2019.
Discography
Alanis (1991)
Now Is the Time (1992)
Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998)
Under Rug Swept (2002)
So-Called Chaos (2004)
Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
Havoc and Bright Lights (2012)
Such Pretty Forks in the Road (2020)
Awards and nominations
Filmography
Film
Television
Stage
Tours
Opening act
To the Extreme Tour (1991) (opening act for Vanilla Ice)
1999 Summer Tour (1999) (opening act for Dave Matthews Band–Denver)
A Bigger Bang Tour (2005) (opening act for The Rolling Stones)
Headlining
Jagged Little Tour (1995)
Intellectual Intercourse Tour (1995–96)
Can't Not Tour (1996) featuring Radiohead
Dhanyavad Tour (1998)
Junkie Tour (1999) featuring Garbage and Liz Phair
One Tour (2000)
Under Rug Swept Tour (2001)
Toward Our Union Mended Tour (2002)
All I Really Want Tour (2003)
So-Called Chaos Tour (2004)
Diamond Wink Tour (2005) featuring Jason Mraz
Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour (2005)
Flavors of Entanglement Tour (2008–09)
Guardian Angel Tour (2012)
Intimate and Acoustic (2014)
World Tour (2018)
2021 World Tour: Celebrating 25 Years of Jagged Little Pill featuring Garbage and Cat Power (2021–22)
Co-headlining
5 ½ Weeks Tour (1999) (with Tori Amos)
Au Naturale Tour (2004) (with the Barenaked Ladies)
Exile in America Tour (2008) (with Matchbox Twenty)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of best-selling albums
References
Further reading
Rock on the Net
[ "Alanis Morissette – Artist Chart History"]. Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
[ "Alanis Morissette – Billboard Singles"]. Allmusic. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
Rock Chicks:The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now by Stieven-Taylor, Alison (2007). Sydney. Rockpool Publishing.
External links
1974 births
Living people
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Ottawa
Alternative rock singers
American Buddhists
American dance musicians
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American feminists
American film actresses
American harmonica players
American mezzo-sopranos
American music video directors
American people of French descent
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Irish descent
American rock songwriters
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American women record producers
Brit Award winners
Canadian child actresses
Canadian dance musicians
Canadian emigrants to the United States
Canadian women pop singers
Canadian women rock singers
Canadian women singer-songwriters
Canadian feminists
Canadian film actresses
Canadian harmonica players
Canadian mezzo-sopranos
Canadian music video directors
Canadian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Canadian people of Irish descent
Canadian record producers
Canadian Buddhists
Canadian stage actresses
Canadian television actresses
Canadian women guitarists
Canadian women record producers
Child pop musicians
Echo (music award) winners
Female music video directors
Feminist musicians
Former Roman Catholics
Franco-Ontarian people
Fraternal twin actresses
Grammy Award winners
Guitarists from California
Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award winners
Juno Award for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Pop Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year winners
Juno Award for Video of the Year winners
Juno International Achievement Award winners
Maverick Records artists
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musicians from Ottawa
Naturalized citizens of the United States
People from Brentwood, Los Angeles
Record producers from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Twin musicians
Twin people from Canada
Warner Music Group artists
Women post-grunge singers
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from Ottawa
20th-century Canadian actresses
20th-century Canadian guitarists
20th-century Canadian women singers
20th-century Canadian women writers
20th-century Roman Catholics
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century Buddhists
21st-century Canadian actresses
21st-century Canadian guitarists
21st-century Canadian women singers
21st-century Canadian women writers
21st-century Roman Catholics
Singer-songwriters from California
| true |
[
"Crime Junkie is a true crime podcast hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat, based in Indianapolis, Indiana.\n\nProduction and format\nIn a Q&A with Inside Radio, Flowers said that she and Prawat, her co-host, have been friends since birth. Flowers and Prawat, born on the same day, became friends through their mothers and grew up together; both became interested in true crime. Flowers said, \"[You] can probably thank my mom for that, because I grew up reading Nancy Drew [and] Agatha Christie.\"\n\nAfter joining the board of directors for Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana, Flowers hosted Murder Monday, a 20-minute show on RadioNOW 100.9 in Indianapolis. The show lasted a year, and was intended as promotion for Crime Stoppers to \"improve the organization’s standing with a younger audience.\" According to Flowers on WTHR, the name Crime Junkie came to her when she started working at Crime Stoppers. She felt that there weren't enough podcasts and decided to create one that she herself would enjoy.\n\nFlowers released the first episode of Crime Junkie in December 2017 and has posted weekly episodes since then. Flowers worked full-time at a hospital while still managing Crime Junkie, but in 2019 reported that she had made managing Crime Junkie her full-time job.\n\nFlowers says that each episode takes roughly 30 hours per week to research, write, edit, and prepare for release. Flowers does all of the research with the exception of a few episodes that Prawat has taken the lead on.\n\nCrime Junkie episodes typically have the same format. The episodes are about 30 minutes to an hour long. The cases covered include murder, missing persons, and serial killers. Flowers tells the story while Prawat adds her perspective. There is an extra segment once a month called \"Pruppet of the Month\" where Prawat tells stories about dogs who have been adopted. This segment is unrelated to the typical Crime Junkie content and inspired by fans who posted pictures of their dogs online.\n\nFlowers records the podcasts in her home office, and her brother, David Flowers, helps with the editing. The name AudioChuck came from Flowers' dog, Charlie, who howls at the end of every episode.\n\nFlowers and Prawat have taken Crime Junkie on tour to four cities in the United States.\n\nEarly reception\nLaura Barcella of Rolling Stone magazine named Crime Junkie among her favorite true crime podcasts for 2018. Jenni Miller of Vulture.com wrote that Flowers was \"particularly passionate\" in her coverage of the murder of April Tinsley with interviews with Tinsley's mother in a previous podcast and an interview with one of the people responsible for the arrest of the killer. In March 2019, USA Todays For The Win ran the 2019 Ultimate Podcast Bracket tournament in which Crime Junkie lost to Binge Mode in the Championship from a field of 32 podcasts. Kevin Chang Barnum from Podcast Review wrote a positive review and spoke highly of the research; the review was updated with a note after plagiarism allegations came to light.\n\nPlagiarism concerns\nIn August of 2019, multiple parties accused Flowers of plagiarism, the first of whom was writer and former reporter Cathy Frye. In a post made on the podcast's Facebook group, Frye alleged that the March 2019 episode about Kacie Woody relied heavily on her 2003 series of articles in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette without attribution. Flowers initially removed the episode after the allegations, per Frye's request. However, she later reposted it with source notes that linked to Frye's work but did not give verbal attribution in the episode. Following this reposting, Frye and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sent a cease and desist letter to the podcast, claiming further legal action would be taken if the episode was not updated to include verbal attribution or once again removed entirely. \n\nOnce Frye accused Crime Junkie of stealing her content, it prompted other podcast makers to come forward with accusations of their own. Steven Pacheco of Trace Evidence posted a side-by-side comparison of the content of his episode on the disappearance of Asha Degree with that of Crime Junkie's, claiming his writing was used without credit. Robin Warder of The Trail Went Cold Podcast alleged the May 2018 episode on Henry McCabe \"practically read... verbatim without credit\" from his Reddit post. A Reddit user alleged that the March 2019 podcast on Kirsten Hatfield copied almost \"word for word\" from a 2018 episode of On the Case with Paula Zahn. Crime Junkie removed the episodes about Woody and Hatfield in August 2019, along with three other episodes.\n\nFlowers issued a statement that episodes had been taken down because \"source material could no longer be found or properly cited\" and addressed the accusations of plagiarism saying \"Our work would not be possible absent the incredible efforts of countless individuals who investigate and report these stories originally, and they deserve to be credited as such. We are committed to working within the burgeoning podcast industry to develop and evolve its standards on these kinds of issues.” The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette noted that plagiarism controversy may have decreased Crime Junkie's audience, as it dropped from #1 to #5 in the Apple's true crime podcasts in August 2019. The Crime Junkie plagiarism controversy was named one of the top five plagiarism and attribution cases of 2019 by media news website iMediaEthics.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\nCrime podcasts\n2017 podcast debuts\nAudio podcasts\nAmerican podcasts",
"Reaper is the electro-industrial project of Vasi Vallis.\n\nHistory\n\nReaper was formed by Vasi Vallis shortly before the dissolution of his NamNamBulu project and took on greater prominence following the split. The 'Angst EP' was released in July 2005. The project played a number of live shows prior to the release of the full-length album 'Hell Starts With An H' in early 2007. The project toured Europe supporting Combichrist around this time. At the end of 2007, the EP 'The Devil Is Female' was released, reaching No.1 in the DAC.\n\nDiscography\n\nAngst EP (Infacted, 2005)\n Jagd\n Angst\n Daemon\n Totengraeber (Club Edit)\n Angst (Soman Remix)\n Totengraeber (Original edit)\n Daemon (Gudfried Remix by Heimataerde)\n Weltfremd\n Verloren.\n\nHell Starts With An H CD (Infacted, 2007)\n Intro\n Urnensand\n Das Grauen\n Twisted Trophy Hunter - (with Mark Jackson of VNV Nation)\n Altum Silentium\n Execution of Your Mind\n Weltfremd - (with Suicide Commando/Johan Van Roy)\n Robuste Maschine\n Memento Mori\n Totengraber 07\n Ancient Tragedy\n Tth 2.0 - (with NVMPH)\n Urnensand - (S.A.M. remix)\n Execution of Your Mind - (Modulate remix)\n Urnensand - (Damonie/Painbastard remix)\n Twisted Trophy Hunter - (remix)\n Urnensand - (Schallfaktor remix)\n\nThe Devil Is Female EP (Infacted, 2007)\n The Devil Is Female\n X-Junkie\n She Is a Devil and a Whore\n X-Junkie (Club Mix)\n 0190\n X-Junkie (Shnarph Remix)\n X-Junkie (Grendel Remix)\n X-Junkie (Distatix Remix)\n X-Junkie (Syncrotek Remix)\n Execution of Your Mind (live)\n X-Junkie (Revolution by Night Remix)\n\nDirty Cash CDM (Infacted Recordings, 2010)\n Dirty Cash (Feat. Pete Crane)\n Purple Rain (Instrumental)\n Dinero Sucio (Feat. Javi Ssagittar)\n Dirty Cash (Noisuf-X Rmx)\n Purple Rain (Dub Instrumental)\n Robuste Maschine (Mono Tonic)\n Dirty Cash (Rock Me Amadeus)\n Dirty Cash (Syncrotek Rmx)\n Dirty Cash (Eisenfunk Rmx)\n Dirty Cash (Adinferna Rmx)\n Dirty Cash (Skyla Vertex Rmx)\n\nDer Schnitter EP (Infacted Recordings, 2015)\n Der Schnitter (im Club)\n Der Schnitter (mit der Sense)\n Der Schnitter (beim Trinken mit Henrik Iversen)\n Der Schnitter (by Skyla Vertex)\n Der Schnitter (Vasi breaks the rules)\n Der Schnitter (im Club mit der Sense)\n\nBabylon Killed The Music CD (Infacted Recordings, 2016)\n Cracking Skulls\n The Sound Of Ids\n Sledge Hammer\n Farewell\n We Are Reaper\n Sechzehn Punkte Plan\n Neophyte\n Footprint\n Aladin Killed Jfk\n Divide The Sea\n Silver Love\n\nRemixes\n Painbastard - Nervenkrieg (Reaper Mix)\n Extize - Hellektrostar (Reaper Remix)\n Suicide Commando - Menschenfresser (Reaper Remix)\n [SITD] - Rot (Remix by Reaper)\n Nachtmahr - Feuer Frei! (Reaper Remix)\n Suicide Commando - Unterwelt (Reaper Remix)\n Shiv-R - Taste (Reaper Remix)\n SAM - Training (Reaper Remix)\n VNV Nation - Tomorrow never comes (Reaper Remix)\n\nCompilations \n Endzeit Bunkertracks Act 2 (Alfa Matrix, 2006) | Reaper - Angst\n Nacht der Maschinene Vol. 1 (Infacted Recordings, 2007) | Reaper - She Is A Devil And A Whore (DJ Edit) \n Extreme Lustlieder Vol. 1 (UpScene, 2008) | Reaper - She Is A Devil And A Whore \n Empire of Darkness Vol. 2 (Kom4 Medien, 2008) | Reaper - X-Junkie (FSK-18 Mix) \n Tanzlabor 2010 | Reaper - Robuste Maschine \n Nacht der Maschinen Vol. 3 (Infacted Recordings, 2011) | Reaper - Dirty Dancing (Studio-X Hard Dance Remix)\n Resistanz Festival Soundtrack 2015 (Digital World Audio, 2015) | Reaper - Drive Thru\n\nReferences\n\nElectro-industrial music groups"
] |
[
"Alanis Morissette",
"1998-2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged",
"Was she infatuated with a junkie?",
"Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard."
] |
C_19751c82ebc942199a9b544e136a460e_1
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Was that an album or a song?
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Was Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie an album or a song?
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Alanis Morissette
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Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard. Privately, the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies--a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year. The "So Pure" video features actor Dash Mihok, with whom Morissette was in a relationship at the time. Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", "Hope", "Innocence", and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Alanis toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999). CANNOTANSWER
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fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.
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Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two mildly successful dance-pop albums. Afterward, as part of a recording deal, she moved to Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. In 1995, she released Jagged Little Pill, an alt rock-oriented album with the elements of post-grunge, which sold more than 33 million copies globally and is her most critically acclaimed work to date. This earned her Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1996 and was made into a rock musical of the same name in 2017, which also earned 15 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical. The album also listed in 2003 and 2020 editions of the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Guide. Her highly anticipated, more experimental follow-up, electronic-infused album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998.
Morissette assumed creative control and producing duties for her subsequent studio albums, including Under Rug Swept (2002), So-Called Chaos (2004), Flavors of Entanglement (2008), and Havoc and Bright Lights (2012). Her latest album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, was released in 2020. Her well-known singles reached top 40 in the major charts around the world, including 10 top-40 hits in the UK, 3 top-10 in the US and Australia, 12 top-10 hits in her native Canada, "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", "Head Over Feet", "Uninvited", "Thank U" and "Hands Clean". She also holds the record of the most No. 1s on the weekly Billboard Alternative Songs chart among any female soloist, group leader or duo member. Morissette won 7 Grammy Awards, 14 Juno Awards, 1 Brit Award and has sold more than 75 million records worldwide and has been dubbed the "Queen of Alt-Rock Angst" by Rolling Stone.
Early life
Morissette was born June 1, 1974, at Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to teacher Georgia Mary Ann ( Feuerstein) of Hungarian descent and high-school principal and French teacher Alan Richard Morissette. She has two brothers: older brother Chad is a business entrepreneur, and twin brother (12 minutes older) Wade Morissette is a musician. Her father is of French and Irish descent, whereas her mother has Hungarian and Jewish ancestry. Her parents were teachers in a military school and due to their work often had to move. Between the ages of three and six she lived with her parents in Lahr (Black Forest), Germany.
When she was six years old, she returned to Ottawa and started to play the piano. In 1981, at the age of seven, she began dance lessons. Morissette had a Catholic upbringing. She attended Holy Family Catholic School for elementary school and Immaculata High School for Grades 7 and 8 before completing the rest of her high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute. She appeared on the children's television sketch comedy You Can't Do That on Television for five episodes when she was in junior high school.
Music career
1987–1992: Alanis and Now Is the Time
Morissette recorded her first demo called "Fate Stay with Me", produced by Lindsay Thomas Morgan at Marigold Studios in Toronto, engineered by Rich Dodson of Canadian classic rock band The Stampeders. A second demo tape was recorded on cassette in August 1989 and sent to Geffen Records, but the tape has never been heard as it was stolen, among other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989.
In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer, Leslie Howe. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top 20 on the RPM singles chart. Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top 40. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada; comparisons to Tiffany were also common. During the same period, she was a concert opening act for rapper Vanilla Ice. Morissette was nominated for three 1992 Juno Awards: Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year (which she won), Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording (both for "Too Hot").
In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a ballad-driven record that featured less glitzy production than Alanis and contained more thoughtful lyrics. Morissette wrote the songs with the album's producer, Leslie Howe, and Serge Côté. She said of the album, "People could go, 'Boo, hiss, hiss, this girl's like another Tiffany or whatever.' But the way I look at it ... people will like your next album if it's a kick-ass one." As with Alanis (1991), Now Is the Time (1992) was released only in Canada and produced three top 40 singles—"An Emotion Away", the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" as well as "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time". The industry considered it a commercial failure, however, since it sold only a little more than half the copies of her first album. With her two-album deal with MCA Records Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract.
1993–1997: Jagged Little Pill
In 1993, Morissette's publisher Leeds Levy at MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch. Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character and her lyrics. At the time she was still living at home with her parents. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people. After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto. Her publisher funded part of her development and when she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he believed in her talent enough to let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records. In the same year she learned how to play guitar. According to manager Welch, every label they approached, apart from Maverick, declined to sign Morissette.
Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected only to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation improved quickly when KROQ-FM, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single, featuring Flea and Dave Navarro. The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics, and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hits helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand in My Pocket" followed, and the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, kept Jagged Little Pill (1995) in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. Jagged Little Pill sold more than 16 million copies in the U.S.; it sold 33 million worldwide, making it the second biggest-selling album by a female artist (behind Shania Twain's Come On Over).
Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum and produced four RPM chart-toppers: "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", and "Head over Feet". The album was also a bestseller in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill (1995) was credited with opening doors for female singers such as Tracy Bonham, Fiona Apple, Meredith Brooks, Shakira, Pink, Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne and Florence Welch. She was criticized for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, and her previous disco pop albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability. Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 16th Brit Awards she won Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.
Following the album release in 1995, Morissette embarked on an 18-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, who later joined the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. Radiohead joined as an opening act in the summer of 1996. "Ironic" was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards—Record of the Year and Best Music Video, Short Form—and won Single of the Year at the 1997 Juno Awards, where Morissette also won Songwriter of the Year and the International Achievement Award. The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which was co-directed by Morissette and chronicled the bulk of her tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form.
Following the tour, Morissette began practicing Iyengar Yoga for balance. After the last December 1996 show, she went to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two friends. She said the trip was "incredible".
1998–2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged
Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.
The label hoped to sell 1 million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies—a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year.
Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", where she paid homage to her roots by singing in Hungarian, "Hope", "Innocence" and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Morissette toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999).
2001–2005: Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos
In 2001, Morissette was featured with Stephanie McKay on the Tricky song "Excess", which is on his album Blowback. Morissette released her fifth studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her career, she took on the role of sole writer and producer of an album. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney, and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments; additional contributions came from Eric Avery, Dean DeLeo, Flea, and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually going platinum in Canada and selling one million copies in the U.S. It produced the hit single "Hands Clean", which topped the Canadian Singles Chart and received substantial radio play; for her work on "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", Morissette won a Juno Award for Producer of the Year. A second single, "Precious Illusions", was released, but it did not garner significant success outside Canada or U.S. hot AC radio.
Later in 2002, Morissette released the combination package Feast on Scraps, which includes a DVD of live concert and backstage documentary footage directed by her and a CD containing eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions. Preceded by the single "Simple Together", it sold roughly 70,000 copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year.
Morissette hosted the Juno Awards of 2004 dressed in a bathrobe, which she took off to reveal a flesh-colored bodysuit, a response to the era of censorship in the U.S. caused by Janet Jackson's breast-flash incident during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Morissette released her sixth studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again, and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and pop music producer John Shanks. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews, and it became Morissette's lowest seller in the U.S. The lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on Adult Top 40 radio in America and was moderately popular elsewhere, particularly in Canada, although it failed to reach the top 40 on the U.S. Hot 100. Because the first line of the song includes the word "asshole", American radio stations refused to play it, and the single version was changed to include the word "nightmare" instead. Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared considerably worse, although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a U.S. club hit. Morissette embarked on a U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians Barenaked Ladies, working with the non-profit environmental organization Reverb.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill (1995), Morissette released a studio acoustic version, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, in June 2005. The album was released exclusively through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run. The limited availability led to a dispute between Maverick Records and HMV North America, who retaliated by removing Morissette's other albums from sale for the duration of Starbucks's exclusive six-week sale. , Jagged Little Pill Acoustic had sold 372,000 copies in the U.S., and a video for "Hand in My Pocket" received rotation on VH1 in America. The accompanying tour ran for two months in mid-2005, with Morissette playing small theatre venues. During the same period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. The singer opened for The Rolling Stones for a few dates of their A Bigger Bang Tour in the autumn of 2005.
Morissette released the greatest hits album Alanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005. The lead single and only new track, a cover of Seal's "Crazy", was an Adult Top 40 and dance hit in the U.S., but achieved only minimal chart success elsewhere. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimidation" and "Can't Not". (A reworked version of "Can't Not" had also appeared on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.) The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". , The Collection had sold 373,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. That same year, Morissette contributed the song "Wunderkind" to the soundtrack of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
2006–2010: Flavors of Entanglement
2006 marked the first year in Morissette's musical career without a single concert appearance showcasing her own songs, with the exception of an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January when she performed "Wunderkind".
On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a tongue-in-cheek cover of The Black Eyed Peas's selection "My Humps", which she recorded in a slow, mournful voice, accompanied only by a piano. The accompanying YouTube-hosted video, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who act as if attempting to touch her breasts, had received 16,465,653 views as of February 15, 2009. Morissette did not take any interviews for a time to explain the song, and it was theorized that she did it as an April Fools' Day joke. Black Eyed Peas vocalist Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson responded by sending Morissette a buttocks-shaped cake with an approving note. On the verge of the release of her following album, she finally elaborated on how the video came to be, citing that she became very much emotionally loaded while recording her new songs one after the other and one day she wished she could do a simple song like "My Humps" and the joke just took a life of its own.
Morissette performed at a gig for The Nightwatchman, a.k.a. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles in April 2007. The following June, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada", the American and Canadian national anthems, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks in Ottawa, Ontario. (The NHL requires arenas to perform both the American and Canadian national anthems at games involving teams from both countries.) In early 2008, Morissette participated in a tour with Matchbox Twenty and Mutemath as a special guest.
Morissette's seventh studio album, Flavors of Entanglement, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth, was released in mid-2008. She has stated that in late 2008, she would embark on a North American headlining tour, but in the meantime she would be promoting the album internationally by performing at shows and festivals and making television and radio appearances. The album's first single was "Underneath", a video for which was submitted to the 2007 Elevate Film Festival, the purpose of which festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth. On October 3, 2008, Morissette released the video for her latest single, "Not as We".
Morissette contributed to 1 Giant Leap, performing "Arrival" with Zap Mama and she has released an acoustic version of her song "Still" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief in support of the 2010 Haiti earthquake crisis. In 2008 she contributed a recording of "Versions of Violence" for the album Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace to promote peace. Morissette has also recorded a cover of the 1984 Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias hit, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", re-written as "To All the Boys I've Loved Before". Nelson played rhythm guitar on the recording. In April 2010, Morissette released the song "I Remain", which she wrote for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time soundtrack. On May 26, 2010, the season finale of American Idol, Morissette performed a duet of her song "You Oughta Know" with Runner Up Crystal Bowersox. Morissette left Maverick Records after all promotion for Flavors was completed.
2011–2016: Havoc and Bright Lights and Jagged Little Pill 20th anniversary
On November 20, 2011, Morissette appeared at the American Music Awards. When asked about the new album during a short interview, she said she had recorded 31 songs, and that the album would "likely be out next year, probably [in] summertime". On December 21, 2011, Morissette performed a duet of "Uninvited" with finalist Josh Krajcik during the performance finale of the X-Factor.
Morissette embarked on a European tour for the summer of 2012, according to Alanis.com. In early May 2012, a new song called "Magical Child" appeared on a Starbucks compilation called Every Mother Counts.
On May 2, 2012, Morissette revealed through her Facebook account that her eighth studio album, entitled Havoc and Bright Lights, would be released in August 2012, on new label Collective Sounds, distributed by Sony's RED Distribution. On the same day, Billboard specified the date as August 28 and revealed the album would contain twelve tracks. The album's lead single, "Guardian", was released on iTunes on May 15, 2012, and hit the radio airwaves four days prior to this. The single had minor success in North America, charting the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in the US and almost reaching the top 40 in Canada. However, the song did become a hit in several countries in Europe. "Receive", the second single off the album, was released early December the same year.Morissette received the UCLA Spring Sing's George and Ira Gershwin Award on May 16, 2014, at Pauley Pavilion. On her website starting in the summer of 2014, in celebration of her fortieth birthday, the LP record for her song "Big Sur" was offered for sale, which was previously available on the Target edition of her 2012 album, Havoc and Bright Lights. July 25, 2014, was the start of the ten-show Intimate and Acoustic tour.
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the release of Jagged Little Pill, a new four-disc collector's edition was released on October 30, 2015. The four-disc edition includes remastered audio of the original album as well as an entire disc of 10 unreleased demos from the era, handpicked by Morissette from her archives, offering a deeper and more personal look at the classic album. Also included is a previously unreleased concert from 1995 as well as 2005's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic.
2017–present: Such Pretty Forks in the Road
In August 2017, Morissette teased a song titled "I Miss The Band" while on tour. On October 27, 2017, she premiered a new song entitled "Rest", which was released officially in May 2021, and performed "Castle of Glass" with members of the band No Doubt and Mike Shinoda at the Linkin Park and Friends – Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington memorial concert. In November 2017, she tweeted that she was writing 22 songs with Michael Farrell.
On March 16, 2018, Morissette performed a new song called "Ablaze" during her 2018 tour. In October 2018, she revealed on social media that she had written 23 new songs, and hinted at a new album with hashtag "#alanismorissettenewrecord2019", after a six-year hiatus. Song titles from the writing session include "Reckoning", "Diagnosis", "Her" and "Legacy". On May 5, 2018, Jagged Little Pill, a jukebox musical featuring Morissette's songs, premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the American Repertory Theater. Morissette contributed two new songs to the musical, "Smiling" and "Predator". The musical transferred to Broadway in fall of 2019, starting previews on November 3 and opening on December 5 at the Broadhurst Theatre. The production received fifteen Tony Award nominations, the most of any production that season.
In June 2019, Morissette went into studio in Los Angeles. According to an interview, she had written all the songs, and "Smiling" would be included on the new album, likely to be released early 2020. On August 8, 2019, she revealed that the new album was produced by Alex Hope and Catherine Marks. On December 1, 2019, Morissette announced her first studio album in eight years, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, set for release on May 1, 2020. The first single off the record, "Reasons I Drink", was released on December 2, 2019.
Morissette was featured on Halsey's song "Alanis' Interlude", released on January 17, 2020. On February 5, 2020, she revealed that her upcoming album was mixed by Chris Dugan. The second single from the album, "Smiling", was released on February 20, 2020. On April 15, 2020, Morissette announced that the album's release would be postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on July 31, 2020.
Morissette was originally scheduled to embark on a world tour for 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill in June 2020 with Garbage and Liz Phair, both already opened for Morissette in 1999 during Junkie Tour. The latter cancelled her shows in North America and was replaced by Cat Power instead. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to summer 2021.
Acting career
In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress in five episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. She appeared on stage with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988.
In 1999, Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since 1993, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack. Morissette reprised her role as God for a post-credits scene in Smith's next film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, to literally close the book on the View Askewniverse. She also appeared in the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm, appeared in the play The Vagina Monologues, and had brief cameos playing herself in the Brazilian hit soap operas Celebridade and Malhação.
In late 2003, Morissette appeared in the Off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent. In April 2006, MTV News reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 until May 28.
She expanded her acting credentials with the July 2004 release of the Cole Porter biographical film De-Lovely, in which she performed the song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" and had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer. In February 2005, she made a guest appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation with Dogma co-star Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith. Also in 2005, Morissette, then engaged to Ryan Reynolds, made a cameo appearance as "herself" as a former client of Reynolds' character in the film Just Friends. This scene was deleted from the theatrical release, and is only available on the DVD.
In 2006, she guest-starred in an episode of Lifetime's Lovespring International as a homeless woman named Lucinda, three episodes of FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a lesbian named Poppy, and the mockumentary-documentary Pittsburgh as herself.
Morissette has appeared in eight episodes of Weeds, playing Dr. Audra Kitson, a "no-nonsense obstetrician" who treats pregnant main character Nancy Botwin. Her first episode aired in July 2009.
In early 2010, Morissette returned to the stage, performing a one-night engagement in An Oak Tree, an experimental play in Los Angeles. The performance was a sell-out. In April 2010, Morissette was confirmed in the cast of Weeds season six, performing again her role as Dr. Audra Kitson.
Morissette also starred in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth. Morissette plays Sylvia, an ordinary woman in unexpected remission from lymphoma. Morissette stated that she is "...a big fan of Philip K. Dick's poetic and expansively imaginative books" and that she "feel[s] blessed to portray Sylvia, and to be part of this story being told in film".
She appeared as Amanda, a former bandmate of main character Ava Alexander (played by Maya Rudolph), in one episode of NBC's Up All Night on February 16, 2012. Rudolph officiated as minister for Morissette's wedding with both performing the explicit version of their hit hip hop song "Back It Up (Beep Beep)".
In 2014, Morissette played the role of Marisa Damia, the lover of architect and designer Eileen Gray, in the film The Price of Desire, directed by Mary McGuckian.
In 2021, Morissette was featured as a recurring character on adult-animation show The Great North.
Other work
In October 2015, Conversation with Alanis Morissette features conversations with different individuals from different schools and walks of life discussing everything from psychology to art to spirituality to design to health and well-being, to relationships (whether they be romantic or colleagueship or parent with children relationships). The monthly podcast is currently available to download on iTunes and free to listen to on YouTube.
In January 2016, she began a short-lived advice column in The Guardian newspaper.
In May 2018, the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, Massachusetts) premiered Jagged Little Pill, a musical with music by Morissette and Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, book by Diablo Cody, and directed by Diane Paulus.
Jagged, a documentary film about Morissette and Jagged Little Pill by filmmaker Alison Klayman, premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival before airing on HBO as part of the Music Box series of documentary films about music history.
Personal life
Morissette was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Canada. She became a US citizen in 2005, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. Morissette has since then been a practising Buddhist.
Throughout her teen years and 20s, Morissette suffered from depression and various eating disorders. She recovered from them and started to eat a healthier diet. In 2009, she ran a marathon promoting awareness for the National Eating Disorders Association.
In the 2021 documentary Jagged, Morissette said that multiple men committed statutory rape against her when she was 15 years old.
Over a period of seven years, Morissette's business manager Jonathan Schwartz stole over $5 million from her. He confessed to doing so in April 2017 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
On October 22, 2019, Morissette shared her nearly decade-long experience with postpartum depression on CBS This Morning.
In 1996, Morissette bought a home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. She also had an apartment in Ottawa and a home in Malibu, the latter of which was affected by the Woolsey Fire. In 2019, she and her family moved to Northern California, stating in an interview with The New York Times that she was "finally done with living in Los Angeles".
Relationships
Morissette dated actor and comedian Dave Coulier for a short time in the early 1990s. In a 2008 interview, Coulier said he was the ex-boyfriend who inspired Morissette's song "You Oughta Know"; Morissette has not commented on the subject of the song.
Morissette met Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds at Drew Barrymore's birthday party in 2002, and the couple began dating soon afterwards. They announced their engagement in June 2004. In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had decided to end their engagement. Morissette has stated that her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the breakup, saying that "it was cathartic."
On May 22, 2010, Morissette married rapper Mario "Souleye" Treadway in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home. The couple have three children, a son born in 2010,
a daughter born in 2016,
and another son born in 2019.
Discography
Alanis (1991)
Now Is the Time (1992)
Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998)
Under Rug Swept (2002)
So-Called Chaos (2004)
Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
Havoc and Bright Lights (2012)
Such Pretty Forks in the Road (2020)
Awards and nominations
Filmography
Film
Television
Stage
Tours
Opening act
To the Extreme Tour (1991) (opening act for Vanilla Ice)
1999 Summer Tour (1999) (opening act for Dave Matthews Band–Denver)
A Bigger Bang Tour (2005) (opening act for The Rolling Stones)
Headlining
Jagged Little Tour (1995)
Intellectual Intercourse Tour (1995–96)
Can't Not Tour (1996) featuring Radiohead
Dhanyavad Tour (1998)
Junkie Tour (1999) featuring Garbage and Liz Phair
One Tour (2000)
Under Rug Swept Tour (2001)
Toward Our Union Mended Tour (2002)
All I Really Want Tour (2003)
So-Called Chaos Tour (2004)
Diamond Wink Tour (2005) featuring Jason Mraz
Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour (2005)
Flavors of Entanglement Tour (2008–09)
Guardian Angel Tour (2012)
Intimate and Acoustic (2014)
World Tour (2018)
2021 World Tour: Celebrating 25 Years of Jagged Little Pill featuring Garbage and Cat Power (2021–22)
Co-headlining
5 ½ Weeks Tour (1999) (with Tori Amos)
Au Naturale Tour (2004) (with the Barenaked Ladies)
Exile in America Tour (2008) (with Matchbox Twenty)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of best-selling albums
References
Further reading
Rock on the Net
[ "Alanis Morissette – Artist Chart History"]. Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
[ "Alanis Morissette – Billboard Singles"]. Allmusic. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
Rock Chicks:The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now by Stieven-Taylor, Alison (2007). Sydney. Rockpool Publishing.
External links
1974 births
Living people
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Ottawa
Alternative rock singers
American Buddhists
American dance musicians
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American feminists
American film actresses
American harmonica players
American mezzo-sopranos
American music video directors
American people of French descent
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Irish descent
American rock songwriters
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American women record producers
Brit Award winners
Canadian child actresses
Canadian dance musicians
Canadian emigrants to the United States
Canadian women pop singers
Canadian women rock singers
Canadian women singer-songwriters
Canadian feminists
Canadian film actresses
Canadian harmonica players
Canadian mezzo-sopranos
Canadian music video directors
Canadian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Canadian people of Irish descent
Canadian record producers
Canadian Buddhists
Canadian stage actresses
Canadian television actresses
Canadian women guitarists
Canadian women record producers
Child pop musicians
Echo (music award) winners
Female music video directors
Feminist musicians
Former Roman Catholics
Franco-Ontarian people
Fraternal twin actresses
Grammy Award winners
Guitarists from California
Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award winners
Juno Award for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Pop Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year winners
Juno Award for Video of the Year winners
Juno International Achievement Award winners
Maverick Records artists
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musicians from Ottawa
Naturalized citizens of the United States
People from Brentwood, Los Angeles
Record producers from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Twin musicians
Twin people from Canada
Warner Music Group artists
Women post-grunge singers
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from Ottawa
20th-century Canadian actresses
20th-century Canadian guitarists
20th-century Canadian women singers
20th-century Canadian women writers
20th-century Roman Catholics
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century Buddhists
21st-century Canadian actresses
21st-century Canadian guitarists
21st-century Canadian women singers
21st-century Canadian women writers
21st-century Roman Catholics
Singer-songwriters from California
| true |
[
"That Was Then This Is Now may refer to:\n\nThat Was Then, This Is Now, a 1971 novel by S. E. Hinton\nThat Was Then... This Is Now, a 1985 film based on Hinton's novel\nThat Was Then, This Is Now (radio series), a BBC Radio 2 comedy sketch series\n\nMusic \nThat Was Then, This Is Now (Tha Dogg Pound album), 2009\n\"That Was Then, This Is Now\" (The James Cleaver Quintet album), 2011\nThat Was Then This Is Now (Wain McFarlane album), 2001\nThat Was Then, This Is Now, Vol. 1 (1999) and That Was Then, This Is Now, Vol. 2 (2000), studio albums by American rapper Frost\nThat Was Then, This Is Now (Andy Timmons album), an album by Andy Timmons\n\"That Was Then, This Is Now\" (song), a 1986 song by The Mosquitos, also covered by The Monkees\nThat Was Then, This Is Now, an album by Chasen\nThat Was Then, This Is Now (Josh Wilson album), 2015\n\nSee also\n\"That Was Then but This Is Now\", a 1983 song by ABC\nIf Not Now Then When?, an album by Ethan Johns\nIf Not Now Then When, an album by The Motels\nIf Not Now, When? (disambiguation)",
"Deen The Best Forever Complete Singles+ is the sixth greatest hits album by Japanese pop rock band Deen. It released on 28 February 2018 under Epic Records Japan label.\n\nBackground\n\nThe album is released as promotion for their 25th year of band debut anniversary.\n\nAlbum includes complete all 46 singles by chronological releases, since their debut single \"Kono Mama Kimi dake wo Ubaisaritai\" until their latest single \"Kimi he no Parade\", which will be divided in 4 CDS.\n\nSome singles are included for the first time on the album, such as \"Kioku no Kage\" and its coupling song \"Asobi ni Ikou\", which were previously released in 2016.\n\nSingle versions of \"Zenkai Koigokoro\", \"Zutto Tsutaetakatta I Love You\", \"Boku ga Kimi wo Wasurenaiyouni\" and \"Kimi he no Parade\" were included in album format for the first time.\n\nIkemori's solo single \"Another Life\" will be included in Deen's album for the first time since 2001 release.\n\nThe album will include new premium track, \"Journey\" which is written and produced by all three members together.\n\nFirst press release will include 5th additional CD \"Premium Disc\" with eleven original songs by artist which composed and written for Deen, included Miho Komatsu, Seiichiro Kuribayashi, Tetsuro Oda, Wands and Zard. All of these songs were previously released in their compilation album \"Deen The Best Kiseki\" (with exception of Zard).\n\nFanclub members will exclusively receive special original album CD with title \"Deen the Last\" with twelve completely new and unreleased tracks, along with special features including history book and limited package format.\n\nA special website \"Deen Chronicle\" was launched on 12 January with short commentary on each single.\n\nIt is the last album when guitarist and composer, Tagawa was involved with album production before band's withdrawal.\n\nTrack listing\n\nDisc 1: 1993-1997\n\nDisc 2: 1998-2003\n\nDisc 3: 2003-2009\n\nDisc 4: 2010-2018\n\nPremium Disk\n\nIn media\nKono Mama Kimi Dake wo Ubaisaritai was used as a commercial song for NTT DoCoMo's \"Pocket Bell\"\nTsubasa wo Hirogete was used as an image song for Nihon TV program J League Chuukei\nEien wo Azuketekure was used as a commercial song for NTT DoCoMo's \"Pocket Bell\"\nHitomi Sorasanaide was used as a commercial song for Pokari Sweat\nMirai no Tameni was used as an image song for Nihon TV's baseball program\nLove Forever was used as an ending theme for Tokyo Broadcasting System Television program Super Soccer\nShounen was used as a theme song for TBS Television program Shounen Jidai\nHitori ja nai was used as an ending theme for Anime television series Dragon Ball\nSUNSHINE ON SUMMER TIME was used as a commercial song of Kirin's \"Ice Beer\"\nEgao de Waratteitai was used as theme song for TV Asahi television series Shounibyou to Ichi no Kisetsu\nKimi ga Inai Natsu was used as an ending theme for Anime television series Detective Conan\nYume de Aru You ni was used as an opening theme for PlayStation 2 game Tales of Destiny\nKimi Sae Ireba was used as an opening theme for Anime television series Chūka Ichiban!\nTegotae no nai Ai was used as a theme song for TBS Television program Kinniku Banzuke\nTooi Tooi Mirai he was used as a theme song for TBS Television program Kinniku Banzuke\nJust One was used as a commercial song for Sharp Color Fax's \"Saiyuki\"\nMy Love was used as a theme song for Fuji TV television series Kaze no Yukue\nChristmas Time was used as theme song for TBS Television program Wonderful\nPower of Love was used as an ending theme song for Nihon TV program Sport Max\nAkizakura -more & more- was used as a theme song for TBS Television program Wonderful\nKanashimi no Mukougawa was used as a theme song for Fuji TV television series Koufuku no Ashita\nBirth eve -Dare yori hayai mo Ai no Uta- was used as a theme song for TBS Television program Chu-bo desu yo!\nTaiyou to Hanabira was used as a theme song for Nihon TV program Shiodome Style\nUtopia ni Mieterunoni was used as an ending theme for TV Asahi Beat Takeshi no TV tackle\nStrong Soul was used as an image song for 35th anniversary of \"Tokyo Verdy 1969\"\nAi no Kagami ga Sekai ni Hibikimasuyouni was used as an ending theme for TBS Television program Tamashii no One Spoon\nStarting Over was used as an ending theme for Nihon TV's program Itadaki Muscle\nDiamond was used as an official image song for \"Chiba Lotte Marines\"\nYume no Tsubomi was used as an ending theme for TV Asahi Beat Takeshi no TV tackle\nSmile Blue was used as a theme song for NTV (Japan) program NNN News Real Time in \"entertainment sport\" corner\nEien no Ashita was used as a theme song for Nintendo DS game Tales of Hearts\nCelebrate was used as an ending theme song for TBS Television program Megami Search in months of April–May 2008\nBrand New Wing was used as a power-play song for Nihon TV's program Happy Music\nMou Nakanaide was used as a theme song for TV Asahi's television series Kasouken no Onna\n\nReferences\n\n2018 greatest hits albums\nDeen (band) albums\nJapanese-language compilation albums"
] |
[
"Alanis Morissette",
"1998-2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged",
"Was she infatuated with a junkie?",
"Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Was that an album or a song?",
"fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard."
] |
C_19751c82ebc942199a9b544e136a460e_1
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Did it have any hits?
| 3 |
Did Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie have any hits?
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Alanis Morissette
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Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard. Privately, the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies--a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year. The "So Pure" video features actor Dash Mihok, with whom Morissette was in a relationship at the time. Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", "Hope", "Innocence", and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Alanis toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999). CANNOTANSWER
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platinum. "Thank U", the
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Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two mildly successful dance-pop albums. Afterward, as part of a recording deal, she moved to Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. In 1995, she released Jagged Little Pill, an alt rock-oriented album with the elements of post-grunge, which sold more than 33 million copies globally and is her most critically acclaimed work to date. This earned her Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1996 and was made into a rock musical of the same name in 2017, which also earned 15 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical. The album also listed in 2003 and 2020 editions of the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Guide. Her highly anticipated, more experimental follow-up, electronic-infused album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998.
Morissette assumed creative control and producing duties for her subsequent studio albums, including Under Rug Swept (2002), So-Called Chaos (2004), Flavors of Entanglement (2008), and Havoc and Bright Lights (2012). Her latest album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, was released in 2020. Her well-known singles reached top 40 in the major charts around the world, including 10 top-40 hits in the UK, 3 top-10 in the US and Australia, 12 top-10 hits in her native Canada, "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", "Head Over Feet", "Uninvited", "Thank U" and "Hands Clean". She also holds the record of the most No. 1s on the weekly Billboard Alternative Songs chart among any female soloist, group leader or duo member. Morissette won 7 Grammy Awards, 14 Juno Awards, 1 Brit Award and has sold more than 75 million records worldwide and has been dubbed the "Queen of Alt-Rock Angst" by Rolling Stone.
Early life
Morissette was born June 1, 1974, at Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to teacher Georgia Mary Ann ( Feuerstein) of Hungarian descent and high-school principal and French teacher Alan Richard Morissette. She has two brothers: older brother Chad is a business entrepreneur, and twin brother (12 minutes older) Wade Morissette is a musician. Her father is of French and Irish descent, whereas her mother has Hungarian and Jewish ancestry. Her parents were teachers in a military school and due to their work often had to move. Between the ages of three and six she lived with her parents in Lahr (Black Forest), Germany.
When she was six years old, she returned to Ottawa and started to play the piano. In 1981, at the age of seven, she began dance lessons. Morissette had a Catholic upbringing. She attended Holy Family Catholic School for elementary school and Immaculata High School for Grades 7 and 8 before completing the rest of her high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute. She appeared on the children's television sketch comedy You Can't Do That on Television for five episodes when she was in junior high school.
Music career
1987–1992: Alanis and Now Is the Time
Morissette recorded her first demo called "Fate Stay with Me", produced by Lindsay Thomas Morgan at Marigold Studios in Toronto, engineered by Rich Dodson of Canadian classic rock band The Stampeders. A second demo tape was recorded on cassette in August 1989 and sent to Geffen Records, but the tape has never been heard as it was stolen, among other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989.
In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer, Leslie Howe. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top 20 on the RPM singles chart. Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top 40. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada; comparisons to Tiffany were also common. During the same period, she was a concert opening act for rapper Vanilla Ice. Morissette was nominated for three 1992 Juno Awards: Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year (which she won), Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording (both for "Too Hot").
In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a ballad-driven record that featured less glitzy production than Alanis and contained more thoughtful lyrics. Morissette wrote the songs with the album's producer, Leslie Howe, and Serge Côté. She said of the album, "People could go, 'Boo, hiss, hiss, this girl's like another Tiffany or whatever.' But the way I look at it ... people will like your next album if it's a kick-ass one." As with Alanis (1991), Now Is the Time (1992) was released only in Canada and produced three top 40 singles—"An Emotion Away", the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" as well as "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time". The industry considered it a commercial failure, however, since it sold only a little more than half the copies of her first album. With her two-album deal with MCA Records Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract.
1993–1997: Jagged Little Pill
In 1993, Morissette's publisher Leeds Levy at MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch. Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character and her lyrics. At the time she was still living at home with her parents. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people. After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto. Her publisher funded part of her development and when she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he believed in her talent enough to let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records. In the same year she learned how to play guitar. According to manager Welch, every label they approached, apart from Maverick, declined to sign Morissette.
Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected only to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation improved quickly when KROQ-FM, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single, featuring Flea and Dave Navarro. The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics, and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hits helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand in My Pocket" followed, and the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, kept Jagged Little Pill (1995) in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. Jagged Little Pill sold more than 16 million copies in the U.S.; it sold 33 million worldwide, making it the second biggest-selling album by a female artist (behind Shania Twain's Come On Over).
Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum and produced four RPM chart-toppers: "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", and "Head over Feet". The album was also a bestseller in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill (1995) was credited with opening doors for female singers such as Tracy Bonham, Fiona Apple, Meredith Brooks, Shakira, Pink, Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne and Florence Welch. She was criticized for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, and her previous disco pop albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability. Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 16th Brit Awards she won Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.
Following the album release in 1995, Morissette embarked on an 18-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, who later joined the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. Radiohead joined as an opening act in the summer of 1996. "Ironic" was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards—Record of the Year and Best Music Video, Short Form—and won Single of the Year at the 1997 Juno Awards, where Morissette also won Songwriter of the Year and the International Achievement Award. The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which was co-directed by Morissette and chronicled the bulk of her tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form.
Following the tour, Morissette began practicing Iyengar Yoga for balance. After the last December 1996 show, she went to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two friends. She said the trip was "incredible".
1998–2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged
Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.
The label hoped to sell 1 million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies—a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year.
Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", where she paid homage to her roots by singing in Hungarian, "Hope", "Innocence" and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Morissette toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999).
2001–2005: Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos
In 2001, Morissette was featured with Stephanie McKay on the Tricky song "Excess", which is on his album Blowback. Morissette released her fifth studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her career, she took on the role of sole writer and producer of an album. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney, and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments; additional contributions came from Eric Avery, Dean DeLeo, Flea, and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually going platinum in Canada and selling one million copies in the U.S. It produced the hit single "Hands Clean", which topped the Canadian Singles Chart and received substantial radio play; for her work on "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", Morissette won a Juno Award for Producer of the Year. A second single, "Precious Illusions", was released, but it did not garner significant success outside Canada or U.S. hot AC radio.
Later in 2002, Morissette released the combination package Feast on Scraps, which includes a DVD of live concert and backstage documentary footage directed by her and a CD containing eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions. Preceded by the single "Simple Together", it sold roughly 70,000 copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year.
Morissette hosted the Juno Awards of 2004 dressed in a bathrobe, which she took off to reveal a flesh-colored bodysuit, a response to the era of censorship in the U.S. caused by Janet Jackson's breast-flash incident during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Morissette released her sixth studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again, and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and pop music producer John Shanks. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews, and it became Morissette's lowest seller in the U.S. The lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on Adult Top 40 radio in America and was moderately popular elsewhere, particularly in Canada, although it failed to reach the top 40 on the U.S. Hot 100. Because the first line of the song includes the word "asshole", American radio stations refused to play it, and the single version was changed to include the word "nightmare" instead. Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared considerably worse, although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a U.S. club hit. Morissette embarked on a U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians Barenaked Ladies, working with the non-profit environmental organization Reverb.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill (1995), Morissette released a studio acoustic version, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, in June 2005. The album was released exclusively through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run. The limited availability led to a dispute between Maverick Records and HMV North America, who retaliated by removing Morissette's other albums from sale for the duration of Starbucks's exclusive six-week sale. , Jagged Little Pill Acoustic had sold 372,000 copies in the U.S., and a video for "Hand in My Pocket" received rotation on VH1 in America. The accompanying tour ran for two months in mid-2005, with Morissette playing small theatre venues. During the same period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. The singer opened for The Rolling Stones for a few dates of their A Bigger Bang Tour in the autumn of 2005.
Morissette released the greatest hits album Alanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005. The lead single and only new track, a cover of Seal's "Crazy", was an Adult Top 40 and dance hit in the U.S., but achieved only minimal chart success elsewhere. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimidation" and "Can't Not". (A reworked version of "Can't Not" had also appeared on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.) The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". , The Collection had sold 373,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. That same year, Morissette contributed the song "Wunderkind" to the soundtrack of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
2006–2010: Flavors of Entanglement
2006 marked the first year in Morissette's musical career without a single concert appearance showcasing her own songs, with the exception of an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January when she performed "Wunderkind".
On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a tongue-in-cheek cover of The Black Eyed Peas's selection "My Humps", which she recorded in a slow, mournful voice, accompanied only by a piano. The accompanying YouTube-hosted video, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who act as if attempting to touch her breasts, had received 16,465,653 views as of February 15, 2009. Morissette did not take any interviews for a time to explain the song, and it was theorized that she did it as an April Fools' Day joke. Black Eyed Peas vocalist Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson responded by sending Morissette a buttocks-shaped cake with an approving note. On the verge of the release of her following album, she finally elaborated on how the video came to be, citing that she became very much emotionally loaded while recording her new songs one after the other and one day she wished she could do a simple song like "My Humps" and the joke just took a life of its own.
Morissette performed at a gig for The Nightwatchman, a.k.a. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles in April 2007. The following June, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada", the American and Canadian national anthems, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks in Ottawa, Ontario. (The NHL requires arenas to perform both the American and Canadian national anthems at games involving teams from both countries.) In early 2008, Morissette participated in a tour with Matchbox Twenty and Mutemath as a special guest.
Morissette's seventh studio album, Flavors of Entanglement, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth, was released in mid-2008. She has stated that in late 2008, she would embark on a North American headlining tour, but in the meantime she would be promoting the album internationally by performing at shows and festivals and making television and radio appearances. The album's first single was "Underneath", a video for which was submitted to the 2007 Elevate Film Festival, the purpose of which festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth. On October 3, 2008, Morissette released the video for her latest single, "Not as We".
Morissette contributed to 1 Giant Leap, performing "Arrival" with Zap Mama and she has released an acoustic version of her song "Still" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief in support of the 2010 Haiti earthquake crisis. In 2008 she contributed a recording of "Versions of Violence" for the album Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace to promote peace. Morissette has also recorded a cover of the 1984 Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias hit, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", re-written as "To All the Boys I've Loved Before". Nelson played rhythm guitar on the recording. In April 2010, Morissette released the song "I Remain", which she wrote for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time soundtrack. On May 26, 2010, the season finale of American Idol, Morissette performed a duet of her song "You Oughta Know" with Runner Up Crystal Bowersox. Morissette left Maverick Records after all promotion for Flavors was completed.
2011–2016: Havoc and Bright Lights and Jagged Little Pill 20th anniversary
On November 20, 2011, Morissette appeared at the American Music Awards. When asked about the new album during a short interview, she said she had recorded 31 songs, and that the album would "likely be out next year, probably [in] summertime". On December 21, 2011, Morissette performed a duet of "Uninvited" with finalist Josh Krajcik during the performance finale of the X-Factor.
Morissette embarked on a European tour for the summer of 2012, according to Alanis.com. In early May 2012, a new song called "Magical Child" appeared on a Starbucks compilation called Every Mother Counts.
On May 2, 2012, Morissette revealed through her Facebook account that her eighth studio album, entitled Havoc and Bright Lights, would be released in August 2012, on new label Collective Sounds, distributed by Sony's RED Distribution. On the same day, Billboard specified the date as August 28 and revealed the album would contain twelve tracks. The album's lead single, "Guardian", was released on iTunes on May 15, 2012, and hit the radio airwaves four days prior to this. The single had minor success in North America, charting the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in the US and almost reaching the top 40 in Canada. However, the song did become a hit in several countries in Europe. "Receive", the second single off the album, was released early December the same year.Morissette received the UCLA Spring Sing's George and Ira Gershwin Award on May 16, 2014, at Pauley Pavilion. On her website starting in the summer of 2014, in celebration of her fortieth birthday, the LP record for her song "Big Sur" was offered for sale, which was previously available on the Target edition of her 2012 album, Havoc and Bright Lights. July 25, 2014, was the start of the ten-show Intimate and Acoustic tour.
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the release of Jagged Little Pill, a new four-disc collector's edition was released on October 30, 2015. The four-disc edition includes remastered audio of the original album as well as an entire disc of 10 unreleased demos from the era, handpicked by Morissette from her archives, offering a deeper and more personal look at the classic album. Also included is a previously unreleased concert from 1995 as well as 2005's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic.
2017–present: Such Pretty Forks in the Road
In August 2017, Morissette teased a song titled "I Miss The Band" while on tour. On October 27, 2017, she premiered a new song entitled "Rest", which was released officially in May 2021, and performed "Castle of Glass" with members of the band No Doubt and Mike Shinoda at the Linkin Park and Friends – Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington memorial concert. In November 2017, she tweeted that she was writing 22 songs with Michael Farrell.
On March 16, 2018, Morissette performed a new song called "Ablaze" during her 2018 tour. In October 2018, she revealed on social media that she had written 23 new songs, and hinted at a new album with hashtag "#alanismorissettenewrecord2019", after a six-year hiatus. Song titles from the writing session include "Reckoning", "Diagnosis", "Her" and "Legacy". On May 5, 2018, Jagged Little Pill, a jukebox musical featuring Morissette's songs, premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the American Repertory Theater. Morissette contributed two new songs to the musical, "Smiling" and "Predator". The musical transferred to Broadway in fall of 2019, starting previews on November 3 and opening on December 5 at the Broadhurst Theatre. The production received fifteen Tony Award nominations, the most of any production that season.
In June 2019, Morissette went into studio in Los Angeles. According to an interview, she had written all the songs, and "Smiling" would be included on the new album, likely to be released early 2020. On August 8, 2019, she revealed that the new album was produced by Alex Hope and Catherine Marks. On December 1, 2019, Morissette announced her first studio album in eight years, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, set for release on May 1, 2020. The first single off the record, "Reasons I Drink", was released on December 2, 2019.
Morissette was featured on Halsey's song "Alanis' Interlude", released on January 17, 2020. On February 5, 2020, she revealed that her upcoming album was mixed by Chris Dugan. The second single from the album, "Smiling", was released on February 20, 2020. On April 15, 2020, Morissette announced that the album's release would be postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on July 31, 2020.
Morissette was originally scheduled to embark on a world tour for 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill in June 2020 with Garbage and Liz Phair, both already opened for Morissette in 1999 during Junkie Tour. The latter cancelled her shows in North America and was replaced by Cat Power instead. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to summer 2021.
Acting career
In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress in five episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. She appeared on stage with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988.
In 1999, Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since 1993, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack. Morissette reprised her role as God for a post-credits scene in Smith's next film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, to literally close the book on the View Askewniverse. She also appeared in the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm, appeared in the play The Vagina Monologues, and had brief cameos playing herself in the Brazilian hit soap operas Celebridade and Malhação.
In late 2003, Morissette appeared in the Off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent. In April 2006, MTV News reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 until May 28.
She expanded her acting credentials with the July 2004 release of the Cole Porter biographical film De-Lovely, in which she performed the song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" and had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer. In February 2005, she made a guest appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation with Dogma co-star Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith. Also in 2005, Morissette, then engaged to Ryan Reynolds, made a cameo appearance as "herself" as a former client of Reynolds' character in the film Just Friends. This scene was deleted from the theatrical release, and is only available on the DVD.
In 2006, she guest-starred in an episode of Lifetime's Lovespring International as a homeless woman named Lucinda, three episodes of FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a lesbian named Poppy, and the mockumentary-documentary Pittsburgh as herself.
Morissette has appeared in eight episodes of Weeds, playing Dr. Audra Kitson, a "no-nonsense obstetrician" who treats pregnant main character Nancy Botwin. Her first episode aired in July 2009.
In early 2010, Morissette returned to the stage, performing a one-night engagement in An Oak Tree, an experimental play in Los Angeles. The performance was a sell-out. In April 2010, Morissette was confirmed in the cast of Weeds season six, performing again her role as Dr. Audra Kitson.
Morissette also starred in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth. Morissette plays Sylvia, an ordinary woman in unexpected remission from lymphoma. Morissette stated that she is "...a big fan of Philip K. Dick's poetic and expansively imaginative books" and that she "feel[s] blessed to portray Sylvia, and to be part of this story being told in film".
She appeared as Amanda, a former bandmate of main character Ava Alexander (played by Maya Rudolph), in one episode of NBC's Up All Night on February 16, 2012. Rudolph officiated as minister for Morissette's wedding with both performing the explicit version of their hit hip hop song "Back It Up (Beep Beep)".
In 2014, Morissette played the role of Marisa Damia, the lover of architect and designer Eileen Gray, in the film The Price of Desire, directed by Mary McGuckian.
In 2021, Morissette was featured as a recurring character on adult-animation show The Great North.
Other work
In October 2015, Conversation with Alanis Morissette features conversations with different individuals from different schools and walks of life discussing everything from psychology to art to spirituality to design to health and well-being, to relationships (whether they be romantic or colleagueship or parent with children relationships). The monthly podcast is currently available to download on iTunes and free to listen to on YouTube.
In January 2016, she began a short-lived advice column in The Guardian newspaper.
In May 2018, the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, Massachusetts) premiered Jagged Little Pill, a musical with music by Morissette and Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, book by Diablo Cody, and directed by Diane Paulus.
Jagged, a documentary film about Morissette and Jagged Little Pill by filmmaker Alison Klayman, premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival before airing on HBO as part of the Music Box series of documentary films about music history.
Personal life
Morissette was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Canada. She became a US citizen in 2005, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. Morissette has since then been a practising Buddhist.
Throughout her teen years and 20s, Morissette suffered from depression and various eating disorders. She recovered from them and started to eat a healthier diet. In 2009, she ran a marathon promoting awareness for the National Eating Disorders Association.
In the 2021 documentary Jagged, Morissette said that multiple men committed statutory rape against her when she was 15 years old.
Over a period of seven years, Morissette's business manager Jonathan Schwartz stole over $5 million from her. He confessed to doing so in April 2017 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
On October 22, 2019, Morissette shared her nearly decade-long experience with postpartum depression on CBS This Morning.
In 1996, Morissette bought a home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. She also had an apartment in Ottawa and a home in Malibu, the latter of which was affected by the Woolsey Fire. In 2019, she and her family moved to Northern California, stating in an interview with The New York Times that she was "finally done with living in Los Angeles".
Relationships
Morissette dated actor and comedian Dave Coulier for a short time in the early 1990s. In a 2008 interview, Coulier said he was the ex-boyfriend who inspired Morissette's song "You Oughta Know"; Morissette has not commented on the subject of the song.
Morissette met Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds at Drew Barrymore's birthday party in 2002, and the couple began dating soon afterwards. They announced their engagement in June 2004. In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had decided to end their engagement. Morissette has stated that her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the breakup, saying that "it was cathartic."
On May 22, 2010, Morissette married rapper Mario "Souleye" Treadway in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home. The couple have three children, a son born in 2010,
a daughter born in 2016,
and another son born in 2019.
Discography
Alanis (1991)
Now Is the Time (1992)
Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998)
Under Rug Swept (2002)
So-Called Chaos (2004)
Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
Havoc and Bright Lights (2012)
Such Pretty Forks in the Road (2020)
Awards and nominations
Filmography
Film
Television
Stage
Tours
Opening act
To the Extreme Tour (1991) (opening act for Vanilla Ice)
1999 Summer Tour (1999) (opening act for Dave Matthews Band–Denver)
A Bigger Bang Tour (2005) (opening act for The Rolling Stones)
Headlining
Jagged Little Tour (1995)
Intellectual Intercourse Tour (1995–96)
Can't Not Tour (1996) featuring Radiohead
Dhanyavad Tour (1998)
Junkie Tour (1999) featuring Garbage and Liz Phair
One Tour (2000)
Under Rug Swept Tour (2001)
Toward Our Union Mended Tour (2002)
All I Really Want Tour (2003)
So-Called Chaos Tour (2004)
Diamond Wink Tour (2005) featuring Jason Mraz
Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour (2005)
Flavors of Entanglement Tour (2008–09)
Guardian Angel Tour (2012)
Intimate and Acoustic (2014)
World Tour (2018)
2021 World Tour: Celebrating 25 Years of Jagged Little Pill featuring Garbage and Cat Power (2021–22)
Co-headlining
5 ½ Weeks Tour (1999) (with Tori Amos)
Au Naturale Tour (2004) (with the Barenaked Ladies)
Exile in America Tour (2008) (with Matchbox Twenty)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of best-selling albums
References
Further reading
Rock on the Net
[ "Alanis Morissette – Artist Chart History"]. Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
[ "Alanis Morissette – Billboard Singles"]. Allmusic. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
Rock Chicks:The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now by Stieven-Taylor, Alison (2007). Sydney. Rockpool Publishing.
External links
1974 births
Living people
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Ottawa
Alternative rock singers
American Buddhists
American dance musicians
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American feminists
American film actresses
American harmonica players
American mezzo-sopranos
American music video directors
American people of French descent
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Irish descent
American rock songwriters
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American women record producers
Brit Award winners
Canadian child actresses
Canadian dance musicians
Canadian emigrants to the United States
Canadian women pop singers
Canadian women rock singers
Canadian women singer-songwriters
Canadian feminists
Canadian film actresses
Canadian harmonica players
Canadian mezzo-sopranos
Canadian music video directors
Canadian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Canadian people of Irish descent
Canadian record producers
Canadian Buddhists
Canadian stage actresses
Canadian television actresses
Canadian women guitarists
Canadian women record producers
Child pop musicians
Echo (music award) winners
Female music video directors
Feminist musicians
Former Roman Catholics
Franco-Ontarian people
Fraternal twin actresses
Grammy Award winners
Guitarists from California
Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award winners
Juno Award for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Pop Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year winners
Juno Award for Video of the Year winners
Juno International Achievement Award winners
Maverick Records artists
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musicians from Ottawa
Naturalized citizens of the United States
People from Brentwood, Los Angeles
Record producers from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Twin musicians
Twin people from Canada
Warner Music Group artists
Women post-grunge singers
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from Ottawa
20th-century Canadian actresses
20th-century Canadian guitarists
20th-century Canadian women singers
20th-century Canadian women writers
20th-century Roman Catholics
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century Buddhists
21st-century Canadian actresses
21st-century Canadian guitarists
21st-century Canadian women singers
21st-century Canadian women writers
21st-century Roman Catholics
Singer-songwriters from California
| true |
[
"Donna Cruz Sings Her Greatest Hits is the second compilation album by the Filipino singer Donna Cruz, released in the Philippines in 2001 by Viva Records. The album was Cruz's first album not to receive a PARI certification; all of her studio albums and a previous compilation album, The Best of Donna, were certified either gold or platinum. Though it was labeled as a greatest hits compilation, several songs on the track listing had not been released as singles, and some of Cruz's singles did not appear on the album.\n\nBackground\nReleased during Cruz's break from the entertainment industry, Donna Cruz Sings Her Greatest Hits did not include any newly recorded material. Cruz's version of \"Jubilee Song\", which was not found on any of Cruz's albums (as she never recorded studio albums after Hulog Ng Langit in 1999) was included. It was seen as an updated version of Cruz's greatest hits as it included her latest singles \"Hulog ng Langit\" and \"Ikaw Pala 'Yon\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences\n\n2001 compilation albums\nViva Records (Philippines) compilation albums\nDonna Cruz albums",
"In baseball statistics, home run per hit (HR/H) is the percentage of hits that are home runs. It is loosely related to isolated power, which is the ability to hit for extra-base hits, including home runs. Power hitters, players who readily hit many home runs tend to have higher HR/H than contact hitters. A player hitting 30 home runs and have 150 hits in a season would have HR/H of .200, while a player who hit 8 home runs and have 200 hits in a season would have H/HR of .040.\n\nHR/H ratio has gotten higher over time. From 1959 to 2007, HR/H for leading power hitters in MLB was .3312, with the ratio being the highest from 1995 to 2001. The highest HR/H ratio of any player was Mark McGwire at .3585 or 2.8 hits per home run.\n\nReferences \n\nBaseball statistics"
] |
[
"Alanis Morissette",
"1998-2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged",
"Was she infatuated with a junkie?",
"Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Was that an album or a song?",
"fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Did it have any hits?",
"platinum. \"Thank U\", the"
] |
C_19751c82ebc942199a9b544e136a460e_1
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How did it chart?
| 4 |
How did the hit "Thank U" chart?
|
Alanis Morissette
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Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard. Privately, the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies--a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year. The "So Pure" video features actor Dash Mihok, with whom Morissette was in a relationship at the time. Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", "Hope", "Innocence", and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Alanis toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999). CANNOTANSWER
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major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance;
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Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two mildly successful dance-pop albums. Afterward, as part of a recording deal, she moved to Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. In 1995, she released Jagged Little Pill, an alt rock-oriented album with the elements of post-grunge, which sold more than 33 million copies globally and is her most critically acclaimed work to date. This earned her Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1996 and was made into a rock musical of the same name in 2017, which also earned 15 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical. The album also listed in 2003 and 2020 editions of the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Guide. Her highly anticipated, more experimental follow-up, electronic-infused album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998.
Morissette assumed creative control and producing duties for her subsequent studio albums, including Under Rug Swept (2002), So-Called Chaos (2004), Flavors of Entanglement (2008), and Havoc and Bright Lights (2012). Her latest album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, was released in 2020. Her well-known singles reached top 40 in the major charts around the world, including 10 top-40 hits in the UK, 3 top-10 in the US and Australia, 12 top-10 hits in her native Canada, "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", "Head Over Feet", "Uninvited", "Thank U" and "Hands Clean". She also holds the record of the most No. 1s on the weekly Billboard Alternative Songs chart among any female soloist, group leader or duo member. Morissette won 7 Grammy Awards, 14 Juno Awards, 1 Brit Award and has sold more than 75 million records worldwide and has been dubbed the "Queen of Alt-Rock Angst" by Rolling Stone.
Early life
Morissette was born June 1, 1974, at Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to teacher Georgia Mary Ann ( Feuerstein) of Hungarian descent and high-school principal and French teacher Alan Richard Morissette. She has two brothers: older brother Chad is a business entrepreneur, and twin brother (12 minutes older) Wade Morissette is a musician. Her father is of French and Irish descent, whereas her mother has Hungarian and Jewish ancestry. Her parents were teachers in a military school and due to their work often had to move. Between the ages of three and six she lived with her parents in Lahr (Black Forest), Germany.
When she was six years old, she returned to Ottawa and started to play the piano. In 1981, at the age of seven, she began dance lessons. Morissette had a Catholic upbringing. She attended Holy Family Catholic School for elementary school and Immaculata High School for Grades 7 and 8 before completing the rest of her high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute. She appeared on the children's television sketch comedy You Can't Do That on Television for five episodes when she was in junior high school.
Music career
1987–1992: Alanis and Now Is the Time
Morissette recorded her first demo called "Fate Stay with Me", produced by Lindsay Thomas Morgan at Marigold Studios in Toronto, engineered by Rich Dodson of Canadian classic rock band The Stampeders. A second demo tape was recorded on cassette in August 1989 and sent to Geffen Records, but the tape has never been heard as it was stolen, among other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989.
In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer, Leslie Howe. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top 20 on the RPM singles chart. Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top 40. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada; comparisons to Tiffany were also common. During the same period, she was a concert opening act for rapper Vanilla Ice. Morissette was nominated for three 1992 Juno Awards: Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year (which she won), Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording (both for "Too Hot").
In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a ballad-driven record that featured less glitzy production than Alanis and contained more thoughtful lyrics. Morissette wrote the songs with the album's producer, Leslie Howe, and Serge Côté. She said of the album, "People could go, 'Boo, hiss, hiss, this girl's like another Tiffany or whatever.' But the way I look at it ... people will like your next album if it's a kick-ass one." As with Alanis (1991), Now Is the Time (1992) was released only in Canada and produced three top 40 singles—"An Emotion Away", the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" as well as "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time". The industry considered it a commercial failure, however, since it sold only a little more than half the copies of her first album. With her two-album deal with MCA Records Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract.
1993–1997: Jagged Little Pill
In 1993, Morissette's publisher Leeds Levy at MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch. Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character and her lyrics. At the time she was still living at home with her parents. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people. After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto. Her publisher funded part of her development and when she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he believed in her talent enough to let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records. In the same year she learned how to play guitar. According to manager Welch, every label they approached, apart from Maverick, declined to sign Morissette.
Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected only to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation improved quickly when KROQ-FM, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single, featuring Flea and Dave Navarro. The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics, and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hits helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand in My Pocket" followed, and the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, kept Jagged Little Pill (1995) in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. Jagged Little Pill sold more than 16 million copies in the U.S.; it sold 33 million worldwide, making it the second biggest-selling album by a female artist (behind Shania Twain's Come On Over).
Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum and produced four RPM chart-toppers: "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", and "Head over Feet". The album was also a bestseller in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill (1995) was credited with opening doors for female singers such as Tracy Bonham, Fiona Apple, Meredith Brooks, Shakira, Pink, Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne and Florence Welch. She was criticized for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, and her previous disco pop albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability. Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 16th Brit Awards she won Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.
Following the album release in 1995, Morissette embarked on an 18-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, who later joined the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. Radiohead joined as an opening act in the summer of 1996. "Ironic" was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards—Record of the Year and Best Music Video, Short Form—and won Single of the Year at the 1997 Juno Awards, where Morissette also won Songwriter of the Year and the International Achievement Award. The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which was co-directed by Morissette and chronicled the bulk of her tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form.
Following the tour, Morissette began practicing Iyengar Yoga for balance. After the last December 1996 show, she went to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two friends. She said the trip was "incredible".
1998–2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged
Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.
The label hoped to sell 1 million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies—a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year.
Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", where she paid homage to her roots by singing in Hungarian, "Hope", "Innocence" and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Morissette toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999).
2001–2005: Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos
In 2001, Morissette was featured with Stephanie McKay on the Tricky song "Excess", which is on his album Blowback. Morissette released her fifth studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her career, she took on the role of sole writer and producer of an album. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney, and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments; additional contributions came from Eric Avery, Dean DeLeo, Flea, and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually going platinum in Canada and selling one million copies in the U.S. It produced the hit single "Hands Clean", which topped the Canadian Singles Chart and received substantial radio play; for her work on "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", Morissette won a Juno Award for Producer of the Year. A second single, "Precious Illusions", was released, but it did not garner significant success outside Canada or U.S. hot AC radio.
Later in 2002, Morissette released the combination package Feast on Scraps, which includes a DVD of live concert and backstage documentary footage directed by her and a CD containing eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions. Preceded by the single "Simple Together", it sold roughly 70,000 copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year.
Morissette hosted the Juno Awards of 2004 dressed in a bathrobe, which she took off to reveal a flesh-colored bodysuit, a response to the era of censorship in the U.S. caused by Janet Jackson's breast-flash incident during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Morissette released her sixth studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again, and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and pop music producer John Shanks. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews, and it became Morissette's lowest seller in the U.S. The lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on Adult Top 40 radio in America and was moderately popular elsewhere, particularly in Canada, although it failed to reach the top 40 on the U.S. Hot 100. Because the first line of the song includes the word "asshole", American radio stations refused to play it, and the single version was changed to include the word "nightmare" instead. Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared considerably worse, although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a U.S. club hit. Morissette embarked on a U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians Barenaked Ladies, working with the non-profit environmental organization Reverb.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill (1995), Morissette released a studio acoustic version, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, in June 2005. The album was released exclusively through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run. The limited availability led to a dispute between Maverick Records and HMV North America, who retaliated by removing Morissette's other albums from sale for the duration of Starbucks's exclusive six-week sale. , Jagged Little Pill Acoustic had sold 372,000 copies in the U.S., and a video for "Hand in My Pocket" received rotation on VH1 in America. The accompanying tour ran for two months in mid-2005, with Morissette playing small theatre venues. During the same period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. The singer opened for The Rolling Stones for a few dates of their A Bigger Bang Tour in the autumn of 2005.
Morissette released the greatest hits album Alanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005. The lead single and only new track, a cover of Seal's "Crazy", was an Adult Top 40 and dance hit in the U.S., but achieved only minimal chart success elsewhere. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimidation" and "Can't Not". (A reworked version of "Can't Not" had also appeared on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.) The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". , The Collection had sold 373,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. That same year, Morissette contributed the song "Wunderkind" to the soundtrack of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
2006–2010: Flavors of Entanglement
2006 marked the first year in Morissette's musical career without a single concert appearance showcasing her own songs, with the exception of an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January when she performed "Wunderkind".
On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a tongue-in-cheek cover of The Black Eyed Peas's selection "My Humps", which she recorded in a slow, mournful voice, accompanied only by a piano. The accompanying YouTube-hosted video, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who act as if attempting to touch her breasts, had received 16,465,653 views as of February 15, 2009. Morissette did not take any interviews for a time to explain the song, and it was theorized that she did it as an April Fools' Day joke. Black Eyed Peas vocalist Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson responded by sending Morissette a buttocks-shaped cake with an approving note. On the verge of the release of her following album, she finally elaborated on how the video came to be, citing that she became very much emotionally loaded while recording her new songs one after the other and one day she wished she could do a simple song like "My Humps" and the joke just took a life of its own.
Morissette performed at a gig for The Nightwatchman, a.k.a. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles in April 2007. The following June, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada", the American and Canadian national anthems, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks in Ottawa, Ontario. (The NHL requires arenas to perform both the American and Canadian national anthems at games involving teams from both countries.) In early 2008, Morissette participated in a tour with Matchbox Twenty and Mutemath as a special guest.
Morissette's seventh studio album, Flavors of Entanglement, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth, was released in mid-2008. She has stated that in late 2008, she would embark on a North American headlining tour, but in the meantime she would be promoting the album internationally by performing at shows and festivals and making television and radio appearances. The album's first single was "Underneath", a video for which was submitted to the 2007 Elevate Film Festival, the purpose of which festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth. On October 3, 2008, Morissette released the video for her latest single, "Not as We".
Morissette contributed to 1 Giant Leap, performing "Arrival" with Zap Mama and she has released an acoustic version of her song "Still" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief in support of the 2010 Haiti earthquake crisis. In 2008 she contributed a recording of "Versions of Violence" for the album Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace to promote peace. Morissette has also recorded a cover of the 1984 Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias hit, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", re-written as "To All the Boys I've Loved Before". Nelson played rhythm guitar on the recording. In April 2010, Morissette released the song "I Remain", which she wrote for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time soundtrack. On May 26, 2010, the season finale of American Idol, Morissette performed a duet of her song "You Oughta Know" with Runner Up Crystal Bowersox. Morissette left Maverick Records after all promotion for Flavors was completed.
2011–2016: Havoc and Bright Lights and Jagged Little Pill 20th anniversary
On November 20, 2011, Morissette appeared at the American Music Awards. When asked about the new album during a short interview, she said she had recorded 31 songs, and that the album would "likely be out next year, probably [in] summertime". On December 21, 2011, Morissette performed a duet of "Uninvited" with finalist Josh Krajcik during the performance finale of the X-Factor.
Morissette embarked on a European tour for the summer of 2012, according to Alanis.com. In early May 2012, a new song called "Magical Child" appeared on a Starbucks compilation called Every Mother Counts.
On May 2, 2012, Morissette revealed through her Facebook account that her eighth studio album, entitled Havoc and Bright Lights, would be released in August 2012, on new label Collective Sounds, distributed by Sony's RED Distribution. On the same day, Billboard specified the date as August 28 and revealed the album would contain twelve tracks. The album's lead single, "Guardian", was released on iTunes on May 15, 2012, and hit the radio airwaves four days prior to this. The single had minor success in North America, charting the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in the US and almost reaching the top 40 in Canada. However, the song did become a hit in several countries in Europe. "Receive", the second single off the album, was released early December the same year.Morissette received the UCLA Spring Sing's George and Ira Gershwin Award on May 16, 2014, at Pauley Pavilion. On her website starting in the summer of 2014, in celebration of her fortieth birthday, the LP record for her song "Big Sur" was offered for sale, which was previously available on the Target edition of her 2012 album, Havoc and Bright Lights. July 25, 2014, was the start of the ten-show Intimate and Acoustic tour.
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the release of Jagged Little Pill, a new four-disc collector's edition was released on October 30, 2015. The four-disc edition includes remastered audio of the original album as well as an entire disc of 10 unreleased demos from the era, handpicked by Morissette from her archives, offering a deeper and more personal look at the classic album. Also included is a previously unreleased concert from 1995 as well as 2005's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic.
2017–present: Such Pretty Forks in the Road
In August 2017, Morissette teased a song titled "I Miss The Band" while on tour. On October 27, 2017, she premiered a new song entitled "Rest", which was released officially in May 2021, and performed "Castle of Glass" with members of the band No Doubt and Mike Shinoda at the Linkin Park and Friends – Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington memorial concert. In November 2017, she tweeted that she was writing 22 songs with Michael Farrell.
On March 16, 2018, Morissette performed a new song called "Ablaze" during her 2018 tour. In October 2018, she revealed on social media that she had written 23 new songs, and hinted at a new album with hashtag "#alanismorissettenewrecord2019", after a six-year hiatus. Song titles from the writing session include "Reckoning", "Diagnosis", "Her" and "Legacy". On May 5, 2018, Jagged Little Pill, a jukebox musical featuring Morissette's songs, premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the American Repertory Theater. Morissette contributed two new songs to the musical, "Smiling" and "Predator". The musical transferred to Broadway in fall of 2019, starting previews on November 3 and opening on December 5 at the Broadhurst Theatre. The production received fifteen Tony Award nominations, the most of any production that season.
In June 2019, Morissette went into studio in Los Angeles. According to an interview, she had written all the songs, and "Smiling" would be included on the new album, likely to be released early 2020. On August 8, 2019, she revealed that the new album was produced by Alex Hope and Catherine Marks. On December 1, 2019, Morissette announced her first studio album in eight years, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, set for release on May 1, 2020. The first single off the record, "Reasons I Drink", was released on December 2, 2019.
Morissette was featured on Halsey's song "Alanis' Interlude", released on January 17, 2020. On February 5, 2020, she revealed that her upcoming album was mixed by Chris Dugan. The second single from the album, "Smiling", was released on February 20, 2020. On April 15, 2020, Morissette announced that the album's release would be postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on July 31, 2020.
Morissette was originally scheduled to embark on a world tour for 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill in June 2020 with Garbage and Liz Phair, both already opened for Morissette in 1999 during Junkie Tour. The latter cancelled her shows in North America and was replaced by Cat Power instead. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to summer 2021.
Acting career
In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress in five episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. She appeared on stage with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988.
In 1999, Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since 1993, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack. Morissette reprised her role as God for a post-credits scene in Smith's next film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, to literally close the book on the View Askewniverse. She also appeared in the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm, appeared in the play The Vagina Monologues, and had brief cameos playing herself in the Brazilian hit soap operas Celebridade and Malhação.
In late 2003, Morissette appeared in the Off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent. In April 2006, MTV News reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 until May 28.
She expanded her acting credentials with the July 2004 release of the Cole Porter biographical film De-Lovely, in which she performed the song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" and had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer. In February 2005, she made a guest appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation with Dogma co-star Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith. Also in 2005, Morissette, then engaged to Ryan Reynolds, made a cameo appearance as "herself" as a former client of Reynolds' character in the film Just Friends. This scene was deleted from the theatrical release, and is only available on the DVD.
In 2006, she guest-starred in an episode of Lifetime's Lovespring International as a homeless woman named Lucinda, three episodes of FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a lesbian named Poppy, and the mockumentary-documentary Pittsburgh as herself.
Morissette has appeared in eight episodes of Weeds, playing Dr. Audra Kitson, a "no-nonsense obstetrician" who treats pregnant main character Nancy Botwin. Her first episode aired in July 2009.
In early 2010, Morissette returned to the stage, performing a one-night engagement in An Oak Tree, an experimental play in Los Angeles. The performance was a sell-out. In April 2010, Morissette was confirmed in the cast of Weeds season six, performing again her role as Dr. Audra Kitson.
Morissette also starred in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth. Morissette plays Sylvia, an ordinary woman in unexpected remission from lymphoma. Morissette stated that she is "...a big fan of Philip K. Dick's poetic and expansively imaginative books" and that she "feel[s] blessed to portray Sylvia, and to be part of this story being told in film".
She appeared as Amanda, a former bandmate of main character Ava Alexander (played by Maya Rudolph), in one episode of NBC's Up All Night on February 16, 2012. Rudolph officiated as minister for Morissette's wedding with both performing the explicit version of their hit hip hop song "Back It Up (Beep Beep)".
In 2014, Morissette played the role of Marisa Damia, the lover of architect and designer Eileen Gray, in the film The Price of Desire, directed by Mary McGuckian.
In 2021, Morissette was featured as a recurring character on adult-animation show The Great North.
Other work
In October 2015, Conversation with Alanis Morissette features conversations with different individuals from different schools and walks of life discussing everything from psychology to art to spirituality to design to health and well-being, to relationships (whether they be romantic or colleagueship or parent with children relationships). The monthly podcast is currently available to download on iTunes and free to listen to on YouTube.
In January 2016, she began a short-lived advice column in The Guardian newspaper.
In May 2018, the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, Massachusetts) premiered Jagged Little Pill, a musical with music by Morissette and Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, book by Diablo Cody, and directed by Diane Paulus.
Jagged, a documentary film about Morissette and Jagged Little Pill by filmmaker Alison Klayman, premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival before airing on HBO as part of the Music Box series of documentary films about music history.
Personal life
Morissette was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Canada. She became a US citizen in 2005, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. Morissette has since then been a practising Buddhist.
Throughout her teen years and 20s, Morissette suffered from depression and various eating disorders. She recovered from them and started to eat a healthier diet. In 2009, she ran a marathon promoting awareness for the National Eating Disorders Association.
In the 2021 documentary Jagged, Morissette said that multiple men committed statutory rape against her when she was 15 years old.
Over a period of seven years, Morissette's business manager Jonathan Schwartz stole over $5 million from her. He confessed to doing so in April 2017 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
On October 22, 2019, Morissette shared her nearly decade-long experience with postpartum depression on CBS This Morning.
In 1996, Morissette bought a home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. She also had an apartment in Ottawa and a home in Malibu, the latter of which was affected by the Woolsey Fire. In 2019, she and her family moved to Northern California, stating in an interview with The New York Times that she was "finally done with living in Los Angeles".
Relationships
Morissette dated actor and comedian Dave Coulier for a short time in the early 1990s. In a 2008 interview, Coulier said he was the ex-boyfriend who inspired Morissette's song "You Oughta Know"; Morissette has not commented on the subject of the song.
Morissette met Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds at Drew Barrymore's birthday party in 2002, and the couple began dating soon afterwards. They announced their engagement in June 2004. In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had decided to end their engagement. Morissette has stated that her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the breakup, saying that "it was cathartic."
On May 22, 2010, Morissette married rapper Mario "Souleye" Treadway in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home. The couple have three children, a son born in 2010,
a daughter born in 2016,
and another son born in 2019.
Discography
Alanis (1991)
Now Is the Time (1992)
Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998)
Under Rug Swept (2002)
So-Called Chaos (2004)
Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
Havoc and Bright Lights (2012)
Such Pretty Forks in the Road (2020)
Awards and nominations
Filmography
Film
Television
Stage
Tours
Opening act
To the Extreme Tour (1991) (opening act for Vanilla Ice)
1999 Summer Tour (1999) (opening act for Dave Matthews Band–Denver)
A Bigger Bang Tour (2005) (opening act for The Rolling Stones)
Headlining
Jagged Little Tour (1995)
Intellectual Intercourse Tour (1995–96)
Can't Not Tour (1996) featuring Radiohead
Dhanyavad Tour (1998)
Junkie Tour (1999) featuring Garbage and Liz Phair
One Tour (2000)
Under Rug Swept Tour (2001)
Toward Our Union Mended Tour (2002)
All I Really Want Tour (2003)
So-Called Chaos Tour (2004)
Diamond Wink Tour (2005) featuring Jason Mraz
Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour (2005)
Flavors of Entanglement Tour (2008–09)
Guardian Angel Tour (2012)
Intimate and Acoustic (2014)
World Tour (2018)
2021 World Tour: Celebrating 25 Years of Jagged Little Pill featuring Garbage and Cat Power (2021–22)
Co-headlining
5 ½ Weeks Tour (1999) (with Tori Amos)
Au Naturale Tour (2004) (with the Barenaked Ladies)
Exile in America Tour (2008) (with Matchbox Twenty)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of best-selling albums
References
Further reading
Rock on the Net
[ "Alanis Morissette – Artist Chart History"]. Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
[ "Alanis Morissette – Billboard Singles"]. Allmusic. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
Rock Chicks:The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now by Stieven-Taylor, Alison (2007). Sydney. Rockpool Publishing.
External links
1974 births
Living people
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Ottawa
Alternative rock singers
American Buddhists
American dance musicians
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American feminists
American film actresses
American harmonica players
American mezzo-sopranos
American music video directors
American people of French descent
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Irish descent
American rock songwriters
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[
"How Did You Know is an extended play (EP) by Jamaican electronic dance musician Kurtis Mantronik. The EP was released in 2003 on the Southern Fried Records label, and features British singer Mim on vocals. \"How Did You Know (77 Strings)\" was released as a single from the EP, reaching number 16 on the UK Singles Chart and number three in Romania. The title track peaked atop the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in May 2004.\n\nTrack listing\n \"How Did You Know (Radio Edit)\" (Kurtis Mantronik, Miriam Grey - vocals) – 3:33 \n \"How Did You Know (Original Vocal)\" (Mantronik, Grey - vocals) – 6:35 \n \"How Did You Know (Tony Senghore Vocal)\" (Mantronik, Grey - vocals, Tony Senghore - remix) – 6:31 \n \"77 Strings (Original Instrumental)\" (Mantronik) – 7:57\n\nCharts\nThe following chart entries are for \"How Did You Know (77 Strings)\".\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2003 EPs\n2003 singles\nAlbums produced by Kurtis Mantronik\nSouthern Fried Records albums",
"\"How Do I Get Close\" is a song released by the British rock group, the Kinks. Released on the band's critically panned LP, UK Jive, the song was written by the band's main songwriter, Ray Davies.\n\nRelease and reception\n\"How Do I Get Close\" was first released on the Kinks' album UK Jive. UK Jive failed to make an impression on fans and critics alike, as the album failed to chart in the UK and only reached No. 122 in America. However, despite the failure of the album and the lead UK single, \"Down All the Days (Till 1992)\", \"How Do I Get Close\" was released as the second British single from the album, backed with \"Down All the Days (Till 1992)\". The single failed to chart. The single was also released in America (backed with \"War is Over\"), where, although it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100, it hit No. 21 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, the highest on that chart since \"Working At The Factory\" in 1986. \"How Do I Get Close\" also appeared on the compilation album Lost & Found (1986-1989).\n\nStephen Thomas Erlewine cited \"How Do I Get Close\" as a highlight from both UK Jive and Lost & Found (1986-1989).\n\nReferences\n\nThe Kinks songs\n1990 singles\nSongs written by Ray Davies\nSong recordings produced by Ray Davies\n1989 songs\nMCA Records singles"
] |
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"Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
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"fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Did it have any hits?",
"platinum. \"Thank U\", the",
"How did it chart?",
"major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance;"
] |
C_19751c82ebc942199a9b544e136a460e_1
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Did she tour for that record?
| 5 |
Did Alanis Morissette tour for Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie?
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Alanis Morissette
|
Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard. Privately, the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies--a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year. The "So Pure" video features actor Dash Mihok, with whom Morissette was in a relationship at the time. Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", "Hope", "Innocence", and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Alanis toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999). CANNOTANSWER
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major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best
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Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two mildly successful dance-pop albums. Afterward, as part of a recording deal, she moved to Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. In 1995, she released Jagged Little Pill, an alt rock-oriented album with the elements of post-grunge, which sold more than 33 million copies globally and is her most critically acclaimed work to date. This earned her Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1996 and was made into a rock musical of the same name in 2017, which also earned 15 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical. The album also listed in 2003 and 2020 editions of the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Guide. Her highly anticipated, more experimental follow-up, electronic-infused album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998.
Morissette assumed creative control and producing duties for her subsequent studio albums, including Under Rug Swept (2002), So-Called Chaos (2004), Flavors of Entanglement (2008), and Havoc and Bright Lights (2012). Her latest album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, was released in 2020. Her well-known singles reached top 40 in the major charts around the world, including 10 top-40 hits in the UK, 3 top-10 in the US and Australia, 12 top-10 hits in her native Canada, "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", "Head Over Feet", "Uninvited", "Thank U" and "Hands Clean". She also holds the record of the most No. 1s on the weekly Billboard Alternative Songs chart among any female soloist, group leader or duo member. Morissette won 7 Grammy Awards, 14 Juno Awards, 1 Brit Award and has sold more than 75 million records worldwide and has been dubbed the "Queen of Alt-Rock Angst" by Rolling Stone.
Early life
Morissette was born June 1, 1974, at Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to teacher Georgia Mary Ann ( Feuerstein) of Hungarian descent and high-school principal and French teacher Alan Richard Morissette. She has two brothers: older brother Chad is a business entrepreneur, and twin brother (12 minutes older) Wade Morissette is a musician. Her father is of French and Irish descent, whereas her mother has Hungarian and Jewish ancestry. Her parents were teachers in a military school and due to their work often had to move. Between the ages of three and six she lived with her parents in Lahr (Black Forest), Germany.
When she was six years old, she returned to Ottawa and started to play the piano. In 1981, at the age of seven, she began dance lessons. Morissette had a Catholic upbringing. She attended Holy Family Catholic School for elementary school and Immaculata High School for Grades 7 and 8 before completing the rest of her high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute. She appeared on the children's television sketch comedy You Can't Do That on Television for five episodes when she was in junior high school.
Music career
1987–1992: Alanis and Now Is the Time
Morissette recorded her first demo called "Fate Stay with Me", produced by Lindsay Thomas Morgan at Marigold Studios in Toronto, engineered by Rich Dodson of Canadian classic rock band The Stampeders. A second demo tape was recorded on cassette in August 1989 and sent to Geffen Records, but the tape has never been heard as it was stolen, among other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989.
In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer, Leslie Howe. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top 20 on the RPM singles chart. Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top 40. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada; comparisons to Tiffany were also common. During the same period, she was a concert opening act for rapper Vanilla Ice. Morissette was nominated for three 1992 Juno Awards: Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year (which she won), Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording (both for "Too Hot").
In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a ballad-driven record that featured less glitzy production than Alanis and contained more thoughtful lyrics. Morissette wrote the songs with the album's producer, Leslie Howe, and Serge Côté. She said of the album, "People could go, 'Boo, hiss, hiss, this girl's like another Tiffany or whatever.' But the way I look at it ... people will like your next album if it's a kick-ass one." As with Alanis (1991), Now Is the Time (1992) was released only in Canada and produced three top 40 singles—"An Emotion Away", the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" as well as "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time". The industry considered it a commercial failure, however, since it sold only a little more than half the copies of her first album. With her two-album deal with MCA Records Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract.
1993–1997: Jagged Little Pill
In 1993, Morissette's publisher Leeds Levy at MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch. Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character and her lyrics. At the time she was still living at home with her parents. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people. After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto. Her publisher funded part of her development and when she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he believed in her talent enough to let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records. In the same year she learned how to play guitar. According to manager Welch, every label they approached, apart from Maverick, declined to sign Morissette.
Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected only to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation improved quickly when KROQ-FM, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single, featuring Flea and Dave Navarro. The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics, and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hits helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand in My Pocket" followed, and the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, kept Jagged Little Pill (1995) in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. Jagged Little Pill sold more than 16 million copies in the U.S.; it sold 33 million worldwide, making it the second biggest-selling album by a female artist (behind Shania Twain's Come On Over).
Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum and produced four RPM chart-toppers: "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", and "Head over Feet". The album was also a bestseller in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill (1995) was credited with opening doors for female singers such as Tracy Bonham, Fiona Apple, Meredith Brooks, Shakira, Pink, Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne and Florence Welch. She was criticized for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, and her previous disco pop albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability. Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 16th Brit Awards she won Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.
Following the album release in 1995, Morissette embarked on an 18-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, who later joined the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. Radiohead joined as an opening act in the summer of 1996. "Ironic" was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards—Record of the Year and Best Music Video, Short Form—and won Single of the Year at the 1997 Juno Awards, where Morissette also won Songwriter of the Year and the International Achievement Award. The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which was co-directed by Morissette and chronicled the bulk of her tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form.
Following the tour, Morissette began practicing Iyengar Yoga for balance. After the last December 1996 show, she went to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two friends. She said the trip was "incredible".
1998–2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged
Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.
The label hoped to sell 1 million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies—a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year.
Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", where she paid homage to her roots by singing in Hungarian, "Hope", "Innocence" and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Morissette toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999).
2001–2005: Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos
In 2001, Morissette was featured with Stephanie McKay on the Tricky song "Excess", which is on his album Blowback. Morissette released her fifth studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her career, she took on the role of sole writer and producer of an album. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney, and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments; additional contributions came from Eric Avery, Dean DeLeo, Flea, and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually going platinum in Canada and selling one million copies in the U.S. It produced the hit single "Hands Clean", which topped the Canadian Singles Chart and received substantial radio play; for her work on "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", Morissette won a Juno Award for Producer of the Year. A second single, "Precious Illusions", was released, but it did not garner significant success outside Canada or U.S. hot AC radio.
Later in 2002, Morissette released the combination package Feast on Scraps, which includes a DVD of live concert and backstage documentary footage directed by her and a CD containing eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions. Preceded by the single "Simple Together", it sold roughly 70,000 copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year.
Morissette hosted the Juno Awards of 2004 dressed in a bathrobe, which she took off to reveal a flesh-colored bodysuit, a response to the era of censorship in the U.S. caused by Janet Jackson's breast-flash incident during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Morissette released her sixth studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again, and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and pop music producer John Shanks. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews, and it became Morissette's lowest seller in the U.S. The lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on Adult Top 40 radio in America and was moderately popular elsewhere, particularly in Canada, although it failed to reach the top 40 on the U.S. Hot 100. Because the first line of the song includes the word "asshole", American radio stations refused to play it, and the single version was changed to include the word "nightmare" instead. Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared considerably worse, although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a U.S. club hit. Morissette embarked on a U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians Barenaked Ladies, working with the non-profit environmental organization Reverb.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill (1995), Morissette released a studio acoustic version, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, in June 2005. The album was released exclusively through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run. The limited availability led to a dispute between Maverick Records and HMV North America, who retaliated by removing Morissette's other albums from sale for the duration of Starbucks's exclusive six-week sale. , Jagged Little Pill Acoustic had sold 372,000 copies in the U.S., and a video for "Hand in My Pocket" received rotation on VH1 in America. The accompanying tour ran for two months in mid-2005, with Morissette playing small theatre venues. During the same period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. The singer opened for The Rolling Stones for a few dates of their A Bigger Bang Tour in the autumn of 2005.
Morissette released the greatest hits album Alanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005. The lead single and only new track, a cover of Seal's "Crazy", was an Adult Top 40 and dance hit in the U.S., but achieved only minimal chart success elsewhere. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimidation" and "Can't Not". (A reworked version of "Can't Not" had also appeared on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.) The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". , The Collection had sold 373,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. That same year, Morissette contributed the song "Wunderkind" to the soundtrack of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
2006–2010: Flavors of Entanglement
2006 marked the first year in Morissette's musical career without a single concert appearance showcasing her own songs, with the exception of an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January when she performed "Wunderkind".
On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a tongue-in-cheek cover of The Black Eyed Peas's selection "My Humps", which she recorded in a slow, mournful voice, accompanied only by a piano. The accompanying YouTube-hosted video, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who act as if attempting to touch her breasts, had received 16,465,653 views as of February 15, 2009. Morissette did not take any interviews for a time to explain the song, and it was theorized that she did it as an April Fools' Day joke. Black Eyed Peas vocalist Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson responded by sending Morissette a buttocks-shaped cake with an approving note. On the verge of the release of her following album, she finally elaborated on how the video came to be, citing that she became very much emotionally loaded while recording her new songs one after the other and one day she wished she could do a simple song like "My Humps" and the joke just took a life of its own.
Morissette performed at a gig for The Nightwatchman, a.k.a. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles in April 2007. The following June, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada", the American and Canadian national anthems, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks in Ottawa, Ontario. (The NHL requires arenas to perform both the American and Canadian national anthems at games involving teams from both countries.) In early 2008, Morissette participated in a tour with Matchbox Twenty and Mutemath as a special guest.
Morissette's seventh studio album, Flavors of Entanglement, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth, was released in mid-2008. She has stated that in late 2008, she would embark on a North American headlining tour, but in the meantime she would be promoting the album internationally by performing at shows and festivals and making television and radio appearances. The album's first single was "Underneath", a video for which was submitted to the 2007 Elevate Film Festival, the purpose of which festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth. On October 3, 2008, Morissette released the video for her latest single, "Not as We".
Morissette contributed to 1 Giant Leap, performing "Arrival" with Zap Mama and she has released an acoustic version of her song "Still" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief in support of the 2010 Haiti earthquake crisis. In 2008 she contributed a recording of "Versions of Violence" for the album Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace to promote peace. Morissette has also recorded a cover of the 1984 Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias hit, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", re-written as "To All the Boys I've Loved Before". Nelson played rhythm guitar on the recording. In April 2010, Morissette released the song "I Remain", which she wrote for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time soundtrack. On May 26, 2010, the season finale of American Idol, Morissette performed a duet of her song "You Oughta Know" with Runner Up Crystal Bowersox. Morissette left Maverick Records after all promotion for Flavors was completed.
2011–2016: Havoc and Bright Lights and Jagged Little Pill 20th anniversary
On November 20, 2011, Morissette appeared at the American Music Awards. When asked about the new album during a short interview, she said she had recorded 31 songs, and that the album would "likely be out next year, probably [in] summertime". On December 21, 2011, Morissette performed a duet of "Uninvited" with finalist Josh Krajcik during the performance finale of the X-Factor.
Morissette embarked on a European tour for the summer of 2012, according to Alanis.com. In early May 2012, a new song called "Magical Child" appeared on a Starbucks compilation called Every Mother Counts.
On May 2, 2012, Morissette revealed through her Facebook account that her eighth studio album, entitled Havoc and Bright Lights, would be released in August 2012, on new label Collective Sounds, distributed by Sony's RED Distribution. On the same day, Billboard specified the date as August 28 and revealed the album would contain twelve tracks. The album's lead single, "Guardian", was released on iTunes on May 15, 2012, and hit the radio airwaves four days prior to this. The single had minor success in North America, charting the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in the US and almost reaching the top 40 in Canada. However, the song did become a hit in several countries in Europe. "Receive", the second single off the album, was released early December the same year.Morissette received the UCLA Spring Sing's George and Ira Gershwin Award on May 16, 2014, at Pauley Pavilion. On her website starting in the summer of 2014, in celebration of her fortieth birthday, the LP record for her song "Big Sur" was offered for sale, which was previously available on the Target edition of her 2012 album, Havoc and Bright Lights. July 25, 2014, was the start of the ten-show Intimate and Acoustic tour.
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the release of Jagged Little Pill, a new four-disc collector's edition was released on October 30, 2015. The four-disc edition includes remastered audio of the original album as well as an entire disc of 10 unreleased demos from the era, handpicked by Morissette from her archives, offering a deeper and more personal look at the classic album. Also included is a previously unreleased concert from 1995 as well as 2005's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic.
2017–present: Such Pretty Forks in the Road
In August 2017, Morissette teased a song titled "I Miss The Band" while on tour. On October 27, 2017, she premiered a new song entitled "Rest", which was released officially in May 2021, and performed "Castle of Glass" with members of the band No Doubt and Mike Shinoda at the Linkin Park and Friends – Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington memorial concert. In November 2017, she tweeted that she was writing 22 songs with Michael Farrell.
On March 16, 2018, Morissette performed a new song called "Ablaze" during her 2018 tour. In October 2018, she revealed on social media that she had written 23 new songs, and hinted at a new album with hashtag "#alanismorissettenewrecord2019", after a six-year hiatus. Song titles from the writing session include "Reckoning", "Diagnosis", "Her" and "Legacy". On May 5, 2018, Jagged Little Pill, a jukebox musical featuring Morissette's songs, premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the American Repertory Theater. Morissette contributed two new songs to the musical, "Smiling" and "Predator". The musical transferred to Broadway in fall of 2019, starting previews on November 3 and opening on December 5 at the Broadhurst Theatre. The production received fifteen Tony Award nominations, the most of any production that season.
In June 2019, Morissette went into studio in Los Angeles. According to an interview, she had written all the songs, and "Smiling" would be included on the new album, likely to be released early 2020. On August 8, 2019, she revealed that the new album was produced by Alex Hope and Catherine Marks. On December 1, 2019, Morissette announced her first studio album in eight years, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, set for release on May 1, 2020. The first single off the record, "Reasons I Drink", was released on December 2, 2019.
Morissette was featured on Halsey's song "Alanis' Interlude", released on January 17, 2020. On February 5, 2020, she revealed that her upcoming album was mixed by Chris Dugan. The second single from the album, "Smiling", was released on February 20, 2020. On April 15, 2020, Morissette announced that the album's release would be postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on July 31, 2020.
Morissette was originally scheduled to embark on a world tour for 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill in June 2020 with Garbage and Liz Phair, both already opened for Morissette in 1999 during Junkie Tour. The latter cancelled her shows in North America and was replaced by Cat Power instead. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to summer 2021.
Acting career
In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress in five episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. She appeared on stage with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988.
In 1999, Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since 1993, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack. Morissette reprised her role as God for a post-credits scene in Smith's next film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, to literally close the book on the View Askewniverse. She also appeared in the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm, appeared in the play The Vagina Monologues, and had brief cameos playing herself in the Brazilian hit soap operas Celebridade and Malhação.
In late 2003, Morissette appeared in the Off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent. In April 2006, MTV News reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 until May 28.
She expanded her acting credentials with the July 2004 release of the Cole Porter biographical film De-Lovely, in which she performed the song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" and had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer. In February 2005, she made a guest appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation with Dogma co-star Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith. Also in 2005, Morissette, then engaged to Ryan Reynolds, made a cameo appearance as "herself" as a former client of Reynolds' character in the film Just Friends. This scene was deleted from the theatrical release, and is only available on the DVD.
In 2006, she guest-starred in an episode of Lifetime's Lovespring International as a homeless woman named Lucinda, three episodes of FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a lesbian named Poppy, and the mockumentary-documentary Pittsburgh as herself.
Morissette has appeared in eight episodes of Weeds, playing Dr. Audra Kitson, a "no-nonsense obstetrician" who treats pregnant main character Nancy Botwin. Her first episode aired in July 2009.
In early 2010, Morissette returned to the stage, performing a one-night engagement in An Oak Tree, an experimental play in Los Angeles. The performance was a sell-out. In April 2010, Morissette was confirmed in the cast of Weeds season six, performing again her role as Dr. Audra Kitson.
Morissette also starred in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth. Morissette plays Sylvia, an ordinary woman in unexpected remission from lymphoma. Morissette stated that she is "...a big fan of Philip K. Dick's poetic and expansively imaginative books" and that she "feel[s] blessed to portray Sylvia, and to be part of this story being told in film".
She appeared as Amanda, a former bandmate of main character Ava Alexander (played by Maya Rudolph), in one episode of NBC's Up All Night on February 16, 2012. Rudolph officiated as minister for Morissette's wedding with both performing the explicit version of their hit hip hop song "Back It Up (Beep Beep)".
In 2014, Morissette played the role of Marisa Damia, the lover of architect and designer Eileen Gray, in the film The Price of Desire, directed by Mary McGuckian.
In 2021, Morissette was featured as a recurring character on adult-animation show The Great North.
Other work
In October 2015, Conversation with Alanis Morissette features conversations with different individuals from different schools and walks of life discussing everything from psychology to art to spirituality to design to health and well-being, to relationships (whether they be romantic or colleagueship or parent with children relationships). The monthly podcast is currently available to download on iTunes and free to listen to on YouTube.
In January 2016, she began a short-lived advice column in The Guardian newspaper.
In May 2018, the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, Massachusetts) premiered Jagged Little Pill, a musical with music by Morissette and Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, book by Diablo Cody, and directed by Diane Paulus.
Jagged, a documentary film about Morissette and Jagged Little Pill by filmmaker Alison Klayman, premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival before airing on HBO as part of the Music Box series of documentary films about music history.
Personal life
Morissette was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Canada. She became a US citizen in 2005, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. Morissette has since then been a practising Buddhist.
Throughout her teen years and 20s, Morissette suffered from depression and various eating disorders. She recovered from them and started to eat a healthier diet. In 2009, she ran a marathon promoting awareness for the National Eating Disorders Association.
In the 2021 documentary Jagged, Morissette said that multiple men committed statutory rape against her when she was 15 years old.
Over a period of seven years, Morissette's business manager Jonathan Schwartz stole over $5 million from her. He confessed to doing so in April 2017 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
On October 22, 2019, Morissette shared her nearly decade-long experience with postpartum depression on CBS This Morning.
In 1996, Morissette bought a home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. She also had an apartment in Ottawa and a home in Malibu, the latter of which was affected by the Woolsey Fire. In 2019, she and her family moved to Northern California, stating in an interview with The New York Times that she was "finally done with living in Los Angeles".
Relationships
Morissette dated actor and comedian Dave Coulier for a short time in the early 1990s. In a 2008 interview, Coulier said he was the ex-boyfriend who inspired Morissette's song "You Oughta Know"; Morissette has not commented on the subject of the song.
Morissette met Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds at Drew Barrymore's birthday party in 2002, and the couple began dating soon afterwards. They announced their engagement in June 2004. In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had decided to end their engagement. Morissette has stated that her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the breakup, saying that "it was cathartic."
On May 22, 2010, Morissette married rapper Mario "Souleye" Treadway in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home. The couple have three children, a son born in 2010,
a daughter born in 2016,
and another son born in 2019.
Discography
Alanis (1991)
Now Is the Time (1992)
Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998)
Under Rug Swept (2002)
So-Called Chaos (2004)
Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
Havoc and Bright Lights (2012)
Such Pretty Forks in the Road (2020)
Awards and nominations
Filmography
Film
Television
Stage
Tours
Opening act
To the Extreme Tour (1991) (opening act for Vanilla Ice)
1999 Summer Tour (1999) (opening act for Dave Matthews Band–Denver)
A Bigger Bang Tour (2005) (opening act for The Rolling Stones)
Headlining
Jagged Little Tour (1995)
Intellectual Intercourse Tour (1995–96)
Can't Not Tour (1996) featuring Radiohead
Dhanyavad Tour (1998)
Junkie Tour (1999) featuring Garbage and Liz Phair
One Tour (2000)
Under Rug Swept Tour (2001)
Toward Our Union Mended Tour (2002)
All I Really Want Tour (2003)
So-Called Chaos Tour (2004)
Diamond Wink Tour (2005) featuring Jason Mraz
Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour (2005)
Flavors of Entanglement Tour (2008–09)
Guardian Angel Tour (2012)
Intimate and Acoustic (2014)
World Tour (2018)
2021 World Tour: Celebrating 25 Years of Jagged Little Pill featuring Garbage and Cat Power (2021–22)
Co-headlining
5 ½ Weeks Tour (1999) (with Tori Amos)
Au Naturale Tour (2004) (with the Barenaked Ladies)
Exile in America Tour (2008) (with Matchbox Twenty)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of best-selling albums
References
Further reading
Rock on the Net
[ "Alanis Morissette – Artist Chart History"]. Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
[ "Alanis Morissette – Billboard Singles"]. Allmusic. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
Rock Chicks:The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now by Stieven-Taylor, Alison (2007). Sydney. Rockpool Publishing.
External links
1974 births
Living people
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Ottawa
Alternative rock singers
American Buddhists
American dance musicians
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American feminists
American film actresses
American harmonica players
American mezzo-sopranos
American music video directors
American people of French descent
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Irish descent
American rock songwriters
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American women record producers
Brit Award winners
Canadian child actresses
Canadian dance musicians
Canadian emigrants to the United States
Canadian women pop singers
Canadian women rock singers
Canadian women singer-songwriters
Canadian feminists
Canadian film actresses
Canadian harmonica players
Canadian mezzo-sopranos
Canadian music video directors
Canadian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Canadian people of Irish descent
Canadian record producers
Canadian Buddhists
Canadian stage actresses
Canadian television actresses
Canadian women guitarists
Canadian women record producers
Child pop musicians
Echo (music award) winners
Female music video directors
Feminist musicians
Former Roman Catholics
Franco-Ontarian people
Fraternal twin actresses
Grammy Award winners
Guitarists from California
Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award winners
Juno Award for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Pop Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year winners
Juno Award for Video of the Year winners
Juno International Achievement Award winners
Maverick Records artists
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musicians from Ottawa
Naturalized citizens of the United States
People from Brentwood, Los Angeles
Record producers from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Twin musicians
Twin people from Canada
Warner Music Group artists
Women post-grunge singers
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from Ottawa
20th-century Canadian actresses
20th-century Canadian guitarists
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21st-century American guitarists
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21st-century Buddhists
21st-century Canadian actresses
21st-century Canadian guitarists
21st-century Canadian women singers
21st-century Canadian women writers
21st-century Roman Catholics
Singer-songwriters from California
| true |
[
"Allison \"Alli\" Flaxey ( Nimik; born February 13, 1985) is a Canadian curler from Caledon, Ontario. She is a former Canadian Mixed champion, and World Mixed Doubles bronze medallist.\n\nCareer\nFlaxey is originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. As a junior, she won the Manitoba Junior championships at the age of 15 in 2001 with teammates Kristin Loder, Lindsay Titheridge and Elisabeth Peters. The team finished with a 4–8 record at the 2001 Canadian Junior Curling Championships.\n\nFlaxey began curling competitively playing second for Shauna Streich. As a resident of Manitoba, she won the 2009 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship (held in Autumn 2008), playing third for Sean Grassie. This qualified the two for the 2009 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, where they won a bronze medal. In 2008, Flaxey moved to Alberta where she played competitively as third for Leslie Rogers in 2009 and 2010 and then as third for Casey Scheidegger in 2011. She made the Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts in all three of those seasons. Her highest finish was 4th in 2010.\n\nIn 2011, Flaxey moved to Ontario to form her own team. As skip, she qualified for her first Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts in 2012 where she finished with a 2–7 record. The following year, her team did not qualify for the Ontario Hearts, but won the event in 2014, qualifying Flaxey and her team of Katie Cottrill, Lynn Kreviazuk and Morgan Court to represent Ontario at the 2014 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. There, Flaxey led Ontario to a 3–8 record. As defending champions, Flaxey qualified for the 2015 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts, but failed to make the playoffs after posting a 4–5 record.\n\nFor the 2015-16 curling season, Flaxey formed a new team with Clancy Grandy, Lynn Kreviazuk and Morgan Court. The tean qualified for the 2016 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts, but finished with a 3–6 record. However, they did win a World Curling Tour event that season, winning the KW Fall Classic. The next season, Flaxey won her first Grand Slam of Curling event, the 2016 WFG Masters. The team had enough points to qualify for the 2017 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts through the CTRS Leaders, but they lost the tiebreaker to Cathy Auld 10–4. The team lost all three qualifiers at the 2018 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts and did not qualify for the playoffs.\n\nAfter the 2017-18 season, Flaxey announced she would be moving back to Manitoba to skip the team a new team of Kate Cameron, Taylor McDonald and Raunora Westcott for the 2018-19 season. The team played in one Slam, the 2018 Tour Challenge, where they finished 1-3 missing the playoffs. At the 2019 Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the team failed to qualify for the playoffs after posting a 4-3 round robin record.\n\nFlaxey moved back to Ontario for the 2019-20 season to join former teammates Clancy Grandy and Morgan Lavell. Flaxey moved down to third as the team brought on Kaitlyn Jones to play skip. The team did not have a great season, failing to win any tour events and not qualifying for the provincial championship. The team disbanded after just one season. On March 26, 2020, it was announced that Flaxey would play third for Jacqueline Harrison for the 2020–21 season with Lynn Kreviazuk at second and Laura Hickey at lead.\n\nPersonal life\nFlaxey and fellow curler Caleb Flaxey were married in March 2013. She works as a Sales Division Manager for Canada Malting.\n\nGrand Slam record\n\nFormer events\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLiving people\nCurlers from Alberta\nCurlers from Ontario\nCanadian women curlers\nCanadian mixed curling champions\n1985 births\nCurlers from Winnipeg\nPeople from Caledon, Ontario\nCanada Cup (curling) participants",
"Dani Deahl is a Chicago based EDM, & House music producer, DJ, journalist, and blogger. She was the producer of a Billboard charted song, ran the music blog DSquared from 2009–2015, and is currently DJ Mags editor at large.\n\nEarly life\nBorn and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Deahl became a DJ and got her first few residencies while she was still attending high school. In 2006, Deahl became producer and co-host of Red Bar Radio, the first internet podcast to be syndicated on terrestrial radio. Since that time, she's expanded into music production, journalism, and blogging. Deahl started her writing career as a contributor for Urb and shortly thereafter became their House Section Editor. She has also contributed to Chinashop (Red Bull's magazine), Time Out, Mateo, BPM, Complex, and Vice. Deahl's blog, DSquared, started in 2009.\n\nTEDx\nIn 2014, Deahl did a highly publicized TEDx talk titled \"Women, STEM & EDM.\" Deahl spoke in regards to her role as a female in the electronic music industry, and the inequalities that exist. she has also stated in interviews that she is a women's rights activist.\n\nSMYK (Show Me Your Kitties Tour)\nDeahl's \"Show Me Your Kitties\" tour was a tour that consisted of 30 shows all promoted, ticked, and planned out by staff and assistants of the tour. Deahl had stated that because she was a female DJ, she was finding it difficult to get booked and promoted for shows. In response to that, she made an active effort to self sustain the tour, from creating a ticketing service that allowed customers to also donate to a nonprofit big cat rescue charity, to booking and promoting shows without promoters.\n\nDJ Mag\nAs of 2016, Deahl had taken up a role as an editor for popular music magazine DJ Mag. She said in an interview that she had written pieces for the magazine and then eventually was offered a position.\n\nPersonal life\nDeahl is married to DJ Fei Tang. They married on May 5, 2013.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n\nLiving people\nRecord producers from Illinois\nWomen DJs\nAmerican DJs\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nAmerican women record producers"
] |
[
"Alanis Morissette",
"1998-2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged",
"Was she infatuated with a junkie?",
"Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Was that an album or a song?",
"fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Did it have any hits?",
"platinum. \"Thank U\", the",
"How did it chart?",
"major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance;",
"Did she tour for that record?",
"major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best"
] |
C_19751c82ebc942199a9b544e136a460e_1
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
| 6 |
Besides Alanis Morissette's album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
|
Alanis Morissette
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Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard. Privately, the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies--a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year. The "So Pure" video features actor Dash Mihok, with whom Morissette was in a relationship at the time. Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", "Hope", "Innocence", and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Alanis toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999). CANNOTANSWER
|
"So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards.
|
Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two mildly successful dance-pop albums. Afterward, as part of a recording deal, she moved to Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. In 1995, she released Jagged Little Pill, an alt rock-oriented album with the elements of post-grunge, which sold more than 33 million copies globally and is her most critically acclaimed work to date. This earned her Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1996 and was made into a rock musical of the same name in 2017, which also earned 15 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical. The album also listed in 2003 and 2020 editions of the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Guide. Her highly anticipated, more experimental follow-up, electronic-infused album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998.
Morissette assumed creative control and producing duties for her subsequent studio albums, including Under Rug Swept (2002), So-Called Chaos (2004), Flavors of Entanglement (2008), and Havoc and Bright Lights (2012). Her latest album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, was released in 2020. Her well-known singles reached top 40 in the major charts around the world, including 10 top-40 hits in the UK, 3 top-10 in the US and Australia, 12 top-10 hits in her native Canada, "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", "Head Over Feet", "Uninvited", "Thank U" and "Hands Clean". She also holds the record of the most No. 1s on the weekly Billboard Alternative Songs chart among any female soloist, group leader or duo member. Morissette won 7 Grammy Awards, 14 Juno Awards, 1 Brit Award and has sold more than 75 million records worldwide and has been dubbed the "Queen of Alt-Rock Angst" by Rolling Stone.
Early life
Morissette was born June 1, 1974, at Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to teacher Georgia Mary Ann ( Feuerstein) of Hungarian descent and high-school principal and French teacher Alan Richard Morissette. She has two brothers: older brother Chad is a business entrepreneur, and twin brother (12 minutes older) Wade Morissette is a musician. Her father is of French and Irish descent, whereas her mother has Hungarian and Jewish ancestry. Her parents were teachers in a military school and due to their work often had to move. Between the ages of three and six she lived with her parents in Lahr (Black Forest), Germany.
When she was six years old, she returned to Ottawa and started to play the piano. In 1981, at the age of seven, she began dance lessons. Morissette had a Catholic upbringing. She attended Holy Family Catholic School for elementary school and Immaculata High School for Grades 7 and 8 before completing the rest of her high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute. She appeared on the children's television sketch comedy You Can't Do That on Television for five episodes when she was in junior high school.
Music career
1987–1992: Alanis and Now Is the Time
Morissette recorded her first demo called "Fate Stay with Me", produced by Lindsay Thomas Morgan at Marigold Studios in Toronto, engineered by Rich Dodson of Canadian classic rock band The Stampeders. A second demo tape was recorded on cassette in August 1989 and sent to Geffen Records, but the tape has never been heard as it was stolen, among other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989.
In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer, Leslie Howe. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top 20 on the RPM singles chart. Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top 40. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada; comparisons to Tiffany were also common. During the same period, she was a concert opening act for rapper Vanilla Ice. Morissette was nominated for three 1992 Juno Awards: Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year (which she won), Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording (both for "Too Hot").
In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a ballad-driven record that featured less glitzy production than Alanis and contained more thoughtful lyrics. Morissette wrote the songs with the album's producer, Leslie Howe, and Serge Côté. She said of the album, "People could go, 'Boo, hiss, hiss, this girl's like another Tiffany or whatever.' But the way I look at it ... people will like your next album if it's a kick-ass one." As with Alanis (1991), Now Is the Time (1992) was released only in Canada and produced three top 40 singles—"An Emotion Away", the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" as well as "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time". The industry considered it a commercial failure, however, since it sold only a little more than half the copies of her first album. With her two-album deal with MCA Records Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract.
1993–1997: Jagged Little Pill
In 1993, Morissette's publisher Leeds Levy at MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch. Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character and her lyrics. At the time she was still living at home with her parents. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people. After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto. Her publisher funded part of her development and when she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he believed in her talent enough to let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records. In the same year she learned how to play guitar. According to manager Welch, every label they approached, apart from Maverick, declined to sign Morissette.
Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected only to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation improved quickly when KROQ-FM, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single, featuring Flea and Dave Navarro. The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics, and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hits helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand in My Pocket" followed, and the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, kept Jagged Little Pill (1995) in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. Jagged Little Pill sold more than 16 million copies in the U.S.; it sold 33 million worldwide, making it the second biggest-selling album by a female artist (behind Shania Twain's Come On Over).
Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum and produced four RPM chart-toppers: "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", and "Head over Feet". The album was also a bestseller in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill (1995) was credited with opening doors for female singers such as Tracy Bonham, Fiona Apple, Meredith Brooks, Shakira, Pink, Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne and Florence Welch. She was criticized for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, and her previous disco pop albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability. Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 16th Brit Awards she won Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.
Following the album release in 1995, Morissette embarked on an 18-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, who later joined the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. Radiohead joined as an opening act in the summer of 1996. "Ironic" was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards—Record of the Year and Best Music Video, Short Form—and won Single of the Year at the 1997 Juno Awards, where Morissette also won Songwriter of the Year and the International Achievement Award. The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which was co-directed by Morissette and chronicled the bulk of her tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form.
Following the tour, Morissette began practicing Iyengar Yoga for balance. After the last December 1996 show, she went to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two friends. She said the trip was "incredible".
1998–2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged
Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.
The label hoped to sell 1 million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies—a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year.
Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", where she paid homage to her roots by singing in Hungarian, "Hope", "Innocence" and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Morissette toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999).
2001–2005: Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos
In 2001, Morissette was featured with Stephanie McKay on the Tricky song "Excess", which is on his album Blowback. Morissette released her fifth studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her career, she took on the role of sole writer and producer of an album. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney, and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments; additional contributions came from Eric Avery, Dean DeLeo, Flea, and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually going platinum in Canada and selling one million copies in the U.S. It produced the hit single "Hands Clean", which topped the Canadian Singles Chart and received substantial radio play; for her work on "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", Morissette won a Juno Award for Producer of the Year. A second single, "Precious Illusions", was released, but it did not garner significant success outside Canada or U.S. hot AC radio.
Later in 2002, Morissette released the combination package Feast on Scraps, which includes a DVD of live concert and backstage documentary footage directed by her and a CD containing eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions. Preceded by the single "Simple Together", it sold roughly 70,000 copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year.
Morissette hosted the Juno Awards of 2004 dressed in a bathrobe, which she took off to reveal a flesh-colored bodysuit, a response to the era of censorship in the U.S. caused by Janet Jackson's breast-flash incident during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Morissette released her sixth studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again, and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and pop music producer John Shanks. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews, and it became Morissette's lowest seller in the U.S. The lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on Adult Top 40 radio in America and was moderately popular elsewhere, particularly in Canada, although it failed to reach the top 40 on the U.S. Hot 100. Because the first line of the song includes the word "asshole", American radio stations refused to play it, and the single version was changed to include the word "nightmare" instead. Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared considerably worse, although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a U.S. club hit. Morissette embarked on a U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians Barenaked Ladies, working with the non-profit environmental organization Reverb.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill (1995), Morissette released a studio acoustic version, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, in June 2005. The album was released exclusively through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run. The limited availability led to a dispute between Maverick Records and HMV North America, who retaliated by removing Morissette's other albums from sale for the duration of Starbucks's exclusive six-week sale. , Jagged Little Pill Acoustic had sold 372,000 copies in the U.S., and a video for "Hand in My Pocket" received rotation on VH1 in America. The accompanying tour ran for two months in mid-2005, with Morissette playing small theatre venues. During the same period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. The singer opened for The Rolling Stones for a few dates of their A Bigger Bang Tour in the autumn of 2005.
Morissette released the greatest hits album Alanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005. The lead single and only new track, a cover of Seal's "Crazy", was an Adult Top 40 and dance hit in the U.S., but achieved only minimal chart success elsewhere. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimidation" and "Can't Not". (A reworked version of "Can't Not" had also appeared on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.) The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". , The Collection had sold 373,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. That same year, Morissette contributed the song "Wunderkind" to the soundtrack of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
2006–2010: Flavors of Entanglement
2006 marked the first year in Morissette's musical career without a single concert appearance showcasing her own songs, with the exception of an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January when she performed "Wunderkind".
On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a tongue-in-cheek cover of The Black Eyed Peas's selection "My Humps", which she recorded in a slow, mournful voice, accompanied only by a piano. The accompanying YouTube-hosted video, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who act as if attempting to touch her breasts, had received 16,465,653 views as of February 15, 2009. Morissette did not take any interviews for a time to explain the song, and it was theorized that she did it as an April Fools' Day joke. Black Eyed Peas vocalist Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson responded by sending Morissette a buttocks-shaped cake with an approving note. On the verge of the release of her following album, she finally elaborated on how the video came to be, citing that she became very much emotionally loaded while recording her new songs one after the other and one day she wished she could do a simple song like "My Humps" and the joke just took a life of its own.
Morissette performed at a gig for The Nightwatchman, a.k.a. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles in April 2007. The following June, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada", the American and Canadian national anthems, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks in Ottawa, Ontario. (The NHL requires arenas to perform both the American and Canadian national anthems at games involving teams from both countries.) In early 2008, Morissette participated in a tour with Matchbox Twenty and Mutemath as a special guest.
Morissette's seventh studio album, Flavors of Entanglement, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth, was released in mid-2008. She has stated that in late 2008, she would embark on a North American headlining tour, but in the meantime she would be promoting the album internationally by performing at shows and festivals and making television and radio appearances. The album's first single was "Underneath", a video for which was submitted to the 2007 Elevate Film Festival, the purpose of which festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth. On October 3, 2008, Morissette released the video for her latest single, "Not as We".
Morissette contributed to 1 Giant Leap, performing "Arrival" with Zap Mama and she has released an acoustic version of her song "Still" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief in support of the 2010 Haiti earthquake crisis. In 2008 she contributed a recording of "Versions of Violence" for the album Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace to promote peace. Morissette has also recorded a cover of the 1984 Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias hit, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", re-written as "To All the Boys I've Loved Before". Nelson played rhythm guitar on the recording. In April 2010, Morissette released the song "I Remain", which she wrote for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time soundtrack. On May 26, 2010, the season finale of American Idol, Morissette performed a duet of her song "You Oughta Know" with Runner Up Crystal Bowersox. Morissette left Maverick Records after all promotion for Flavors was completed.
2011–2016: Havoc and Bright Lights and Jagged Little Pill 20th anniversary
On November 20, 2011, Morissette appeared at the American Music Awards. When asked about the new album during a short interview, she said she had recorded 31 songs, and that the album would "likely be out next year, probably [in] summertime". On December 21, 2011, Morissette performed a duet of "Uninvited" with finalist Josh Krajcik during the performance finale of the X-Factor.
Morissette embarked on a European tour for the summer of 2012, according to Alanis.com. In early May 2012, a new song called "Magical Child" appeared on a Starbucks compilation called Every Mother Counts.
On May 2, 2012, Morissette revealed through her Facebook account that her eighth studio album, entitled Havoc and Bright Lights, would be released in August 2012, on new label Collective Sounds, distributed by Sony's RED Distribution. On the same day, Billboard specified the date as August 28 and revealed the album would contain twelve tracks. The album's lead single, "Guardian", was released on iTunes on May 15, 2012, and hit the radio airwaves four days prior to this. The single had minor success in North America, charting the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in the US and almost reaching the top 40 in Canada. However, the song did become a hit in several countries in Europe. "Receive", the second single off the album, was released early December the same year.Morissette received the UCLA Spring Sing's George and Ira Gershwin Award on May 16, 2014, at Pauley Pavilion. On her website starting in the summer of 2014, in celebration of her fortieth birthday, the LP record for her song "Big Sur" was offered for sale, which was previously available on the Target edition of her 2012 album, Havoc and Bright Lights. July 25, 2014, was the start of the ten-show Intimate and Acoustic tour.
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the release of Jagged Little Pill, a new four-disc collector's edition was released on October 30, 2015. The four-disc edition includes remastered audio of the original album as well as an entire disc of 10 unreleased demos from the era, handpicked by Morissette from her archives, offering a deeper and more personal look at the classic album. Also included is a previously unreleased concert from 1995 as well as 2005's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic.
2017–present: Such Pretty Forks in the Road
In August 2017, Morissette teased a song titled "I Miss The Band" while on tour. On October 27, 2017, she premiered a new song entitled "Rest", which was released officially in May 2021, and performed "Castle of Glass" with members of the band No Doubt and Mike Shinoda at the Linkin Park and Friends – Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington memorial concert. In November 2017, she tweeted that she was writing 22 songs with Michael Farrell.
On March 16, 2018, Morissette performed a new song called "Ablaze" during her 2018 tour. In October 2018, she revealed on social media that she had written 23 new songs, and hinted at a new album with hashtag "#alanismorissettenewrecord2019", after a six-year hiatus. Song titles from the writing session include "Reckoning", "Diagnosis", "Her" and "Legacy". On May 5, 2018, Jagged Little Pill, a jukebox musical featuring Morissette's songs, premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the American Repertory Theater. Morissette contributed two new songs to the musical, "Smiling" and "Predator". The musical transferred to Broadway in fall of 2019, starting previews on November 3 and opening on December 5 at the Broadhurst Theatre. The production received fifteen Tony Award nominations, the most of any production that season.
In June 2019, Morissette went into studio in Los Angeles. According to an interview, she had written all the songs, and "Smiling" would be included on the new album, likely to be released early 2020. On August 8, 2019, she revealed that the new album was produced by Alex Hope and Catherine Marks. On December 1, 2019, Morissette announced her first studio album in eight years, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, set for release on May 1, 2020. The first single off the record, "Reasons I Drink", was released on December 2, 2019.
Morissette was featured on Halsey's song "Alanis' Interlude", released on January 17, 2020. On February 5, 2020, she revealed that her upcoming album was mixed by Chris Dugan. The second single from the album, "Smiling", was released on February 20, 2020. On April 15, 2020, Morissette announced that the album's release would be postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on July 31, 2020.
Morissette was originally scheduled to embark on a world tour for 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill in June 2020 with Garbage and Liz Phair, both already opened for Morissette in 1999 during Junkie Tour. The latter cancelled her shows in North America and was replaced by Cat Power instead. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to summer 2021.
Acting career
In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress in five episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. She appeared on stage with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988.
In 1999, Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since 1993, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack. Morissette reprised her role as God for a post-credits scene in Smith's next film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, to literally close the book on the View Askewniverse. She also appeared in the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm, appeared in the play The Vagina Monologues, and had brief cameos playing herself in the Brazilian hit soap operas Celebridade and Malhação.
In late 2003, Morissette appeared in the Off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent. In April 2006, MTV News reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 until May 28.
She expanded her acting credentials with the July 2004 release of the Cole Porter biographical film De-Lovely, in which she performed the song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" and had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer. In February 2005, she made a guest appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation with Dogma co-star Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith. Also in 2005, Morissette, then engaged to Ryan Reynolds, made a cameo appearance as "herself" as a former client of Reynolds' character in the film Just Friends. This scene was deleted from the theatrical release, and is only available on the DVD.
In 2006, she guest-starred in an episode of Lifetime's Lovespring International as a homeless woman named Lucinda, three episodes of FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a lesbian named Poppy, and the mockumentary-documentary Pittsburgh as herself.
Morissette has appeared in eight episodes of Weeds, playing Dr. Audra Kitson, a "no-nonsense obstetrician" who treats pregnant main character Nancy Botwin. Her first episode aired in July 2009.
In early 2010, Morissette returned to the stage, performing a one-night engagement in An Oak Tree, an experimental play in Los Angeles. The performance was a sell-out. In April 2010, Morissette was confirmed in the cast of Weeds season six, performing again her role as Dr. Audra Kitson.
Morissette also starred in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth. Morissette plays Sylvia, an ordinary woman in unexpected remission from lymphoma. Morissette stated that she is "...a big fan of Philip K. Dick's poetic and expansively imaginative books" and that she "feel[s] blessed to portray Sylvia, and to be part of this story being told in film".
She appeared as Amanda, a former bandmate of main character Ava Alexander (played by Maya Rudolph), in one episode of NBC's Up All Night on February 16, 2012. Rudolph officiated as minister for Morissette's wedding with both performing the explicit version of their hit hip hop song "Back It Up (Beep Beep)".
In 2014, Morissette played the role of Marisa Damia, the lover of architect and designer Eileen Gray, in the film The Price of Desire, directed by Mary McGuckian.
In 2021, Morissette was featured as a recurring character on adult-animation show The Great North.
Other work
In October 2015, Conversation with Alanis Morissette features conversations with different individuals from different schools and walks of life discussing everything from psychology to art to spirituality to design to health and well-being, to relationships (whether they be romantic or colleagueship or parent with children relationships). The monthly podcast is currently available to download on iTunes and free to listen to on YouTube.
In January 2016, she began a short-lived advice column in The Guardian newspaper.
In May 2018, the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, Massachusetts) premiered Jagged Little Pill, a musical with music by Morissette and Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, book by Diablo Cody, and directed by Diane Paulus.
Jagged, a documentary film about Morissette and Jagged Little Pill by filmmaker Alison Klayman, premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival before airing on HBO as part of the Music Box series of documentary films about music history.
Personal life
Morissette was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Canada. She became a US citizen in 2005, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. Morissette has since then been a practising Buddhist.
Throughout her teen years and 20s, Morissette suffered from depression and various eating disorders. She recovered from them and started to eat a healthier diet. In 2009, she ran a marathon promoting awareness for the National Eating Disorders Association.
In the 2021 documentary Jagged, Morissette said that multiple men committed statutory rape against her when she was 15 years old.
Over a period of seven years, Morissette's business manager Jonathan Schwartz stole over $5 million from her. He confessed to doing so in April 2017 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
On October 22, 2019, Morissette shared her nearly decade-long experience with postpartum depression on CBS This Morning.
In 1996, Morissette bought a home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. She also had an apartment in Ottawa and a home in Malibu, the latter of which was affected by the Woolsey Fire. In 2019, she and her family moved to Northern California, stating in an interview with The New York Times that she was "finally done with living in Los Angeles".
Relationships
Morissette dated actor and comedian Dave Coulier for a short time in the early 1990s. In a 2008 interview, Coulier said he was the ex-boyfriend who inspired Morissette's song "You Oughta Know"; Morissette has not commented on the subject of the song.
Morissette met Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds at Drew Barrymore's birthday party in 2002, and the couple began dating soon afterwards. They announced their engagement in June 2004. In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had decided to end their engagement. Morissette has stated that her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the breakup, saying that "it was cathartic."
On May 22, 2010, Morissette married rapper Mario "Souleye" Treadway in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home. The couple have three children, a son born in 2010,
a daughter born in 2016,
and another son born in 2019.
Discography
Alanis (1991)
Now Is the Time (1992)
Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998)
Under Rug Swept (2002)
So-Called Chaos (2004)
Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
Havoc and Bright Lights (2012)
Such Pretty Forks in the Road (2020)
Awards and nominations
Filmography
Film
Television
Stage
Tours
Opening act
To the Extreme Tour (1991) (opening act for Vanilla Ice)
1999 Summer Tour (1999) (opening act for Dave Matthews Band–Denver)
A Bigger Bang Tour (2005) (opening act for The Rolling Stones)
Headlining
Jagged Little Tour (1995)
Intellectual Intercourse Tour (1995–96)
Can't Not Tour (1996) featuring Radiohead
Dhanyavad Tour (1998)
Junkie Tour (1999) featuring Garbage and Liz Phair
One Tour (2000)
Under Rug Swept Tour (2001)
Toward Our Union Mended Tour (2002)
All I Really Want Tour (2003)
So-Called Chaos Tour (2004)
Diamond Wink Tour (2005) featuring Jason Mraz
Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour (2005)
Flavors of Entanglement Tour (2008–09)
Guardian Angel Tour (2012)
Intimate and Acoustic (2014)
World Tour (2018)
2021 World Tour: Celebrating 25 Years of Jagged Little Pill featuring Garbage and Cat Power (2021–22)
Co-headlining
5 ½ Weeks Tour (1999) (with Tori Amos)
Au Naturale Tour (2004) (with the Barenaked Ladies)
Exile in America Tour (2008) (with Matchbox Twenty)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of best-selling albums
References
Further reading
Rock on the Net
[ "Alanis Morissette – Artist Chart History"]. Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
[ "Alanis Morissette – Billboard Singles"]. Allmusic. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
Rock Chicks:The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now by Stieven-Taylor, Alison (2007). Sydney. Rockpool Publishing.
External links
1974 births
Living people
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Ottawa
Alternative rock singers
American Buddhists
American dance musicians
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American feminists
American film actresses
American harmonica players
American mezzo-sopranos
American music video directors
American people of French descent
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Irish descent
American rock songwriters
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American women record producers
Brit Award winners
Canadian child actresses
Canadian dance musicians
Canadian emigrants to the United States
Canadian women pop singers
Canadian women rock singers
Canadian women singer-songwriters
Canadian feminists
Canadian film actresses
Canadian harmonica players
Canadian mezzo-sopranos
Canadian music video directors
Canadian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Canadian people of Irish descent
Canadian record producers
Canadian Buddhists
Canadian stage actresses
Canadian television actresses
Canadian women guitarists
Canadian women record producers
Child pop musicians
Echo (music award) winners
Female music video directors
Feminist musicians
Former Roman Catholics
Franco-Ontarian people
Fraternal twin actresses
Grammy Award winners
Guitarists from California
Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award winners
Juno Award for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Pop Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year winners
Juno Award for Video of the Year winners
Juno International Achievement Award winners
Maverick Records artists
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musicians from Ottawa
Naturalized citizens of the United States
People from Brentwood, Los Angeles
Record producers from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Twin musicians
Twin people from Canada
Warner Music Group artists
Women post-grunge singers
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from Ottawa
20th-century Canadian actresses
20th-century Canadian guitarists
20th-century Canadian women singers
20th-century Canadian women writers
20th-century Roman Catholics
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century Buddhists
21st-century Canadian actresses
21st-century Canadian guitarists
21st-century Canadian women singers
21st-century Canadian women writers
21st-century Roman Catholics
Singer-songwriters from California
| 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"
] |
[
"Alanis Morissette",
"1998-2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged",
"Was she infatuated with a junkie?",
"Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Was that an album or a song?",
"fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Did it have any hits?",
"platinum. \"Thank U\", the",
"How did it chart?",
"major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance;",
"Did she tour for that record?",
"major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"\"So Pure\" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards."
] |
C_19751c82ebc942199a9b544e136a460e_1
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When did Alanis Unplugged come out?
| 7 |
When did the album Alanis Unplugged come out?
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Alanis Morissette
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Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard. Privately, the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies--a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year. The "So Pure" video features actor Dash Mihok, with whom Morissette was in a relationship at the time. Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", "Hope", "Innocence", and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Alanis toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999). CANNOTANSWER
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1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which
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Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two mildly successful dance-pop albums. Afterward, as part of a recording deal, she moved to Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. In 1995, she released Jagged Little Pill, an alt rock-oriented album with the elements of post-grunge, which sold more than 33 million copies globally and is her most critically acclaimed work to date. This earned her Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1996 and was made into a rock musical of the same name in 2017, which also earned 15 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical. The album also listed in 2003 and 2020 editions of the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Guide. Her highly anticipated, more experimental follow-up, electronic-infused album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998.
Morissette assumed creative control and producing duties for her subsequent studio albums, including Under Rug Swept (2002), So-Called Chaos (2004), Flavors of Entanglement (2008), and Havoc and Bright Lights (2012). Her latest album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, was released in 2020. Her well-known singles reached top 40 in the major charts around the world, including 10 top-40 hits in the UK, 3 top-10 in the US and Australia, 12 top-10 hits in her native Canada, "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", "Head Over Feet", "Uninvited", "Thank U" and "Hands Clean". She also holds the record of the most No. 1s on the weekly Billboard Alternative Songs chart among any female soloist, group leader or duo member. Morissette won 7 Grammy Awards, 14 Juno Awards, 1 Brit Award and has sold more than 75 million records worldwide and has been dubbed the "Queen of Alt-Rock Angst" by Rolling Stone.
Early life
Morissette was born June 1, 1974, at Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to teacher Georgia Mary Ann ( Feuerstein) of Hungarian descent and high-school principal and French teacher Alan Richard Morissette. She has two brothers: older brother Chad is a business entrepreneur, and twin brother (12 minutes older) Wade Morissette is a musician. Her father is of French and Irish descent, whereas her mother has Hungarian and Jewish ancestry. Her parents were teachers in a military school and due to their work often had to move. Between the ages of three and six she lived with her parents in Lahr (Black Forest), Germany.
When she was six years old, she returned to Ottawa and started to play the piano. In 1981, at the age of seven, she began dance lessons. Morissette had a Catholic upbringing. She attended Holy Family Catholic School for elementary school and Immaculata High School for Grades 7 and 8 before completing the rest of her high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute. She appeared on the children's television sketch comedy You Can't Do That on Television for five episodes when she was in junior high school.
Music career
1987–1992: Alanis and Now Is the Time
Morissette recorded her first demo called "Fate Stay with Me", produced by Lindsay Thomas Morgan at Marigold Studios in Toronto, engineered by Rich Dodson of Canadian classic rock band The Stampeders. A second demo tape was recorded on cassette in August 1989 and sent to Geffen Records, but the tape has never been heard as it was stolen, among other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989.
In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer, Leslie Howe. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top 20 on the RPM singles chart. Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top 40. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada; comparisons to Tiffany were also common. During the same period, she was a concert opening act for rapper Vanilla Ice. Morissette was nominated for three 1992 Juno Awards: Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year (which she won), Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording (both for "Too Hot").
In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a ballad-driven record that featured less glitzy production than Alanis and contained more thoughtful lyrics. Morissette wrote the songs with the album's producer, Leslie Howe, and Serge Côté. She said of the album, "People could go, 'Boo, hiss, hiss, this girl's like another Tiffany or whatever.' But the way I look at it ... people will like your next album if it's a kick-ass one." As with Alanis (1991), Now Is the Time (1992) was released only in Canada and produced three top 40 singles—"An Emotion Away", the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" as well as "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time". The industry considered it a commercial failure, however, since it sold only a little more than half the copies of her first album. With her two-album deal with MCA Records Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract.
1993–1997: Jagged Little Pill
In 1993, Morissette's publisher Leeds Levy at MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch. Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character and her lyrics. At the time she was still living at home with her parents. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people. After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto. Her publisher funded part of her development and when she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he believed in her talent enough to let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records. In the same year she learned how to play guitar. According to manager Welch, every label they approached, apart from Maverick, declined to sign Morissette.
Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected only to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation improved quickly when KROQ-FM, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single, featuring Flea and Dave Navarro. The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics, and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hits helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand in My Pocket" followed, and the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, kept Jagged Little Pill (1995) in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. Jagged Little Pill sold more than 16 million copies in the U.S.; it sold 33 million worldwide, making it the second biggest-selling album by a female artist (behind Shania Twain's Come On Over).
Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum and produced four RPM chart-toppers: "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", and "Head over Feet". The album was also a bestseller in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill (1995) was credited with opening doors for female singers such as Tracy Bonham, Fiona Apple, Meredith Brooks, Shakira, Pink, Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne and Florence Welch. She was criticized for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, and her previous disco pop albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability. Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 16th Brit Awards she won Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.
Following the album release in 1995, Morissette embarked on an 18-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, who later joined the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. Radiohead joined as an opening act in the summer of 1996. "Ironic" was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards—Record of the Year and Best Music Video, Short Form—and won Single of the Year at the 1997 Juno Awards, where Morissette also won Songwriter of the Year and the International Achievement Award. The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which was co-directed by Morissette and chronicled the bulk of her tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form.
Following the tour, Morissette began practicing Iyengar Yoga for balance. After the last December 1996 show, she went to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two friends. She said the trip was "incredible".
1998–2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged
Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.
The label hoped to sell 1 million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies—a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year.
Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", where she paid homage to her roots by singing in Hungarian, "Hope", "Innocence" and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Morissette toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999).
2001–2005: Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos
In 2001, Morissette was featured with Stephanie McKay on the Tricky song "Excess", which is on his album Blowback. Morissette released her fifth studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her career, she took on the role of sole writer and producer of an album. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney, and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments; additional contributions came from Eric Avery, Dean DeLeo, Flea, and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually going platinum in Canada and selling one million copies in the U.S. It produced the hit single "Hands Clean", which topped the Canadian Singles Chart and received substantial radio play; for her work on "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", Morissette won a Juno Award for Producer of the Year. A second single, "Precious Illusions", was released, but it did not garner significant success outside Canada or U.S. hot AC radio.
Later in 2002, Morissette released the combination package Feast on Scraps, which includes a DVD of live concert and backstage documentary footage directed by her and a CD containing eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions. Preceded by the single "Simple Together", it sold roughly 70,000 copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year.
Morissette hosted the Juno Awards of 2004 dressed in a bathrobe, which she took off to reveal a flesh-colored bodysuit, a response to the era of censorship in the U.S. caused by Janet Jackson's breast-flash incident during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Morissette released her sixth studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again, and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and pop music producer John Shanks. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews, and it became Morissette's lowest seller in the U.S. The lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on Adult Top 40 radio in America and was moderately popular elsewhere, particularly in Canada, although it failed to reach the top 40 on the U.S. Hot 100. Because the first line of the song includes the word "asshole", American radio stations refused to play it, and the single version was changed to include the word "nightmare" instead. Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared considerably worse, although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a U.S. club hit. Morissette embarked on a U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians Barenaked Ladies, working with the non-profit environmental organization Reverb.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill (1995), Morissette released a studio acoustic version, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, in June 2005. The album was released exclusively through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run. The limited availability led to a dispute between Maverick Records and HMV North America, who retaliated by removing Morissette's other albums from sale for the duration of Starbucks's exclusive six-week sale. , Jagged Little Pill Acoustic had sold 372,000 copies in the U.S., and a video for "Hand in My Pocket" received rotation on VH1 in America. The accompanying tour ran for two months in mid-2005, with Morissette playing small theatre venues. During the same period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. The singer opened for The Rolling Stones for a few dates of their A Bigger Bang Tour in the autumn of 2005.
Morissette released the greatest hits album Alanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005. The lead single and only new track, a cover of Seal's "Crazy", was an Adult Top 40 and dance hit in the U.S., but achieved only minimal chart success elsewhere. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimidation" and "Can't Not". (A reworked version of "Can't Not" had also appeared on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.) The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". , The Collection had sold 373,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. That same year, Morissette contributed the song "Wunderkind" to the soundtrack of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
2006–2010: Flavors of Entanglement
2006 marked the first year in Morissette's musical career without a single concert appearance showcasing her own songs, with the exception of an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January when she performed "Wunderkind".
On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a tongue-in-cheek cover of The Black Eyed Peas's selection "My Humps", which she recorded in a slow, mournful voice, accompanied only by a piano. The accompanying YouTube-hosted video, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who act as if attempting to touch her breasts, had received 16,465,653 views as of February 15, 2009. Morissette did not take any interviews for a time to explain the song, and it was theorized that she did it as an April Fools' Day joke. Black Eyed Peas vocalist Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson responded by sending Morissette a buttocks-shaped cake with an approving note. On the verge of the release of her following album, she finally elaborated on how the video came to be, citing that she became very much emotionally loaded while recording her new songs one after the other and one day she wished she could do a simple song like "My Humps" and the joke just took a life of its own.
Morissette performed at a gig for The Nightwatchman, a.k.a. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles in April 2007. The following June, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada", the American and Canadian national anthems, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks in Ottawa, Ontario. (The NHL requires arenas to perform both the American and Canadian national anthems at games involving teams from both countries.) In early 2008, Morissette participated in a tour with Matchbox Twenty and Mutemath as a special guest.
Morissette's seventh studio album, Flavors of Entanglement, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth, was released in mid-2008. She has stated that in late 2008, she would embark on a North American headlining tour, but in the meantime she would be promoting the album internationally by performing at shows and festivals and making television and radio appearances. The album's first single was "Underneath", a video for which was submitted to the 2007 Elevate Film Festival, the purpose of which festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth. On October 3, 2008, Morissette released the video for her latest single, "Not as We".
Morissette contributed to 1 Giant Leap, performing "Arrival" with Zap Mama and she has released an acoustic version of her song "Still" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief in support of the 2010 Haiti earthquake crisis. In 2008 she contributed a recording of "Versions of Violence" for the album Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace to promote peace. Morissette has also recorded a cover of the 1984 Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias hit, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", re-written as "To All the Boys I've Loved Before". Nelson played rhythm guitar on the recording. In April 2010, Morissette released the song "I Remain", which she wrote for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time soundtrack. On May 26, 2010, the season finale of American Idol, Morissette performed a duet of her song "You Oughta Know" with Runner Up Crystal Bowersox. Morissette left Maverick Records after all promotion for Flavors was completed.
2011–2016: Havoc and Bright Lights and Jagged Little Pill 20th anniversary
On November 20, 2011, Morissette appeared at the American Music Awards. When asked about the new album during a short interview, she said she had recorded 31 songs, and that the album would "likely be out next year, probably [in] summertime". On December 21, 2011, Morissette performed a duet of "Uninvited" with finalist Josh Krajcik during the performance finale of the X-Factor.
Morissette embarked on a European tour for the summer of 2012, according to Alanis.com. In early May 2012, a new song called "Magical Child" appeared on a Starbucks compilation called Every Mother Counts.
On May 2, 2012, Morissette revealed through her Facebook account that her eighth studio album, entitled Havoc and Bright Lights, would be released in August 2012, on new label Collective Sounds, distributed by Sony's RED Distribution. On the same day, Billboard specified the date as August 28 and revealed the album would contain twelve tracks. The album's lead single, "Guardian", was released on iTunes on May 15, 2012, and hit the radio airwaves four days prior to this. The single had minor success in North America, charting the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in the US and almost reaching the top 40 in Canada. However, the song did become a hit in several countries in Europe. "Receive", the second single off the album, was released early December the same year.Morissette received the UCLA Spring Sing's George and Ira Gershwin Award on May 16, 2014, at Pauley Pavilion. On her website starting in the summer of 2014, in celebration of her fortieth birthday, the LP record for her song "Big Sur" was offered for sale, which was previously available on the Target edition of her 2012 album, Havoc and Bright Lights. July 25, 2014, was the start of the ten-show Intimate and Acoustic tour.
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the release of Jagged Little Pill, a new four-disc collector's edition was released on October 30, 2015. The four-disc edition includes remastered audio of the original album as well as an entire disc of 10 unreleased demos from the era, handpicked by Morissette from her archives, offering a deeper and more personal look at the classic album. Also included is a previously unreleased concert from 1995 as well as 2005's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic.
2017–present: Such Pretty Forks in the Road
In August 2017, Morissette teased a song titled "I Miss The Band" while on tour. On October 27, 2017, she premiered a new song entitled "Rest", which was released officially in May 2021, and performed "Castle of Glass" with members of the band No Doubt and Mike Shinoda at the Linkin Park and Friends – Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington memorial concert. In November 2017, she tweeted that she was writing 22 songs with Michael Farrell.
On March 16, 2018, Morissette performed a new song called "Ablaze" during her 2018 tour. In October 2018, she revealed on social media that she had written 23 new songs, and hinted at a new album with hashtag "#alanismorissettenewrecord2019", after a six-year hiatus. Song titles from the writing session include "Reckoning", "Diagnosis", "Her" and "Legacy". On May 5, 2018, Jagged Little Pill, a jukebox musical featuring Morissette's songs, premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the American Repertory Theater. Morissette contributed two new songs to the musical, "Smiling" and "Predator". The musical transferred to Broadway in fall of 2019, starting previews on November 3 and opening on December 5 at the Broadhurst Theatre. The production received fifteen Tony Award nominations, the most of any production that season.
In June 2019, Morissette went into studio in Los Angeles. According to an interview, she had written all the songs, and "Smiling" would be included on the new album, likely to be released early 2020. On August 8, 2019, she revealed that the new album was produced by Alex Hope and Catherine Marks. On December 1, 2019, Morissette announced her first studio album in eight years, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, set for release on May 1, 2020. The first single off the record, "Reasons I Drink", was released on December 2, 2019.
Morissette was featured on Halsey's song "Alanis' Interlude", released on January 17, 2020. On February 5, 2020, she revealed that her upcoming album was mixed by Chris Dugan. The second single from the album, "Smiling", was released on February 20, 2020. On April 15, 2020, Morissette announced that the album's release would be postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on July 31, 2020.
Morissette was originally scheduled to embark on a world tour for 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill in June 2020 with Garbage and Liz Phair, both already opened for Morissette in 1999 during Junkie Tour. The latter cancelled her shows in North America and was replaced by Cat Power instead. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to summer 2021.
Acting career
In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress in five episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. She appeared on stage with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988.
In 1999, Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since 1993, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack. Morissette reprised her role as God for a post-credits scene in Smith's next film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, to literally close the book on the View Askewniverse. She also appeared in the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm, appeared in the play The Vagina Monologues, and had brief cameos playing herself in the Brazilian hit soap operas Celebridade and Malhação.
In late 2003, Morissette appeared in the Off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent. In April 2006, MTV News reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 until May 28.
She expanded her acting credentials with the July 2004 release of the Cole Porter biographical film De-Lovely, in which she performed the song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" and had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer. In February 2005, she made a guest appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation with Dogma co-star Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith. Also in 2005, Morissette, then engaged to Ryan Reynolds, made a cameo appearance as "herself" as a former client of Reynolds' character in the film Just Friends. This scene was deleted from the theatrical release, and is only available on the DVD.
In 2006, she guest-starred in an episode of Lifetime's Lovespring International as a homeless woman named Lucinda, three episodes of FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a lesbian named Poppy, and the mockumentary-documentary Pittsburgh as herself.
Morissette has appeared in eight episodes of Weeds, playing Dr. Audra Kitson, a "no-nonsense obstetrician" who treats pregnant main character Nancy Botwin. Her first episode aired in July 2009.
In early 2010, Morissette returned to the stage, performing a one-night engagement in An Oak Tree, an experimental play in Los Angeles. The performance was a sell-out. In April 2010, Morissette was confirmed in the cast of Weeds season six, performing again her role as Dr. Audra Kitson.
Morissette also starred in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth. Morissette plays Sylvia, an ordinary woman in unexpected remission from lymphoma. Morissette stated that she is "...a big fan of Philip K. Dick's poetic and expansively imaginative books" and that she "feel[s] blessed to portray Sylvia, and to be part of this story being told in film".
She appeared as Amanda, a former bandmate of main character Ava Alexander (played by Maya Rudolph), in one episode of NBC's Up All Night on February 16, 2012. Rudolph officiated as minister for Morissette's wedding with both performing the explicit version of their hit hip hop song "Back It Up (Beep Beep)".
In 2014, Morissette played the role of Marisa Damia, the lover of architect and designer Eileen Gray, in the film The Price of Desire, directed by Mary McGuckian.
In 2021, Morissette was featured as a recurring character on adult-animation show The Great North.
Other work
In October 2015, Conversation with Alanis Morissette features conversations with different individuals from different schools and walks of life discussing everything from psychology to art to spirituality to design to health and well-being, to relationships (whether they be romantic or colleagueship or parent with children relationships). The monthly podcast is currently available to download on iTunes and free to listen to on YouTube.
In January 2016, she began a short-lived advice column in The Guardian newspaper.
In May 2018, the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, Massachusetts) premiered Jagged Little Pill, a musical with music by Morissette and Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, book by Diablo Cody, and directed by Diane Paulus.
Jagged, a documentary film about Morissette and Jagged Little Pill by filmmaker Alison Klayman, premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival before airing on HBO as part of the Music Box series of documentary films about music history.
Personal life
Morissette was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Canada. She became a US citizen in 2005, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. Morissette has since then been a practising Buddhist.
Throughout her teen years and 20s, Morissette suffered from depression and various eating disorders. She recovered from them and started to eat a healthier diet. In 2009, she ran a marathon promoting awareness for the National Eating Disorders Association.
In the 2021 documentary Jagged, Morissette said that multiple men committed statutory rape against her when she was 15 years old.
Over a period of seven years, Morissette's business manager Jonathan Schwartz stole over $5 million from her. He confessed to doing so in April 2017 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
On October 22, 2019, Morissette shared her nearly decade-long experience with postpartum depression on CBS This Morning.
In 1996, Morissette bought a home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. She also had an apartment in Ottawa and a home in Malibu, the latter of which was affected by the Woolsey Fire. In 2019, she and her family moved to Northern California, stating in an interview with The New York Times that she was "finally done with living in Los Angeles".
Relationships
Morissette dated actor and comedian Dave Coulier for a short time in the early 1990s. In a 2008 interview, Coulier said he was the ex-boyfriend who inspired Morissette's song "You Oughta Know"; Morissette has not commented on the subject of the song.
Morissette met Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds at Drew Barrymore's birthday party in 2002, and the couple began dating soon afterwards. They announced their engagement in June 2004. In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had decided to end their engagement. Morissette has stated that her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the breakup, saying that "it was cathartic."
On May 22, 2010, Morissette married rapper Mario "Souleye" Treadway in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home. The couple have three children, a son born in 2010,
a daughter born in 2016,
and another son born in 2019.
Discography
Alanis (1991)
Now Is the Time (1992)
Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998)
Under Rug Swept (2002)
So-Called Chaos (2004)
Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
Havoc and Bright Lights (2012)
Such Pretty Forks in the Road (2020)
Awards and nominations
Filmography
Film
Television
Stage
Tours
Opening act
To the Extreme Tour (1991) (opening act for Vanilla Ice)
1999 Summer Tour (1999) (opening act for Dave Matthews Band–Denver)
A Bigger Bang Tour (2005) (opening act for The Rolling Stones)
Headlining
Jagged Little Tour (1995)
Intellectual Intercourse Tour (1995–96)
Can't Not Tour (1996) featuring Radiohead
Dhanyavad Tour (1998)
Junkie Tour (1999) featuring Garbage and Liz Phair
One Tour (2000)
Under Rug Swept Tour (2001)
Toward Our Union Mended Tour (2002)
All I Really Want Tour (2003)
So-Called Chaos Tour (2004)
Diamond Wink Tour (2005) featuring Jason Mraz
Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour (2005)
Flavors of Entanglement Tour (2008–09)
Guardian Angel Tour (2012)
Intimate and Acoustic (2014)
World Tour (2018)
2021 World Tour: Celebrating 25 Years of Jagged Little Pill featuring Garbage and Cat Power (2021–22)
Co-headlining
5 ½ Weeks Tour (1999) (with Tori Amos)
Au Naturale Tour (2004) (with the Barenaked Ladies)
Exile in America Tour (2008) (with Matchbox Twenty)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of best-selling albums
References
Further reading
Rock on the Net
[ "Alanis Morissette – Artist Chart History"]. Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
[ "Alanis Morissette – Billboard Singles"]. Allmusic. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
Rock Chicks:The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now by Stieven-Taylor, Alison (2007). Sydney. Rockpool Publishing.
External links
1974 births
Living people
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Ottawa
Alternative rock singers
American Buddhists
American dance musicians
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American feminists
American film actresses
American harmonica players
American mezzo-sopranos
American music video directors
American people of French descent
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Irish descent
American rock songwriters
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American women record producers
Brit Award winners
Canadian child actresses
Canadian dance musicians
Canadian emigrants to the United States
Canadian women pop singers
Canadian women rock singers
Canadian women singer-songwriters
Canadian feminists
Canadian film actresses
Canadian harmonica players
Canadian mezzo-sopranos
Canadian music video directors
Canadian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Canadian people of Irish descent
Canadian record producers
Canadian Buddhists
Canadian stage actresses
Canadian television actresses
Canadian women guitarists
Canadian women record producers
Child pop musicians
Echo (music award) winners
Female music video directors
Feminist musicians
Former Roman Catholics
Franco-Ontarian people
Fraternal twin actresses
Grammy Award winners
Guitarists from California
Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award winners
Juno Award for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Pop Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year winners
Juno Award for Video of the Year winners
Juno International Achievement Award winners
Maverick Records artists
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musicians from Ottawa
Naturalized citizens of the United States
People from Brentwood, Los Angeles
Record producers from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Twin musicians
Twin people from Canada
Warner Music Group artists
Women post-grunge singers
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from Ottawa
20th-century Canadian actresses
20th-century Canadian guitarists
20th-century Canadian women singers
20th-century Canadian women writers
20th-century Roman Catholics
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century Buddhists
21st-century Canadian actresses
21st-century Canadian guitarists
21st-century Canadian women singers
21st-century Canadian women writers
21st-century Roman Catholics
Singer-songwriters from California
| true |
[
"MTV Unplugged is the first live album by Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette, released by Maverick Records in the United States on November 9, 1999 (see 1999 in music). It comprises songs performed by Morissette on the television program MTV Unplugged. Twelve tracks were included on the album, but Morissette performed several others, including \"Baba\", \"Thank U\" (both from 1998's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie) and \"Your House\" (the hidden track on 1995's Jagged Little Pill), during her Unplugged concert. These were later released as B-sides on the \"King of Pain\" single release. The first single, \"That I Would Be Good\", was moderately successful, and two other tracks, \"King of Pain\" (a cover of the song by The Police) and \"You Learn\" were released as singles outside North America. As of March 2012, the album has sold 673,000 copies in the U.S.\n\nIn addition to material from Morissette's first two U.S. albums, MTV Unplugged featured performances of \"No Pressure over Cappuccino\" and \"Princes Familiar\", two previously unreleased songs from her tours, and \"These R the Thoughts\", a previously released b-side. Morissette has stated that \"Princes Familiar\" in particular is one of her favorite and most vocally challenging songs. She performed it on her 2005 Diamond Wink Tour, where she dedicated it to \"all of the dads in the audience.\" The ballad \"No Pressure over Cappuccino\", one of the first songs she wrote following the release of Jagged Little Pill, \"was inspired by [her] twin brother,\" Wade.\n\nFeaturing cleaner vocals, slower arrangements and a few drastic reinventions (particularly in the case of \"You Oughta Know\"), MTV Unplugged foreshadowed much of Morissette's later, softer work, particularly 2005's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic and the accompanying Diamond Wink Tour.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \n Alanis Morissette - vocals, guitar, harmonica and flute\n Nick Lashley - guitar\n Joel Shearer - guitar\n Deron Johnson - keyboards, background vocals in \"King of Pain\"\n Chris Chaney - bass\n Gary Novak - drums and percussion\n Chris Fogel - mixing\n Brad Dutz - percussion\n David Campbell - musical arranger and viola\n Suzie Katayama - cello and string arrangement for \"You Oughta Know\"\n Joul Derouin - violin\n Laura Seaton - violin\n Erik Friedlander - cello\n Juliet Haffner - strings contractor\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences \n\nAlanis Morissette albums\nMtv Unplugged (Morissette, Alanis album)\n1999 live albums\nAlbums arranged by David Campbell (composer)\nMaverick Records live albums",
"\"That I Would Be Good\" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette that was first included on her fourth studio album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998). An acoustic live version of the song was recorded during a session for MTV Unplugged on September 18, 1999. The live version was released as a single in Europe in 1999 and in Canada on February 8, 2000.\n\nThe lyrics relate Morissette's intimate feelings about being judged, insecurity and self-doubt, expressing in theme and variation the desire to be sufficient in the face of changing external circumstances. The song received mostly positive reviews from music critics, who praised the flute solo by Morissette and its sweetness. Commercially, the single charted on the US Billboard Adult Top 40 and the Netherlands' Single Top 100.\n\nBackground and writing \n\"That I Would Be Good\" was one of the songs included on Alanis Morissette's fourth studio album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998). Eventually, the album spawned four singles, with \"Thank U\" being the most successful single. Later, Alanis wrote the song \"Still\" for the soundtrack album of the 1999 film, Dogma. On September 18, 1999, Alanis recorded an MTV Unplugged special, singing songs from her previous albums, Jagged Little Pill (1995) and Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998), as well as previously unreleased tracks.\n\nThe constant electrical buzz that can be heard throughout the track came unintentionally from Ballard recording too close to an amplifier. He re-recorded the guitar section to correct it, but Morissette immediately noticed the change - \"What\nhappened to the original?\" - Ballard told her the buzz was bothering him, but she said, \"No way. We've lost the\nmagic, and you've gotta put it back.\"\n\n\"That I Would Be Good\" was chosen to be the lead single of the album, being released in December 1999. The CD single features the MTV Unplugged version of \"That I Would Be Good\" and live versions of \"Would Not Come\", \"I Was Hoping\" (from Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie) and \"Forgiven\" (from Jagged Little Pill).\n\nComposition \n\"That I Would Be Good\" was written by Morissette and Glen Ballard; both wrote Morissette's biggest hits, \"You Oughta Know\", \"Ironic\", \"You Learn\", \"Head over Feet\", and \"Thank U\". Produced by Morissette herself, the song is a \"muted\" and \"crawling\" ballad, with a flute solo coda, where Alanis plays her own flute. Written in the key of A major, it has a moderate tempo of 84 beats per minute, while Morissette's vocals span from the low-note of B3 to the high-note of A6.\n\nLyrically, \"That I Would Be Good\" claims a self-confidence independent of fluctuations in emotional state or physical appearance. It is filled with wonder over whether one still feels whole in the face of any number of life's ills: losing youth, bankruptcy, insanity, the absence of a chosen lover. According to Morissette on VH1 Storytellers and the documentary Sensitive The Untold Story (2015), the song was written during a time when there were many people in her house and she retreated to her closet to write the lyrics. She also confirmed that she wrote the lyrics and then the music at different times.\n\nCritical reception \nThe song's studio version received positive reviews from most music critics. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone was positive, calling it \"the boldest, sweetest statement\" on the album, realizing that while playing the flute, \"she works her ass off to get it right, but she wins you over with her sheer daring; it isn't every day that a megastar comes right out and auditions for you.\" Chuck Taylor of Billboard noted that the track is \"intense and meaningful\", praising the addition of the flute, writing that \"it's unique and appealing\". Taylor also saw it as \"a beautiful song\" and \"it could turn out to be a solid return hit.\" Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine wrote that the song \"ends with a painful yet endearing flute solo by Morissette.\"\n\nThe unplugged version also gathered favorable reaction. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic saw that Alanis chose to perform tracks from her latest album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie on the Unplugged album \"as a way to reintroduce it to an audience that largely ignored it the first time around,\" describing the tracks, including \"That I Would Be Good\" as \"extremely personal songs, which benefit from the stripped-down arrangements and intimate surroundings.\" Neva Chonin of Rolling Stone commented that during some parts of the acoustic set, Alanis \"overpowers her band\", sometimes she kills them with neglect - 'Ironic' and 'That I Would Be Good,' for instance, have been whittled down to bare acoustic essentials.\"\n\nCommercial performance \n\"That I Would Be Good\" was a minor hit on Billboard'''s Adult Top 40 Tracks chart, peaking at number 24. It also charted on the Netherlands's Single Top 100 chart, debuting at number 75 on November 20, 1999, while peaking at number 55 the following week. It remained at the peak position for a further week, while charting for ten weeks in the chart.\n\n Covers and pop culture \n\nKelly Clarkson covered \"That I Would Be Good\" during her \"All I Ever Wanted Tour\", being mashed up with Kings of Leon's \"Use Somebody\". It was later recorded and included on her third EP The Smoakstack Sessions Vol. 2 released along with her Greatest Hits: Chapter One album. For Jessica Sager of Pop Crush, \"it's an unexpected combination, but thematically and sonically, they work together perfectly,\" also praising Clarkson's vocals on \"That I Would Be Good\", writing that, \"Clarkson replaces the Canadian crooner’s warbling with her own soulful pipes.\" Alex Nagorsi of MuuMuse wrote that, \"Clarkson’s soaring vocal range takes center stage to deliver a powerhouse performance.\" The song appeared on the popular teen drama Dawson's Creek twice in relation to one of the show's lead characters, Jennifer, played by Michelle Williams. Singaporean singer Stefanie Sun covered the song on her album Start.\n\n Track listing \n \"That I Would Be Good\" (MTV Unplugged'') – 4:07\n \"Would Not Come\" (Reverb live) – 4:11\n \"Forgiven\" (Reverb live) – 5:11\n \"I Was Hoping\" (99X live) – 4:37\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences \n\n1990s ballads\n1999 singles\n1999 songs\nAlanis Morissette songs\nMaverick Records singles\nSongs written by Alanis Morissette\nSongs written by Glen Ballard"
] |
[
"Alanis Morissette",
"1998-2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged",
"Was she infatuated with a junkie?",
"Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Was that an album or a song?",
"fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Did it have any hits?",
"platinum. \"Thank U\", the",
"How did it chart?",
"major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance;",
"Did she tour for that record?",
"major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"\"So Pure\" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards.",
"When did Alanis Unplugged come out?",
"1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which"
] |
C_19751c82ebc942199a9b544e136a460e_1
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Did it do well?
| 8 |
Did the album Alanis Unplugged do well?
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Alanis Morissette
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Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard. Privately, the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies--a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year. The "So Pure" video features actor Dash Mihok, with whom Morissette was in a relationship at the time. Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", "Hope", "Innocence", and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Alanis toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999). CANNOTANSWER
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Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks
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Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two mildly successful dance-pop albums. Afterward, as part of a recording deal, she moved to Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. In 1995, she released Jagged Little Pill, an alt rock-oriented album with the elements of post-grunge, which sold more than 33 million copies globally and is her most critically acclaimed work to date. This earned her Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1996 and was made into a rock musical of the same name in 2017, which also earned 15 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical. The album also listed in 2003 and 2020 editions of the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Guide. Her highly anticipated, more experimental follow-up, electronic-infused album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998.
Morissette assumed creative control and producing duties for her subsequent studio albums, including Under Rug Swept (2002), So-Called Chaos (2004), Flavors of Entanglement (2008), and Havoc and Bright Lights (2012). Her latest album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, was released in 2020. Her well-known singles reached top 40 in the major charts around the world, including 10 top-40 hits in the UK, 3 top-10 in the US and Australia, 12 top-10 hits in her native Canada, "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", "Head Over Feet", "Uninvited", "Thank U" and "Hands Clean". She also holds the record of the most No. 1s on the weekly Billboard Alternative Songs chart among any female soloist, group leader or duo member. Morissette won 7 Grammy Awards, 14 Juno Awards, 1 Brit Award and has sold more than 75 million records worldwide and has been dubbed the "Queen of Alt-Rock Angst" by Rolling Stone.
Early life
Morissette was born June 1, 1974, at Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to teacher Georgia Mary Ann ( Feuerstein) of Hungarian descent and high-school principal and French teacher Alan Richard Morissette. She has two brothers: older brother Chad is a business entrepreneur, and twin brother (12 minutes older) Wade Morissette is a musician. Her father is of French and Irish descent, whereas her mother has Hungarian and Jewish ancestry. Her parents were teachers in a military school and due to their work often had to move. Between the ages of three and six she lived with her parents in Lahr (Black Forest), Germany.
When she was six years old, she returned to Ottawa and started to play the piano. In 1981, at the age of seven, she began dance lessons. Morissette had a Catholic upbringing. She attended Holy Family Catholic School for elementary school and Immaculata High School for Grades 7 and 8 before completing the rest of her high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute. She appeared on the children's television sketch comedy You Can't Do That on Television for five episodes when she was in junior high school.
Music career
1987–1992: Alanis and Now Is the Time
Morissette recorded her first demo called "Fate Stay with Me", produced by Lindsay Thomas Morgan at Marigold Studios in Toronto, engineered by Rich Dodson of Canadian classic rock band The Stampeders. A second demo tape was recorded on cassette in August 1989 and sent to Geffen Records, but the tape has never been heard as it was stolen, among other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989.
In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer, Leslie Howe. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top 20 on the RPM singles chart. Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top 40. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada; comparisons to Tiffany were also common. During the same period, she was a concert opening act for rapper Vanilla Ice. Morissette was nominated for three 1992 Juno Awards: Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year (which she won), Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording (both for "Too Hot").
In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a ballad-driven record that featured less glitzy production than Alanis and contained more thoughtful lyrics. Morissette wrote the songs with the album's producer, Leslie Howe, and Serge Côté. She said of the album, "People could go, 'Boo, hiss, hiss, this girl's like another Tiffany or whatever.' But the way I look at it ... people will like your next album if it's a kick-ass one." As with Alanis (1991), Now Is the Time (1992) was released only in Canada and produced three top 40 singles—"An Emotion Away", the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" as well as "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time". The industry considered it a commercial failure, however, since it sold only a little more than half the copies of her first album. With her two-album deal with MCA Records Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract.
1993–1997: Jagged Little Pill
In 1993, Morissette's publisher Leeds Levy at MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch. Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character and her lyrics. At the time she was still living at home with her parents. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people. After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto. Her publisher funded part of her development and when she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he believed in her talent enough to let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records. In the same year she learned how to play guitar. According to manager Welch, every label they approached, apart from Maverick, declined to sign Morissette.
Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected only to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation improved quickly when KROQ-FM, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single, featuring Flea and Dave Navarro. The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics, and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hits helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand in My Pocket" followed, and the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, kept Jagged Little Pill (1995) in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. Jagged Little Pill sold more than 16 million copies in the U.S.; it sold 33 million worldwide, making it the second biggest-selling album by a female artist (behind Shania Twain's Come On Over).
Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum and produced four RPM chart-toppers: "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", and "Head over Feet". The album was also a bestseller in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill (1995) was credited with opening doors for female singers such as Tracy Bonham, Fiona Apple, Meredith Brooks, Shakira, Pink, Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne and Florence Welch. She was criticized for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, and her previous disco pop albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability. Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 16th Brit Awards she won Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.
Following the album release in 1995, Morissette embarked on an 18-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, who later joined the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. Radiohead joined as an opening act in the summer of 1996. "Ironic" was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards—Record of the Year and Best Music Video, Short Form—and won Single of the Year at the 1997 Juno Awards, where Morissette also won Songwriter of the Year and the International Achievement Award. The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which was co-directed by Morissette and chronicled the bulk of her tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form.
Following the tour, Morissette began practicing Iyengar Yoga for balance. After the last December 1996 show, she went to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two friends. She said the trip was "incredible".
1998–2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged
Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.
The label hoped to sell 1 million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies—a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year.
Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", where she paid homage to her roots by singing in Hungarian, "Hope", "Innocence" and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Morissette toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999).
2001–2005: Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos
In 2001, Morissette was featured with Stephanie McKay on the Tricky song "Excess", which is on his album Blowback. Morissette released her fifth studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her career, she took on the role of sole writer and producer of an album. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney, and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments; additional contributions came from Eric Avery, Dean DeLeo, Flea, and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually going platinum in Canada and selling one million copies in the U.S. It produced the hit single "Hands Clean", which topped the Canadian Singles Chart and received substantial radio play; for her work on "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", Morissette won a Juno Award for Producer of the Year. A second single, "Precious Illusions", was released, but it did not garner significant success outside Canada or U.S. hot AC radio.
Later in 2002, Morissette released the combination package Feast on Scraps, which includes a DVD of live concert and backstage documentary footage directed by her and a CD containing eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions. Preceded by the single "Simple Together", it sold roughly 70,000 copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year.
Morissette hosted the Juno Awards of 2004 dressed in a bathrobe, which she took off to reveal a flesh-colored bodysuit, a response to the era of censorship in the U.S. caused by Janet Jackson's breast-flash incident during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Morissette released her sixth studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again, and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and pop music producer John Shanks. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews, and it became Morissette's lowest seller in the U.S. The lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on Adult Top 40 radio in America and was moderately popular elsewhere, particularly in Canada, although it failed to reach the top 40 on the U.S. Hot 100. Because the first line of the song includes the word "asshole", American radio stations refused to play it, and the single version was changed to include the word "nightmare" instead. Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared considerably worse, although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a U.S. club hit. Morissette embarked on a U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians Barenaked Ladies, working with the non-profit environmental organization Reverb.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill (1995), Morissette released a studio acoustic version, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, in June 2005. The album was released exclusively through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run. The limited availability led to a dispute between Maverick Records and HMV North America, who retaliated by removing Morissette's other albums from sale for the duration of Starbucks's exclusive six-week sale. , Jagged Little Pill Acoustic had sold 372,000 copies in the U.S., and a video for "Hand in My Pocket" received rotation on VH1 in America. The accompanying tour ran for two months in mid-2005, with Morissette playing small theatre venues. During the same period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. The singer opened for The Rolling Stones for a few dates of their A Bigger Bang Tour in the autumn of 2005.
Morissette released the greatest hits album Alanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005. The lead single and only new track, a cover of Seal's "Crazy", was an Adult Top 40 and dance hit in the U.S., but achieved only minimal chart success elsewhere. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimidation" and "Can't Not". (A reworked version of "Can't Not" had also appeared on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.) The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". , The Collection had sold 373,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. That same year, Morissette contributed the song "Wunderkind" to the soundtrack of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
2006–2010: Flavors of Entanglement
2006 marked the first year in Morissette's musical career without a single concert appearance showcasing her own songs, with the exception of an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January when she performed "Wunderkind".
On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a tongue-in-cheek cover of The Black Eyed Peas's selection "My Humps", which she recorded in a slow, mournful voice, accompanied only by a piano. The accompanying YouTube-hosted video, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who act as if attempting to touch her breasts, had received 16,465,653 views as of February 15, 2009. Morissette did not take any interviews for a time to explain the song, and it was theorized that she did it as an April Fools' Day joke. Black Eyed Peas vocalist Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson responded by sending Morissette a buttocks-shaped cake with an approving note. On the verge of the release of her following album, she finally elaborated on how the video came to be, citing that she became very much emotionally loaded while recording her new songs one after the other and one day she wished she could do a simple song like "My Humps" and the joke just took a life of its own.
Morissette performed at a gig for The Nightwatchman, a.k.a. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles in April 2007. The following June, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada", the American and Canadian national anthems, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks in Ottawa, Ontario. (The NHL requires arenas to perform both the American and Canadian national anthems at games involving teams from both countries.) In early 2008, Morissette participated in a tour with Matchbox Twenty and Mutemath as a special guest.
Morissette's seventh studio album, Flavors of Entanglement, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth, was released in mid-2008. She has stated that in late 2008, she would embark on a North American headlining tour, but in the meantime she would be promoting the album internationally by performing at shows and festivals and making television and radio appearances. The album's first single was "Underneath", a video for which was submitted to the 2007 Elevate Film Festival, the purpose of which festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth. On October 3, 2008, Morissette released the video for her latest single, "Not as We".
Morissette contributed to 1 Giant Leap, performing "Arrival" with Zap Mama and she has released an acoustic version of her song "Still" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief in support of the 2010 Haiti earthquake crisis. In 2008 she contributed a recording of "Versions of Violence" for the album Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace to promote peace. Morissette has also recorded a cover of the 1984 Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias hit, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", re-written as "To All the Boys I've Loved Before". Nelson played rhythm guitar on the recording. In April 2010, Morissette released the song "I Remain", which she wrote for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time soundtrack. On May 26, 2010, the season finale of American Idol, Morissette performed a duet of her song "You Oughta Know" with Runner Up Crystal Bowersox. Morissette left Maverick Records after all promotion for Flavors was completed.
2011–2016: Havoc and Bright Lights and Jagged Little Pill 20th anniversary
On November 20, 2011, Morissette appeared at the American Music Awards. When asked about the new album during a short interview, she said she had recorded 31 songs, and that the album would "likely be out next year, probably [in] summertime". On December 21, 2011, Morissette performed a duet of "Uninvited" with finalist Josh Krajcik during the performance finale of the X-Factor.
Morissette embarked on a European tour for the summer of 2012, according to Alanis.com. In early May 2012, a new song called "Magical Child" appeared on a Starbucks compilation called Every Mother Counts.
On May 2, 2012, Morissette revealed through her Facebook account that her eighth studio album, entitled Havoc and Bright Lights, would be released in August 2012, on new label Collective Sounds, distributed by Sony's RED Distribution. On the same day, Billboard specified the date as August 28 and revealed the album would contain twelve tracks. The album's lead single, "Guardian", was released on iTunes on May 15, 2012, and hit the radio airwaves four days prior to this. The single had minor success in North America, charting the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in the US and almost reaching the top 40 in Canada. However, the song did become a hit in several countries in Europe. "Receive", the second single off the album, was released early December the same year.Morissette received the UCLA Spring Sing's George and Ira Gershwin Award on May 16, 2014, at Pauley Pavilion. On her website starting in the summer of 2014, in celebration of her fortieth birthday, the LP record for her song "Big Sur" was offered for sale, which was previously available on the Target edition of her 2012 album, Havoc and Bright Lights. July 25, 2014, was the start of the ten-show Intimate and Acoustic tour.
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the release of Jagged Little Pill, a new four-disc collector's edition was released on October 30, 2015. The four-disc edition includes remastered audio of the original album as well as an entire disc of 10 unreleased demos from the era, handpicked by Morissette from her archives, offering a deeper and more personal look at the classic album. Also included is a previously unreleased concert from 1995 as well as 2005's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic.
2017–present: Such Pretty Forks in the Road
In August 2017, Morissette teased a song titled "I Miss The Band" while on tour. On October 27, 2017, she premiered a new song entitled "Rest", which was released officially in May 2021, and performed "Castle of Glass" with members of the band No Doubt and Mike Shinoda at the Linkin Park and Friends – Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington memorial concert. In November 2017, she tweeted that she was writing 22 songs with Michael Farrell.
On March 16, 2018, Morissette performed a new song called "Ablaze" during her 2018 tour. In October 2018, she revealed on social media that she had written 23 new songs, and hinted at a new album with hashtag "#alanismorissettenewrecord2019", after a six-year hiatus. Song titles from the writing session include "Reckoning", "Diagnosis", "Her" and "Legacy". On May 5, 2018, Jagged Little Pill, a jukebox musical featuring Morissette's songs, premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the American Repertory Theater. Morissette contributed two new songs to the musical, "Smiling" and "Predator". The musical transferred to Broadway in fall of 2019, starting previews on November 3 and opening on December 5 at the Broadhurst Theatre. The production received fifteen Tony Award nominations, the most of any production that season.
In June 2019, Morissette went into studio in Los Angeles. According to an interview, she had written all the songs, and "Smiling" would be included on the new album, likely to be released early 2020. On August 8, 2019, she revealed that the new album was produced by Alex Hope and Catherine Marks. On December 1, 2019, Morissette announced her first studio album in eight years, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, set for release on May 1, 2020. The first single off the record, "Reasons I Drink", was released on December 2, 2019.
Morissette was featured on Halsey's song "Alanis' Interlude", released on January 17, 2020. On February 5, 2020, she revealed that her upcoming album was mixed by Chris Dugan. The second single from the album, "Smiling", was released on February 20, 2020. On April 15, 2020, Morissette announced that the album's release would be postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on July 31, 2020.
Morissette was originally scheduled to embark on a world tour for 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill in June 2020 with Garbage and Liz Phair, both already opened for Morissette in 1999 during Junkie Tour. The latter cancelled her shows in North America and was replaced by Cat Power instead. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to summer 2021.
Acting career
In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress in five episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. She appeared on stage with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988.
In 1999, Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since 1993, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack. Morissette reprised her role as God for a post-credits scene in Smith's next film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, to literally close the book on the View Askewniverse. She also appeared in the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm, appeared in the play The Vagina Monologues, and had brief cameos playing herself in the Brazilian hit soap operas Celebridade and Malhação.
In late 2003, Morissette appeared in the Off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent. In April 2006, MTV News reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 until May 28.
She expanded her acting credentials with the July 2004 release of the Cole Porter biographical film De-Lovely, in which she performed the song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" and had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer. In February 2005, she made a guest appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation with Dogma co-star Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith. Also in 2005, Morissette, then engaged to Ryan Reynolds, made a cameo appearance as "herself" as a former client of Reynolds' character in the film Just Friends. This scene was deleted from the theatrical release, and is only available on the DVD.
In 2006, she guest-starred in an episode of Lifetime's Lovespring International as a homeless woman named Lucinda, three episodes of FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a lesbian named Poppy, and the mockumentary-documentary Pittsburgh as herself.
Morissette has appeared in eight episodes of Weeds, playing Dr. Audra Kitson, a "no-nonsense obstetrician" who treats pregnant main character Nancy Botwin. Her first episode aired in July 2009.
In early 2010, Morissette returned to the stage, performing a one-night engagement in An Oak Tree, an experimental play in Los Angeles. The performance was a sell-out. In April 2010, Morissette was confirmed in the cast of Weeds season six, performing again her role as Dr. Audra Kitson.
Morissette also starred in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth. Morissette plays Sylvia, an ordinary woman in unexpected remission from lymphoma. Morissette stated that she is "...a big fan of Philip K. Dick's poetic and expansively imaginative books" and that she "feel[s] blessed to portray Sylvia, and to be part of this story being told in film".
She appeared as Amanda, a former bandmate of main character Ava Alexander (played by Maya Rudolph), in one episode of NBC's Up All Night on February 16, 2012. Rudolph officiated as minister for Morissette's wedding with both performing the explicit version of their hit hip hop song "Back It Up (Beep Beep)".
In 2014, Morissette played the role of Marisa Damia, the lover of architect and designer Eileen Gray, in the film The Price of Desire, directed by Mary McGuckian.
In 2021, Morissette was featured as a recurring character on adult-animation show The Great North.
Other work
In October 2015, Conversation with Alanis Morissette features conversations with different individuals from different schools and walks of life discussing everything from psychology to art to spirituality to design to health and well-being, to relationships (whether they be romantic or colleagueship or parent with children relationships). The monthly podcast is currently available to download on iTunes and free to listen to on YouTube.
In January 2016, she began a short-lived advice column in The Guardian newspaper.
In May 2018, the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, Massachusetts) premiered Jagged Little Pill, a musical with music by Morissette and Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, book by Diablo Cody, and directed by Diane Paulus.
Jagged, a documentary film about Morissette and Jagged Little Pill by filmmaker Alison Klayman, premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival before airing on HBO as part of the Music Box series of documentary films about music history.
Personal life
Morissette was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Canada. She became a US citizen in 2005, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. Morissette has since then been a practising Buddhist.
Throughout her teen years and 20s, Morissette suffered from depression and various eating disorders. She recovered from them and started to eat a healthier diet. In 2009, she ran a marathon promoting awareness for the National Eating Disorders Association.
In the 2021 documentary Jagged, Morissette said that multiple men committed statutory rape against her when she was 15 years old.
Over a period of seven years, Morissette's business manager Jonathan Schwartz stole over $5 million from her. He confessed to doing so in April 2017 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
On October 22, 2019, Morissette shared her nearly decade-long experience with postpartum depression on CBS This Morning.
In 1996, Morissette bought a home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. She also had an apartment in Ottawa and a home in Malibu, the latter of which was affected by the Woolsey Fire. In 2019, she and her family moved to Northern California, stating in an interview with The New York Times that she was "finally done with living in Los Angeles".
Relationships
Morissette dated actor and comedian Dave Coulier for a short time in the early 1990s. In a 2008 interview, Coulier said he was the ex-boyfriend who inspired Morissette's song "You Oughta Know"; Morissette has not commented on the subject of the song.
Morissette met Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds at Drew Barrymore's birthday party in 2002, and the couple began dating soon afterwards. They announced their engagement in June 2004. In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had decided to end their engagement. Morissette has stated that her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the breakup, saying that "it was cathartic."
On May 22, 2010, Morissette married rapper Mario "Souleye" Treadway in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home. The couple have three children, a son born in 2010,
a daughter born in 2016,
and another son born in 2019.
Discography
Alanis (1991)
Now Is the Time (1992)
Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998)
Under Rug Swept (2002)
So-Called Chaos (2004)
Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
Havoc and Bright Lights (2012)
Such Pretty Forks in the Road (2020)
Awards and nominations
Filmography
Film
Television
Stage
Tours
Opening act
To the Extreme Tour (1991) (opening act for Vanilla Ice)
1999 Summer Tour (1999) (opening act for Dave Matthews Band–Denver)
A Bigger Bang Tour (2005) (opening act for The Rolling Stones)
Headlining
Jagged Little Tour (1995)
Intellectual Intercourse Tour (1995–96)
Can't Not Tour (1996) featuring Radiohead
Dhanyavad Tour (1998)
Junkie Tour (1999) featuring Garbage and Liz Phair
One Tour (2000)
Under Rug Swept Tour (2001)
Toward Our Union Mended Tour (2002)
All I Really Want Tour (2003)
So-Called Chaos Tour (2004)
Diamond Wink Tour (2005) featuring Jason Mraz
Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour (2005)
Flavors of Entanglement Tour (2008–09)
Guardian Angel Tour (2012)
Intimate and Acoustic (2014)
World Tour (2018)
2021 World Tour: Celebrating 25 Years of Jagged Little Pill featuring Garbage and Cat Power (2021–22)
Co-headlining
5 ½ Weeks Tour (1999) (with Tori Amos)
Au Naturale Tour (2004) (with the Barenaked Ladies)
Exile in America Tour (2008) (with Matchbox Twenty)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of best-selling albums
References
Further reading
Rock on the Net
[ "Alanis Morissette – Artist Chart History"]. Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
[ "Alanis Morissette – Billboard Singles"]. Allmusic. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
Rock Chicks:The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now by Stieven-Taylor, Alison (2007). Sydney. Rockpool Publishing.
External links
1974 births
Living people
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Ottawa
Alternative rock singers
American Buddhists
American dance musicians
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American feminists
American film actresses
American harmonica players
American mezzo-sopranos
American music video directors
American people of French descent
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Irish descent
American rock songwriters
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American women record producers
Brit Award winners
Canadian child actresses
Canadian dance musicians
Canadian emigrants to the United States
Canadian women pop singers
Canadian women rock singers
Canadian women singer-songwriters
Canadian feminists
Canadian film actresses
Canadian harmonica players
Canadian mezzo-sopranos
Canadian music video directors
Canadian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Canadian people of Irish descent
Canadian record producers
Canadian Buddhists
Canadian stage actresses
Canadian television actresses
Canadian women guitarists
Canadian women record producers
Child pop musicians
Echo (music award) winners
Female music video directors
Feminist musicians
Former Roman Catholics
Franco-Ontarian people
Fraternal twin actresses
Grammy Award winners
Guitarists from California
Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award winners
Juno Award for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners
Juno Award for Pop Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year winners
Juno Award for Video of the Year winners
Juno International Achievement Award winners
Maverick Records artists
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musicians from Ottawa
Naturalized citizens of the United States
People from Brentwood, Los Angeles
Record producers from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Twin musicians
Twin people from Canada
Warner Music Group artists
Women post-grunge singers
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from Ottawa
20th-century Canadian actresses
20th-century Canadian guitarists
20th-century Canadian women singers
20th-century Canadian women writers
20th-century Roman Catholics
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century Buddhists
21st-century Canadian actresses
21st-century Canadian guitarists
21st-century Canadian women singers
21st-century Canadian women writers
21st-century Roman Catholics
Singer-songwriters from California
| true |
[
"This One's for You is the sixth album by R&B crooner Teddy Pendergrass. It was released just after a bad car accident Pendergrass was involved in, which left him paralyzed from the waist down due to a spinal cord injury. The album did not do as well as his previous albums did on the Billboard 200, peaking at only #59, but it did do well on the R&B album chart, reaching #6. Only one single was released, \"I Can't Win for Losing\", which peaked at only #32 on the R&B charts.\n\nTrack listing\n \"I Can't Win for Losing\" 4:16 (Victor Carstarphen, Gene McFadden, John Whitehead)\n \"This One's for You\" 6:18 (Barry Manilow, Marty Panzer)\n \"Loving You Was Good\" 3:35 (LeRoy Bell, Casey James)\n \"This Gift of Life\" 4:27 (Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff)\n \"Now Tell Me That You Love Me\" 5:15 (Gamble, Huff)\n \"It's Up to You (What You Do With Your Life)\" 5:37 (Gamble, Huff)\n \"Don't Leave Me out Along the Road\" 3:34 (Richard Roebuck)\n \"Only to You\" 3:53 (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson)\n\nReferences\n\n1982 albums\nTeddy Pendergrass albums\nAlbums produced by Kenneth Gamble\nAlbums produced by Leon Huff\nAlbums produced by Thom Bell\nAlbums produced by Ashford & Simpson\nAlbums arranged by Bobby Martin\nAlbums recorded at Sigma Sound Studios\nPhiladelphia International Records albums",
"Follow Me is the second album of Dutch singer Do.\n\nIt did well in the Netherlands, debuting at #8 in the Mega Top 100 (album chart).\n\nAlbum information\nAfter her successful debut album Do she began working on her second album with her best friend and musical partner Glenn Corneille. They made a basis for the next album but Glenn Corneille died in a car disaster. However, Do needed to go on, so she started again where she left off.\n\nThe album contains 12 songs. Do co-wrote 3 songs; Love Me, Tune Into Me and When Everything is Gone. It features several different music genres, such as Pop, Jazz, Gospel and Country.\n\nTrack listing\n\nChart positions\n\nReferences\n.\n\n2006 albums\nDo (singer) albums\nSony BMG albums"
] |
[
"Alanis Morissette",
"1998-2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged",
"Was she infatuated with a junkie?",
"Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Was that an album or a song?",
"fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.",
"Did it have any hits?",
"platinum. \"Thank U\", the",
"How did it chart?",
"major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance;",
"Did she tour for that record?",
"major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"\"So Pure\" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards.",
"When did Alanis Unplugged come out?",
"1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which",
"Did it do well?",
"Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks"
] |
C_19751c82ebc942199a9b544e136a460e_1
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Can you explain what that means?
| 9 |
Can you explain what "Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks" means?
|
Alanis Morissette
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Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard. Privately, the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies--a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year. The "So Pure" video features actor Dash Mihok, with whom Morissette was in a relationship at the time. Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", "Hope", "Innocence", and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Alanis toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999). CANNOTANSWER
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Awards. During summer 1999, Alanis toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999).
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Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two mildly successful dance-pop albums. Afterward, as part of a recording deal, she moved to Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. In 1995, she released Jagged Little Pill, an alt rock-oriented album with the elements of post-grunge, which sold more than 33 million copies globally and is her most critically acclaimed work to date. This earned her Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1996 and was made into a rock musical of the same name in 2017, which also earned 15 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical. The album also listed in 2003 and 2020 editions of the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Guide. Her highly anticipated, more experimental follow-up, electronic-infused album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998.
Morissette assumed creative control and producing duties for her subsequent studio albums, including Under Rug Swept (2002), So-Called Chaos (2004), Flavors of Entanglement (2008), and Havoc and Bright Lights (2012). Her latest album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, was released in 2020. Her well-known singles reached top 40 in the major charts around the world, including 10 top-40 hits in the UK, 3 top-10 in the US and Australia, 12 top-10 hits in her native Canada, "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", "Head Over Feet", "Uninvited", "Thank U" and "Hands Clean". She also holds the record of the most No. 1s on the weekly Billboard Alternative Songs chart among any female soloist, group leader or duo member. Morissette won 7 Grammy Awards, 14 Juno Awards, 1 Brit Award and has sold more than 75 million records worldwide and has been dubbed the "Queen of Alt-Rock Angst" by Rolling Stone.
Early life
Morissette was born June 1, 1974, at Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to teacher Georgia Mary Ann ( Feuerstein) of Hungarian descent and high-school principal and French teacher Alan Richard Morissette. She has two brothers: older brother Chad is a business entrepreneur, and twin brother (12 minutes older) Wade Morissette is a musician. Her father is of French and Irish descent, whereas her mother has Hungarian and Jewish ancestry. Her parents were teachers in a military school and due to their work often had to move. Between the ages of three and six she lived with her parents in Lahr (Black Forest), Germany.
When she was six years old, she returned to Ottawa and started to play the piano. In 1981, at the age of seven, she began dance lessons. Morissette had a Catholic upbringing. She attended Holy Family Catholic School for elementary school and Immaculata High School for Grades 7 and 8 before completing the rest of her high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute. She appeared on the children's television sketch comedy You Can't Do That on Television for five episodes when she was in junior high school.
Music career
1987–1992: Alanis and Now Is the Time
Morissette recorded her first demo called "Fate Stay with Me", produced by Lindsay Thomas Morgan at Marigold Studios in Toronto, engineered by Rich Dodson of Canadian classic rock band The Stampeders. A second demo tape was recorded on cassette in August 1989 and sent to Geffen Records, but the tape has never been heard as it was stolen, among other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989.
In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer, Leslie Howe. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top 20 on the RPM singles chart. Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top 40. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada; comparisons to Tiffany were also common. During the same period, she was a concert opening act for rapper Vanilla Ice. Morissette was nominated for three 1992 Juno Awards: Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year (which she won), Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording (both for "Too Hot").
In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a ballad-driven record that featured less glitzy production than Alanis and contained more thoughtful lyrics. Morissette wrote the songs with the album's producer, Leslie Howe, and Serge Côté. She said of the album, "People could go, 'Boo, hiss, hiss, this girl's like another Tiffany or whatever.' But the way I look at it ... people will like your next album if it's a kick-ass one." As with Alanis (1991), Now Is the Time (1992) was released only in Canada and produced three top 40 singles—"An Emotion Away", the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" as well as "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time". The industry considered it a commercial failure, however, since it sold only a little more than half the copies of her first album. With her two-album deal with MCA Records Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract.
1993–1997: Jagged Little Pill
In 1993, Morissette's publisher Leeds Levy at MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch. Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character and her lyrics. At the time she was still living at home with her parents. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people. After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto. Her publisher funded part of her development and when she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he believed in her talent enough to let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records. In the same year she learned how to play guitar. According to manager Welch, every label they approached, apart from Maverick, declined to sign Morissette.
Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected only to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation improved quickly when KROQ-FM, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single, featuring Flea and Dave Navarro. The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics, and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hits helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand in My Pocket" followed, and the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, kept Jagged Little Pill (1995) in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. Jagged Little Pill sold more than 16 million copies in the U.S.; it sold 33 million worldwide, making it the second biggest-selling album by a female artist (behind Shania Twain's Come On Over).
Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum and produced four RPM chart-toppers: "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", and "Head over Feet". The album was also a bestseller in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill (1995) was credited with opening doors for female singers such as Tracy Bonham, Fiona Apple, Meredith Brooks, Shakira, Pink, Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne and Florence Welch. She was criticized for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, and her previous disco pop albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability. Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 16th Brit Awards she won Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.
Following the album release in 1995, Morissette embarked on an 18-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, who later joined the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. Radiohead joined as an opening act in the summer of 1996. "Ironic" was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards—Record of the Year and Best Music Video, Short Form—and won Single of the Year at the 1997 Juno Awards, where Morissette also won Songwriter of the Year and the International Achievement Award. The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which was co-directed by Morissette and chronicled the bulk of her tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form.
Following the tour, Morissette began practicing Iyengar Yoga for balance. After the last December 1996 show, she went to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two friends. She said the trip was "incredible".
1998–2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged
Morissette was featured as a guest vocalist on Ringo Starr's cover of "Drift Away" on his 1998 album, Vertical Man, and on the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets. She recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she wrote and produced with Glen Ballard.
The label hoped to sell 1 million copies of the album on initial release; instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies—a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill (1995), many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum. "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year.
Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", where she paid homage to her roots by singing in Hungarian, "Hope", "Innocence" and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. During summer 1999, Morissette toured with singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus and Back (1999).
2001–2005: Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos
In 2001, Morissette was featured with Stephanie McKay on the Tricky song "Excess", which is on his album Blowback. Morissette released her fifth studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her career, she took on the role of sole writer and producer of an album. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney, and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments; additional contributions came from Eric Avery, Dean DeLeo, Flea, and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually going platinum in Canada and selling one million copies in the U.S. It produced the hit single "Hands Clean", which topped the Canadian Singles Chart and received substantial radio play; for her work on "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", Morissette won a Juno Award for Producer of the Year. A second single, "Precious Illusions", was released, but it did not garner significant success outside Canada or U.S. hot AC radio.
Later in 2002, Morissette released the combination package Feast on Scraps, which includes a DVD of live concert and backstage documentary footage directed by her and a CD containing eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions. Preceded by the single "Simple Together", it sold roughly 70,000 copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year.
Morissette hosted the Juno Awards of 2004 dressed in a bathrobe, which she took off to reveal a flesh-colored bodysuit, a response to the era of censorship in the U.S. caused by Janet Jackson's breast-flash incident during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Morissette released her sixth studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again, and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and pop music producer John Shanks. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews, and it became Morissette's lowest seller in the U.S. The lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on Adult Top 40 radio in America and was moderately popular elsewhere, particularly in Canada, although it failed to reach the top 40 on the U.S. Hot 100. Because the first line of the song includes the word "asshole", American radio stations refused to play it, and the single version was changed to include the word "nightmare" instead. Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared considerably worse, although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a U.S. club hit. Morissette embarked on a U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians Barenaked Ladies, working with the non-profit environmental organization Reverb.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill (1995), Morissette released a studio acoustic version, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, in June 2005. The album was released exclusively through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run. The limited availability led to a dispute between Maverick Records and HMV North America, who retaliated by removing Morissette's other albums from sale for the duration of Starbucks's exclusive six-week sale. , Jagged Little Pill Acoustic had sold 372,000 copies in the U.S., and a video for "Hand in My Pocket" received rotation on VH1 in America. The accompanying tour ran for two months in mid-2005, with Morissette playing small theatre venues. During the same period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. The singer opened for The Rolling Stones for a few dates of their A Bigger Bang Tour in the autumn of 2005.
Morissette released the greatest hits album Alanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005. The lead single and only new track, a cover of Seal's "Crazy", was an Adult Top 40 and dance hit in the U.S., but achieved only minimal chart success elsewhere. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimidation" and "Can't Not". (A reworked version of "Can't Not" had also appeared on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.) The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". , The Collection had sold 373,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. That same year, Morissette contributed the song "Wunderkind" to the soundtrack of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
2006–2010: Flavors of Entanglement
2006 marked the first year in Morissette's musical career without a single concert appearance showcasing her own songs, with the exception of an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January when she performed "Wunderkind".
On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a tongue-in-cheek cover of The Black Eyed Peas's selection "My Humps", which she recorded in a slow, mournful voice, accompanied only by a piano. The accompanying YouTube-hosted video, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who act as if attempting to touch her breasts, had received 16,465,653 views as of February 15, 2009. Morissette did not take any interviews for a time to explain the song, and it was theorized that she did it as an April Fools' Day joke. Black Eyed Peas vocalist Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson responded by sending Morissette a buttocks-shaped cake with an approving note. On the verge of the release of her following album, she finally elaborated on how the video came to be, citing that she became very much emotionally loaded while recording her new songs one after the other and one day she wished she could do a simple song like "My Humps" and the joke just took a life of its own.
Morissette performed at a gig for The Nightwatchman, a.k.a. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles in April 2007. The following June, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada", the American and Canadian national anthems, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks in Ottawa, Ontario. (The NHL requires arenas to perform both the American and Canadian national anthems at games involving teams from both countries.) In early 2008, Morissette participated in a tour with Matchbox Twenty and Mutemath as a special guest.
Morissette's seventh studio album, Flavors of Entanglement, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth, was released in mid-2008. She has stated that in late 2008, she would embark on a North American headlining tour, but in the meantime she would be promoting the album internationally by performing at shows and festivals and making television and radio appearances. The album's first single was "Underneath", a video for which was submitted to the 2007 Elevate Film Festival, the purpose of which festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth. On October 3, 2008, Morissette released the video for her latest single, "Not as We".
Morissette contributed to 1 Giant Leap, performing "Arrival" with Zap Mama and she has released an acoustic version of her song "Still" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief in support of the 2010 Haiti earthquake crisis. In 2008 she contributed a recording of "Versions of Violence" for the album Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace to promote peace. Morissette has also recorded a cover of the 1984 Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias hit, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", re-written as "To All the Boys I've Loved Before". Nelson played rhythm guitar on the recording. In April 2010, Morissette released the song "I Remain", which she wrote for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time soundtrack. On May 26, 2010, the season finale of American Idol, Morissette performed a duet of her song "You Oughta Know" with Runner Up Crystal Bowersox. Morissette left Maverick Records after all promotion for Flavors was completed.
2011–2016: Havoc and Bright Lights and Jagged Little Pill 20th anniversary
On November 20, 2011, Morissette appeared at the American Music Awards. When asked about the new album during a short interview, she said she had recorded 31 songs, and that the album would "likely be out next year, probably [in] summertime". On December 21, 2011, Morissette performed a duet of "Uninvited" with finalist Josh Krajcik during the performance finale of the X-Factor.
Morissette embarked on a European tour for the summer of 2012, according to Alanis.com. In early May 2012, a new song called "Magical Child" appeared on a Starbucks compilation called Every Mother Counts.
On May 2, 2012, Morissette revealed through her Facebook account that her eighth studio album, entitled Havoc and Bright Lights, would be released in August 2012, on new label Collective Sounds, distributed by Sony's RED Distribution. On the same day, Billboard specified the date as August 28 and revealed the album would contain twelve tracks. The album's lead single, "Guardian", was released on iTunes on May 15, 2012, and hit the radio airwaves four days prior to this. The single had minor success in North America, charting the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in the US and almost reaching the top 40 in Canada. However, the song did become a hit in several countries in Europe. "Receive", the second single off the album, was released early December the same year.Morissette received the UCLA Spring Sing's George and Ira Gershwin Award on May 16, 2014, at Pauley Pavilion. On her website starting in the summer of 2014, in celebration of her fortieth birthday, the LP record for her song "Big Sur" was offered for sale, which was previously available on the Target edition of her 2012 album, Havoc and Bright Lights. July 25, 2014, was the start of the ten-show Intimate and Acoustic tour.
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the release of Jagged Little Pill, a new four-disc collector's edition was released on October 30, 2015. The four-disc edition includes remastered audio of the original album as well as an entire disc of 10 unreleased demos from the era, handpicked by Morissette from her archives, offering a deeper and more personal look at the classic album. Also included is a previously unreleased concert from 1995 as well as 2005's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic.
2017–present: Such Pretty Forks in the Road
In August 2017, Morissette teased a song titled "I Miss The Band" while on tour. On October 27, 2017, she premiered a new song entitled "Rest", which was released officially in May 2021, and performed "Castle of Glass" with members of the band No Doubt and Mike Shinoda at the Linkin Park and Friends – Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington memorial concert. In November 2017, she tweeted that she was writing 22 songs with Michael Farrell.
On March 16, 2018, Morissette performed a new song called "Ablaze" during her 2018 tour. In October 2018, she revealed on social media that she had written 23 new songs, and hinted at a new album with hashtag "#alanismorissettenewrecord2019", after a six-year hiatus. Song titles from the writing session include "Reckoning", "Diagnosis", "Her" and "Legacy". On May 5, 2018, Jagged Little Pill, a jukebox musical featuring Morissette's songs, premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the American Repertory Theater. Morissette contributed two new songs to the musical, "Smiling" and "Predator". The musical transferred to Broadway in fall of 2019, starting previews on November 3 and opening on December 5 at the Broadhurst Theatre. The production received fifteen Tony Award nominations, the most of any production that season.
In June 2019, Morissette went into studio in Los Angeles. According to an interview, she had written all the songs, and "Smiling" would be included on the new album, likely to be released early 2020. On August 8, 2019, she revealed that the new album was produced by Alex Hope and Catherine Marks. On December 1, 2019, Morissette announced her first studio album in eight years, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, set for release on May 1, 2020. The first single off the record, "Reasons I Drink", was released on December 2, 2019.
Morissette was featured on Halsey's song "Alanis' Interlude", released on January 17, 2020. On February 5, 2020, she revealed that her upcoming album was mixed by Chris Dugan. The second single from the album, "Smiling", was released on February 20, 2020. On April 15, 2020, Morissette announced that the album's release would be postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on July 31, 2020.
Morissette was originally scheduled to embark on a world tour for 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill in June 2020 with Garbage and Liz Phair, both already opened for Morissette in 1999 during Junkie Tour. The latter cancelled her shows in North America and was replaced by Cat Power instead. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to summer 2021.
Acting career
In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress in five episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. She appeared on stage with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988.
In 1999, Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since 1993, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack. Morissette reprised her role as God for a post-credits scene in Smith's next film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, to literally close the book on the View Askewniverse. She also appeared in the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm, appeared in the play The Vagina Monologues, and had brief cameos playing herself in the Brazilian hit soap operas Celebridade and Malhação.
In late 2003, Morissette appeared in the Off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent. In April 2006, MTV News reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 until May 28.
She expanded her acting credentials with the July 2004 release of the Cole Porter biographical film De-Lovely, in which she performed the song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" and had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer. In February 2005, she made a guest appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation with Dogma co-star Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith. Also in 2005, Morissette, then engaged to Ryan Reynolds, made a cameo appearance as "herself" as a former client of Reynolds' character in the film Just Friends. This scene was deleted from the theatrical release, and is only available on the DVD.
In 2006, she guest-starred in an episode of Lifetime's Lovespring International as a homeless woman named Lucinda, three episodes of FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a lesbian named Poppy, and the mockumentary-documentary Pittsburgh as herself.
Morissette has appeared in eight episodes of Weeds, playing Dr. Audra Kitson, a "no-nonsense obstetrician" who treats pregnant main character Nancy Botwin. Her first episode aired in July 2009.
In early 2010, Morissette returned to the stage, performing a one-night engagement in An Oak Tree, an experimental play in Los Angeles. The performance was a sell-out. In April 2010, Morissette was confirmed in the cast of Weeds season six, performing again her role as Dr. Audra Kitson.
Morissette also starred in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth. Morissette plays Sylvia, an ordinary woman in unexpected remission from lymphoma. Morissette stated that she is "...a big fan of Philip K. Dick's poetic and expansively imaginative books" and that she "feel[s] blessed to portray Sylvia, and to be part of this story being told in film".
She appeared as Amanda, a former bandmate of main character Ava Alexander (played by Maya Rudolph), in one episode of NBC's Up All Night on February 16, 2012. Rudolph officiated as minister for Morissette's wedding with both performing the explicit version of their hit hip hop song "Back It Up (Beep Beep)".
In 2014, Morissette played the role of Marisa Damia, the lover of architect and designer Eileen Gray, in the film The Price of Desire, directed by Mary McGuckian.
In 2021, Morissette was featured as a recurring character on adult-animation show The Great North.
Other work
In October 2015, Conversation with Alanis Morissette features conversations with different individuals from different schools and walks of life discussing everything from psychology to art to spirituality to design to health and well-being, to relationships (whether they be romantic or colleagueship or parent with children relationships). The monthly podcast is currently available to download on iTunes and free to listen to on YouTube.
In January 2016, she began a short-lived advice column in The Guardian newspaper.
In May 2018, the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, Massachusetts) premiered Jagged Little Pill, a musical with music by Morissette and Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, book by Diablo Cody, and directed by Diane Paulus.
Jagged, a documentary film about Morissette and Jagged Little Pill by filmmaker Alison Klayman, premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival before airing on HBO as part of the Music Box series of documentary films about music history.
Personal life
Morissette was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Canada. She became a US citizen in 2005, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. Morissette has since then been a practising Buddhist.
Throughout her teen years and 20s, Morissette suffered from depression and various eating disorders. She recovered from them and started to eat a healthier diet. In 2009, she ran a marathon promoting awareness for the National Eating Disorders Association.
In the 2021 documentary Jagged, Morissette said that multiple men committed statutory rape against her when she was 15 years old.
Over a period of seven years, Morissette's business manager Jonathan Schwartz stole over $5 million from her. He confessed to doing so in April 2017 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
On October 22, 2019, Morissette shared her nearly decade-long experience with postpartum depression on CBS This Morning.
In 1996, Morissette bought a home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. She also had an apartment in Ottawa and a home in Malibu, the latter of which was affected by the Woolsey Fire. In 2019, she and her family moved to Northern California, stating in an interview with The New York Times that she was "finally done with living in Los Angeles".
Relationships
Morissette dated actor and comedian Dave Coulier for a short time in the early 1990s. In a 2008 interview, Coulier said he was the ex-boyfriend who inspired Morissette's song "You Oughta Know"; Morissette has not commented on the subject of the song.
Morissette met Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds at Drew Barrymore's birthday party in 2002, and the couple began dating soon afterwards. They announced their engagement in June 2004. In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had decided to end their engagement. Morissette has stated that her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the breakup, saying that "it was cathartic."
On May 22, 2010, Morissette married rapper Mario "Souleye" Treadway in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home. The couple have three children, a son born in 2010,
a daughter born in 2016,
and another son born in 2019.
Discography
Alanis (1991)
Now Is the Time (1992)
Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998)
Under Rug Swept (2002)
So-Called Chaos (2004)
Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
Havoc and Bright Lights (2012)
Such Pretty Forks in the Road (2020)
Awards and nominations
Filmography
Film
Television
Stage
Tours
Opening act
To the Extreme Tour (1991) (opening act for Vanilla Ice)
1999 Summer Tour (1999) (opening act for Dave Matthews Band–Denver)
A Bigger Bang Tour (2005) (opening act for The Rolling Stones)
Headlining
Jagged Little Tour (1995)
Intellectual Intercourse Tour (1995–96)
Can't Not Tour (1996) featuring Radiohead
Dhanyavad Tour (1998)
Junkie Tour (1999) featuring Garbage and Liz Phair
One Tour (2000)
Under Rug Swept Tour (2001)
Toward Our Union Mended Tour (2002)
All I Really Want Tour (2003)
So-Called Chaos Tour (2004)
Diamond Wink Tour (2005) featuring Jason Mraz
Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour (2005)
Flavors of Entanglement Tour (2008–09)
Guardian Angel Tour (2012)
Intimate and Acoustic (2014)
World Tour (2018)
2021 World Tour: Celebrating 25 Years of Jagged Little Pill featuring Garbage and Cat Power (2021–22)
Co-headlining
5 ½ Weeks Tour (1999) (with Tori Amos)
Au Naturale Tour (2004) (with the Barenaked Ladies)
Exile in America Tour (2008) (with Matchbox Twenty)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of best-selling albums
References
Further reading
Rock on the Net
[ "Alanis Morissette – Artist Chart History"]. Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
[ "Alanis Morissette – Billboard Singles"]. Allmusic. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
Rock Chicks:The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now by Stieven-Taylor, Alison (2007). Sydney. Rockpool Publishing.
External links
1974 births
Living people
Actresses from Los Angeles
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Alternative rock singers
American Buddhists
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"\"Love means never having to say you're sorry\" is a catchphrase based on a line from the Erich Segal novel Love Story and was popularized by its 1970 film adaptation starring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal. The line is spoken twice in the film: once in the middle of the film, by Jennifer Cavalleri (MacGraw's character), when Oliver Barrett (O'Neal) apologizes to her for his anger; and as the last line of the film, by Oliver, when his father says \"I'm sorry\" after learning of Jennifer's death. In the script, the line is phrased slightly differently: \"Love means not ever having to say you're sorry.\"\n\nThe line proved memorable, and has been repeated in various contexts since. In 2005, it was voted #13 in the American Film Institute's list AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes. The band Sounds of Sunshine had a Top 40 hit in the United States with a song titled \"Love Means You Never Have to Say You're Sorry\" in 1971. \"Love means never having to say you're...\" is the opening sentence in the popular song \"Can't Help but Love You\" by The Whispers, from their album named after the movie, issued in 1972.\n\nThe line has also been criticized or mocked for suggesting that apologies are unnecessary in a loving relationship. Another character played by O'Neal disparages it in the 1972 screwball comedy What's Up, Doc?: in that film's final scene, Barbra Streisand's character says \"Love means never having to say you're sorry.\" and bats her eyelashes, and O'Neal's character responds in a flat deadpan voice, \"That's the dumbest thing I ever heard.\"\n\nMacGraw has said that she always hated the line and considered it ridiculous.\n\nIn popular culture\n\nIn the 34th episode of the second season of Small Wonder, entitled \"You Gotta Have Heart\", the little robot girl Vicki's parents explain love to her as \"love means never having to say you're sorry.\"\n\nIn a 2004 episode of The Simpsons (\"Catch 'Em If You Can\"), the Simpson family watches the film, and Lisa retorts, \"No, it doesn't!\" The line has also been parodied countless times, usually substituting another word or phrase for \"love\" and/or \"you're sorry\", especially the latter. The quote is also shown in the TV series Love Rain.\n\nOn iZombie Season 2, Episode 19, titled \"Salivation Army\", Liv says, \"A massive zombie outbreak means never having to say you're sorry.\"\n\nOn Weeds, Nancy Botwin, after the death of her drug dealer mentor, U-Turn, explains to the tattoo artist her reason for getting a U-Turn traffic sign tattoo is that \"It just reminds me that Thug means never having to say you're sorry.\" When asked by the tattoo artist if she doesn't mean \"love\", Nancy replies, \"Absolutely not. Love means you're constantly apologizing.\"\n\nIn the episode \"Stop, In the Name of Love\" of Family Matters, Waldo Faldo asks Laura Winslow out, and she accepts, much to Steve Urkel's dismay. Waldo then responds to Urkel saying, \"I'm sorry, Steve. I know how you feel about Laura, but it's like they say in the movie Love Story, 'Love means never having to say, I'm sorry' Steve, but I'm taking your chick!\"\n\nIn Dark Shadows, Johnny Depp's character Barnabas Collins tells a group of hippies, \"I am reminded of a line from Erich Segal's Love Story: 'Love means never having to say you are sorry.'\" \"However, please know that it is with sincere regret...that I must now kill all of you.\"\n\nOn Why Women Kill, Season 1, Episode 1 is titled \"Murder Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry\".\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nQuotations from film\nEnglish phrases\n1970 neologisms",
"Round Midnight is an album by Elkie Brooks.\n\nReleased on CD and cassette in 1993 through Castle Records, Round Midnight, reached number 24 and stayed in the UK Albums Chart for four weeks.\n\nTrack listing \n\"All Night Long\"\n\"What Kind Of Man Are You?\"\n\"Since I Fell for You\"\n\"Cry Me a River\"\n\"Don't Explain\"\n\"Just For a Thrill\"\n\"'Round Midnight\"\n\"Hard Times\"\n\"Black Coffee\"\n\"Travelling Light\"\n\"Drinking Again\"\n\"Here's That Rainy Day\"\n\"Save Your Love For Me\"\n\"Don't Smoke In Bed\"\n\"Crazy He Calls Me\"\n\"Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most\"\n\nPersonnel \nElkie Brooks – vocals\n\nReferences\n\n1993 albums\nElkie Brooks albums"
] |
[
"Comet (DC Comics)",
"Post-Crisis Comet"
] |
C_33a94dd48d2f49c2a61ac4d0a679e5dc_0
|
What is Comet?
| 1 |
What is Comet (DC Comics)?
|
Comet (DC Comics)
|
A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet). Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur. Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual). CANNOTANSWER
|
a hero with flight and cold-generation powers.
|
Comet is the name of two fictional comic book characters owned by DC Comics whose adventures have been published by that same company. The first character was a sapient horse with magical powers who was once a centaur in ancient Greece. The second character is a shapeshifter with three forms (male, female, and winged centaur). Both characters are connected to the Superman family of titles.
Comet first appeared in the story "The Legion of Super-Traitors!", published in Adventure Comics #293 (February 1962) during the period known as the Silver Age of Comics. This story introduced the Legion of Super-Pets, bringing together several previously established super animals. Krypto the Super-Dog came from Superman's past, Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Super-Monkey from Superman's present — and Comet was presented as a super-pet who came from the future. "Yes, readers!" a caption declared, "This is a PREVIEW GLIMPSE of a super-pet Supergirl will own some day in the future!" The horse was properly introduced seven months later, when Comet met Supergirl in Action Comics #292 (September 1962).
Due to the events depicted in the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first character's stories are no longer considered to be canon within DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.
Pre-Crisis Comet
Comet the Super-Horse is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Comet was introduced in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #293 in February 1962, then appeared regularly with Supergirl beginning in Action Comics #292 in September 1962.
Comet was one of a series of super-powered animals, including Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Supermonkey, that were popular in DC's comics of the 1960s. Comet was Supergirl's pet horse and, while in his human form as Bill Starr, her brief boyfriend. Comet also had a brief romance with Lois Lane in her comic book.
As he described to her telepathically, he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Unable to reverse the spell, she instead gave him superpowers, including immortality. The Sorcerer asked his teacher to help him against Biron and they were able to imprison him on an asteroid in the constellation of Sagittarius, which he had been born under. However, when Supergirl's rocket passed, it broke the force field, enabling him to escape. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of "Bronco" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider, whom Supergirl fell in love with.
Comet made sporadic appearances in comic stories through the 1960s, and even became a member of the Legion of Super-Pets, a group consisting of the aforementioned super-powered animals.
A traditional equine Comet is partially seen in Legion of Three Worlds #1. He is part of a display in the museum Superboy-Prime visits. The museum does have displays of the supermen of the multiverse and the Kristin Wells Superwoman so it is unclear whether this means Comet has returned to regular continuity.
Powers and abilities
Though unrelated, Comet's powers are similar to those of Superman and Supergirl, including flight, super-strength, and super-speed. He also has telepathy and telescopic vision. Apparently due to the potion Circe gave him he has the might of Jupiter, the wisdom of Athena, the speed of Mercury, and the telepathic powers of Neptune. Not being from Krypton he is unaffected by Kryptonite and red suns. Also, each time a comet passes through the solar system he is in, he turns into a man. For a brief transition period, he is once again a centaur.
Post-Crisis Comet
A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet).
Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur.
Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual).
Powers and abilities
Comet originally had the power of high-speed flight, and when he flew he left a freezing contrail behind him. Comet also generated a psionic aura which stimulated feelings of love in those around him. When he became an Angel of Love, he gained wings of ice, ice vision (blasts of subzero energy he released from his eyes), and a centaur-like form which gave him horse-like strength. Comet can shape-shift between his centaur form, and his female form of Andrea Martinez.
Other versions
Pre-Crisis Comet appears in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. Supergirl from the 30th century gifts her younger self the horse to save the world in the past. He helps save a baffled Superman and Supergirl from Lex Luthor. When the younger Supergirl fades away due to her powers malfunctioning the horse is left with the Kara from the changed timeline, who admits she has no idea what to do with him.
In the Elseworld story Superman: True Brit, the Kents have a horse called Comet on their farm.
Reception
Asked in a 2006 interview if Superman's extended cast of characters in the Silver Age weakened Superman's uniqueness, Action Comics writer Gail Simone answered: "Completely disagree. While cutting away the allegedly "silly" aspects of Superman's mythology, we quite forgot that there's likely a large potential readership that might really enjoy a story about a superbaby or a flying horse. We all thought that stuff was cornball junk that needed to go, but I'll tell you right now, a lot of young girls would like Supergirl more if she had a flying horse".
In other media
Comet appears as a cameo in DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year. He was Kara Zor-El's pet horse back on Krypton.
References
External links
Legion of Super-Heroes Roll Call: Comet
Silver Age Animals in Spandex
Animal superheroes
Characters created by Jerry Siegel
Characters created by Peter David
Comics characters introduced in 1962
Comics characters introduced in 1997
DC Comics angels
DC Comics characters who are shapeshifters
DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics LGBT superheroes
DC Comics male superheroes
DC Comics telepaths
Fictional androgynes
Fictional centaurs
Fictional characters with ice or cold abilities
Fictional empaths
Fictional horses
| true |
[
"Comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) is a long-period comet with roughly a 415-year orbit that is expected to return around 2283. It was discovered by A. E. Thatcher. It is responsible for the April Lyrid meteor shower. Carl Wilhelm Baeker also independently found this comet. The comet passed about from the Earth on 1861-May-05 and last came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 1861-Jun-03.\n\nC/1861 G1 is listed as a long-period \"non-periodic comet\" because it has not yet been observed at two perihelion passages. When it is seen to come back around 2283, it should receive the P/ designation.\n\nThe comet is the parent body of the April Lyrids meteor shower.\n\nSee also \n C/1861 J1 – Great comet of 1861\n 153P/Ikeya–Zhang – periodic comet with a 366-year orbit\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\nMeteor shower progenitors\n1860s in science\n1861 in science",
"Comet Kopff or 22P/Kopff is a periodic comet in the Solar System. Discovered on August 23, 1906, it was named after August Kopff who discovered the comet. The comet was missed on its November 1912 return, but was recovered on its June 1919 return. The comet has not been missed since its 1919 return and its last perihelion passage was on May 25, 2009. Close approaches to Jupiter in 1938 and 1943 decreased the perihelion distance and orbital period. 22P/Kopff’s next perihelion passage is 18 March 2022.\n\nObservations\n\n22P/Kopff was discovered at Königstuhl Observatory on Heidelberg, Germany. Kopff analyzed photographic plates which he exposed on August 20, 1903, against pre-discovery images of the same region. On August 23, 1903, Kopff concluded it to be a comet with an estimated apparent magnitude of 11. On mid-September 1906, the short-period nature of the comet was recognized by a team headed by Kiel Ebell of the Berkeley Astronomical Department. The comet was missed when it made a return on November 25, 1912, however on June 25, 1919, astronomers recovered the comet. The comet was located less than three days from the predicted position. Over the next several returns to Earth, none were notable until the 1945 comet’s return when the comet peaked at magnitude 8.5. The increase in brightness was a result of Jupiter altering the comet’s orbit between the years of 1939 to 1945. This change in orbit brought the comet closer to the Sun. The 1951 return was unique due to the comet being 3 magnitudes fainter than what was expected when recovered in April 1951. But the comet still reached magnitude 10.5 in October 1951. A very close pass to Jupiter in 1954 increased the comet’s perihelion distance to 1.52 AU and increased the orbital period to 6.31 years. On November 30, 1994, Carl W. Hergenrother was able to recover the comet at a stellar magnitude of 22.8 using the 1.5-m reflector at the Catalina Sky Survey. The comet reached magnitude 7 during the 1996 perihelion passage.\n\nThe comet nucleus is estimated to be 3.0 kilometers in diameter with an albedo of 0.05. The nucleus is dark because hydrocarbons on the surface have been converted to a dark, tarry like substance by solar ultraviolet radiation.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Orbital simulation from JPL (Java) / Ephemeris\n Elements and Ephemeris for 22P/Kopff – Minor Planet Center\n 22P/Kopff at CometBase\n 22P – Gary W. Kronk's Cometography\n 22P at Kazuo Kinoshita's Comets\n 22P/Kopff / 2009 – Seiichi Yoshida @ aerith.net\n\nPeriodic comets\n0022\nDiscoveries by August Kopff\nComets in 2015\n19060823"
] |
[
"Comet (DC Comics)",
"Post-Crisis Comet",
"What is Comet?",
"a hero with flight and cold-generation powers."
] |
C_33a94dd48d2f49c2a61ac4d0a679e5dc_0
|
Who's pet was Comet?
| 2 |
Who's pet was Comet in DC Comics?
|
Comet (DC Comics)
|
A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet). Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur. Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual). CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
|
Comet is the name of two fictional comic book characters owned by DC Comics whose adventures have been published by that same company. The first character was a sapient horse with magical powers who was once a centaur in ancient Greece. The second character is a shapeshifter with three forms (male, female, and winged centaur). Both characters are connected to the Superman family of titles.
Comet first appeared in the story "The Legion of Super-Traitors!", published in Adventure Comics #293 (February 1962) during the period known as the Silver Age of Comics. This story introduced the Legion of Super-Pets, bringing together several previously established super animals. Krypto the Super-Dog came from Superman's past, Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Super-Monkey from Superman's present — and Comet was presented as a super-pet who came from the future. "Yes, readers!" a caption declared, "This is a PREVIEW GLIMPSE of a super-pet Supergirl will own some day in the future!" The horse was properly introduced seven months later, when Comet met Supergirl in Action Comics #292 (September 1962).
Due to the events depicted in the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first character's stories are no longer considered to be canon within DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.
Pre-Crisis Comet
Comet the Super-Horse is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Comet was introduced in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #293 in February 1962, then appeared regularly with Supergirl beginning in Action Comics #292 in September 1962.
Comet was one of a series of super-powered animals, including Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Supermonkey, that were popular in DC's comics of the 1960s. Comet was Supergirl's pet horse and, while in his human form as Bill Starr, her brief boyfriend. Comet also had a brief romance with Lois Lane in her comic book.
As he described to her telepathically, he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Unable to reverse the spell, she instead gave him superpowers, including immortality. The Sorcerer asked his teacher to help him against Biron and they were able to imprison him on an asteroid in the constellation of Sagittarius, which he had been born under. However, when Supergirl's rocket passed, it broke the force field, enabling him to escape. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of "Bronco" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider, whom Supergirl fell in love with.
Comet made sporadic appearances in comic stories through the 1960s, and even became a member of the Legion of Super-Pets, a group consisting of the aforementioned super-powered animals.
A traditional equine Comet is partially seen in Legion of Three Worlds #1. He is part of a display in the museum Superboy-Prime visits. The museum does have displays of the supermen of the multiverse and the Kristin Wells Superwoman so it is unclear whether this means Comet has returned to regular continuity.
Powers and abilities
Though unrelated, Comet's powers are similar to those of Superman and Supergirl, including flight, super-strength, and super-speed. He also has telepathy and telescopic vision. Apparently due to the potion Circe gave him he has the might of Jupiter, the wisdom of Athena, the speed of Mercury, and the telepathic powers of Neptune. Not being from Krypton he is unaffected by Kryptonite and red suns. Also, each time a comet passes through the solar system he is in, he turns into a man. For a brief transition period, he is once again a centaur.
Post-Crisis Comet
A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet).
Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur.
Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual).
Powers and abilities
Comet originally had the power of high-speed flight, and when he flew he left a freezing contrail behind him. Comet also generated a psionic aura which stimulated feelings of love in those around him. When he became an Angel of Love, he gained wings of ice, ice vision (blasts of subzero energy he released from his eyes), and a centaur-like form which gave him horse-like strength. Comet can shape-shift between his centaur form, and his female form of Andrea Martinez.
Other versions
Pre-Crisis Comet appears in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. Supergirl from the 30th century gifts her younger self the horse to save the world in the past. He helps save a baffled Superman and Supergirl from Lex Luthor. When the younger Supergirl fades away due to her powers malfunctioning the horse is left with the Kara from the changed timeline, who admits she has no idea what to do with him.
In the Elseworld story Superman: True Brit, the Kents have a horse called Comet on their farm.
Reception
Asked in a 2006 interview if Superman's extended cast of characters in the Silver Age weakened Superman's uniqueness, Action Comics writer Gail Simone answered: "Completely disagree. While cutting away the allegedly "silly" aspects of Superman's mythology, we quite forgot that there's likely a large potential readership that might really enjoy a story about a superbaby or a flying horse. We all thought that stuff was cornball junk that needed to go, but I'll tell you right now, a lot of young girls would like Supergirl more if she had a flying horse".
In other media
Comet appears as a cameo in DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year. He was Kara Zor-El's pet horse back on Krypton.
References
External links
Legion of Super-Heroes Roll Call: Comet
Silver Age Animals in Spandex
Animal superheroes
Characters created by Jerry Siegel
Characters created by Peter David
Comics characters introduced in 1962
Comics characters introduced in 1997
DC Comics angels
DC Comics characters who are shapeshifters
DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics LGBT superheroes
DC Comics male superheroes
DC Comics telepaths
Fictional androgynes
Fictional centaurs
Fictional characters with ice or cold abilities
Fictional empaths
Fictional horses
| false |
[
"Comet is the name of two fictional comic book characters owned by DC Comics whose adventures have been published by that same company. The first character was a sapient horse with magical powers who was once a centaur in ancient Greece. The second character is a shapeshifter with three forms (male, female, and winged centaur). Both characters are connected to the Superman family of titles.\n\nComet first appeared in the story \"The Legion of Super-Traitors!\", published in Adventure Comics #293 (February 1962) during the period known as the Silver Age of Comics. This story introduced the Legion of Super-Pets, bringing together several previously established super animals. Krypto the Super-Dog came from Superman's past, Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Super-Monkey from Superman's present — and Comet was presented as a super-pet who came from the future. \"Yes, readers!\" a caption declared, \"This is a PREVIEW GLIMPSE of a super-pet Supergirl will own some day in the future!\" The horse was properly introduced seven months later, when Comet met Supergirl in Action Comics #292 (September 1962).\n\nDue to the events depicted in the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first character's stories are no longer considered to be canon within DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.\n\nPre-Crisis Comet\nComet the Super-Horse is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Comet was introduced in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #293 in February 1962, then appeared regularly with Supergirl beginning in Action Comics #292 in September 1962.\n\nComet was one of a series of super-powered animals, including Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Supermonkey, that were popular in DC's comics of the 1960s. Comet was Supergirl's pet horse and, while in his human form as Bill Starr, her brief boyfriend. Comet also had a brief romance with Lois Lane in her comic book.\n\nAs he described to her telepathically, he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Unable to reverse the spell, she instead gave him superpowers, including immortality. The Sorcerer asked his teacher to help him against Biron and they were able to imprison him on an asteroid in the constellation of Sagittarius, which he had been born under. However, when Supergirl's rocket passed, it broke the force field, enabling him to escape. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of \"Bronco\" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider, whom Supergirl fell in love with.\n\nComet made sporadic appearances in comic stories through the 1960s, and even became a member of the Legion of Super-Pets, a group consisting of the aforementioned super-powered animals.\n\nA traditional equine Comet is partially seen in Legion of Three Worlds #1. He is part of a display in the museum Superboy-Prime visits. The museum does have displays of the supermen of the multiverse and the Kristin Wells Superwoman so it is unclear whether this means Comet has returned to regular continuity.\n\nPowers and abilities\nThough unrelated, Comet's powers are similar to those of Superman and Supergirl, including flight, super-strength, and super-speed. He also has telepathy and telescopic vision. Apparently due to the potion Circe gave him he has the might of Jupiter, the wisdom of Athena, the speed of Mercury, and the telepathic powers of Neptune. Not being from Krypton he is unaffected by Kryptonite and red suns. Also, each time a comet passes through the solar system he is in, he turns into a man. For a brief transition period, he is once again a centaur.\n\nPost-Crisis Comet\n\nA very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet).\n\nSoon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and \"rebuilt\" by an organization called \"The Stable\" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur.\n\nBlithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual).\n\nPowers and abilities\nComet originally had the power of high-speed flight, and when he flew he left a freezing contrail behind him. Comet also generated a psionic aura which stimulated feelings of love in those around him. When he became an Angel of Love, he gained wings of ice, ice vision (blasts of subzero energy he released from his eyes), and a centaur-like form which gave him horse-like strength. Comet can shape-shift between his centaur form, and his female form of Andrea Martinez.\n\nOther versions\n Pre-Crisis Comet appears in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. Supergirl from the 30th century gifts her younger self the horse to save the world in the past. He helps save a baffled Superman and Supergirl from Lex Luthor. When the younger Supergirl fades away due to her powers malfunctioning the horse is left with the Kara from the changed timeline, who admits she has no idea what to do with him.\n In the Elseworld story Superman: True Brit, the Kents have a horse called Comet on their farm.\n\nReception\nAsked in a 2006 interview if Superman's extended cast of characters in the Silver Age weakened Superman's uniqueness, Action Comics writer Gail Simone answered: \"Completely disagree. While cutting away the allegedly \"silly\" aspects of Superman's mythology, we quite forgot that there's likely a large potential readership that might really enjoy a story about a superbaby or a flying horse. We all thought that stuff was cornball junk that needed to go, but I'll tell you right now, a lot of young girls would like Supergirl more if she had a flying horse\".\n\nIn other media \nComet appears as a cameo in DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year. He was Kara Zor-El's pet horse back on Krypton.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLegion of Super-Heroes Roll Call: Comet\nSilver Age Animals in Spandex\n\nAnimal superheroes\nCharacters created by Jerry Siegel\nCharacters created by Peter David\nComics characters introduced in 1962\nComics characters introduced in 1997\nDC Comics angels\nDC Comics characters who are shapeshifters\nDC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds\nDC Comics characters with superhuman strength\nDC Comics LGBT superheroes\nDC Comics male superheroes\nDC Comics telepaths\nFictional androgynes\nFictional centaurs\nFictional characters with ice or cold abilities\nFictional empaths\nFictional horses",
"5D/Brorsen (also known as Brorsen's Comet or Comet Brorsen) was a periodic Jupiter-family comet discovered on February 26, 1846, by Danish astronomer Theodor Brorsen. The perihelion of 5D/Brorsen was February 25, just a day before its discovery, and it passed closest to Earth on March 27, at a distance of 0.52 AU. As a result of this close encounter to Earth the comet's coma diameter increased. Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt estimated it as 3 to 4 arcminutes across on March 9, and 8 to 10 arcminutes across on the 22nd of that same month. On April 22, it was about 20 degrees from the north celestial pole. By the end of this first apparition the orbital period was calculated as 5.5 years. It was discovered that a close approach to Jupiter in 1842 put it in its discovery orbit.\n\nThe comet's 5.5-year period would mean that apparitions would alternate between good and poor. As expected, the comet was missed in its 1851 apparition, when it only came as close as 1.5 AU to Earth.\n\nThe comet's orbit was still relatively uncertain, made worse by its approach to Jupiter in 1854. Karl Christian Bruhns found a comet on 18 March 1857. Soon an orbit was computed and it was found to be 5D/Brorsen, although predictions were three months off. The comet was followed until June 1857, and the orbit was then well established. Observers reported that the comet had a bright, almost star-like nucleus.\n\nThe comet was missed in 1862, and the next recovery was in 1868. A close approach to Jupiter shortened the period enough to make the comet visible in 1873. A very favorable apparition followed in 1879, allowing the comet to be observed for the longest time to date – four months. The comet was missed in 1884, due to observing circumstances, but was also missed in 1890, a favorable apparition. The next favorable apparition occurred in 1901, but searches did not locate the comet.\n\nThe next serious search was started by Brian G. Marsden in 1963, who believed the comet had faded out of existence, but computed the orbit for a very favorable 1973 apparition. Japanese observers made intensive searches for the comet, but nothing turned up. This failure to locate the comet, in conjunction with earlier attempts, lead Marsden to conclude that the comet was lost.\n\nReferences \n\n Orbital data taken from this preprint: Neslusan, Lubos: \"The identification of asteroid 1996 SK with the extinct nucleus of comet 5D/Brorsen\", Memorie della Società Astronomica Italiana, Spec. Vol.: Proc. Internat. Conf. held at Palermo, Italy, June 11–16, 2001 (Postscript version)\n\nExternal links \n 5D at Gary W. Kronk's Cometography\n\n0005\nPeriodic comets\nLost comets\n005D\n005D\n18460226"
] |
[
"Comet (DC Comics)",
"Post-Crisis Comet",
"What is Comet?",
"a hero with flight and cold-generation powers.",
"Who's pet was Comet?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_33a94dd48d2f49c2a61ac4d0a679e5dc_0
|
Who were some other "super animals" like Comet?
| 3 |
Who were the rest of the "super animals" like Comet?
|
Comet (DC Comics)
|
A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet). Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur. Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual). CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
|
Comet is the name of two fictional comic book characters owned by DC Comics whose adventures have been published by that same company. The first character was a sapient horse with magical powers who was once a centaur in ancient Greece. The second character is a shapeshifter with three forms (male, female, and winged centaur). Both characters are connected to the Superman family of titles.
Comet first appeared in the story "The Legion of Super-Traitors!", published in Adventure Comics #293 (February 1962) during the period known as the Silver Age of Comics. This story introduced the Legion of Super-Pets, bringing together several previously established super animals. Krypto the Super-Dog came from Superman's past, Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Super-Monkey from Superman's present — and Comet was presented as a super-pet who came from the future. "Yes, readers!" a caption declared, "This is a PREVIEW GLIMPSE of a super-pet Supergirl will own some day in the future!" The horse was properly introduced seven months later, when Comet met Supergirl in Action Comics #292 (September 1962).
Due to the events depicted in the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first character's stories are no longer considered to be canon within DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.
Pre-Crisis Comet
Comet the Super-Horse is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Comet was introduced in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #293 in February 1962, then appeared regularly with Supergirl beginning in Action Comics #292 in September 1962.
Comet was one of a series of super-powered animals, including Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Supermonkey, that were popular in DC's comics of the 1960s. Comet was Supergirl's pet horse and, while in his human form as Bill Starr, her brief boyfriend. Comet also had a brief romance with Lois Lane in her comic book.
As he described to her telepathically, he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Unable to reverse the spell, she instead gave him superpowers, including immortality. The Sorcerer asked his teacher to help him against Biron and they were able to imprison him on an asteroid in the constellation of Sagittarius, which he had been born under. However, when Supergirl's rocket passed, it broke the force field, enabling him to escape. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of "Bronco" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider, whom Supergirl fell in love with.
Comet made sporadic appearances in comic stories through the 1960s, and even became a member of the Legion of Super-Pets, a group consisting of the aforementioned super-powered animals.
A traditional equine Comet is partially seen in Legion of Three Worlds #1. He is part of a display in the museum Superboy-Prime visits. The museum does have displays of the supermen of the multiverse and the Kristin Wells Superwoman so it is unclear whether this means Comet has returned to regular continuity.
Powers and abilities
Though unrelated, Comet's powers are similar to those of Superman and Supergirl, including flight, super-strength, and super-speed. He also has telepathy and telescopic vision. Apparently due to the potion Circe gave him he has the might of Jupiter, the wisdom of Athena, the speed of Mercury, and the telepathic powers of Neptune. Not being from Krypton he is unaffected by Kryptonite and red suns. Also, each time a comet passes through the solar system he is in, he turns into a man. For a brief transition period, he is once again a centaur.
Post-Crisis Comet
A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet).
Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur.
Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual).
Powers and abilities
Comet originally had the power of high-speed flight, and when he flew he left a freezing contrail behind him. Comet also generated a psionic aura which stimulated feelings of love in those around him. When he became an Angel of Love, he gained wings of ice, ice vision (blasts of subzero energy he released from his eyes), and a centaur-like form which gave him horse-like strength. Comet can shape-shift between his centaur form, and his female form of Andrea Martinez.
Other versions
Pre-Crisis Comet appears in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. Supergirl from the 30th century gifts her younger self the horse to save the world in the past. He helps save a baffled Superman and Supergirl from Lex Luthor. When the younger Supergirl fades away due to her powers malfunctioning the horse is left with the Kara from the changed timeline, who admits she has no idea what to do with him.
In the Elseworld story Superman: True Brit, the Kents have a horse called Comet on their farm.
Reception
Asked in a 2006 interview if Superman's extended cast of characters in the Silver Age weakened Superman's uniqueness, Action Comics writer Gail Simone answered: "Completely disagree. While cutting away the allegedly "silly" aspects of Superman's mythology, we quite forgot that there's likely a large potential readership that might really enjoy a story about a superbaby or a flying horse. We all thought that stuff was cornball junk that needed to go, but I'll tell you right now, a lot of young girls would like Supergirl more if she had a flying horse".
In other media
Comet appears as a cameo in DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year. He was Kara Zor-El's pet horse back on Krypton.
References
External links
Legion of Super-Heroes Roll Call: Comet
Silver Age Animals in Spandex
Animal superheroes
Characters created by Jerry Siegel
Characters created by Peter David
Comics characters introduced in 1962
Comics characters introduced in 1997
DC Comics angels
DC Comics characters who are shapeshifters
DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics LGBT superheroes
DC Comics male superheroes
DC Comics telepaths
Fictional androgynes
Fictional centaurs
Fictional characters with ice or cold abilities
Fictional empaths
Fictional horses
| false |
[
"Comet is the name of two fictional comic book characters owned by DC Comics whose adventures have been published by that same company. The first character was a sapient horse with magical powers who was once a centaur in ancient Greece. The second character is a shapeshifter with three forms (male, female, and winged centaur). Both characters are connected to the Superman family of titles.\n\nComet first appeared in the story \"The Legion of Super-Traitors!\", published in Adventure Comics #293 (February 1962) during the period known as the Silver Age of Comics. This story introduced the Legion of Super-Pets, bringing together several previously established super animals. Krypto the Super-Dog came from Superman's past, Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Super-Monkey from Superman's present — and Comet was presented as a super-pet who came from the future. \"Yes, readers!\" a caption declared, \"This is a PREVIEW GLIMPSE of a super-pet Supergirl will own some day in the future!\" The horse was properly introduced seven months later, when Comet met Supergirl in Action Comics #292 (September 1962).\n\nDue to the events depicted in the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first character's stories are no longer considered to be canon within DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.\n\nPre-Crisis Comet\nComet the Super-Horse is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Comet was introduced in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #293 in February 1962, then appeared regularly with Supergirl beginning in Action Comics #292 in September 1962.\n\nComet was one of a series of super-powered animals, including Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Supermonkey, that were popular in DC's comics of the 1960s. Comet was Supergirl's pet horse and, while in his human form as Bill Starr, her brief boyfriend. Comet also had a brief romance with Lois Lane in her comic book.\n\nAs he described to her telepathically, he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Unable to reverse the spell, she instead gave him superpowers, including immortality. The Sorcerer asked his teacher to help him against Biron and they were able to imprison him on an asteroid in the constellation of Sagittarius, which he had been born under. However, when Supergirl's rocket passed, it broke the force field, enabling him to escape. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of \"Bronco\" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider, whom Supergirl fell in love with.\n\nComet made sporadic appearances in comic stories through the 1960s, and even became a member of the Legion of Super-Pets, a group consisting of the aforementioned super-powered animals.\n\nA traditional equine Comet is partially seen in Legion of Three Worlds #1. He is part of a display in the museum Superboy-Prime visits. The museum does have displays of the supermen of the multiverse and the Kristin Wells Superwoman so it is unclear whether this means Comet has returned to regular continuity.\n\nPowers and abilities\nThough unrelated, Comet's powers are similar to those of Superman and Supergirl, including flight, super-strength, and super-speed. He also has telepathy and telescopic vision. Apparently due to the potion Circe gave him he has the might of Jupiter, the wisdom of Athena, the speed of Mercury, and the telepathic powers of Neptune. Not being from Krypton he is unaffected by Kryptonite and red suns. Also, each time a comet passes through the solar system he is in, he turns into a man. For a brief transition period, he is once again a centaur.\n\nPost-Crisis Comet\n\nA very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet).\n\nSoon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and \"rebuilt\" by an organization called \"The Stable\" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur.\n\nBlithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual).\n\nPowers and abilities\nComet originally had the power of high-speed flight, and when he flew he left a freezing contrail behind him. Comet also generated a psionic aura which stimulated feelings of love in those around him. When he became an Angel of Love, he gained wings of ice, ice vision (blasts of subzero energy he released from his eyes), and a centaur-like form which gave him horse-like strength. Comet can shape-shift between his centaur form, and his female form of Andrea Martinez.\n\nOther versions\n Pre-Crisis Comet appears in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. Supergirl from the 30th century gifts her younger self the horse to save the world in the past. He helps save a baffled Superman and Supergirl from Lex Luthor. When the younger Supergirl fades away due to her powers malfunctioning the horse is left with the Kara from the changed timeline, who admits she has no idea what to do with him.\n In the Elseworld story Superman: True Brit, the Kents have a horse called Comet on their farm.\n\nReception\nAsked in a 2006 interview if Superman's extended cast of characters in the Silver Age weakened Superman's uniqueness, Action Comics writer Gail Simone answered: \"Completely disagree. While cutting away the allegedly \"silly\" aspects of Superman's mythology, we quite forgot that there's likely a large potential readership that might really enjoy a story about a superbaby or a flying horse. We all thought that stuff was cornball junk that needed to go, but I'll tell you right now, a lot of young girls would like Supergirl more if she had a flying horse\".\n\nIn other media \nComet appears as a cameo in DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year. He was Kara Zor-El's pet horse back on Krypton.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLegion of Super-Heroes Roll Call: Comet\nSilver Age Animals in Spandex\n\nAnimal superheroes\nCharacters created by Jerry Siegel\nCharacters created by Peter David\nComics characters introduced in 1962\nComics characters introduced in 1997\nDC Comics angels\nDC Comics characters who are shapeshifters\nDC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds\nDC Comics characters with superhuman strength\nDC Comics LGBT superheroes\nDC Comics male superheroes\nDC Comics telepaths\nFictional androgynes\nFictional centaurs\nFictional characters with ice or cold abilities\nFictional empaths\nFictional horses",
"\"Comet\" is a well-known humorous children's song in North America. It describes the deleterious effects of consuming Comet cleanser—a powdered cleansing product. The most prominent and often-occurring effect in the song is that it turns one's teeth green. Among other effects alleged by this song are an unappealing taste and, unsurprisingly, a tendency to vomit.\n\nAlthough this song, like many in its genre, has widely variable lyrics, a common version contains the following words:\n\n Comet - it makes your teeth [or \"lips\"] turn green!;\n Comet - it tastes like gasoline [or \"listerine\", in the variation where your lips turn green]!;\n Comet - it makes you vomit;\n So buy [or \"eat\" or \"get\"] some Comet, and vomit, today!\n\nThe melody of the song is the \"Colonel Bogey March\".\n\nIn popular culture\n\nBart Simpson sings a version about his sister in the Simpsons episode \"Stark Raving Dad\"\n\nByron, one of the Pike triplets, sings a variation in Baby-sitters on Board!, The Baby Sitters Club Super Special #1.\n\nSee also\n\nHitler Has Only Got One Ball, another schoolyard song set to the \"Colonel Bogey March\" melody\n\nReferences\n\nPlayground songs\nAmerican folk songs"
] |
[
"Comet (DC Comics)",
"Post-Crisis Comet",
"What is Comet?",
"a hero with flight and cold-generation powers.",
"Who's pet was Comet?",
"I don't know.",
"Who were some other \"super animals\" like Comet?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_33a94dd48d2f49c2a61ac4d0a679e5dc_0
|
Where did Comet first appear?
| 4 |
Where did Comet of DC Comics first appear?
|
Comet (DC Comics)
|
A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet). Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur. Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual). CANNOTANSWER
|
Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997).
|
Comet is the name of two fictional comic book characters owned by DC Comics whose adventures have been published by that same company. The first character was a sapient horse with magical powers who was once a centaur in ancient Greece. The second character is a shapeshifter with three forms (male, female, and winged centaur). Both characters are connected to the Superman family of titles.
Comet first appeared in the story "The Legion of Super-Traitors!", published in Adventure Comics #293 (February 1962) during the period known as the Silver Age of Comics. This story introduced the Legion of Super-Pets, bringing together several previously established super animals. Krypto the Super-Dog came from Superman's past, Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Super-Monkey from Superman's present — and Comet was presented as a super-pet who came from the future. "Yes, readers!" a caption declared, "This is a PREVIEW GLIMPSE of a super-pet Supergirl will own some day in the future!" The horse was properly introduced seven months later, when Comet met Supergirl in Action Comics #292 (September 1962).
Due to the events depicted in the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first character's stories are no longer considered to be canon within DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.
Pre-Crisis Comet
Comet the Super-Horse is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Comet was introduced in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #293 in February 1962, then appeared regularly with Supergirl beginning in Action Comics #292 in September 1962.
Comet was one of a series of super-powered animals, including Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Supermonkey, that were popular in DC's comics of the 1960s. Comet was Supergirl's pet horse and, while in his human form as Bill Starr, her brief boyfriend. Comet also had a brief romance with Lois Lane in her comic book.
As he described to her telepathically, he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Unable to reverse the spell, she instead gave him superpowers, including immortality. The Sorcerer asked his teacher to help him against Biron and they were able to imprison him on an asteroid in the constellation of Sagittarius, which he had been born under. However, when Supergirl's rocket passed, it broke the force field, enabling him to escape. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of "Bronco" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider, whom Supergirl fell in love with.
Comet made sporadic appearances in comic stories through the 1960s, and even became a member of the Legion of Super-Pets, a group consisting of the aforementioned super-powered animals.
A traditional equine Comet is partially seen in Legion of Three Worlds #1. He is part of a display in the museum Superboy-Prime visits. The museum does have displays of the supermen of the multiverse and the Kristin Wells Superwoman so it is unclear whether this means Comet has returned to regular continuity.
Powers and abilities
Though unrelated, Comet's powers are similar to those of Superman and Supergirl, including flight, super-strength, and super-speed. He also has telepathy and telescopic vision. Apparently due to the potion Circe gave him he has the might of Jupiter, the wisdom of Athena, the speed of Mercury, and the telepathic powers of Neptune. Not being from Krypton he is unaffected by Kryptonite and red suns. Also, each time a comet passes through the solar system he is in, he turns into a man. For a brief transition period, he is once again a centaur.
Post-Crisis Comet
A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet).
Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur.
Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual).
Powers and abilities
Comet originally had the power of high-speed flight, and when he flew he left a freezing contrail behind him. Comet also generated a psionic aura which stimulated feelings of love in those around him. When he became an Angel of Love, he gained wings of ice, ice vision (blasts of subzero energy he released from his eyes), and a centaur-like form which gave him horse-like strength. Comet can shape-shift between his centaur form, and his female form of Andrea Martinez.
Other versions
Pre-Crisis Comet appears in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. Supergirl from the 30th century gifts her younger self the horse to save the world in the past. He helps save a baffled Superman and Supergirl from Lex Luthor. When the younger Supergirl fades away due to her powers malfunctioning the horse is left with the Kara from the changed timeline, who admits she has no idea what to do with him.
In the Elseworld story Superman: True Brit, the Kents have a horse called Comet on their farm.
Reception
Asked in a 2006 interview if Superman's extended cast of characters in the Silver Age weakened Superman's uniqueness, Action Comics writer Gail Simone answered: "Completely disagree. While cutting away the allegedly "silly" aspects of Superman's mythology, we quite forgot that there's likely a large potential readership that might really enjoy a story about a superbaby or a flying horse. We all thought that stuff was cornball junk that needed to go, but I'll tell you right now, a lot of young girls would like Supergirl more if she had a flying horse".
In other media
Comet appears as a cameo in DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year. He was Kara Zor-El's pet horse back on Krypton.
References
External links
Legion of Super-Heroes Roll Call: Comet
Silver Age Animals in Spandex
Animal superheroes
Characters created by Jerry Siegel
Characters created by Peter David
Comics characters introduced in 1962
Comics characters introduced in 1997
DC Comics angels
DC Comics characters who are shapeshifters
DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics LGBT superheroes
DC Comics male superheroes
DC Comics telepaths
Fictional androgynes
Fictional centaurs
Fictional characters with ice or cold abilities
Fictional empaths
Fictional horses
| true |
[
"Comet C/2012 E2 (SWAN) was a Kreutz group sungrazing comet discovered by Vladimir Bezugly in publicly available images taken by the SWAN instrument (Solar Wind ANisotropies) on board the SOHO spacecraft. It is recognized for being the first Kreutz sungrazer observed in SWAN imagery.\n\nDiscovery \nOn March 8, 2012, Ukrainian amateur astronomer Vladimir Bezugly reported an unknown comet in 3 images taken by the SWAN instrument on board the SOHO spacecraft. Further study of this object revealed that it was a Kreutz group sungrazer with a perihelion date on March 15, 2012. This was particularly interesting because no Kreutz sungrazer had ever been bright enough to be observed by the SWAN cameras, not even Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) which was visible to the naked-eye three months earlier. This meant that Comet SWAN had a chance of being an exceptionally bright comet.\n\nSECCHI and LASCO Observations \nThe SECCHI HI1 camera on board the STEREO-B spacecraft was the first to observe the comet after the SWAN instrument. It entered the field of view on March 11 and appeared reasonably bright, though not as bright as it could have been.\nThe comet entered the visibility of SOHO's LASCO telescopes on March 13, there too the comet did not appear exceptionally bright, it was fainter in comparison to Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) at this stage of its orbit. Though it certainly appeared brighter than most sungrazing comets of the Kreutz group. It reached a maximum apparent brightness of mag +1 before it declined in brightness due to disintegration. The comet did not survive perihelion.\nSECCHI's COR instruments on both STEREO spacecraft also observed the comet's final moments.\n\nOther observations \nThe reason of the comet's brightness in SWAN remains unknown, though it is thought that the comet experienced an outburst a few days before discovery which rendered it much brighter than it was otherwise. \nNo ground-based observations of the comet were available.\n\nReferences \n\nNon-periodic comets\nC2012E02\nC2012E02\n20120308",
"8P/Tuttle (also known as Tuttle's Comet or Comet Tuttle) is a periodic comet with a 13.6-year orbit. It fits the classical definition of a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of less than 20 years, but does not fit the modern definition of (2 < TJupiter< 3). Its last perihelion passage was 27 August 2021 when it had a solar elongation of 26 degrees at approximately apparent magnitude 9. Two weeks later, on September 12, 2021, it was about from Earth which is about as far from Earth as the comet can get when the comet is near perihelion.\n\nComet 8P/Tuttle is responsible for the Ursid meteor shower in late December.\n\n2008 perihelion \nUnder dark skies the comet was a naked-eye object. Perihelion was late January 2008, and as of February was visible telescopically to Southern Hemisphere observers in the constellation Eridanus. On December 30, 2007 it was in close conjunction with spiral galaxy M33. On January 1, 2008 it passed Earth at a distance of .\n\nPredictions that the 2007 Ursid meteor shower could be expected to be stronger than usual due to the return of the comet, did not appear to materialize, as counts were in the range of normal distribution.\n\nContact binary \nRadar observations of Comet Tuttle in January 2008 by the Arecibo Observatory show it to be a contact binary. The comet nucleus is estimated at about 4.5 km in diameter, using the equivalent diameter of a sphere having a volume equal to the sum of a 3 km and 4 km sphere.\n\nAdditional images\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Orbital simulation from JPL (Java) / Horizons Ephemeris\n 8P/Tuttle – Seiichi Yoshida @ aerith.net\n 8P at Kronk's Cometography\n 8P/Tuttle time sequence\n Comet Tuttle Seen To Be Returning\n Comet 8P/Tuttle. Canary Islands, Tenerife. 06.01.2008\n NASA Orbital Diagram\n\nPeriodic comets\n0008\n008P\nMeteor shower progenitors\nContact binary (small Solar System body)\n20210827\n18580105"
] |
[
"Comet (DC Comics)",
"Post-Crisis Comet",
"What is Comet?",
"a hero with flight and cold-generation powers.",
"Who's pet was Comet?",
"I don't know.",
"Who were some other \"super animals\" like Comet?",
"I don't know.",
"Where did Comet first appear?",
"Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997)."
] |
C_33a94dd48d2f49c2a61ac4d0a679e5dc_0
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What are some of Comet's super powers?
| 5 |
Besides Supergirl #14 what are some of Comet's super powers?
|
Comet (DC Comics)
|
A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet). Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur. Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual). CANNOTANSWER
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flight and cold-generation powers.
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Comet is the name of two fictional comic book characters owned by DC Comics whose adventures have been published by that same company. The first character was a sapient horse with magical powers who was once a centaur in ancient Greece. The second character is a shapeshifter with three forms (male, female, and winged centaur). Both characters are connected to the Superman family of titles.
Comet first appeared in the story "The Legion of Super-Traitors!", published in Adventure Comics #293 (February 1962) during the period known as the Silver Age of Comics. This story introduced the Legion of Super-Pets, bringing together several previously established super animals. Krypto the Super-Dog came from Superman's past, Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Super-Monkey from Superman's present — and Comet was presented as a super-pet who came from the future. "Yes, readers!" a caption declared, "This is a PREVIEW GLIMPSE of a super-pet Supergirl will own some day in the future!" The horse was properly introduced seven months later, when Comet met Supergirl in Action Comics #292 (September 1962).
Due to the events depicted in the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first character's stories are no longer considered to be canon within DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.
Pre-Crisis Comet
Comet the Super-Horse is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Comet was introduced in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #293 in February 1962, then appeared regularly with Supergirl beginning in Action Comics #292 in September 1962.
Comet was one of a series of super-powered animals, including Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Supermonkey, that were popular in DC's comics of the 1960s. Comet was Supergirl's pet horse and, while in his human form as Bill Starr, her brief boyfriend. Comet also had a brief romance with Lois Lane in her comic book.
As he described to her telepathically, he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Unable to reverse the spell, she instead gave him superpowers, including immortality. The Sorcerer asked his teacher to help him against Biron and they were able to imprison him on an asteroid in the constellation of Sagittarius, which he had been born under. However, when Supergirl's rocket passed, it broke the force field, enabling him to escape. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of "Bronco" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider, whom Supergirl fell in love with.
Comet made sporadic appearances in comic stories through the 1960s, and even became a member of the Legion of Super-Pets, a group consisting of the aforementioned super-powered animals.
A traditional equine Comet is partially seen in Legion of Three Worlds #1. He is part of a display in the museum Superboy-Prime visits. The museum does have displays of the supermen of the multiverse and the Kristin Wells Superwoman so it is unclear whether this means Comet has returned to regular continuity.
Powers and abilities
Though unrelated, Comet's powers are similar to those of Superman and Supergirl, including flight, super-strength, and super-speed. He also has telepathy and telescopic vision. Apparently due to the potion Circe gave him he has the might of Jupiter, the wisdom of Athena, the speed of Mercury, and the telepathic powers of Neptune. Not being from Krypton he is unaffected by Kryptonite and red suns. Also, each time a comet passes through the solar system he is in, he turns into a man. For a brief transition period, he is once again a centaur.
Post-Crisis Comet
A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet).
Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur.
Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual).
Powers and abilities
Comet originally had the power of high-speed flight, and when he flew he left a freezing contrail behind him. Comet also generated a psionic aura which stimulated feelings of love in those around him. When he became an Angel of Love, he gained wings of ice, ice vision (blasts of subzero energy he released from his eyes), and a centaur-like form which gave him horse-like strength. Comet can shape-shift between his centaur form, and his female form of Andrea Martinez.
Other versions
Pre-Crisis Comet appears in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. Supergirl from the 30th century gifts her younger self the horse to save the world in the past. He helps save a baffled Superman and Supergirl from Lex Luthor. When the younger Supergirl fades away due to her powers malfunctioning the horse is left with the Kara from the changed timeline, who admits she has no idea what to do with him.
In the Elseworld story Superman: True Brit, the Kents have a horse called Comet on their farm.
Reception
Asked in a 2006 interview if Superman's extended cast of characters in the Silver Age weakened Superman's uniqueness, Action Comics writer Gail Simone answered: "Completely disagree. While cutting away the allegedly "silly" aspects of Superman's mythology, we quite forgot that there's likely a large potential readership that might really enjoy a story about a superbaby or a flying horse. We all thought that stuff was cornball junk that needed to go, but I'll tell you right now, a lot of young girls would like Supergirl more if she had a flying horse".
In other media
Comet appears as a cameo in DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year. He was Kara Zor-El's pet horse back on Krypton.
References
External links
Legion of Super-Heroes Roll Call: Comet
Silver Age Animals in Spandex
Animal superheroes
Characters created by Jerry Siegel
Characters created by Peter David
Comics characters introduced in 1962
Comics characters introduced in 1997
DC Comics angels
DC Comics characters who are shapeshifters
DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics LGBT superheroes
DC Comics male superheroes
DC Comics telepaths
Fictional androgynes
Fictional centaurs
Fictional characters with ice or cold abilities
Fictional empaths
Fictional horses
| true |
[
"Comet Queen is a fictional superhero in the DC Universe. She is an ally of the Legion of Super-Heroes prior to Zero Hour.\n\nFictional character biography\n\nPre-Zero Hour\nGrava of the Earth colony Extal is a long-time fan of Star Boy, and wants desperately to become a member of the Legion. Hoping to gain superpowers she foolishly jumps from a space ship onto the tail of a passing comet. She fails to realize that Star Boy has flown through a particular comet while inside a starship, rather than unprotected by anything more than a futuristic space-suit. The ploy works and the comet gives her the ability to fly in the vacuum of space as well as the ability to emit various \"comet-like gases\".\n\nThe comet tail alters Grava's physical form, giving her hair the appearance of streaming flames. Presented as nominally humanoid in flashback, her father appears to be some species derived from something akin to rats, and this suggests she is of mixed parentage or possibly adopted.\n\nIn Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #336 (June 1986), Reserve Legionnaire Bouncing Boy describes to his comrade Superboy how he came to meet the young heroine while he was on a goodwill tour to a planet called Quaal III. Comet Queen ambushed him in the hotel and introduced herself, declaring him her very own \"personal Legionnaire\". Bouncing Boy rejected Comet Queen's initial bid for membership on the grounds that she has not proven herself. Later, he finds out from several hotel guests, including Grava's own father, that the girl has gone off in a fit of dejection to search for Quaal III's lava seas to seek out the planet's mythical natives as a \"super-feat\" to prove herself worthy. This mirrors Supergirl's bid to join the Legion by excavating various Earthling artifacts. Instead, Bouncing Boy and Comet Queen end up in a near-death situation until they work together, combining their powers and finding an escape.\n\nAs a result of Comet Queen's adventure with Bouncing Boy, she is accepted into the Legion Academy training program, located at Montauk Point (a safe distance from the Legion itself) and is taught by Bouncing Boy and his wife Duo Damsel. It is here that she becomes friends with other Legion hopefuls, including Superman's supposed descendant Laurel Kent, and Shadow Lass's cousin, Shadow Kid.\n\nComet Queen's unusual appearance is paired with eccentric speech patterns – her dialogue is peppered with bizarre private slang that incorporates words related to celestial bodies, seemingly at random. In particular, she enjoys saying things like: \"C-speed limit\", \"star-particles\", \"totally gravitied\", \"starshine\", and \"go nova\". Her dialogue is usually presented in square, yellow-tinged speech balloons with thick lines, and her idiosyncratic rhythms baffle those around her, often as a spoof of stereotypical Valley Girl style.\n\nShe is later recruited into a short-lived version of the Legion of Substitute Heroes; this version was formed by Cosmic Boy in order to deal with special missions. Other members of this group include Night Girl, Karate Kid II, as well as her former teachers, Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel.\n\nPost-Zero Hour\nComet Queen makes two appearances after Zero Hour: Crisis in Time, in Legionnaires #43 (December 1996), and later as a member of the new Legion Academy in Legion #25.\n\nPost-Infinite Crisis/52 \nComet Queen later appears in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #5, among many Legionnaires from alternate realities and Legion-related characters who have been brought to fight the Time Trapper.\n\nComet Queen made another appearance in Legion of Super-Heroes #6, as part of the active class at the Legion Academy. Later in that series many Legionaries are considered lost and presumed dead. The legion is shorthanded and she and several members of the academy are inducted into it. After a couple of issues she betrays the Legion to their enemies the Dominators. The book was canceled before the story line was resolved.\n\nPowers and abilities\nAfter exposure to a comet's tail, Comet Queen gains the ability to fly, even in the vacuum of space. She can also emit a variety of noxious gases that can be used to stun an opponent.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nComet Queen at the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe\n\nCharacters created by Keith Giffen\nComics characters introduced in 1983\nDC Comics aliens\nDC Comics extraterrestrial superheroes\nDC Comics female superheroes",
"Captain Comet (Adam Blake) is a DC Comics superhero created by DC Comics Editor Julius Schwartz, writer John Broome, and artist Carmine Infantino.\n\nOnce a minor character in the DC Comics canon, he occupies an almost unique position in DC Comics history as a superhero who was created between the two great superhero comics periods, the Golden Age and the Silver Age. His early stories fall into a no-man's land, sometimes referred to as \"The Atomic Age\" because of the recurrent science-fiction themes of most comics of the period, when very few superheroes comics were published and fewer than 12 short-lived superhero characters were introduced.\n\nAlong with Marvel Comics' Namor the Sub-Mariner and Toro (sidekick of the original Human Torch), he is among the first mutant metahuman superheroes (meaning he was born with his powers), predating X-Men by 12 years.\n\nAdam Blake appears in live-action The CW's TV series Naomi played by Chase Anderson.\n\nPublication history\nThe character of Captain Comet first appeared in a 10-page tale, \"The Origin of Captain Comet\", in the flagship science-fiction title Strange Adventures #9 (June 1951) published by National Comics (now known as DC Comics). He was created by Strange Adventures editor Julius Schwartz, John Broome, and artist Carmine Infantino, and the story was written by John Broome (under the alias Edgar Ray Merritt), drawn by Carmine Infantino, and inked by Bernard Sachs. The character was based on the pulp fiction character Captain Future. \n\nHis first appearance was actually a two-part story, continued in \"The Air Bandits from Space\" in Strange Adventures #10 (July 1951). From issue #12 (September 1951) Murphy Anderson took over as artist, and he drew all Captain Comet's further appearances in Strange Adventures until #46 (July 1954); Sy Barry and Gil Kane drew the last two stories. John Broome wrote every issue.\n\nCaptain Comet appeared in 38 issues of Strange Adventures, (missing only issues #45, 47, and 48); the series ending in Strange Adventures #49 (October 1954). From the beginning, Captain Comet appeared on most of the covers, mainly drawn by Murphy Anderson or Gil Kane. Stories ranged in length from six to 10 pages, dropping from 10 pages in 1951 to eight pages in 1952 and finally six pages from May 1953. He next appeared in 1976, when writer Gerry Conway and co-writer David Anthony Kraft reintroduced him as a supporting character in Secret Society of Super Villains, starting with \"No Man Shall Call Me Master\" (Secret Society of Super Villains #2 (July/August 1976)). He appeared in most issues of that title, together with the associated Secret Society of Super Villains Special #1 (October 1977), until it was cancelled with issue #15 (June/July 1978). During this run, he also appeared in Super-Team Family Giant #13 (September 1977), a story directly linked to the Secret Society of Super Villains series, and as lead character for the first time since 1954 in an extended story, \"Danger: Dinosaurs at Large!\" in DC Special #27, April/May 1977, by Bob Rozakis and artist Rich Buckler. Secret Society of Super Villains was cancelled as part of the DC Implosion. Captain Comet was a popular character at the time—he came second in a poll for potential Justice League membership, and writer Bob Rozakis presented DC Comics with a proposal for Captain Comet's first self-titled series.\n\nAfter the cancellation of Secret Society of Super Villains, Captain Comet entered another hiatus, his appearances limited to guest spots in other DC titles during the 1980s. Four of these were cameo appearances—Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 (August 1985), #10 (January 1986) and #12 (March 1986), and All-Star Squadron #53 (January 1986). Two were team-ups with Superman—DC Comics Presents #22 (June 1980) and 91 (March 1986); the fourth was a retelling of his origin by Roy Thomas in Secret Origins vol. 2 Annual #1 (1987). He also appeared in the non-canonical series DC Challenge (1986).\n\nHe then became a supporting character in the L.E.G.I.O.N. series from issue #16 (June 1990). Captain Comet was actually a late replacement for fellow 1950s space traveler Adam Strange who was due to become a regular character, as otherwise it would have clashed with the Adam Strange limited series published around the same time. He was then part of the R.E.B.E.L.S. series which continued from L.E.G.I.O.N. That series was cancelled with R.E.B.E.L.S. ’96 #17 (March 1996), and he had a solo story in Showcase ’96 #10 (November 1996), after which another hiatus followed.\n\nIn 2005, under the writer Jim Starlin, Captain Comet had his highest profile in DC Comics publications since the 1950s, featuring in the Rann–Thanagar War miniseries (2005), starring in the eight-issue miniseries Mystery in Space vol. 2 (2006), and co-starring in Rann-Thanagar Holy War (2008) and Strange Adventures vol. 3 (2009), as well as appearing briefly in the 52 (2006) and Final Crisis (2008) events. Following that, he became a regular character in the ongoing R.E.B.E.L.S. series (2009).\n\nIn 2011, a revamped version of Captain Comet, renamed simply \"Comet\", featured in Grant Morrison's run on Action Comics.\n\nFictional character biography\n\n1950s – Strange Adventures\nCaptain Comet, the \"first man of the future\", is a mutant metahuman \"born a hundred thousand years before his time\", in 1931 to John and Martha Blake, a farming couple from the American Midwest. His \"metagene\" was triggered by a comet passing overhead at birth.\n\nAdam Blake discovered his unique abilities as he grew up—at the age of four he instantly found a ring his mother had lost (\"I just knew it was there\"), and by eight years old demonstrated photographic memory by rapidly reading a whole encyclopedia and retaining the information. Other skills manifested almost instantly: he could play musical instruments without training and was secretly expert at sports to Olympic record level. In high school he saved a schoolmate from falling to her death by mental force, but despite his powers he felt isolated from other humans because of his differences from them. After leaving school he became a librarian in Midwest City, where he sought the help of a renowned physicist, Professor Emery Zackro, who tested him and discovered Adam was a mutant—postulating he was the reverse of an evolutionary throwback, \"an accidental specimen of future man\". His Captain Comet persona began when Adam used his powers to intervene when criminals attempted to steal an advanced scientific device invented by Professor Zackro. Immediately after this, Blake and the Professor agreed Blake should become a superhero on a full-time basis, and he made his first appearance in public as Captain Comet combating giant, terraforming robot tops belonging to an alien race looking for a world to colonize. During this task, Adam built a working version of a prototype spaceship Professor Zackro had designed, which would become his personal spaceship, The Cometeer, and took up a costume, spacesuit and stun gun also invented by the Professor.\n\nOver the next three years, he saved Earth from multiple alien invasions and explored space in The Cometeer, saving other civilizations and meeting beautiful alien damsels in distress. During this period, he largely used intelligence and his mind-reading skills to help solve problems, seldom resorting to physical solutions. Among his weirder adventures, Captain Comet battled mad Greek gods from space, fought dinosaurs and alien creatures, and came up against an evil super-powered ape several times. Sometime after 1954 he disappeared into space in The Cometeer on another expedition of discovery, but this time he would not return for over 20 years.\n\n1970s–1980s\nIn 1976 Captain Comet returned to Earth, having not aged, with a new protective costume instead of a spacesuit, and enhanced skills—controlling his appearance mentally (although dressing in 1950s style)—and with a powerful physical punch as well as a mental force, super-speed, and an ability to manipulate objects. He also had an explanation for his absence—having always felt alienated from normal humans because of his abilities, he has been over 20 years in space. After misreading a battle between Green Lantern and Gorilla Grodd, and some trickery by Grodd, he ended up joining the Secret Society of Super Villains and battled Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips with them. Later he turned down full membership in the Justice League, but became an honorary member and took up residence in their satellite headquarters. After fighting Chronos and dinosaurs in Gotham City, the Captain continued his crusade against the Secret Society of Super Villains despite a number of setbacks orchestrated by Gorilla Grodd.\n\nAlthough present at the marriage of Ray Palmer and Jean Loring several months later, Captain Comet remained off-radar for nearly two years, eventually contacting Superman when the effect of the comet that mutated him wore off, turning him into a human comet whose powers fluctuated wildly. With Superman's help he tracked down the comet and stabilized his powers. Superman's help was needed again six years later when the villain Brain Storm attempted to augment his waning powers by stealing Captain Comet's power, which accidentally evolved him to a more advanced form temporarily.\n\n1990s – L.E.G.I.O.N. / R.E.B.E.L.S.\nHe spent the next few years \"roaming the stars... just drifting\", before being captured by the space outlaw Dagon-Ra despite his new powers including near invulnerability, telekinesis and increased strength. Rescued by L.E.G.I.O.N., he recuperated in their headquarters hospital and was invited to join them soon after, and did so a year later.\n\nHis involvement with L.E.G.I.O.N. was in a supporting role. He fell in love with fellow member scientist Marij'n Bek, who nursed him back to health and studied the massive headaches he frequently suffered. These were the result of his possession by a psi-creature in space before meeting L.E.G.I.O.N.; it was eventually purged by Vril Dox, leaving the Captain once again hospitalised for months. Soon after he was apparently killed by Lady Quark—who had been possessed by the same parasite. Buried under a mountain on Ith'kaa, he eventually dug himself out and used his knowledge to manipulate the savage indigenous population to achieve the technological level to build him a spaceship (explaining later, without irony, that it took six months to industrialize the tribal society because \"they were slow learners\"). Returning to R.E.B.E.L.S. homeworld of Cairn, he learned that Vril Dox's son Lyrl had brainwashed most of the L.E.G.I.O.N., made the key L.E.G.I.O.N. members fugitives, and taken control of Cairn; he and Maryj'n formed a resistance movement to free the population and overthrow Lyrl, and were key in successfully defeating him. As a result, Captain Comet became leader of the new, reformed L.E.G.I.O.N.\n\nDuring this period, Captain Comet took up residence (with Tyrone, an artificially created telepathic clone bulldog) in The Zelazny Building on \"Hardcore Station\", a corrupt commercial satellite station with a population of several million in a free space zone between a number of trading civilisations.\n\nPost 1990s\n\nRann–Thanagar War\nAt some undefined point in the next 10 years Captain Comet stepped down as leader and became a paid freelance aide and agent to Vril Dox, who took back the L.E.G.I.O.N. reins. He was next seen with Dox under contract to the planet Ancar, which had been invaded by Khunds during the Rann–Thanagar War; after intervention by Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, he decided to stay and help him end the war. He first accompanied Kyle to the destroyed planet Thanagar, where they built a protective dome and terraformed the land to create a secure environment for the survivors. Then he joined up with Adam Strange and Hawkman to defend Rann against the Thanagarians under the control of the demon Onimar Synn, who he was instrumental in destroying.\n\n52 and Mystery in Space\nA year after the events of Infinite Crisis, Captain Comet was captured and tortured by Lady Styx, forcing him to jettison his primary consciousness from his body before death. His psychic self merged briefly with that of The Weird, which had been drifting in space since his death, and both were revived in new bodies. Captain Comet's new body re-formed at Hardcore Station—with golden eyes, a 20-year-old's physique, and the ability to teleport, although he had lost some strength. Shortening his name to Comet and fostering the misconception that he was his own nephew, he searched for the remains of his old body on Hardcore Station, discovering that it had been stolen by the Eternal Light Corporation Church and he was being hunted by a team of their telepathic assassins. On breaking into the Eternal Light Corporation's building, he uncovered that brainwashed cloned telepaths were being grown from the charred remains of his corpse, which he destroyed. Becoming a fugitive, he hid from the E.L.C. so they could not use his new body to continue their cloning—allowing thousands of Hardcore residents to die when the E.L.C. cut off life support to a whole area of Hardcore Station to force them to surrender Comet. Eventually he destroyed all the clones and the E.L.C., also killing hundreds of their followers.\n\nRann–Thanagar Holy War, Strange Adventures (vol 3) and R.E.B.E.L.S.\nTarget of an assassination attempt by a surviving E.L.C. follower during a resurgence of the faith, Comet accepted an offer by Adam Strange to leave Hardcore Station and help quell growing religious fanaticism on Rann. He ended up working with Adam Strange, Hawkman, Starfire, The Weird, and the Prince Gavyn Starman against the influences of the warring Lord Synnar (a cosmic tyrant behind the Eternal Light Corporation) and Lady Styx on Rann and Thanagar (which once again set the two planets on course for war). Their interference was eventually key in Lord Synnar's plans to reach a higher plane of existence.\n\nLater, Comet learned from the future spirit of Synnar that he is destined to be one of \"The Aberrant Six\": a group critical to preventing Synnar (trapped in The Weird's body) from destroying the universe. Ultimately the Aberrant Six did not form, and the future Synnar was forced to leave after Comet's mercenary friend Eye was killed by Synnar's supreme god-enemy. Comet was entrusted with Eye's robot companion, Orb, until Synnar returns to \"continue his negotiations\". Comet then returned to Hardcore Station, and almost immediately joined Vril Dox's new R.E.B.E.L.S. He entered into a brief relationship with Starfire and helped defeat Starro the Conqueror, saving Rann, the Vega System and the galaxy.\n\nThe New 52\nAdam Blake was re-introduced in the 2011 New 52 event during Grant Morrison and Rags Morales revamp of Action Comics. In this reality, Adam Blake was \"Comet\", a hyper-evolved human, who at the time of his birth, a comet passed over his house. The comet's radiation caused his body to evolve, and be, as scientist Emery Zackro called it, \"born 1000 years ahead of his time\".\n\nMisunderstood, he was shunned by his father and the rest of the town, and roamed rural Kansas for several years, until he was found by a group of aliens called the \"Oort kind\", who travel the universe looking for beings like Adam to recruit them to serve as warriors. Comet returns to Earth to collect Suzie Lane, Lois Lane's niece, who like himself is a Neo-Sapian, which brings him into conflict with Superman, until Suzie uses her powers to drive Comet away. \n\nWhen Superman is attacked by the Fifth Dimensional demon Vyndktvx, Comet returns with his fellow Neo-Sapians to assist. They subdue the Kryptonite Men and rescue Krypto while Comet deals with the Phantom King, before helping to banish Vyndktvx back to the Fifth Dimension. \n\nComet then appears in Telos #2 as part of a resistance on Colu. Along with Techne (Brainiac's daughter), K'Rot and Stealth, they help Telos and Brainiac take down the ruler of Colu, Computo.\n\nOther versions\n\nElseworlds\nCaptain Comet has also appeared in a number of DC Comics titles which do not fit into normal continuity:\n DC Challenge (November 1985 – October 1986)\n Kingdom Come (1996): Captain Comet was a member of Superman's reformed Justice League. He was chosen by Superman to be warden of the Gulag, the holding facility/prison for metahumans who chose to defy the Justice League, and is killed in a prison riot.\n The Golden Age (1991): Captain Comet makes a brief appearance in the final issue, briefly taking part in the battle against Dynaman. This took place in 1951, the first year of his crime fighting career.\n In the DC Tangent \"Earth-9\" universe, Captain Comet was an African-American superhero from that reality's Chicago who was killed in Czechoslovakia trying to prevent a war in Europe. He was resurrected, and sought revenge for the bombing of a US Army base.\n He also made a brief appearance in the Elseworlds tale JLA: Another Nail (2004), when all time periods melded together.\n An older version of Captain Comet fights against the tyranny of Vril Dox in the Armageddon 2001 crossover. He loses his then-wife, Marijin, in the battle and then is slain himself.\n\nPowers and abilities\n\nCaptain Comet is supposedly the pinnacle of human evolution. His mutant mental functions not only give him genius level I.Q. but endow him with a photographic memory and telepathy, enabling him to read or control people's minds (including alien races). He has telekinetic powers, which enable him to use his thoughts to move, lift, and alter matter without physical contact, mentally lift himself to fly at high-speed, create barriers of psychic force to deflect physical attack, and fire bursts of psionic energy that strike with concussive impact, sometimes in the form of lightning or fire blasts. He has an accelerated healing and his telekinetic shield can simultaneously protect him from the vacuum of space and surround him with a breathable environment.\n\nCaptain Comet's brain also contains evolved sensory centers enabling him to clairvoyantly \"see\" events outside of his range of sight. His evolved physiology originally made him superhumanly strong and durable, enough to lift a large spaceship and fight toe to toe with beings such as Lobo. After his resurrection, however, his physical power was significantly diminished, although his mental and psionic abilities have been enhanced. He has also acquired a teleportation ability that can be used on others as well as himself, but normally requires an hour to recharge after every \"jump\".\n\nIn other media\n\nTelevision\n Captain Comet appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode \"The Siege of Starro\" Pt. 1. He is seen with the Green Lantern Corps fighting the Starro-controlled heroes and succumbs to Starro's control.\n Adam Blake makes his live-action debut in Naomi, portrayed by Chase Anderson.\n\nCollected editions\n Several stories from the 1950s Strange Adventures series were reprinted in Mysteries in Space: The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics ed. Uslan, Michael (Fireside Books/Simon and Schuster 1980) \n The DC Comics Presents story in issue #22 (June 1980) was reprinted in Showcase Presents: DC Comics Presents Superman Team-Ups Vol. 1, (paperback) 512 pages (DC Comics 2009) \n The 2006 Mysteries in Space series has been reprinted in two volumes:\n Mystery in Space with Captain Comet: Volume One (paperback), 208 pages (DC Comics 2007) \n Mystery in Space with Captain Comet: Volume Two (paperback), 288 pages (DC Comics 2008) \n The Rann–Thanagar Holy War series has been reprinted in two volumes.\n The Strange Adventures (vol. 3) series has been reprinted.\n\nNotes\n The DC Encyclopaedia – Dougall, Alastair (Dorling Kindersley, 2004, 2008, )\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Captain Comet at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 9, 2012.\n Cosmic Teams: Captain Comet\n Captain Comet at *DC Comics Database wiki\n\nCharacters created by Julius Schwartz\nDC Comics male supervillains\nDC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds\nDC Comics characters who can teleport\nDC Comics characters with superhuman strength\nDC Comics telepaths\nDC Comics metahumans\nFictional characters with precognition\nFictional explorers\nComics characters introduced in 1951\nCharacters created by John Broome\nCharacters created by Carmine Infantino"
] |
[
"Comet (DC Comics)",
"Post-Crisis Comet",
"What is Comet?",
"a hero with flight and cold-generation powers.",
"Who's pet was Comet?",
"I don't know.",
"Who were some other \"super animals\" like Comet?",
"I don't know.",
"Where did Comet first appear?",
"Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997).",
"What are some of Comet's super powers?",
"flight and cold-generation powers."
] |
C_33a94dd48d2f49c2a61ac4d0a679e5dc_0
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Does comet only work with Supergirl?
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Does Comet of DC Comics only work with Supergirl?
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Comet (DC Comics)
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A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet). Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur. Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual). CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Comet is the name of two fictional comic book characters owned by DC Comics whose adventures have been published by that same company. The first character was a sapient horse with magical powers who was once a centaur in ancient Greece. The second character is a shapeshifter with three forms (male, female, and winged centaur). Both characters are connected to the Superman family of titles.
Comet first appeared in the story "The Legion of Super-Traitors!", published in Adventure Comics #293 (February 1962) during the period known as the Silver Age of Comics. This story introduced the Legion of Super-Pets, bringing together several previously established super animals. Krypto the Super-Dog came from Superman's past, Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Super-Monkey from Superman's present — and Comet was presented as a super-pet who came from the future. "Yes, readers!" a caption declared, "This is a PREVIEW GLIMPSE of a super-pet Supergirl will own some day in the future!" The horse was properly introduced seven months later, when Comet met Supergirl in Action Comics #292 (September 1962).
Due to the events depicted in the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first character's stories are no longer considered to be canon within DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.
Pre-Crisis Comet
Comet the Super-Horse is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Comet was introduced in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #293 in February 1962, then appeared regularly with Supergirl beginning in Action Comics #292 in September 1962.
Comet was one of a series of super-powered animals, including Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Supermonkey, that were popular in DC's comics of the 1960s. Comet was Supergirl's pet horse and, while in his human form as Bill Starr, her brief boyfriend. Comet also had a brief romance with Lois Lane in her comic book.
As he described to her telepathically, he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Unable to reverse the spell, she instead gave him superpowers, including immortality. The Sorcerer asked his teacher to help him against Biron and they were able to imprison him on an asteroid in the constellation of Sagittarius, which he had been born under. However, when Supergirl's rocket passed, it broke the force field, enabling him to escape. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of "Bronco" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider, whom Supergirl fell in love with.
Comet made sporadic appearances in comic stories through the 1960s, and even became a member of the Legion of Super-Pets, a group consisting of the aforementioned super-powered animals.
A traditional equine Comet is partially seen in Legion of Three Worlds #1. He is part of a display in the museum Superboy-Prime visits. The museum does have displays of the supermen of the multiverse and the Kristin Wells Superwoman so it is unclear whether this means Comet has returned to regular continuity.
Powers and abilities
Though unrelated, Comet's powers are similar to those of Superman and Supergirl, including flight, super-strength, and super-speed. He also has telepathy and telescopic vision. Apparently due to the potion Circe gave him he has the might of Jupiter, the wisdom of Athena, the speed of Mercury, and the telepathic powers of Neptune. Not being from Krypton he is unaffected by Kryptonite and red suns. Also, each time a comet passes through the solar system he is in, he turns into a man. For a brief transition period, he is once again a centaur.
Post-Crisis Comet
A very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet).
Soon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and "rebuilt" by an organization called "The Stable" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur.
Blithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual).
Powers and abilities
Comet originally had the power of high-speed flight, and when he flew he left a freezing contrail behind him. Comet also generated a psionic aura which stimulated feelings of love in those around him. When he became an Angel of Love, he gained wings of ice, ice vision (blasts of subzero energy he released from his eyes), and a centaur-like form which gave him horse-like strength. Comet can shape-shift between his centaur form, and his female form of Andrea Martinez.
Other versions
Pre-Crisis Comet appears in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. Supergirl from the 30th century gifts her younger self the horse to save the world in the past. He helps save a baffled Superman and Supergirl from Lex Luthor. When the younger Supergirl fades away due to her powers malfunctioning the horse is left with the Kara from the changed timeline, who admits she has no idea what to do with him.
In the Elseworld story Superman: True Brit, the Kents have a horse called Comet on their farm.
Reception
Asked in a 2006 interview if Superman's extended cast of characters in the Silver Age weakened Superman's uniqueness, Action Comics writer Gail Simone answered: "Completely disagree. While cutting away the allegedly "silly" aspects of Superman's mythology, we quite forgot that there's likely a large potential readership that might really enjoy a story about a superbaby or a flying horse. We all thought that stuff was cornball junk that needed to go, but I'll tell you right now, a lot of young girls would like Supergirl more if she had a flying horse".
In other media
Comet appears as a cameo in DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year. He was Kara Zor-El's pet horse back on Krypton.
References
External links
Legion of Super-Heroes Roll Call: Comet
Silver Age Animals in Spandex
Animal superheroes
Characters created by Jerry Siegel
Characters created by Peter David
Comics characters introduced in 1962
Comics characters introduced in 1997
DC Comics angels
DC Comics characters who are shapeshifters
DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics LGBT superheroes
DC Comics male superheroes
DC Comics telepaths
Fictional androgynes
Fictional centaurs
Fictional characters with ice or cold abilities
Fictional empaths
Fictional horses
| false |
[
"Comet is the name of two fictional comic book characters owned by DC Comics whose adventures have been published by that same company. The first character was a sapient horse with magical powers who was once a centaur in ancient Greece. The second character is a shapeshifter with three forms (male, female, and winged centaur). Both characters are connected to the Superman family of titles.\n\nComet first appeared in the story \"The Legion of Super-Traitors!\", published in Adventure Comics #293 (February 1962) during the period known as the Silver Age of Comics. This story introduced the Legion of Super-Pets, bringing together several previously established super animals. Krypto the Super-Dog came from Superman's past, Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Super-Monkey from Superman's present — and Comet was presented as a super-pet who came from the future. \"Yes, readers!\" a caption declared, \"This is a PREVIEW GLIMPSE of a super-pet Supergirl will own some day in the future!\" The horse was properly introduced seven months later, when Comet met Supergirl in Action Comics #292 (September 1962).\n\nDue to the events depicted in the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first character's stories are no longer considered to be canon within DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.\n\nPre-Crisis Comet\nComet the Super-Horse is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Comet was introduced in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #293 in February 1962, then appeared regularly with Supergirl beginning in Action Comics #292 in September 1962.\n\nComet was one of a series of super-powered animals, including Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Supermonkey, that were popular in DC's comics of the 1960s. Comet was Supergirl's pet horse and, while in his human form as Bill Starr, her brief boyfriend. Comet also had a brief romance with Lois Lane in her comic book.\n\nAs he described to her telepathically, he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Unable to reverse the spell, she instead gave him superpowers, including immortality. The Sorcerer asked his teacher to help him against Biron and they were able to imprison him on an asteroid in the constellation of Sagittarius, which he had been born under. However, when Supergirl's rocket passed, it broke the force field, enabling him to escape. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of \"Bronco\" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider, whom Supergirl fell in love with.\n\nComet made sporadic appearances in comic stories through the 1960s, and even became a member of the Legion of Super-Pets, a group consisting of the aforementioned super-powered animals.\n\nA traditional equine Comet is partially seen in Legion of Three Worlds #1. He is part of a display in the museum Superboy-Prime visits. The museum does have displays of the supermen of the multiverse and the Kristin Wells Superwoman so it is unclear whether this means Comet has returned to regular continuity.\n\nPowers and abilities\nThough unrelated, Comet's powers are similar to those of Superman and Supergirl, including flight, super-strength, and super-speed. He also has telepathy and telescopic vision. Apparently due to the potion Circe gave him he has the might of Jupiter, the wisdom of Athena, the speed of Mercury, and the telepathic powers of Neptune. Not being from Krypton he is unaffected by Kryptonite and red suns. Also, each time a comet passes through the solar system he is in, he turns into a man. For a brief transition period, he is once again a centaur.\n\nPost-Crisis Comet\n\nA very different Comet was introduced in Supergirl #14 (October 1997). This version was originally introduced as a hero with flight and cold-generation powers. Comet's appearance was unclear, as when using his powers he was surrounded by an aura of cold that made him resemble an actual comet. Comet looked like a man with three fingers, horse-like legs, long white hair, and a star mark on his forehead. There was a lot of speculation about who Comet was, but it was revealed that Comet was Andrea Martinez, a gay stand-up comic, who like her friend Linda Danvers (who could turn into Supergirl), could shape-shift between her human and super-powered forms (however, Comet's change also involved changing gender, from the female Andrea to the male Comet).\n\nSoon, it was learned that Comet's male form was originally Andrew Jones, a (male) jockey, who had been trampled by horses and \"rebuilt\" by an organization called \"The Stable\" as a superhuman with equine DNA. He rebelled against the organization and began operating as a superhero. On one of his first missions he attempted to save a despairing Andrea Martinez (who had just come out to her parents, and been rejected) from an avalanche, but they both died. As with Matrix and Linda Danvers (who had merged into Supergirl, the Angel of Fire), this caused them to combine into one being: the Earth Angel of Love. Comet originally was in love with Supergirl, and since he was the Angel of Love, made her have feelings for him too, but she rejected him when she learned he was also a woman. This opened the door for the third Angel, Blithe, the Angel of Light, to use her powers to exploit Comet's heartbreak, and turn them against Supergirl. She enabled Comet to fully embrace their angel powers, transforming him/herself into a winged centaur.\n\nBlithe deceived Comet into joining forces with the Carnivore (a powerful demonic creature who despised the Earth Angels, and sought their power). The Carnivore lost control, however, when Andrea abandoned her anger, learning that her mother had died, and had left a video apology for her actions. The three Earth Angels worked together to stop the Carnivore. Comet began a relationship with Blithe, since she loved both their forms (revealing that Blithe is bisexual).\n\nPowers and abilities\nComet originally had the power of high-speed flight, and when he flew he left a freezing contrail behind him. Comet also generated a psionic aura which stimulated feelings of love in those around him. When he became an Angel of Love, he gained wings of ice, ice vision (blasts of subzero energy he released from his eyes), and a centaur-like form which gave him horse-like strength. Comet can shape-shift between his centaur form, and his female form of Andrea Martinez.\n\nOther versions\n Pre-Crisis Comet appears in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. Supergirl from the 30th century gifts her younger self the horse to save the world in the past. He helps save a baffled Superman and Supergirl from Lex Luthor. When the younger Supergirl fades away due to her powers malfunctioning the horse is left with the Kara from the changed timeline, who admits she has no idea what to do with him.\n In the Elseworld story Superman: True Brit, the Kents have a horse called Comet on their farm.\n\nReception\nAsked in a 2006 interview if Superman's extended cast of characters in the Silver Age weakened Superman's uniqueness, Action Comics writer Gail Simone answered: \"Completely disagree. While cutting away the allegedly \"silly\" aspects of Superman's mythology, we quite forgot that there's likely a large potential readership that might really enjoy a story about a superbaby or a flying horse. We all thought that stuff was cornball junk that needed to go, but I'll tell you right now, a lot of young girls would like Supergirl more if she had a flying horse\".\n\nIn other media \nComet appears as a cameo in DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year. He was Kara Zor-El's pet horse back on Krypton.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLegion of Super-Heroes Roll Call: Comet\nSilver Age Animals in Spandex\n\nAnimal superheroes\nCharacters created by Jerry Siegel\nCharacters created by Peter David\nComics characters introduced in 1962\nComics characters introduced in 1997\nDC Comics angels\nDC Comics characters who are shapeshifters\nDC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds\nDC Comics characters with superhuman strength\nDC Comics LGBT superheroes\nDC Comics male superheroes\nDC Comics telepaths\nFictional androgynes\nFictional centaurs\nFictional characters with ice or cold abilities\nFictional empaths\nFictional horses",
"Linda Danvers, also known as Supergirl, is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Peter David and artist Gary Frank, she debuted in Supergirl (vol. 4) #1 (September 1996). She is not to be confused with Linda Lee Danvers, the secret identity used by the Kara Zor-El incarnation of Supergirl prior to the events of 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths.\n\nPublication history\nPeter David adapted Linda Danvers as a separate character based on that of Kara Zor-El, who had been wiped out of continuity by DC Comics to enhance Superman's status as the sole survivor of Krypton. According to David himself, he was aware that many readers would still want Kara Zor-El back as Supergirl, so Linda was created for the fans to feel \"more at home. So I gave her as many of the exterior accoutrements of Kara's former life as I possibly could. I gave her parents, and a secret identity of Linda Danvers, in a small town (called “Leesburg”, in deference to Linda Lee), and a boyfriend named Dick Malverne, and put Stanhope College nearby. Some fans thought I was being 'in-jokey.' Nah. I just wanted to make the old readers feel at home as best I could.\" Linda's Supergirl title (vol. 4) ran between 1997 and 2003, when DC decided to bring Kara Zor-El back as Supergirl. Starting from issue #51, Linda changes her traditional Supergirl constume to the one conceived for the DC Animated Universe, donned by Kara In-Ze.\n\nAccording to Peter David, if his run on Supergirl had not ended, he would have had the series being a sort of Birds of Prey type comic, featuring the trio of Linda Danvers as Superwoman, Pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El as the current Supergirl, and Power Girl.\n\nAccording to an interview with Newsarama, following the events of the \"Infinite Crisis\" storyline, editor-in-chief Dan DiDio stated that the Matrix Supergirl was wiped from existence. However, Infinite Crisis writer Geoff Johns later stated, \"As for this…huh? Linda Danvers hasn't been retconned out at all.\"\n\nFictional character biography\n\nMatrix\n\nLinda Danvers (daughter of policeman Fred Danvers and his wife Sylvia) began her life in a less-than-heroic fashion. Lured into a world of darkness by her boyfriend Buzz, Linda was involved in many illicit and illegal activities (such as murder and torture). Little did she know that she was intended to be a sacrifice for a demonic cult for which Buzz worked. Buzz slashed her with a dagger to use her blood to release a demon into the world, but Matrix, the protoplasmic Supergirl, intervened. She used her shape-shifting powers to try plugging the gaping wounds on Linda, but instead became fused with her. Linda and Matrix became a new Supergirl. Armed with newfound superhuman abilities and the power to change from the Linda Danvers form to the taller Supergirl form, \"Linda\" (who was actually a merged Matrix and Linda) began to fight crime and demonic activity, on her road to redemption for all the crimes she's committed. She was hesitant to reveal her situation to her adoptive \"brother\" Superman, fearing his reaction to her co-opting a human life, but he accepted the change. Further complicating the situation was the revelation that Matrix's sacrifice in attempting to save Linda transformed her and Linda into the Earth-born Angel of Fire.\n\nEarth-born Angel\n\nWhen Linda became an Earth-born Angel (one of three, the others are Blithe and Comet), she developed wings of flame and flame vision. She discovered that she could teleport in an S-shaped burst of flame. She used her powers to fight demons and dark gods, and even her fellow Earth-born Angel Blithe. She met an angelic ally, the equine Comet, who was revealed to be her friend, Andrea Jones, and the Angel of Love, born in an accident in an ice cavern. Stranger still, Linda began to encounter a young boy named Wally, who claimed to be what is known in the DC Universe as the Presence (his name, he explained, was a variation on \"Yahweh\", the Hebrew name for the Almighty God). Wally helped Linda through her strange transformations, especially when her wings changed from angelic to bat-like. Linda also found herself fighting a superhuman named Twilight, whose dark powers were almost strong enough to overpower Linda's angelic abilities. Her greatest challenge came when Linda was captured by a strangely Wally-like man, who was the Carnivore, the first vampire. She defeated him, with the help of an angelic figure, simply called \"Kara\". In her defeat of Carnivore, her Matrix side was ripped away, leaving Linda alone once again.\n\nSearch for Matrix\nAfter the split, Linda retained half of the super-strength and invulnerability she had when fused with Matrix/Supergirl and could only leap 1/8 of a mile. Using some items from a costume shop, Linda created a white, blue, and red Supergirl costume (the same costume used by the animated version of Supergirl in Superman: The Animated Series) and acted as Supergirl, while searching for Matrix, with the help of her demonic ex-boyfriend Buzz and fellow superhero Mary Marvel. Even with diminished abilities, she was still powerful enough to stop Bizarro, and even found herself fighting a Bizarro Supergirl. Linda's search led her to the Amazon, where Matrix was held prisoner by Lilith, the mother of all demons, who had sent Twilight after Supergirl, holding Twilight's sister hostage to keep her under her evil control. Lilith fatally injured Mary Marvel, Twilight, and Linda, but not before Matrix was freed from Lilith's prison. Linda asked Matrix to merge with Twilight, and Twilight became the new Angel of Fire in the process, using her powers to heal Mary and Linda, thus giving Linda all the powers she had had when she was merged with Matrix. At this point, Matrix passed the Supergirl mantle on to Linda.\n\n\"Many Happy Returns\"\nLinda was the new Supergirl for only six issues of the 1996 series. With her powers back to Matrix's original (non-angelic) levels, Linda encountered a rocketship that contained a young, vibrant Kara Zor-El from the Pre-Crisis reality. After a rocky start, the two became close, with Linda mentoring Kara on how to be a hero.\n\nKara's presence in the Post-Crisis era was going to destabilize time. The Spectre (Hal Jordan incarnation) appeared and said that Kara was destined to die. Apparently, a cosmic entity called the Fatalist had altered the timeline for his own amusement and to vex his master, Xenon, a being with a pathological hatred of Supergirl. Not surprisingly, the young Kara Zor-El did not tamely accept that she was destined to die at a young age, and tearfully begged Linda to find some way to save her. Linda lied to her, in order to calm her down and send her away; only after she had departed did Kara Zor-El realize Linda's intent—Linda secretly took Kara's place, and was sent to the Pre-Crisis era, posing as Kara and expecting to die in her place, in order to provide Kara Zor-El with a chance at life. The Pre-Crisis Superman uncovered her ruse (upon her arrival in his universe, she tried to repeat Kara Zor-El's origin story, but his superhuman abilities allowed him to notice details that made it clear she was lying, such as the fact that her costume was made of Earth materials) and admitted he was in love with her. The two married and had a daughter, Ariella. Linda even changed her costume. Linda's very presence had altered the timeline, so the Spectre made her return home, not only to restore the timestream but to save Kara from Xenon, who had captured the young Supergirl and planned to kill her.\n\nLinda defeated Xenon, and had to send frightened young Kara back to her universe, knowing Kara, as an adult, would eventually die in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Linda's daughter was spared from being erased from the timeline by the Spectre (Linda informed the Spectre if he did not save Ariella, she would let the universe die), but Linda was heartbroken over her actions. She learned that her parents had just had a second child, ironically named \"Wally\". Linda reunited with her parents for one last time before leaving everyone and hanging up her cape. She left a note for Clark and Lois explaining her decision, saying she felt she had let her loved ones down and so she was no longer worthy of wearing the S.\n\nReign in Hell\nIn Reign in Hell #1, July 2008, the team of Shadowpact attacks Linda Danvers in her Gotham City apartment, which makes Linda fight back. She manifests the flaming wings she had while merged with Matrix, but still loses to the collective powers of Blue Devil and Enchantress. However she is teleported to Hell, as Hell is recalling all of its \"debts\".\n\nIn Reign in Hell #6, Linda reappears in the Doctor Occult backstory. She appears as a fallen angel summoned by Lilith but mysteriously released. In Reign in Hell #7, Linda uses her flame vision to kill some injured demons who were huddled around a tiny campfire, Dr. Occult is horrified by her willingness to kill innocents. Linda believes that no one in Hell is innocent, and then accuses Dr. Occult of being a damned soul. Linda says she does not deserve to be trapped in Hell, and that she would see everybody burned to char before she accepted being kept in there. Dr. Occult casts a spell to show Linda who she really is, and she flies away in horror.\n\nPowers and abilities\nOriginal powers: Linda was originally a normal human, with no superhuman abilities. Upon fusing with the Matrix Supergirl, Linda gained her psychokinetic abilities. This granted her an incredible level of superhuman strength and speed, near invulnerability to harm, and the power to fly at high speeds. Linda was also able to produce concussive blasts of telekinetic energy, typically referred to as \"psi blasts.\" Linda was also able to change from her normal, Linda Danvers persona into her \"Supergirl\" form which was taller, had blonde hair, and a larger bust. The transformation was purely cosmetic, as Linda retained her powers in either form.\n\nEarth-Born Angel powers: After being merged with Matrix for some time, Linda became the Earth-Born Angel of Fire. While she retained her original abilities, she also gained the ability to produce bursts of fire from her eyes (called Flame Vision), form angelic wings composed of flames, and could use her wings to create a flaming portal that allowed her to \"shunt\" (teleport) long distances. Though Linda originally lost her angelic powers after being separated from Matrix, she later seemed to have regained them during the \"Reign in Hell\" mini-series.\n\nReduced powers: After being separated from Matrix, Linda found herself with reduced powers. She could no longer shapeshift into her \"Supergirl\" form, and all of her angelic powers were lost. In addition, Linda's strength and durability were reduced by half, she lost her ability to fly and produce psionic blasts, and instead was only able to leap around 1/8th of a mile in a single bound.\n\nRestored powers: After encountering Twilight as the new Earth-Born Angel of Fire, Linda regained all of the powers that she'd possessed while initially merged with Matrix, sans her ability to assume her \"Supergirl\" form. Her strength and durability returned to their original levels and she was able to fly and produce psionic blasts of force once more.\n\nOther versions\nSupergirl: Wings reworks the Earth-born angel storyline; in it, Linda Danvers is a gothic teenager being corrupted by a demon, while her guardian angel Matrix believes Linda is beyond hope of redemption. The two eventually fuse into an angel that wears a Supergirl-inspired costume.\nIn JLA: Created Equal, Linda Danvers, fifteen years after a disease wipes all men from the Earth, changes her name from Supergirl to Superwoman.\nIn JLA: Act of God, Linda Danvers is one of many heroes who lose their powers due to the cosmic event that removes the powers of countless metahumans. However, she, along with Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz), Aquaman (Arthur Curry), and the Flash (Wally West), train with Batman and his associates so they may still be heroes. Changing her name to Justice, Linda and the others form the Phoenix Group.\nPeter David's Fallen Angel implied that Lee, the main character, might be Linda Danvers. When the title moved to another company, her real origin as a guardian angel named Liandra was given. However, IDW Publishing's Fallen Angel #14 introduced a character known as \"Lin\". While David could not explicitly state that this character is Linda Danvers due to legal concerns, he confirmed his intent in an interview.\nLinda Danvers' Supergirl appeared in the video game Justice League Heroes voiced by Tara Strong, which would explain variations of her costume and the appearance of her powers.\nThe 2021 series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow pays homage to the Earth-Born Angel arc with Kara Zor-El displaying fire wings. Journeying throughout space, Kara saves her space bus crew from a Karpane dragon by taking a red kryptonite drug which causes kryptonians' \"weird visions\" to come true. Powered with the flame wings and energy, she destroys the Karpane dragon.\n\nCollected Editions\n\nIn other media\nIn the Smallville episode \"Fracture\", an amnesiac Kara goes by the name \"Linda\". In the episode \"Apocalypse\", Clark travels to an alternate universe where Kara was raised by the Luthors as Linda Danvers.\nIn the TV series Supergirl, Kara was adopted and raised by the Danvers family as Kara Danvers. She, much like Linda, is a young woman instead of a teenager as the character is more traditionally depicted. In the third season, Kara discovers the Cult of Rao, a religious cult founded in devotion to Supergirl.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nDanvers, Linda\nComics characters introduced in 1996\nDC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds\nDC Comics characters who can teleport\nDC Comics characters with accelerated healing\nDC Comics characters with superhuman strength\nDC Comics female superheroes\nDC Comics extraterrestrial superheroes\nDC Comics angels\nFictional adoptees\nFictional angels\nFictional artists\nSuperheroes who are adopted\nCharacters created by Peter David\nDC Comics metahumans"
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"Virat Kohli",
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What sport did Virat Kohli play?
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What sport did Virat Kohli play?
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Virat Kohli
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Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER
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Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills.
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Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award
| true |
[
"Virat or Viraat is an Indian male given name that may refer to the following people:\n\nViraat Badhwar (born 1995), Australian golfer \nVirat Kohli (born 1988), Indian cricketer \nVirat Singh (born 1997), Indian cricketer\n\nSee also\nVIRAT\nViraat (disambiguation)\nVirata (disambiguation)\n\nIndian masculine given names",
"The 2018 ICC Awards were the fifteenth edition of ICC Awards. The voting panel took into account players' performance between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2018. The announcement of the ICC World XI Teams, along with the winners of the men's individual ICC awards, was made on 22 January 2019. The women's awards were announced on 31 December 2018, with Smriti Mandhana winning the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award as the Women's Cricketer of the Year. Virat Kohli became the first cricketer in history to win all three major awards.\n\nAward categories and winners\n\nCricketer of the Year\n\n Virat Kohli\n\nTest Player of the Year\n\n Virat Kohli\n\nODI Player of the Year\n\n Virat Kohli\n\nTwenty20 International Performance of the Year\n Aaron Finch, for scoring 172 runs off 76 deliveries against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club in Harare on 3 July 2018\n\nEmerging Player of the Year\n\n Rishabh Pant\n\nAssociate Player of the Year\n Calum MacLeod\n\nUmpire of the Year\n\n Kumar Dharmasena\n\nWomen's Cricketer of the Year\n\n Smriti Mandhana\n\nWomen's ODI Cricketer of the Year\n Smriti Mandhana\n\nWomen's T20I Cricketer of the Year\n Alyssa Healy\n\nWomen's Emerging Cricketer of the Year\n Sophie Ecclestone\n\nSpirit of Cricket\n Kane Williamson, for his behavior both on and off the field throughout 2018\n\nFan's Moment of the Year\nIndia winning the Under-19 Cricket World Cup\n\nICC World XI Teams\n\nICC Test Team of the Year\n\nVirat Kohli was selected as the captain of the Test Team of the Year, with Rishabh Pant selected as the wicket-keeper. Other players are:\n\n Tom Latham\n Dimuth Karunaratne\n Kane Williamson\n Virat Kohli\n Henry Nicholls\n Rishabh Pant\n Jason Holder\n Kagiso Rabada\n Nathan Lyon\n Jasprit Bumrah\n Mohammad Abbas\n\nICC ODI Team of the Year\n\nVirat Kohli was also selected as the captain of the ODI Team of the Year, with Jos Buttler selected as the wicket-keeper. Other players are:\n\n Rohit Sharma\n Jonny Bairstow\n Virat Kohli\n Joe Root\n Ross Taylor\n Jos Buttler\n Ben Stokes\n Mustafizur Rahman\n Kuldeep Yadav\n Rashid Khan\n Jasprit Bumrah\n Shikhar Dhawan (12th man)\n\nICC Women’s ODI Team of the Year\n\nSuzie Bates was selected as the captain of the Women's ODI Team of the Year, with Alyssa Healy selected as the wicket-keeper. Other players are:\n\n Smriti Mandhana\n Tammy Beaumont\n Suzie Bates\n Dane van Niekerk\n Sophie Devine\n Alyssa Healy\n Marizanne Kapp\n Deandra Dottin\n Sana Mir\n Sophie Ecclestone\n Poonam Yadav\n\nICC Women’s T20I Team of the Year\nHarmanpreet Kaur was selected as the captain of the Women's T20I Team of the Year, with Alyssa Healy also selected as the wicket-keeper. Other players are:\n\n Smriti Mandhana\n Alyssa Healy\n Suzie Bates\n Harmanpreet Kaur\n Natalie Sciver\n Ellyse Perry\n Ashleigh Gardner\n Leigh Kasperek\n Megan Schutt\n Rumana Ahmed\n Poonam Yadav\n\nSee also\n\n International Cricket Council\n ICC Awards\n Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (Cricketer of the Year)\n ICC Test Player of the Year\n ICC ODI Player of the Year\n David Shepherd Trophy (Umpire of the Year)\n ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year\n ICC Test Team of the Year\n ICC ODI Team of the Year\n\nReferences\n\nInternational Cricket Council awards and rankings\nCrick\nICC Awards"
] |
[
"Virat Kohli",
"Playing style",
"What sport did Virat Kohli play?",
"Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills."
] |
C_fec112b6e1844104b19f367c22f89d69_1
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What position did he play?
| 2 |
What position did Virat Kohli play in his sport?
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Virat Kohli
|
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER
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He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well.
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Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award
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[
"is a former Japanese football player.\n\nPlaying career\nIwamaru was born in Fujioka on December 4, 1981. After graduating from high school, he joined the J1 League club Vissel Kobe in 2000. However he did not play as much as Makoto Kakegawa until 2003. In 2004, he played more often, after Kakegawa got hurt. In September 2004, he moved to Júbilo Iwata. In late 2004, he played often, after regular goalkeeper Yohei Sato got hurt. In 2005, he moved to the newly promoted J2 League club, Thespa Kusatsu (later Thespakusatsu Gunma), based in his home region. He competed with Nobuyuki Kojima for the position and played often. \n\nIn 2006, he moved to the newly promoted J1 club, Avispa Fukuoka. However he did not play as much as Yuichi Mizutani. In 2007, he moved to the newly promoted J1 club, Yokohama FC. However he did not play as much as Takanori Sugeno and the club was relegated to J2 within a year. Although he did not play as much as Kenji Koyama in 2008, he played often in 2009. He did not play at all in 2010. \n\nIn 2011, he moved to the J2 club Roasso Kumamoto. He did not play as much as Yuta Minami. In 2013, he moved to the newly promoted J2 club, V-Varen Nagasaki. Although he played in the first three matches, he did play at all after the fourth match, when Junki Kanayama played in his place. In 2014, he moved to the J2 club Thespakusatsu Gunma based in his local region. However he did not play at all, and retired at the end of the 2014 season.\n\nClub statistics\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n \n\n1981 births\nLiving people\nAssociation football people from Gunma Prefecture\nJapanese footballers\nJ1 League players\nJ2 League players\nVissel Kobe players\nJúbilo Iwata players\nThespakusatsu Gunma players\nAvispa Fukuoka players\nYokohama FC players\nRoasso Kumamoto players\nV-Varen Nagasaki players\nAssociation football goalkeepers",
"John Stirk (born 5 September 1955) is an English former footballer. His primary position was as a right back. During his career he played for Ipswich Town, Watford, Chesterfield and North Shields. He also made two appearances for England at youth level.\n\nCareer \n\nBorn in Consett, Stirk played youth football for local non-league team Consett A.F.C. He joined Ipswich Town on schoolboy terms in 1971, and after making two appearances for the England youth team, turned professional in 1973. During his time at Ipswich he was largely a reserve. He made his first-team debut on 5 November 1977, in a Football League First Division match against Manchester City at Portman Road. His manager at the time was Bobby Robson, who later went on to manage the England national football team. Ipswich won the FA Cup in 1978, in what proved to be Stirk's final season at the club. However, Stirk himself did not play in the final, nor did he play in any of the rounds en route to the final.\n\nAnother future England manager, Watford's Graham Taylor, signed Stirk for a transfer fee of £30,000 at the end of the 1977–78 season. Stirk went on to play every Watford league game in the 1978–79 season, as Watford gained promotion to the Second Division. However, Stirk did not play for Watford in the Second Division. Two months before the end of the 1979–80 season, Stirk was sold to Third Division side Chesterfield, at a profit to Watford of £10,000. After making 56 league appearances over two and a half seasons, Stirk left Chesterfield in 1983 moving on to Blyth Spartans then Tow Law Town, and finished his career at non-league North Shields.\n\nReferences \n\n1955 births\nLiving people\nConsett A.F.C. players\nIpswich Town F.C. players\nWatford F.C. players\nChesterfield F.C. players\nEnglish Football League players\nNorth Shields F.C. players\nSportspeople from Consett\nAssociation football fullbacks\nEnglish footballers"
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"Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills.",
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"He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well."
] |
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Does it say any of his fellow players in the article?
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Does it say anything of Virat Kohli's fellow players in the article?
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Virat Kohli
|
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER
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". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics.
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Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award
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"Fuzzy duck is a drinking game where players sit in a circle and take turns to say the words \"fuzzy duck\". A player may also opt to say, \"does he?\", in which case play resumes in the opposite direction with players instead saying \"ducky fuzz\". If a player says the wrong thing, plays out of turn, or breaks the rhythm of the game, they must drink an agreed-upon measure of an alcoholic beverage.\n\nSometimes players misspeak the phrases as the spoonerisms \"duzzy fuck\" (\"does he fuck?\") or \"fucky duzz\" (\"fuck he does\"). The Book of Beer Awesomeness describes the appeal of the game lying in \"watching a prudish player scream out a string of obscenities.\" \n\nOne strategy is, when saying \"does he?\", to look at the person who would have ordinarily been next. It usually causes this player to continue play and simultaneously causes the player whose turn it really is to say nothing. Both players must drink; one for playing out of turn and the other for breaking the rhythm of the game.\n\nIn a test by The Independent it was voted best-equal with ibble dibble out of 9 drinking games.\n\nReferences\n\nDrinking games",
"Sovereignty unconditionally belongs to the People ( or Egemenlik ulusundur, ) is the founding principle of the Republic of Turkey. This principle is written on the wall behind the chairman of the General Assembly Hall in the Grand National Assembly.\n\nAnybody, any clan, any denomination or any group should not have directly power of order in the community. The Nation has unique source and one owner for superior power of order itself. \n\nThe first letter in the word \"Milletindir\" (People of the Nation) is written with a capital letter, as it refers to the \"Turkish Nation\". \n\nThe phrase has been used by some Turkish newspapers in the aftermath of the failed 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt.\n\nChronology\n23 April 1920 - For the parliament's first meeting Şerif Bey talked about sovereignty and freedom in his opening speech.\n20 January 1921 - It was in the first article of the 1921 constitution. \nSovereignty belongs to nation without any reservation or condition.\nOriginal is; Hâkimiyet bilâ kaydü şart milletindir. İdare usulü halkın mukadderatını bizzat ve bilfiil idare etmesi esasına müstenittir.\n20 April 1924 - It was in third article of the 1924 constitution;\nArticle 3- Sovereignty belongs to nation without any reservation or condition.\nOriginally; Madde 3- Hâkimiyet bilâ kaydü şart Milletindir.\n10 January 1945 - Hakimiyet bila kaydü şart Milletindir is changed to Egemenlik kayıtsız şartsız Milletindir.\nThe sentence has same meaning, but it expressed with modern way. \n9 July 1961 - It was in fourth article in the 1961 constitution.\nArticle 4- Sovereignty is vested in the nation without any reservation or condition. The Nation shall exercise its sovereignty through the authorised agencies as prescribed by the principles laid down in the Constitution. The right to exercise sovereignty shall not be delegated to any individual, group or class. No person or agency shall exercise any state authority which does not drive its origin from the Constitution.\nOriginally; Madde 4- Egemenlik kayıtsız şartsız Türk Milletinindir. Millet, egemenliğini, Anayasanın koyduğu esaslara göre, yetkili organlar eliyle kullanır. Egemenliğin kullanılması, hiçbir suretle belli bir kişiye, zümreye veya sınıfa bırakılamaz. Hiçbir kimse veya organ, kaynağını Anayasadan almayan bir devlet yetkisi kullanamaz.\n18 October 1982 - It is in sixth article in the 1982 constitution. \nArticle 6- Sovereignty belongs to the Nation without any restriction or condition. The Turkish Nation shall exercise its sovereignty through the authorized organs, as prescribed by the principles set forth in the Constitution. The exercise of sovereignty shall not be delegated by any means to any individual, group or class. No person or organ shall exercise any state authority that does not emanate from the Constitution.\nOriginally; Madde 6- \"Egemenlik, kayıtsız şartsız Milletindir. Türk Milleti, egemenliğini, Anayasanın koyduğu esaslara göre, yetkili organları eliyle kullanır. Egemenliğin kullanılması, hiçbir surette hiçbir kişiye, zümreye veya sınıfa bırakılamaz. Hiçbir kimse veya organ kaynağını anayasadan almayan bir Devlet yetkisi kullanamaz.\"\n\nReferences \n\n1920s neologisms\n1921 establishments in Turkey\n1921 in law\n\nKemalism\nTurkish nationalism\nGovernment of Turkey\nDemocracy\nMottos\nMottos\nLegal history of Turkey"
] |
[
"Virat Kohli",
"Playing style",
"What sport did Virat Kohli play?",
"Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills.",
"What position did he play?",
"He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well.",
"Does it say any of his fellow players in the article?",
"\". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics."
] |
C_fec112b6e1844104b19f367c22f89d69_1
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Do you know how he got to be so successful?
| 4 |
Do you know how Virat Kohli got to be so successful as a batsman?
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Virat Kohli
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Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award
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[
"\"Cucurucu\" is a song by English musician Nick Mulvey. The song was released on 3 March 2014.\n\nMulvey told The Cambridge News that the song's title is meaningless. \"It's meant to be a noise a child would make,\" he explained. \"It might relate to a bird sound too. It's actually quite similar to the noise they make in France for a cockerel. You know how we say 'cock-a-doodle-do'? Over there it's like that Cucurucu.\"\n\n\"At its core it's my adaptation of DH Lawrence's poem Piano,\" Mulvey added. \"The poem depicts a child under the piano, smiling as its mother sings, so I thought it would be lovely to have a song within the song. So I'm singing in her voice, really, and then I got the chorus about 'yearning to belong', so it's not just putting his words to my music. At first I was bothered by that, because I didn't think I should've changed it, but I've got used to it.\"\n\nTrack listings\nDigital download\n\"Cucurucu\" – 4:26\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2014 singles\n2014 songs",
"Ira Alterman (4 July 1945 – 6 July 2015) was an American journalist and author, particularly of illustrated novelty books.\n\nIra Alterman was born on 4 July 1945.\n\nAlterman wrote for Boston After Dark, which later became The Boston Phoenix.\n\nHe was married to Carolyn Windle, and they had two children, Daniel and Sara. Sara would later become an author and helped Alterman write his final books following an Alzheimer's diagnosis.\n\nIra Alterman died on 6 July 2015.\n\nSelected publications\nGames You Can Play with Your Pussy\nPicking Up Girls\nComputer Weak\nThe Official Irish Sex Manual\nComputing for Profits\nDog Child - The Big Dog Book\nThe Naughty Bride\nSo, You've Got a Fat Pussy\nDo Diapers Give You Leprosy? What Every Parent Should Know About Bringing Up Babies\nSex Manual for People over Thirty\nGourmet Dinners for the Canine Connoisseur\nGames for the John\nThe Wedding Night\nHow To Pick Up Men\nHow To Pick Up Girls\nSo, You've Got a Fat Pussy!\nBaby's First Year\nGames You Can't Lose\nGames You Can't Win\nOur Aim Is To Keep This Bathroom Clean: Your Aim Will Help\nOfficial Pro Football Handbook\nYou Little Stinker\nLife's A Picnic If You Have A Big Weenie\n\nReferences\n \n\n1945 births\n2015 deaths\nAmerican journalists\nAmerican non-fiction writers\nPeople from Boston"
] |
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"Virat Kohli",
"Playing style",
"What sport did Virat Kohli play?",
"Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills.",
"What position did he play?",
"He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well.",
"Does it say any of his fellow players in the article?",
"\". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics.",
"Do you know how he got to be so successful?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_fec112b6e1844104b19f367c22f89d69_1
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What type of style does he play?
| 5 |
What type of style does Virat Kohli play?
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Virat Kohli
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Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER
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Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting,
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Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award
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"Social behaviors present themselves in a variety of ways. Especially in those in the education system. Social behavior is behavior that occurs among two or more organisms, typically from the same species. Those in the K-12 system are in the process of developing behaviors that will generate future personality traits and behavioral patterns. Peers often have tremendous impacts on an individuals behavior and way of thinking.\n\nDifferent social patterns in children (K-5)\n\nThere are 6 types of Social Patterns used by children:\nUnoccupied behavior: The child is not involved in any particular activity (often seen day dreaming).\nOnlooker behavior: This behavior involves watching other children play (watches the activity but does not participate).\nSolitary play: This type of play involves a child playing alone (Independent).\nParallel play: This type of play involves a child playing beside other children (plays near the other children but not with them).\nAssociative play: This type of play involves a child playing with other children (each child does what he/or she wants within the group).\nCooperative play: This type of play involves organization (play as a group).\n\nFactors influencing behavior\n\nSocial learning theory\n\nAlbert Bandura is a psychologist who proposed Social Learning Theory, argues two decisive points in regards to learning theories. The first, mediating processes occur between stimuli & responses. Secondly, behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning.\n\nIn and out of the classroom children learn through a four step pattern Bandura formulated through a cognitive and operant view.\n\nAttention: something is noticed within the environment and the individual is attentive to it.\nRetention: the behavior is noted and remembered.\nReproduction: the individual copies or emulates the behavior that is observed.\nMotivation: the environment provides a consequence that changes the chances the behavior is repeated through her positive or negative praise or punishment.\n\nReferences\n\nSociology of education",
"In computing, a rose tree is a term for the value of a tree data structure with a variable and unbounded number of branches per node. The term is mostly used in the functional programming community, e.g., in the context of the Bird–Meertens formalism. Apart from the multi-branching property, the most essential characteristic of rose trees is the coincidence of bisimilarity with identity: two distinct rose trees are never bisimilar.\n\nNaming \n\nThe name \"rose tree\" was coined by Lambert Meertens to evoke the similarly-named, and similarly-structured, common rhododendron.\nWe shall call such trees rose trees, a literal translation of rhododendron (Greek = rose, = tree), because of resemblance to the habitus of this shrub, except that the latter does not grow upside-down on the Northern hemisphere.\n\nRecursive definition \n\nWell-founded rose trees can be defined by a recursive construction of entities of the following types:\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(1) '\"> \n\nA base entity is an element of a predefined ground set of values (the \"tip\"-values).\n\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(2) '\">\n\nA branching entity (alternatively, a forking entity or a forest entity) is either of the following sub-types:\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(a) '\"> \nA set of entities.\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(b) '\"> \nA sequence of entities.\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(c) '\"> \nA partial map from a predefined set of names to entities.\nAny of (a)(b)(c) can be empty. Note that (b) can be seen as a special case of (c) – a sequence is just a map from an initial segment of the set of natural numbers.\n\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(3) '\"> \nA pairing entity is an ordered pair such that is a branching entity and is an element of a predefined set of \"label\" values. \nSince a pairing entity can only contain a branching entity as its component, there is an induced division into sub-types (3a), (3b) or (3c) corresponding to sub-types of branching entities.\n\nTypically, only some combinations of entity types are used for the construction. The original paper only considers 1+2b (\"sequence-forking\" rose trees) and 1+2a (\"set-forking\" rose trees).\nIn later literature, the 1+2b variant is usually introduced by the following definition:\n\ndata Tree a = Leaf a | Node [Tree a]\n\nA rose tree [...] is either a\nleaf containing a value, or a node that can have an arbitrary list of subtrees.\n\nThe most common definition used in functional programming (particularly in Haskell) combines 3+2b:\n \ndata Rose α = Node α [Rose α]\n\nAn element of Rose α consists of a labelled node together with a list of subtrees.\nThat is, a rose tree is a pairing entity (type 3) whose branching entity is a sequence (thus of type 2b) of rose trees.\n\nSometimes even the combination 1+3b is considered.\nThe following table provides a summary of the most established combinations of entities.\n\n {|class=\"wikitable\"\n!Terminology\n!Entities used\n|-\n|Well-founded set\n|(2a)\n|-\n|Well-founded nested list value\n|(2b)(1)\n|-\n|Well-founded nested dictionary value\n|(2c)(1)\n|-\n|Well-founded nested data value\n|(2b)(2c)(1)\n|-\n|An -name as known from forcing\n|(2a)(3)\n|-\n|Well-founded rose tree in the most common sense\n|(3)(2b)\n|}\n\nNotes:\n\nGeneral definition \n\nGeneral rose trees can be defined via bisimilarity of accessible pointed multidigraphs with appropriate labelling of nodes and arrows.\nThese structures are generalization of the notion of accessible pointed graph (abbreviated as apg) from non-well-founded set theory.\nWe will use the apq acronym for the below described multidigraph structures. This is meant as an abbreviation of \"accessible pointed quiver\" where quiver is an established synonym for \"multidigraph\".\n\nIn a correspondence to the types of entities used in the recursive definition, each node of an apq is assigned a type (1), (2a), (2b), (2c) or (3).\nThe apqs are subject to conditions that mimic the properties of recursively constructed entities. \n<li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(a) '\">\nA node of type (1) is an element of the predefined set of ground values.\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(b) '\">\nA node of type (1) does not appear as the source of an arrow.\n\n<li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(a) '\">\nA node of type (3) appears as the source of exactly one arrow.\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(b) '\">\nThe target of the arrow mentioned in (a) is a node of type (2).\n\n<li>\nTwo distinct arrows with the same source node of type (2a) have distinct targets.\n\n<li>\nA node is labelled iff it is of type (3). The label belongs to the predefined set .\n\n<li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(a) '\">\nAn arrow is labelled by an index from if its source node is of type (2b).\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(b) '\">\nAn arrow is labelled by a name from a predefined set if its source node is of type (2c).\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(c) '\">\nOtherwise an arrow is unlabelled.\n\n<li>\nLabels of arrows with the same source node are distinct.\n\n<li>\nLabels of arrows with the same source node of type (2b) form an initial segment of .\n\nA bisimilarity between apqs \n and \nis a relation between nodes such that\nthe roots of and are -related and\nfor every pair of -related nodes, the following are satisfied:\n<li>\nThe nodes and have the same type.\n<li>\nIf and are of type (1) then they are identical.\n<li>\nIf and are of type (3) then they have the same label.\n<li>\nFor every arrow of whose source node is there exists an arrow of whose source is and \n\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(a) '\">\nthe target nodes of and are -related,\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(b) '\">\nthe labels of and , if defined, are identical.\n\nA symmetric condition is satisfied with and interchanged.\n\nTwo apqs and are said to be bisimilar if there exists a bisimilarity relation for them. This establishes an equivalence relation on the class of all apqs.\n\nA rose tree is then some fixed representation of the class of apqs that are bisimilar to some given apq .\nIf the root node of is of type (1) then }, thus can be represented by this root node. \nOtherwise, is a proper class – in this case the representation can be provided by Scott's trick to be the set of those elements of that have the lowest rank.\n\nAs a result of the above set-theoretic construction, the class of all rose trees is defined, depending on the sets (ground values), (arrow names) and (node labels) as the definitory constituents.\nSubsequently, the structure of apqs can be carried over to a labelled multidigraph structure over . That is, elements of can themselves be considered as \"nodes\" with induced type assignment, node labelling and arrows. The class of \narrows is a subclass of , that is, \narrows are either source-target couples or source-label-target triples according to the type of the source.\n\nFor every element of there is an induced apq such that is the root node of and the respective sets and of nodes and arrows of are formed by those elements of and that are accessible via a path of arrows starting at . The induced apq is bisimilar to apqs used for the construction of .\n\nPathname maps \n\nRose trees that do not contain set-branching nodes (type 2a) can be represented by pathname maps.\nA pathname is just a finite sequence of arrow labels. \nFor an arrow path (a finite sequence of consecutive arrows), the pathname of is the corresponding sequence \n\nof arrow labels.\nHere it is assumed that each arrow is labelled ( denotes the labelling function). \nIn general, each arrow path needs to be first reduced by removing all its arrows sourced at pairing nodes (type 3).\n\nA pathname is resolvable iff there exists a root-originating arrow path whose pathname is . Such is uniquely given up to a possible unlabelled last arrow (sourced at a pairing node).\nThe target node of a non-empty resolvable path is the target node of the last arrow of the correspondent root-originating arrow path that does not end with an unlabelled arrow.\nThe target of the empty path is the root node.\n\nGiven a rose tree that does not contain set-branching nodes, the pathname map of is a map that assigns each resolvable pathname its value according to the following general scheme:\n\nRecall that \n is the set of arrow labels \n( is the set of natural numbers and is the set of arrow names) \n is the set of node labels,\nand is the set of ground values.\nThe additional symbols and respectively mean an indicator of a resolvable pathname and the set of type tags, }.\nThe map is defined by the following prescription ( denotes the target of ):\n\n {| cellpadding=0 style=\"border:0;\"\n|- style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\n| \n| \n| if is of type (1),\n|- style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\n| \n| or \n| if is of respective type (2b) or (2c),\n|- style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\n| \n| or \n| if is of respective type (3b) or (3c) and is the label of .\n|}\n\nIt can be shown that different rose trees have different pathname maps. For \"homogeneous\" rose trees there is no need for type tagging, and their pathname map can be defined as summarized below:\n\n {|class=\"wikitable\"\n!Terminology\n!Scheme\n|-\n|Nested list value\n|}\n|-\n|Nested dictionary value\n|}\n|-\n|Rose tree by Haskell, tree over \n|\n|-\n|-valued tree, tree labelled in \n|\n|}\n\nIn each case, there is a simple axiomatization in terms of pathnames:\n\n is a non-empty prefix-closed subset of or . In case of , also needs to be \"left-sibling-closed\" to form a tree domain, see Encoding by sequences.\nIn case of a nested list or a nested dictionary value, if is a pathname that is non-maximal in , then .\n\nIn particular, a rose tree in the most common \"Haskell\" sense is just a map from a non-empty prefix-closed and left-sibling-closed set of finite sequences of natural numbers to a set .\nSuch a definition is mostly used outside the branch of functional programming, see Tree (automata theory).\nTypically, documents that use this definition do not mention the term \"rose tree\" at all.\n\nNotes:\n\nExamples \n\nThe diagrams below show two examples of rose trees together with the correspondent Haskell code. In both cases, the Data.Tree module is used as it is provided by the Haskell containers package.\nThe module introduces rose trees as pairing entities by the following definition:\n\ndata Tree a = Node {\n rootLabel :: a, -- ^ label value\n subForest :: [Tree a] -- ^ zero or more child trees\n }\n\nBoth examples are contrived so as to demonstrate the concept of \"sharing of substructures\" which is a distinguished feature of rose trees.\nIn both cases, the labelling function is injective \n(so that the labels 'a', 'b', 'c' or 'd' uniquely identify a subtree / node) which does not need to be satisfied in general.\nThe natural numbers (0,1,2 or 3) along the arrows indicate the zero-based position in which a tree appears in the subForest sequence of a particular \"super-tree\".\nAs a consequence of possible repetitions in subForest, there can be multiple arrows between nodes.\nIn each of the examples, the rose tree in question is labelled by 'a' and equals the value of the a variable in the code. In both diagrams, the tree is pointed to by a source-less arrow.\n\nWell-founded rose tree\nimport Data.Tree\nmain :: IO ()\nmain = do\nlet d = Node { rootLabel = 'd', subForest = [] }\nlet c = Node { rootLabel = 'c', subForest = [d] }\nlet b = Node { rootLabel = 'b', subForest = [d,c] }\nlet a = Node { rootLabel = 'a', subForest = [b,c,c,c] }\nprint a\n\nNon-well-founded rose tree\nimport Data.Tree\nmain :: IO ()\nmain = do\nlet root x = case x of\n 'a' -> (x,[x,'b'])\n 'b' -> (x,[x,'c'])\n 'c' -> (x,[x,'a'])\nlet a = unfoldTree root 'a'\nputStrLn (take 900 (show a)\n ++ \" ... (and so on)\")\n\nThe first example presents a well-founded rose tree a obtained by an incremental construction. First d is constructed, then c then b and finally a. The rose tree can be represented by the pathname map shown on the left.\n\nThe second example presents a non-well-founded rose tree a built by a breadth-first constructor unfoldTree. The rose tree is a Moore machine, see notes above. Its pathname map \n}\nis defined by be respectively equal to or or according to where is the number of occurences of in .\n\nRelation to tree data structures \n\nThe general definition provides a connection to tree data structures: \n\nRose trees are tree structures modulo bisimilarity.\n\nMapping tree data structures to their values\n\nThe \"tree structures\" are those apqs (labelled multidigraphs from the general definition) in which each node is accessible by a unique arrow path.\nEvery rose tree is bisimilar to such a tree structure (since every apq is bisimilar to its unfolding) and every such tree structure is bisimilar to exactly one rose tree which can therefore be regarded as the value of the tree structure.\n\nThe diagram on the right shows an example of such a structure-to-value mapping. In the upper part of the diagram, a node-labelled ordered tree is displayed, containing 23 nodes. In the lower part, a rose tree is shown that is the value of .\n(In both and , sibling arrows are implicitly ordered from left to right.)\nThere is an induced subtree-to-subvalue mapping which is partially displayed by blue arrows.\n\nObserve that the mapping is many-to-one: distinct tree data structures can have the same value. As a particular consequence, a rose tree in general is not a tree in terms of \"subvalue\" relationship between its subvalues, see #Terminological_controversy.\n\nTree data type \n\nThe value mapping described above can be used to clarify the difference between the terms \"tree data structure\" and \"tree data type\":\n\nA tree data type is a set of values of tree data structures.\n\nNote that there are 2 degrees of discrepancy between the terms. This becomes apparent when one compares a single tree data type with a single tree data structure. A single tree data type contains (infinitely) many values each of which is represented by (infinitely) many tree data structures.\n\nFor example, given a set } of labels, the set of rose trees in the Haskell sense (3b) with labels taken from is a single tree data type. All the above examples of rose trees belong to this data type.\n\nNotes:\n\nTerminological controversy \n\nAs it can be observed in the above text and diagrams, the term \"rose tree\" is controversial.\nThere are two interrelated issues:\n\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(A) '\">\nObscure meaning of \"node\".\n<li style=\"list-style-type:'(B) '\">\nDiscrepancy between \"tree\" and \"sharing of substructures\".\n\nInterestingly, the term \"node\" does not appear in the original paper except for a single occurence of \"nodes\" in an informal paragraph on page 20.\nIn later literature the word is used abundantly.\nThis can already be observed in the quoted comments to the definitions:\n\n A rose tree [...] is either a leaf [...] or a node [...].\n An element of Rose α consists of a labelled node [...].\n\nIn particular, the definition of rose trees in the most common Haskell sense suggests that (within the context of discourse) \"node\" and \"tree\" are synonyms. Does it mean that every rose tree is coincident with its root node? If so, is such a property considered specific to rose trees or does it also apply to other trees? Such questions are left unanswered.\n\nThe (B) problem becomes apparent when looking at the diagrams of the above examples. Both diagrams are faithful in the sense that each node is drawn exactly once. One can immediately see that the underlying graphs are not trees. Using a quotation from Tree (graph theory)\n\nThe various kinds of data structures referred to as trees in computer science have underlying graphs that are trees in graph theory [...] \n\none can conclude that rose trees in general are not trees in usual meaning known from computer science.\n\nBayesian rose tree \n\nThere is at least one adoption of the term \"rose tree\" in computer science in which \"sharing of substructures\" is precluded. The concept of a Bayesian rose tree is based on the following definition of rose trees:\n\n is a rose tree if either } for some data point or } where 's are rose trees over disjoint sets of data points.\n\nReferences \n\nTrees (data structures)"
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[
"Virat Kohli",
"Playing style",
"What sport did Virat Kohli play?",
"Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills.",
"What position did he play?",
"He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well.",
"Does it say any of his fellow players in the article?",
"\". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics.",
"Do you know how he got to be so successful?",
"I don't know.",
"What type of style does he play?",
"Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting,"
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Does the article say how he grew up?
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Does the article say how Virat Kohli grew up?
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Virat Kohli
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Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER
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Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award
| false |
[
"Fariba Nawa (born 1973) is an Afghan-American freelance journalist who grew up in both Herat and Lashkargah in Afghanistan as well as Fremont, California. She was born in Herat, Afghanistan to a native Afghan family. Her family fled the country during the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. She is trilingual in Persian, Arabic, and English. In 2000 she ventured into Taliban controlled Afghanistan by sneaking into the country through Iran.\n\nHer report \"Afghanistan Inc.\" (in Corp Watch) is one of the main resources used in different media around the globe while debating effectiveness of reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. She examines the progress of reconstruction, uncovers some examples of where the money has, and has not, gone, how the system of international aid works, and does not, and what it is really like in the villages and cities where outsiders are rebuilding the war-torn countryside.\n\nHer book Opium Nation was published in November 2011. The book is her personal account of the drug trade in Afghanistan and how it has affected the poor and disadvantaged.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial Website\nCorpWatch : Afghanistan, Inc.: A CorpWatch Investigative Report\nProfile - Afghan Magazine\nFamous article - Home After 20 Years, Travel To Herat\nArticle: Half Way Home\nArticle: ''Khoshnawaz Brothers Keep Herat's Music Alive\n\nLiving people\n1973 births\nAfghan women journalists\nAfghan writers\nAfghan journalists\nAmerican people of Afghan descent\nWomen in 21st-century warfare\nAmerican writers of Afghan descent\nWomen war correspondents\n21st-century Afghan women writers\n21st-century Afghan writers\n\nHampshire College alumni",
"The terms horse race and handicapping the horse race, have been used to describe media coverage of elections. The terms refer to any news story or article whose main focus is describing how a particular candidate or candidates are faring during the election, in other words, trying to predict the outcome. This category includes polls. There is a thin line between a horse race news story and a non horse race news story. For example, an article simply describing a candidate's economic policy is a non horse race article, but an article which is about how certain groups of voters are angry at a candidate's economic policy is a horse race article.\n\nCriticisms of horse race coverage\nCritics of the news media say that the vast majority of all articles during a political election are horse race style. Different criticisms have been raised as to why that is bad:\n\nIt is argued that news sources tend to use horse race journalism as a ploy to lure in audiences and tighten polls during election cycles by discrediting candidates favored to win and hyping underdogs\nHorse race coverage is considered by some to cause voters to change their actual perceptions on a candidate in a sort of vicious cycle. For example, a poll showing a third party candidate having a low support percentage may discourage other people from voting for that person so as to avoid the spoiler effect. That effect is magnified if a particular media outlet has a biased point of view that they want to get across. One way that a biased news outlet would use this technique is similar to the \"some say\" rhetorical device, namely by making uncited references to constituent outrage or support of some particular issue.\nSome say that horse race coverage destroys coverage of the issues, because often, an article is mostly about how groups reacted to a speech or other presentation of a candidate on an issue and has little room to discuss the candidate's point of view itself.\nA horse race style of article allows for the use of weasel words: a subtle way of editorializing on the part of the author by focusing on the criticisms or praise of an anonymous or small group of voters.\nIt is argued that horse race coverage distracts voters from issues surrounding candidates by emphasizing poll results, regardless of how reliable the polls may be.\n\nSee also\nPollster\nSwingometer\n\nExternal links\n Political Glossary: Horse Race\nIn Defense of (the Right Kind of) Horse Race Journalism\nHyping The Horse Race\n\nPolitical terminology\nJournalism terminology"
] |
[
"Virat Kohli",
"Playing style",
"What sport did Virat Kohli play?",
"Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills.",
"What position did he play?",
"He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well.",
"Does it say any of his fellow players in the article?",
"\". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics.",
"Do you know how he got to be so successful?",
"I don't know.",
"What type of style does he play?",
"Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting,",
"Does the article say how he grew up?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_fec112b6e1844104b19f367c22f89d69_1
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Who is Sachin Tendulkar?
| 7 |
Who is Sachin Tendulkar?
|
Virat Kohli
|
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER
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his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played
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Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award
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"Sachin! Tendulkar Alla (English: Not Sachin Tendulkar) is a 2014 Indian Kannada film featuring Master Snehith, cricketers Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad, Suhasini Maniratnam and Sudharani. Directed by Mohan Shankar and produced by BN Gangadhar. This film is a non-commercial entertainer. Master Snehith plays the autistic boy who struggles to make it big in cricket. Suhasini Maniratnam plays his sister and Sudharani plays an important role. Rajesh Ramanath has composed the music. BN Gangadhar is the Producer of Sachin! Tendulkar Alla. The film was dubbed and released in Telugu as Sachin Tendulkar Kaadhu in 2015.\n\nCast\n Master Snehith\n Javagal Srinath \n Venkatesh Prasad \n Suhasini Maniratnam \n Sai\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2014 films\nFilms set in Bangalore\n2010s Kannada-language films\nIndian films\nFilms shot in Bangalore\nIndian children's films\nFilms about cricket in India\nFilms about autism\nSachin Tendulkar",
"Sachin is a 2019 Indian Malayalam-language film directed by Santhosh Nair and written by S. L. Puram Jayasurya. It stars Dhyan Sreenivasan, Aju Varghese, Hareesh Kanaran, Renji Panicker, Ramesh Pisharody, Appani Sarath, Maniyanpilla Raju, Anna Rajan, Maala Parvati, Aabid Nassar, Reshmi Boban and Sethu Lakshmi. Sachin is a romance film in the backdrop of cricket. The story revolves around a boy who born on the auspicious day when cricketer Sachin Tendulkar hit century. After watching Sachin's performance, Viswanathan (Raju) got excited and named his son as Sachin. The film was released on 19 July 2019.\n\nPremise\nSachin is born on an auspicious day when the nation celebrated Sachin Tendulkar. Excited after watching Sachin's performance, Viswanathan promptly named his new born son \"Sachin\". Sachin too played cricket while growing up and his love for Sachin Tendulkar was unflinching. Meanwhile, Sachin falls in love with Anjali, a village damsel who is four years elder to him. (it can be recalled that Anjali, wife of Sachin Tendulkar too is elder than him) Later on, trouble brew in and their wedding get cancelled. how Sachin resolve the issues forms the rest of the story.\n\nCast\n\n Dhyan Sreenivasan as Sachin Vishawanath\n Aju Varghese as Kokachi Jerry/Jerry Thomas\n Anna Rajan as Anjali\n Hareesh Kanaran as Poocha Shyju\n Appani Sarath as Kudiyan Jose\n Ramesh Pisarody as Shine\n Renji Panicker as Ramachandran\n Maniyanpilla Raju as Viswanathan\n Juby Ninan as Naveen\n Kochu Preman\n Balaji Sarma\n Aabid Nassar as Sali\n Maala Parvati\n Reshmi Boban\n Sethu Lakshmi\n Manoj\n Elisabeth\n Firoz Azeez \n Arun Raj \n Yadhu Krishna\n Valsala Menon\n Lija\n\nProduction\nSachin is directed by Santhosh Nair, written by S. L. Puram Jayasurya and produced by Jude Agnel Sudhir and Juby Ninan under the banner JJ Productions. Cinematographer is Neil D'Cunha, editor is Ranjan Abhraham. Sachin is Santhosh Nair's second film after Money Ratnam.\n\nThe pooja function took place at Beaumond Hotel in Kochi. Renji Panicker made the switch-on and Alwin Antony made the first clap. The main shooting location of the film are Punlaur, Pathnapuram, Thenmala.\n\nSoundtrack\nMusic is composed by Shaan Rahman for the lyrics of Manu Manjith.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2019 films\nIndian films\n2010s Malayalam-language films\n2019 comedy-drama films\nIndian comedy-drama films\nFilms about educators\nFilms set in universities and colleges\nFilms shot in Thiruvananthapuram\nFilms shot in Alappuzha\nFilms shot in Kollam\nFilms about filmmaking\nSachin Tendulkar"
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"Mark Taylor (cricketer)",
"Early years"
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C_b738a7b0370c43f584931c7292de4a56_1
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Where did Mark Taylor first start playing cricket?
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Where did Mark Taylor first start playing cricket?
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Mark Taylor (cricketer)
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The second of three children born to bank manager Tony Taylor, and his wife Judy, Mark Taylor's early years were spent at Wagga Wagga, where his family relocated when he was eight. His father had a sporting background, playing first grade rugby in Newcastle. The young Taylor preferred Australian rules football and cricket. He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him. Taylor idolised Arthur Morris, the left-handed opening batsmen from New South Wales who led the aggregates on the 1948 "Invincibles" tour of England. Taylor played for his primary school as an opening batsman, and made his first century at the age of thirteen for the Lake Albert club at Bolton Park in Wagga. His family then moved to the north shore of Sydney, where he joined Northern District in Sydney Grade Cricket. Completing his secondary education at Chatswood High School, he later obtained a degree in surveying at the University of New South Wales. Along with the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, Taylor played in under-19 youth internationals for Australia against Sri Lanka in 1982-83. Taylor made his Sheffield Shield debut in 1985-86 when NSW was depleted by the defection of regular openers Steve Smith and John Dyson to a rebel tour of South Africa. Opening with fellow debutant Mark Waugh, he scored 12 and 56 not out against Tasmania. His first season was highlighted by home and away centuries against South Australia in a total of 937 runs at 49.31 average. He had a lean season in 1987-88, after which he spent the English summer with Greenmount, helping them to win their first Bolton League title by scoring more than 1,300 runs at an average of 70. He originally trained as a surveyor, and received a degree in surveying from the University of New South Wales in 1987. CANNOTANSWER
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He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him.
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Mark Anthony Taylor (born 27 October 1964) is a former Australian cricketer and currently a Cricket Australia director and Nine Network commentator.
He was Test opening batsman from 1988 to 1999, as well as captain from 1994 to 1999, succeeding Allan Border. His predominant fielding position was first slip. He was widely regarded as an instrumental component in Australia's rise to Test cricket dominance, and his captaincy was regarded as adventurous and highly effective. However, he was considered less than ideal for One-Day International cricket and was eventually dropped as one-day captain after a 0–3 drubbing at the hands of England in 1997.
He moved to Wagga Wagga in 1972 and played for Lake Albert Cricket Club. His debut was for New South Wales in 1985.
He retired from Test cricket on 2 February 1999. In 104 Test matches, he scored 7,525 runs with a batting average of 43.49, including 19 centuries and 40 fifties. He was also an excellent first slip – his 157 catches, at the time, a Test record (now held by Rahul Dravid). In contrast to his predecessor Allan Border, who acquired the nickname 'Captain Grumpy', Taylor won plaudits for his always cheerful and positive demeanour. His successor, Steve Waugh, further honed the Australian team built by Border and Taylor and went on to set numerous records for victories as captain. Having been named Australian of the Year in 1999, he is now a cricket commentator for the Nine Network, and former Director of Cricket Australia.
Early years
The second of three children born to bank manager Tony Taylor, and his wife Judy, Mark Taylor's early years were spent at Wagga Wagga, where his family relocated when he was eight. His father had a sporting background, playing first grade rugby in Newcastle. The young Taylor preferred Australian rules football and cricket. He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him. Taylor idolised Arthur Morris, the left-handed opening batsmen from New South Wales who led the aggregates on the 1948 "Invincibles" tour of England.
Taylor played for his primary school as an opening batsman, and made his first century at the age of thirteen for the Lake Albert club at Bolton Park in Wagga. His family then moved to the north shore of Sydney, where he joined Northern District in Sydney Grade Cricket. Completing his secondary education at Chatswood High School, he later obtained a degree in surveying at the University of New South Wales in 1987. Along with the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, Taylor played in under-19 youth internationals for Australia against Sri Lanka in 1982–83.
Taylor made his Sheffield Shield debut in 1985–86 when NSW was depleted by the defection of regular openers Steve Smith and John Dyson to a rebel tour of South Africa. Opening with fellow debutant Mark Waugh, he scored 12 and 56 not out against Tasmania. His first season was highlighted by home and away centuries against South Australia in a total of 937 runs at 49.31 average. He had a lean season in 1987–88, after which he spent the English summer with Greenmount, helping them to win their first Bolton League title by scoring more than 1,300 runs at an average of 70.
International career
Test career
Solid form for NSW in 1988–89 resulted in Taylor's selection for his Test debut in the Fourth Test against the West Indies at the SCG, replacing middle-order batsman Graeme Wood. For three years, the opening combination of Geoff Marsh and David Boon had been successful for Australia. However, team coach Bob Simpson wanted a left and right-handed opening combination, and stability added to the middle order. Therefore, the left-handed Taylor partnered the right-handed Marsh, while Boon batted at number three. Taylor's safe catching at slip was also a factor in his selection. He made 25 and 3 in a winning team, then was run out twice in the Fifth Test. A first-class aggregate of 1,241 runs (at 49.64 average) for the season earned him a place on the 1989 Ashes tour.
Record-breaking start
Beginning with a century at Headingley in his First Test against England, Taylor amassed 839 runs at 83.90 in the six Tests: the second best aggregate in an Ashes series in England, behind Don Bradman's 974 runs in 1930. He occupied the crease for a total of 38 hours, more than six full days of play. The highlight of his tour was the Fifth Test at Trent Bridge when he and Geoff Marsh became the first pair to bat throughout a day's play of Test cricket in England, amassing 301 runs. Taylor made 219 in a partnership of 329, an Ashes record. He finished with 71 and 48 in the Sixth Test to overtake Neil Harvey for the third-highest series aggregate in Test history and totalled 1,669 first-class runs for the tour. Australia won the series 4–0 to regain the Ashes. However, Taylor was overlooked for selection in the ODIs.
Returning to Australia, Taylor made 1,403 first-class runs at 70.15 during the 1989–90 season, and ended 1989 with 1,219 Test runs, thus becoming the first player to better one thousand Test runs in his debut calendar year, something only matched twice since by England opener Alastair Cook and Australian Adam Voges. In Taylor's first nine Tests, Australia passed 400 in the first innings. He scored centuries in successive Tests against Sri Lanka, and against Pakistan his scores were 52 and 101 at the MCG, 77 and 59 at the Adelaide Oval and an unbeaten 101 at Sydney. Australia won both series 1–0. In just over twelve months, he had amassed 1,618 runs at 70.35. This outstanding start to his career earned Taylor nomination as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1990. At the season's end, he demonstrated his leadership abilities for the first time. Standing in as NSW captain in place of the injured Geoff Lawson for the 1989–90 Sheffield Shield final in Sydney, Taylor scored 127 and 100. NSW won by 345 runs to secure its 40th title.
A year after his Test debut, Taylor was selected to make his ODI debut, which came on Boxing Day of 1989 against Sri Lanka. He made 11 as Australia won by 30 runs. He was selected for nine of Australia's ten ODIs for the season's triangular tournament, scoring 294 runs at 32.66 with two half-centuries. His highest score of 76 came as Australia defeated Pakistan by 69 runs to clinch the finals series in Sydney. The season ended with ODI tournaments in New Zealand and Sharjah. He played six of the eight matches, scoring 222 runs at 37.00 with two half-centuries, but was dropped for the final in New Zealand.
Inconsistent form
Taylor experienced a slump during the 1990–91 Ashes series. After making two-half centuries in the first two Tests, he failed to pass 20 in the last three and finished with 213 runs at 23.66 in a team that won 3–0. He found himself on the outer for the ODI triangular tournament, missing all eight of the preliminary matches before returning to score 41 and 71 as Australia won the finals 2–0.
His moderate form continued during the 1991 tour of the West Indies, where he was selected in only two of the five ODIs, scoring three and five. He ended the run with a rear-guard innings of 76 in the second innings of the Fourth Test at Barbados. Despite his effort, Australia lost and the West Indies took an unassailable lead of 2–0. In the Fifth Test St. Johns, Antigua, Australia gained a consolation victory due mainly to Taylor's scores of 59 and 144 (out of a total of 265). This late rush of form boosted his average for the series to 49. In late 1991, before the Australian season started, Taylor was appointed to lead an Australia A side to tour Zimbabwe. The team was composed of younger Test players and other young players who were seeking to break into international cricket. The selectors were attempting to groom Taylor as a potential replacement for Border.
During the 1991–92 Australian season, Taylor batted consistently in a 4–0 series victory over India. He scored 94 and 35* in a ten-wicket win at Brisbane. He scored half-centuries in each of the next two Tests before striking 100 in the second innings of the Fourth Test at Adelaide. It helped Australia to wipe out a first innings deficit of 80 and set up a winning target. His opening partner Marsh was dropped for the Fifth Test, so the selectors elevated Taylor to the vice-captaincy of the team. Over the next twelve months, a number of players were tried as Taylor's opening partner. Taylor struggled in his first match with new partner Wayne N. Phillips, scoring two and 16. Nevertheless, he had scored 422 runs at 46.89. Taylor continued to be overlooked by the selectors in the shorter version of the game, missing selection for all of the season's triangular tournament. He was selected for the squad for the 1992 Cricket World Cup held on home soil, and after Australia lost its first two matches, Taylor was recalled for his first ODI in 12 months. He made 13 as Australia beat India by one run, but scored his first ODI duck in the next match as England won by eight wickets. He was dropped for the remainder of the tournament.
On the 1992 tour of Sri Lanka, Taylor struggled in scoring 148 runs at 24.67. After scoring 42 and 43 in Australia's win in the First Test, Taylor failed to again pass 30. With new opening partner Tom Moody also struggling with 71 runs at 11.83, Australia frequently struggled at the top of their innings. He played in all three ODIs, scoring 138 runs at 46.00. His 94 in the first match was his highest score in ODIs to that point.
Against the West Indies in 1992–93, Taylor was now opening alongside David Boon with Moody having been dropped. Taylor was ineffective and failed to pass fifty in the first four Tests. After Australia failed by one run to win the Fourth Test and thus the series, Taylor was dropped for the deciding Test at Perth, having failed to make double figures in either innings. In his absence, Australia lost by an innings in three days and conceded the series 1–2. He had scored 170 runs at 24.29 for the series. However, he played all of Australia's ten ODIs, scoring 286 runs at 28.60 with two half-centuries.
Taylor and Slater
As a result of the innings defeat in Perth, Taylor was immediately recalled for the tour of New Zealand, where he scored 82 in the First Test at Christchurch to help Australia to an innings victory. He then scored 50 in the drawn Second Test and bowled for the first time at Test level, taking 0/15. He failed to pass 20 in the Third Test and ended the series with 148 runs at 37.00 as the home side squared the series. Australia then played five ODIs in New Zealand before starting the England tour with three more. Taylor played in all eight, scoring 307 runs at 38.38 with four half-centuries.
The problem of finding him a long-term partner was solved on the tour of England that followed. NSW batsman Michael Slater, who also grew up in Wagga Wagga, made his debut in the First Test of the 1993 Ashes series. In the First Test at Old Trafford, Taylor made 124 after an opening partnership of 128, as Australia managed only 289 after being sent in. Australia managed to scrape out a lead of 79, before going on to a 179-run win.
This was followed by a stand of 260 at Lord's in the Second Test, with Taylor making 111. In the process, he passed 1000 Test runs against England and the partnership broke the Ashes partnership record at Lord's, which had been set by Bill Woodfull and Don Bradman in 1930. The partnership laid the platform for Australia's total of 4/632, as the tourists proceeded to an innings victory.
His scoring was more sedate in the remaining Tests as Australia won 4–1, and he finished with 428 runs at 42.80. He passed 30 only once more, with 70 in the first innings of the Sixth Test at The Oval.
Against New Zealand in 1993–94, Taylor made 64 and 142 not out in the First Test at Perth, which ended in a draw. He then scored 27 and 53 as Australia won the next two Tests by an innings, totalling 286 runs at 95.33 in three Tests as Australia won 2–0. In the rain-affected Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Taylor played his 50th Test and celebrated with 170 against South Africa, the first Test between the two countries since 1970. This made him the first batsman to score centuries on Test debut against four countries. In addition, he passed 4,000 Test runs during the innings. Taylor had scored more than 1,000 Test runs for the calendar year, ending with 1106 runs Taylor scored 62 in the Third Test, his only other half-century for the series, which he ended with 304 runs at 60.80.
On the reciprocal tour of South Africa at the end of the season, Taylor missed a Test because of injury for the only time in his career. Matthew Hayden filled in for the First Test in Johannesburg, which Australia lost. On his return for the Second Test at Cape Town, he scored 70 and ended the series with 97 runs at 24.25. Both series were drawn 1–1.
Captaincy
After the retirement of Allan Border, Taylor was appointed captain.
Frequently omitted from the ODI team due to slow scoring, Taylor missed the finals of the ODI series in Australia against South Africa. On the tour of South Africa, he missed three consecutive ODIs when tour selectors and fellow players Ian Healy and Steve Waugh voted him off the team. In all, Taylor had only played in 11 of Australia's 19 ODIs for the season, scoring 281 runs at 25.55. Taylor requested an extended trial as opener for the ODI side to help consolidate his captaincy of both teams.
Taylor started his ODI captaincy with two tournaments in Sharjah and Sri Lanka. Australia missed the finals in both tournaments, winning three of their six matches. After scoring 68* to guide his team to a nine-wicket win in the first match against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, Taylor's form tapered off, scoring only 64 more runs to end the two tournaments with a total of 132 runs at 33.00.
His first task was a tour of Pakistan in 1994, where Australia had not won a Test since the 1959 tour. To make matters worse, Australia's first-choice pace pairing of Craig McDermott and Merv Hughes missed the tour due to injury. The First Test at Karachi was a personal disaster for Taylor as he scored a pair, the first player in Test history to do so on his captaincy debut. Paceman Glenn McGrath then broke down in the middle of the match. Australia was in the box seat with Pakistan needing 56 runs with one wicket in hand, but lost by one wicket after Ian Healy missed a stumping opportunity and the ball went for the winning runs. Recovering to score 69 in the Second Test at Rawalpindi, Taylor forced Pakistan to follow on after taking a 261-run lead. However, he dropped Pakistan captain Salim Malik when he was on 20. Malik went on to make 237 as Pakistan made 537 and saved the Test. Australia again took a first innings lead in the Third Test, but could not force a result, as Malik scored another second innings century to ensure safety and a 1–0 series win. Taylor ended the series with 106 runs at 26.50. Australia fared better in the ODI triangular tournament, winning five of their six matches. Taylor scored 56 in the final as Australia beat Pakistan by 64 runs to end the tournament with 193 runs at 32.16.
Beginning the 1994–95 season with 150 for NSW in a tour match against England, Taylor followed up with 59 in an opening stand of 97 as Australia made 426 in the first innings to take the initiative in the First Test in Brisbane. Australia amassed a 259-run first innings lead, but Taylor, mindful of the Test match at Rawalpindi, became the first Australian captain since 1977–78 to not enforce the follow-on. Although heavily criticised as a conservative decision, Australia still won the match by 184 runs, with Taylor adding 58 in the second innings. Having scored the first win of his Test captaincy, Taylor led his team to a 295-run win in the Second Test.
Taylor played his best cricket of the summer in the Third Test at Sydney. Last man out for 49 in a total of 116 in the first innings, he defied a pitch that had begun to seam and swing after a shower and cloud cover as Australia narrowly avoided the follow on. In the second innings, he made a bold attempt at chasing a world record target of 449 by scoring 113, but Australia played for a draw after Slater and Taylor fell following a double-century stand. Australia collapsed to 7/292 before hanging on in near-darkness. In the final two Tests, he scored half-centuries as Australia won 3–1. Australia dramatically lost the Fourth Test when England led by only 154 on the final day with four wickets in hand. Aggressive lower order batting saw Australia set 263 in just over two sessions, but a heavy collapse saw Australia eight wickets down with more than 2 hours to play. Almost two hours of resistance later, England took a 106-run win late in the day. However, Australia bounced back to win the Fifth Test by 329 runs, the largest margin of the series. Taylor's partnership with Slater yielded three century opening stands at an average of 76.60 for the series and Taylor's individual return was 471 runs at 47.10.
The southern hemisphere summer ended with a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand, where Australia won two of their three group matches to proceed to the final. Taylor scored 44 in a six-wicket triumph over New Zealand and totalled 165 runs at 41.25. His best score was 97 against the hosts in the preliminary round meant that he was still yet to post his first ODI century, five years after his debut.
Caribbean tour 1995
This victory was followed by the 1995 tour of the West Indies, where Australia had not won a Test series for 22 years. Australia lost the ODI series which preceded the Tests 1–4, with Taylor making 152 runs at 30.40. The difficulty of Australia's task was increased when fast bowlers Craig McDermott and Damien Fleming went home injured at the start of the tour. Australia fielded a pace attack of Glenn McGrath, Brendon Julian and Paul Reiffel who had played only 23 Tests between them. Despite this, Australia won by ten wickets in the first Test at Barbados, with Taylor contributing a half-century. After the Second Test was a rained-out draw, the West Indies beat Australia inside three days on a "green" Trinidad pitch in the Third Test. Australia regained the Frank Worrell Trophy with an innings victory in the Fourth Test at Jamaica, with Taylor taking the winning catch from the bowling of Shane Warne. Although he only managed 153 runs (at 25.50 average) for the series, Taylor held nine catches and his leadership was cited as a key factor in the result.
Controversy with Sri Lanka
This was followed by two and three-Test series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively in the 1995–96 Australian season. The Pakistan series began among a media circus when Salim Malik arrived with publicity focused on the bribery allegations which had surfaced a year earlier. Australia won the First Test in Brisbane by an innings in three and a half days, with Taylor contributing 69. In the Second Test at Bellerive Oval, Taylor scored 123 in the second innings to set up a winning total. In the Third Test in Sydney, he made 59 as Australia collapsed for 172 in the second innings and conceded the match. He ended the series with a healthy 338 runs at 67.60.
The subsequent Test and ODI series involving Sri Lanka were overshadowed by a series of spiteful clashes. The Tests were won 3–0 by the Australians with heavy margins of an innings, ten wickets and 148 runs respectively. Taylor's highlight being a 96 in the First Test at Perth as he compiled 159 runs at 39.75. He also made his 100th Test catch during the series. After accusations of ball tampering were levelled against the tourists in the First Test, leading spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was no-balled seven times in the Second Test, and during the ODI series, the Sri Lankans accused Taylor's men of cheating. The season hit a low point with the Sri Lankans which saw the teams refuse to shake hands at the end of the second final of the triangular series which Australia won 2–0. The match had included physical jostling between McGrath and Sanath Jayasuriya mid pitch, with the latter accusing McGrath of making racist attacks. Later in the match, stump microphones showed Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy alleging that portly Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga was feigning injury and calling for a runner because of his lack of physical fitness.
On the field, the ODI tournament saw Mark Waugh elevated to be Taylor's ODI opening partner after the axing of Slater midway through the season. In their first match together in Perth, the pair put on 190, with Taylor scoring 85. They put on another century stand in the second final, with Taylor scoring 82. Taylor scored heavily in the ODI tournament, with 423 runs at 42.30 with four half-centuries. Australia warmed up for the 1996 Cricket World Cup by winning five of their eight round-robin matches, and taking the finals 2–0, but many of the matches were closely contested. The finals were won by 18 and nine runs respectively, while three of the group matches were decided in the last over.
After the spiteful summer, a Tamil Tiger bombing in Colombo coupled with death threats to some members of the team forced Taylor to forfeit his team's scheduled World Cup match against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Taylor made six as Australia started their campaign with a 97-run win over Kenya. He then made 59 in a century stand with Waugh as Australia defeated co-hosts India in Mumbai. Taylor scored 34 in a nine-wicket win over Zimbabwe, before scoring nine in a defeat to the West Indies in the last group match. Australia finished second in their group and faced New Zealand in the quarter-finals. Taylor made only 10 as Australia chased 289 for victory, but made a surprise tactic by sending in Shane Warne as a pinch hitter. Warne made 24 from 15 balls in a partnership with Waugh, to allow Australia to take the momentum and take victory by six wickets. Taylor managed only one in the semi-final as Australia staggered to 8/207 against the West Indies. Australia appeared to be heading out of the tournament when the Caribbean team reached 2/165, but a sudden collapse saw Australia win by six runs in the last over.
Australia managed to reach the final, where they met Sri Lanka. Taylor scored 74, a record score by an Australian captain in the World Cup, but Sri Lanka comfortably triumphed on this occasion by seven wickets to claim the trophy.
Almost retired
After the World Cup, Bob Simpson was replaced as Australia's coach by Geoff Marsh, Taylor's former opening partner. Australia's first tournament after the World Cup was the Singer World Series in Sri Lanka. Taylor opted out of the tournament, and in his absence, Australia reached the final but lost by 50 runs to the hosts.
On a short tour to India, Taylor made his first ODI century at Bangalore, with 105 against India in his 98th match, having been out in the 90s on three previous occasions. Taylor performed strongly in the ODIs, with a total of 302 runs at 60.40. However, it was a disappointing tour for the team; the solitary Test in Delhi was lost, as were all five ODIs played during the Titan Cup.
In 1996–97, Australia confirmed its ascendancy over the West Indies with a 3–2 series win, but Taylor endured a poor season with the bat and failed to pass 50 in nine innings. His partnership with Slater was terminated when the latter was dropped, replaced by Matthew Elliott. Following an injury to Elliott, Matthew Hayden became Taylor's partner for three Tests.
Unable to recover form in the ODI series, Taylor's scratchy batting led to many poor starts for Australia. The team suffered five consecutive defeats, and missed the finals of the tournament for the first time in 17 years. Taylor managed only 143 runs at 17.88 with a highest score of 29.
The early 1997 tour to South Africa brought no upturn in Taylor's batting despite Australia's 2–1 victory in the series: he scored 80 runs at 16.00. His form was such that it influenced the selection of the team. For the Second Test at Port Elizabeth, played on a green pitch, Australia played Michael Bevan as a second spinner batting at number seven to reinforce the batting, instead of a third seamer to exploit the conditions. After scoring seven and 17 in the first two ODIs, Taylor dropped himself from the team for the remaining five matches.
The 1997 Ashes tour started poorly amid rumours that Taylor was on the verge of losing his place in the side. He batted ineffectively as Australia lost the one day series 0–3, scoring seven and 11, before dropping himself for the final match. In the First Test, Australia were dismissed for 118 in the first innings, with Taylor contributing seven: he had not managed to pass 50 in his last 21 Test innings. England amassed a big lead of 360 runs. With Australia facing a heavy defeat, media criticism of his position intensified. The Melbourne Age ran a competition for its readers to forecast how many runs he would make. Most respondents guessed less than 10 runs. The team's erstwhile coach, Bob Simpson, said that Taylor's retention in the team in spite of his poor form was fostering resentment among the players and destabilising the team.
Taylor started nervously in the second innings, but went on to score of 129, which saved his career, but not the match. His performance prompted personal congratulations from Prime Minister John Howard and the team's management allowed the media a rare opportunity to enter the dressing room and interview Taylor. During the period he refused offers by the manager to handle the media on his behalf. Australia went on to win the Third, Fourth and Fifth Tests and retain the Ashes 3–2. Although Taylor made single figures in the three Tests following his century, he contributed 76 and 45 in the series-clinching Test at Nottingham. Taylor ended the series with 317 runs at 31.7.
Dual teams
However, Taylor's ODI form was not to the satisfaction of the selectors. At the start of the 1997–98 season, a new selection policy was announced: the Test and ODI teams became separate entities, with specialists in each form of the game selected accordingly. Taylor was dropped from the ODI team, in favour of the aggressive Michael di Venuto. Tactically, ODI cricket was transformed by Sri Lanka's World Cup success, when it employed the highly aggressive opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana.
At this time, Taylor was a central figure in a pay dispute between the players and the ACB, with a strike action threatened by the players. Taylor continued as Test captain and led the team to a 2–0 win over New Zealand. The first two matches were won by 186 runs and an innings, while the Third Test ended with Australia one wicket from victory after almost two days' play was washed out.
Taylor scored a century (112 on the first day of the First Test, and an unbeaten 66 in the Third Test, compiling 214 runs at 53.50 for the series. This was followed by three Tests against South Africa. After South Africa withheld the Australian bowling on the final day to secure a draw in the Boxing Day Test, Australia took a 1–0 lead in the New Year's Test at Sydney with an innings victory. Taylor carried his bat for 169 in the first innings of the Third Test at Adelaide which helped Australia to draw the match and clinch the series.
On the 1998 tour of India, Elliott was dropped and Taylor reunited with Slater as the opening pair. Australia started well by taking a 71-run first-innings lead in the First Test at Chennai, but Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 155 put Australia under pressure to save the match on the final day. They were unable to resist and lost by 179 runs. Australia was crushed by an innings and 219 runs in the Second Test at Calcutta, Australia first series loss in four years and the first time that Australia had lost by an innings for five years. Thus, a series victory in India, which Australia had not achieved since 1969–70, remained elusive. Australia won the Third Test in Bangalore by eight wickets, with Taylor scoring an unbeaten 102 in a second innings run chase.
Record equalled
Later in 1998, Taylor led his team to Pakistan, where a convincing win in the First Test at Rawalpindi by an innings and 99 runs was Australia's first Test victory in the country for 39 years. Taylor then attended a court hearing investigating the claims of match-fixing made during the 1994 tour. In the Second Test at Peshawar, Taylor played the longest innings of his career. He batted two days to amass 334 not out, equalling Sir Donald Bradman's Australian record set in 1930. In temperatures above 32 °C, Taylor survived two dropped catches before he had reached 25 and scored slowly on the first day. He shared a 206-run partnership with Justin Langer. The next day, he added 103 runs in a morning session extended from two to three hours. After the tea interval, he discarded his helmet in favour of a white sun hat, to deal with the extreme heat. He passed 311, eclipsing Bob Simpson's record score by an Australian captain. In the final over, Taylor equalled Bradman's Australian Test record when a shot to midwicket was barely stopped by Ijaz Ahmed, which reduced the scoring opportunity to a single run.
At the end of the day's play, Taylor was encouraged by the media, the public and his teammates to attempt to break Brian Lara's world record score of 375. An unusually large crowd turned out the following day in anticipation. However, Taylor declared the innings closed, opting to share the record with Bradman, and making the team's chances of winning the game paramount. He was widely praised for this decision. He made 92 in the second innings, giving him the second highest Test match aggregate after English batsmen Graham Gooch, who scored 333 and 123 for a total of 456 against India at Lord's on 26 July 1990. His fifteen hours batting in one Test was second only to Hanif Mohammad. The match ended in a draw, as did the Third Test, so Australia won the series and Taylor ended with 513 runs at 128.25 average.
Final season
Taylor's swansong was the 1998–99 Ashes series against England, which began with his 100th Test in the First Test in Brisbane. He scored 46 and a duck—his first in Australia—as England were saved when thunderstorms forced the abandonment of play on the final afternoon. Two half centuries in the next two Tests in Perth and Adelaide saw Australia win by seven wickets and 205 runs respectively, thereby retaining the series 2–0. After losing the Fourth Test by 12 runs after a dramatic final day collapse, Taylor headed to his home ground, the Sydney Cricket Ground, for what would be his final Test. Australia went on to win the Test by 98 runs and take the series 3–1. Taylor only scored two in both innings, but he broke Border's world record for the most Test catches. His catch in the first innings equalled Border's 156 and another in the second made him the sole owner of the record.
He also jointly holds the record in Test cricket (along with Ian Healy) of being the only cricketers to have been run out in both innings of a Test on two occasions.
Legacy
The improvement of the Australian team, begun during Border's tenure, continued under the captaincy of Taylor. After the defeat of the West Indies in 1995, Taylor's teams won home and away series against every Test team they played, with the exception of winning a series in India. Wisden wrote:
Taylor talked so well that he raised the standard of debate in Australia—and perhaps of cricket itself—in a way which was an example to all professional cricketers ... Border stopped Australia losing. Taylor made them into winners, the acknowledged if not official world champions of Test cricket.
Taylor made a concerted effort to decrease the amount of sledging committed by his team, a trait that brought criticism of Australian teams during other eras. In total, he captained the side in 50 Tests, winning 26 and losing 13, a success rate unmatched in the previous fifty years except for Don Bradman and Viv Richards.
Career best performances
Retirement
Taylor retired from professional cricket in early 1999 after the Ashes series. On Australia Day, he was named the Australian of the Year. He was awarded an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and a Centenary Medal in 2001. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2002 and made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2003. In 2011, he was inducted into the Cricket Hall of Fame by the CA.
He is now a commentator for Channel Nine for 21 years. Despite the network losing the TV rights in April 2018, Taylor re-signed for another three years to give his expert analysis on the Ashes 2019, 2019 Cricket World Cup & 2020 World Twenty20 and as a digital contributor.
He mainly commentates on One Day International and Test matches in Australia until the network's final year of cricket telecasts, so he can now spend more time with his family. He used to also appear on The Cricket Show with Simon O'Donnell, and is a spokesman for Fujitsu air-conditioners. He also commentates for radio.
Taylor is patron of the Mark Taylor Shield Cricket competition run for NSW Catholic Primary schools in and around the Sydney region. On 6 November 2011, Waitara Oval, the home of the Northern District Cricket Club, had its name formally changed to Mark Taylor Oval, to honour its former First Grade captain and life member.
In October 2015, The Primary Club of Australia announced that Mark Taylor had accepted the role of Twelfth Man and Patron following the passing of their former Patron, Richie Benaud OBE. He also became Director of Cricket Australia, who commissioned a replacement cap for Benaud, only for his ill health and subsequent passing to have the cap presented to his wife.
References
Further reading
External links
1964 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Wagga Wagga
Australia Test cricketers
Australia One Day International cricketers
Australia Test cricket captains
New South Wales cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Australian cricket commentators
People educated at Chatswood High School
Australian of the Year Award winners
Officers of the Order of Australia
Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal
Recipients of the Centenary Medal
Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees
University of New South Wales alumni
Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees
People from the Riverina
Chatswood, New South Wales
Australian republicans
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"Christopher Glyn Taylor (born 27 September 1976) is an English former professional cricketer who now coaches the game as a specialist fielding coach.\n\nChris Taylor played a right-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. Since leaving Gloucestershire in 2011, Taylor has taken up an array of coaching roles, most notably joining England as fielding coach in 2014.\n\nPlaying career\nTaylor's first opportunity in first-class cricket came against Middlesex in 2000, where he hit a century on his debut for the side. Covering extensively as a wicket-keeper throughout his first year of cricket, he found himself in one of his first cricket matches up against a touring Zimbabwe team. Having aided Gloucestershire through five seasons of Division Two cricket, he was instrumental in their rise to Division One of the County Championship for 2004, the year he was made captain of the four-day side by player-coach Mark Alleyne.\n\nDespite managing to keep a strong hold on his middle-order batting position during his first season in the top division, he was unable to stop his Gloucestershire side from dropping to Division Two once again in the year 2005. For 2006 he lost the position of captain to Jon Lewis. He scored over 1000 runs in 2007 and 2011.\n\nDespite having a successful career at Gloucester, which included winning seven one day trophies with the club, his departure was controversial and he took the County to a tribunal for unfair dismissal after his contract was not renewed after 2011. A settlement was eventually reached and Taylor retired from playing to focus on coaching.\n\nCoaching career\nTaylor's first move into coaching came in 2008 when he was appointed Gloucestershire fielding coach in 2008 while still playing for the club. He left in 2011 when his contract with the club expired. He spent the 2013 season with Somerset working as assistant coach, before moving to Surrey as fielding coach for the 2014 season.\n\nTaylor worked with the England Lions as fielding coach on and off from 2008 to 2014. During this time he also had a brief spell with the Denmark national side, acting as a consultant coach. He was the fielding coach for the England cricket team between 2014 and 2017 before returning to Surrey.\n\nReferences\n\n1976 births\nEnglish cricketers\nLiving people\nGloucestershire cricket captains\nGloucestershire cricketers\nGloucestershire Cricket Board cricketers\nFirst-Class Counties Select XI cricketers",
"The New Zealand Under-19 cricket team have been playing official Under-19 test matches since 1986. Former captains of the team include Stephen Fleming, Craig McMillan, Chris Cairns, Brendon McCullum, and Ross Taylor \n\nNew Zealand's coach for the 2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup is Paul Wiseman. Previous coaches have included Robert Carter (appointed 2014) and Mark Greatbatch (appointed 2001).\n\nNew Zealand's best World Cup result occurred at the 1998 event in South Africa, where they lost to England in the final by seven wickets.\n\nUnder-19 World Cup record\n\nReferences\n\n Under-19 World Cup 2014 Squad\n\n1986 establishments in New Zealand\nUnder-19 cricket teams\nCricket clubs established in 1986\nC\nNew Zealand in international cricket"
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"Mark Taylor (cricketer)",
"Early years",
"Where did Mark Taylor first start playing cricket?",
"He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him."
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C_b738a7b0370c43f584931c7292de4a56_1
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Were any of his relatives professional cricketers?
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Were any of Mark Taylor's relatives professional cricketers?
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Mark Taylor (cricketer)
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The second of three children born to bank manager Tony Taylor, and his wife Judy, Mark Taylor's early years were spent at Wagga Wagga, where his family relocated when he was eight. His father had a sporting background, playing first grade rugby in Newcastle. The young Taylor preferred Australian rules football and cricket. He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him. Taylor idolised Arthur Morris, the left-handed opening batsmen from New South Wales who led the aggregates on the 1948 "Invincibles" tour of England. Taylor played for his primary school as an opening batsman, and made his first century at the age of thirteen for the Lake Albert club at Bolton Park in Wagga. His family then moved to the north shore of Sydney, where he joined Northern District in Sydney Grade Cricket. Completing his secondary education at Chatswood High School, he later obtained a degree in surveying at the University of New South Wales. Along with the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, Taylor played in under-19 youth internationals for Australia against Sri Lanka in 1982-83. Taylor made his Sheffield Shield debut in 1985-86 when NSW was depleted by the defection of regular openers Steve Smith and John Dyson to a rebel tour of South Africa. Opening with fellow debutant Mark Waugh, he scored 12 and 56 not out against Tasmania. His first season was highlighted by home and away centuries against South Australia in a total of 937 runs at 49.31 average. He had a lean season in 1987-88, after which he spent the English summer with Greenmount, helping them to win their first Bolton League title by scoring more than 1,300 runs at an average of 70. He originally trained as a surveyor, and received a degree in surveying from the University of New South Wales in 1987. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Mark Anthony Taylor (born 27 October 1964) is a former Australian cricketer and currently a Cricket Australia director and Nine Network commentator.
He was Test opening batsman from 1988 to 1999, as well as captain from 1994 to 1999, succeeding Allan Border. His predominant fielding position was first slip. He was widely regarded as an instrumental component in Australia's rise to Test cricket dominance, and his captaincy was regarded as adventurous and highly effective. However, he was considered less than ideal for One-Day International cricket and was eventually dropped as one-day captain after a 0–3 drubbing at the hands of England in 1997.
He moved to Wagga Wagga in 1972 and played for Lake Albert Cricket Club. His debut was for New South Wales in 1985.
He retired from Test cricket on 2 February 1999. In 104 Test matches, he scored 7,525 runs with a batting average of 43.49, including 19 centuries and 40 fifties. He was also an excellent first slip – his 157 catches, at the time, a Test record (now held by Rahul Dravid). In contrast to his predecessor Allan Border, who acquired the nickname 'Captain Grumpy', Taylor won plaudits for his always cheerful and positive demeanour. His successor, Steve Waugh, further honed the Australian team built by Border and Taylor and went on to set numerous records for victories as captain. Having been named Australian of the Year in 1999, he is now a cricket commentator for the Nine Network, and former Director of Cricket Australia.
Early years
The second of three children born to bank manager Tony Taylor, and his wife Judy, Mark Taylor's early years were spent at Wagga Wagga, where his family relocated when he was eight. His father had a sporting background, playing first grade rugby in Newcastle. The young Taylor preferred Australian rules football and cricket. He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him. Taylor idolised Arthur Morris, the left-handed opening batsmen from New South Wales who led the aggregates on the 1948 "Invincibles" tour of England.
Taylor played for his primary school as an opening batsman, and made his first century at the age of thirteen for the Lake Albert club at Bolton Park in Wagga. His family then moved to the north shore of Sydney, where he joined Northern District in Sydney Grade Cricket. Completing his secondary education at Chatswood High School, he later obtained a degree in surveying at the University of New South Wales in 1987. Along with the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, Taylor played in under-19 youth internationals for Australia against Sri Lanka in 1982–83.
Taylor made his Sheffield Shield debut in 1985–86 when NSW was depleted by the defection of regular openers Steve Smith and John Dyson to a rebel tour of South Africa. Opening with fellow debutant Mark Waugh, he scored 12 and 56 not out against Tasmania. His first season was highlighted by home and away centuries against South Australia in a total of 937 runs at 49.31 average. He had a lean season in 1987–88, after which he spent the English summer with Greenmount, helping them to win their first Bolton League title by scoring more than 1,300 runs at an average of 70.
International career
Test career
Solid form for NSW in 1988–89 resulted in Taylor's selection for his Test debut in the Fourth Test against the West Indies at the SCG, replacing middle-order batsman Graeme Wood. For three years, the opening combination of Geoff Marsh and David Boon had been successful for Australia. However, team coach Bob Simpson wanted a left and right-handed opening combination, and stability added to the middle order. Therefore, the left-handed Taylor partnered the right-handed Marsh, while Boon batted at number three. Taylor's safe catching at slip was also a factor in his selection. He made 25 and 3 in a winning team, then was run out twice in the Fifth Test. A first-class aggregate of 1,241 runs (at 49.64 average) for the season earned him a place on the 1989 Ashes tour.
Record-breaking start
Beginning with a century at Headingley in his First Test against England, Taylor amassed 839 runs at 83.90 in the six Tests: the second best aggregate in an Ashes series in England, behind Don Bradman's 974 runs in 1930. He occupied the crease for a total of 38 hours, more than six full days of play. The highlight of his tour was the Fifth Test at Trent Bridge when he and Geoff Marsh became the first pair to bat throughout a day's play of Test cricket in England, amassing 301 runs. Taylor made 219 in a partnership of 329, an Ashes record. He finished with 71 and 48 in the Sixth Test to overtake Neil Harvey for the third-highest series aggregate in Test history and totalled 1,669 first-class runs for the tour. Australia won the series 4–0 to regain the Ashes. However, Taylor was overlooked for selection in the ODIs.
Returning to Australia, Taylor made 1,403 first-class runs at 70.15 during the 1989–90 season, and ended 1989 with 1,219 Test runs, thus becoming the first player to better one thousand Test runs in his debut calendar year, something only matched twice since by England opener Alastair Cook and Australian Adam Voges. In Taylor's first nine Tests, Australia passed 400 in the first innings. He scored centuries in successive Tests against Sri Lanka, and against Pakistan his scores were 52 and 101 at the MCG, 77 and 59 at the Adelaide Oval and an unbeaten 101 at Sydney. Australia won both series 1–0. In just over twelve months, he had amassed 1,618 runs at 70.35. This outstanding start to his career earned Taylor nomination as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1990. At the season's end, he demonstrated his leadership abilities for the first time. Standing in as NSW captain in place of the injured Geoff Lawson for the 1989–90 Sheffield Shield final in Sydney, Taylor scored 127 and 100. NSW won by 345 runs to secure its 40th title.
A year after his Test debut, Taylor was selected to make his ODI debut, which came on Boxing Day of 1989 against Sri Lanka. He made 11 as Australia won by 30 runs. He was selected for nine of Australia's ten ODIs for the season's triangular tournament, scoring 294 runs at 32.66 with two half-centuries. His highest score of 76 came as Australia defeated Pakistan by 69 runs to clinch the finals series in Sydney. The season ended with ODI tournaments in New Zealand and Sharjah. He played six of the eight matches, scoring 222 runs at 37.00 with two half-centuries, but was dropped for the final in New Zealand.
Inconsistent form
Taylor experienced a slump during the 1990–91 Ashes series. After making two-half centuries in the first two Tests, he failed to pass 20 in the last three and finished with 213 runs at 23.66 in a team that won 3–0. He found himself on the outer for the ODI triangular tournament, missing all eight of the preliminary matches before returning to score 41 and 71 as Australia won the finals 2–0.
His moderate form continued during the 1991 tour of the West Indies, where he was selected in only two of the five ODIs, scoring three and five. He ended the run with a rear-guard innings of 76 in the second innings of the Fourth Test at Barbados. Despite his effort, Australia lost and the West Indies took an unassailable lead of 2–0. In the Fifth Test St. Johns, Antigua, Australia gained a consolation victory due mainly to Taylor's scores of 59 and 144 (out of a total of 265). This late rush of form boosted his average for the series to 49. In late 1991, before the Australian season started, Taylor was appointed to lead an Australia A side to tour Zimbabwe. The team was composed of younger Test players and other young players who were seeking to break into international cricket. The selectors were attempting to groom Taylor as a potential replacement for Border.
During the 1991–92 Australian season, Taylor batted consistently in a 4–0 series victory over India. He scored 94 and 35* in a ten-wicket win at Brisbane. He scored half-centuries in each of the next two Tests before striking 100 in the second innings of the Fourth Test at Adelaide. It helped Australia to wipe out a first innings deficit of 80 and set up a winning target. His opening partner Marsh was dropped for the Fifth Test, so the selectors elevated Taylor to the vice-captaincy of the team. Over the next twelve months, a number of players were tried as Taylor's opening partner. Taylor struggled in his first match with new partner Wayne N. Phillips, scoring two and 16. Nevertheless, he had scored 422 runs at 46.89. Taylor continued to be overlooked by the selectors in the shorter version of the game, missing selection for all of the season's triangular tournament. He was selected for the squad for the 1992 Cricket World Cup held on home soil, and after Australia lost its first two matches, Taylor was recalled for his first ODI in 12 months. He made 13 as Australia beat India by one run, but scored his first ODI duck in the next match as England won by eight wickets. He was dropped for the remainder of the tournament.
On the 1992 tour of Sri Lanka, Taylor struggled in scoring 148 runs at 24.67. After scoring 42 and 43 in Australia's win in the First Test, Taylor failed to again pass 30. With new opening partner Tom Moody also struggling with 71 runs at 11.83, Australia frequently struggled at the top of their innings. He played in all three ODIs, scoring 138 runs at 46.00. His 94 in the first match was his highest score in ODIs to that point.
Against the West Indies in 1992–93, Taylor was now opening alongside David Boon with Moody having been dropped. Taylor was ineffective and failed to pass fifty in the first four Tests. After Australia failed by one run to win the Fourth Test and thus the series, Taylor was dropped for the deciding Test at Perth, having failed to make double figures in either innings. In his absence, Australia lost by an innings in three days and conceded the series 1–2. He had scored 170 runs at 24.29 for the series. However, he played all of Australia's ten ODIs, scoring 286 runs at 28.60 with two half-centuries.
Taylor and Slater
As a result of the innings defeat in Perth, Taylor was immediately recalled for the tour of New Zealand, where he scored 82 in the First Test at Christchurch to help Australia to an innings victory. He then scored 50 in the drawn Second Test and bowled for the first time at Test level, taking 0/15. He failed to pass 20 in the Third Test and ended the series with 148 runs at 37.00 as the home side squared the series. Australia then played five ODIs in New Zealand before starting the England tour with three more. Taylor played in all eight, scoring 307 runs at 38.38 with four half-centuries.
The problem of finding him a long-term partner was solved on the tour of England that followed. NSW batsman Michael Slater, who also grew up in Wagga Wagga, made his debut in the First Test of the 1993 Ashes series. In the First Test at Old Trafford, Taylor made 124 after an opening partnership of 128, as Australia managed only 289 after being sent in. Australia managed to scrape out a lead of 79, before going on to a 179-run win.
This was followed by a stand of 260 at Lord's in the Second Test, with Taylor making 111. In the process, he passed 1000 Test runs against England and the partnership broke the Ashes partnership record at Lord's, which had been set by Bill Woodfull and Don Bradman in 1930. The partnership laid the platform for Australia's total of 4/632, as the tourists proceeded to an innings victory.
His scoring was more sedate in the remaining Tests as Australia won 4–1, and he finished with 428 runs at 42.80. He passed 30 only once more, with 70 in the first innings of the Sixth Test at The Oval.
Against New Zealand in 1993–94, Taylor made 64 and 142 not out in the First Test at Perth, which ended in a draw. He then scored 27 and 53 as Australia won the next two Tests by an innings, totalling 286 runs at 95.33 in three Tests as Australia won 2–0. In the rain-affected Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Taylor played his 50th Test and celebrated with 170 against South Africa, the first Test between the two countries since 1970. This made him the first batsman to score centuries on Test debut against four countries. In addition, he passed 4,000 Test runs during the innings. Taylor had scored more than 1,000 Test runs for the calendar year, ending with 1106 runs Taylor scored 62 in the Third Test, his only other half-century for the series, which he ended with 304 runs at 60.80.
On the reciprocal tour of South Africa at the end of the season, Taylor missed a Test because of injury for the only time in his career. Matthew Hayden filled in for the First Test in Johannesburg, which Australia lost. On his return for the Second Test at Cape Town, he scored 70 and ended the series with 97 runs at 24.25. Both series were drawn 1–1.
Captaincy
After the retirement of Allan Border, Taylor was appointed captain.
Frequently omitted from the ODI team due to slow scoring, Taylor missed the finals of the ODI series in Australia against South Africa. On the tour of South Africa, he missed three consecutive ODIs when tour selectors and fellow players Ian Healy and Steve Waugh voted him off the team. In all, Taylor had only played in 11 of Australia's 19 ODIs for the season, scoring 281 runs at 25.55. Taylor requested an extended trial as opener for the ODI side to help consolidate his captaincy of both teams.
Taylor started his ODI captaincy with two tournaments in Sharjah and Sri Lanka. Australia missed the finals in both tournaments, winning three of their six matches. After scoring 68* to guide his team to a nine-wicket win in the first match against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, Taylor's form tapered off, scoring only 64 more runs to end the two tournaments with a total of 132 runs at 33.00.
His first task was a tour of Pakistan in 1994, where Australia had not won a Test since the 1959 tour. To make matters worse, Australia's first-choice pace pairing of Craig McDermott and Merv Hughes missed the tour due to injury. The First Test at Karachi was a personal disaster for Taylor as he scored a pair, the first player in Test history to do so on his captaincy debut. Paceman Glenn McGrath then broke down in the middle of the match. Australia was in the box seat with Pakistan needing 56 runs with one wicket in hand, but lost by one wicket after Ian Healy missed a stumping opportunity and the ball went for the winning runs. Recovering to score 69 in the Second Test at Rawalpindi, Taylor forced Pakistan to follow on after taking a 261-run lead. However, he dropped Pakistan captain Salim Malik when he was on 20. Malik went on to make 237 as Pakistan made 537 and saved the Test. Australia again took a first innings lead in the Third Test, but could not force a result, as Malik scored another second innings century to ensure safety and a 1–0 series win. Taylor ended the series with 106 runs at 26.50. Australia fared better in the ODI triangular tournament, winning five of their six matches. Taylor scored 56 in the final as Australia beat Pakistan by 64 runs to end the tournament with 193 runs at 32.16.
Beginning the 1994–95 season with 150 for NSW in a tour match against England, Taylor followed up with 59 in an opening stand of 97 as Australia made 426 in the first innings to take the initiative in the First Test in Brisbane. Australia amassed a 259-run first innings lead, but Taylor, mindful of the Test match at Rawalpindi, became the first Australian captain since 1977–78 to not enforce the follow-on. Although heavily criticised as a conservative decision, Australia still won the match by 184 runs, with Taylor adding 58 in the second innings. Having scored the first win of his Test captaincy, Taylor led his team to a 295-run win in the Second Test.
Taylor played his best cricket of the summer in the Third Test at Sydney. Last man out for 49 in a total of 116 in the first innings, he defied a pitch that had begun to seam and swing after a shower and cloud cover as Australia narrowly avoided the follow on. In the second innings, he made a bold attempt at chasing a world record target of 449 by scoring 113, but Australia played for a draw after Slater and Taylor fell following a double-century stand. Australia collapsed to 7/292 before hanging on in near-darkness. In the final two Tests, he scored half-centuries as Australia won 3–1. Australia dramatically lost the Fourth Test when England led by only 154 on the final day with four wickets in hand. Aggressive lower order batting saw Australia set 263 in just over two sessions, but a heavy collapse saw Australia eight wickets down with more than 2 hours to play. Almost two hours of resistance later, England took a 106-run win late in the day. However, Australia bounced back to win the Fifth Test by 329 runs, the largest margin of the series. Taylor's partnership with Slater yielded three century opening stands at an average of 76.60 for the series and Taylor's individual return was 471 runs at 47.10.
The southern hemisphere summer ended with a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand, where Australia won two of their three group matches to proceed to the final. Taylor scored 44 in a six-wicket triumph over New Zealand and totalled 165 runs at 41.25. His best score was 97 against the hosts in the preliminary round meant that he was still yet to post his first ODI century, five years after his debut.
Caribbean tour 1995
This victory was followed by the 1995 tour of the West Indies, where Australia had not won a Test series for 22 years. Australia lost the ODI series which preceded the Tests 1–4, with Taylor making 152 runs at 30.40. The difficulty of Australia's task was increased when fast bowlers Craig McDermott and Damien Fleming went home injured at the start of the tour. Australia fielded a pace attack of Glenn McGrath, Brendon Julian and Paul Reiffel who had played only 23 Tests between them. Despite this, Australia won by ten wickets in the first Test at Barbados, with Taylor contributing a half-century. After the Second Test was a rained-out draw, the West Indies beat Australia inside three days on a "green" Trinidad pitch in the Third Test. Australia regained the Frank Worrell Trophy with an innings victory in the Fourth Test at Jamaica, with Taylor taking the winning catch from the bowling of Shane Warne. Although he only managed 153 runs (at 25.50 average) for the series, Taylor held nine catches and his leadership was cited as a key factor in the result.
Controversy with Sri Lanka
This was followed by two and three-Test series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively in the 1995–96 Australian season. The Pakistan series began among a media circus when Salim Malik arrived with publicity focused on the bribery allegations which had surfaced a year earlier. Australia won the First Test in Brisbane by an innings in three and a half days, with Taylor contributing 69. In the Second Test at Bellerive Oval, Taylor scored 123 in the second innings to set up a winning total. In the Third Test in Sydney, he made 59 as Australia collapsed for 172 in the second innings and conceded the match. He ended the series with a healthy 338 runs at 67.60.
The subsequent Test and ODI series involving Sri Lanka were overshadowed by a series of spiteful clashes. The Tests were won 3–0 by the Australians with heavy margins of an innings, ten wickets and 148 runs respectively. Taylor's highlight being a 96 in the First Test at Perth as he compiled 159 runs at 39.75. He also made his 100th Test catch during the series. After accusations of ball tampering were levelled against the tourists in the First Test, leading spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was no-balled seven times in the Second Test, and during the ODI series, the Sri Lankans accused Taylor's men of cheating. The season hit a low point with the Sri Lankans which saw the teams refuse to shake hands at the end of the second final of the triangular series which Australia won 2–0. The match had included physical jostling between McGrath and Sanath Jayasuriya mid pitch, with the latter accusing McGrath of making racist attacks. Later in the match, stump microphones showed Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy alleging that portly Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga was feigning injury and calling for a runner because of his lack of physical fitness.
On the field, the ODI tournament saw Mark Waugh elevated to be Taylor's ODI opening partner after the axing of Slater midway through the season. In their first match together in Perth, the pair put on 190, with Taylor scoring 85. They put on another century stand in the second final, with Taylor scoring 82. Taylor scored heavily in the ODI tournament, with 423 runs at 42.30 with four half-centuries. Australia warmed up for the 1996 Cricket World Cup by winning five of their eight round-robin matches, and taking the finals 2–0, but many of the matches were closely contested. The finals were won by 18 and nine runs respectively, while three of the group matches were decided in the last over.
After the spiteful summer, a Tamil Tiger bombing in Colombo coupled with death threats to some members of the team forced Taylor to forfeit his team's scheduled World Cup match against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Taylor made six as Australia started their campaign with a 97-run win over Kenya. He then made 59 in a century stand with Waugh as Australia defeated co-hosts India in Mumbai. Taylor scored 34 in a nine-wicket win over Zimbabwe, before scoring nine in a defeat to the West Indies in the last group match. Australia finished second in their group and faced New Zealand in the quarter-finals. Taylor made only 10 as Australia chased 289 for victory, but made a surprise tactic by sending in Shane Warne as a pinch hitter. Warne made 24 from 15 balls in a partnership with Waugh, to allow Australia to take the momentum and take victory by six wickets. Taylor managed only one in the semi-final as Australia staggered to 8/207 against the West Indies. Australia appeared to be heading out of the tournament when the Caribbean team reached 2/165, but a sudden collapse saw Australia win by six runs in the last over.
Australia managed to reach the final, where they met Sri Lanka. Taylor scored 74, a record score by an Australian captain in the World Cup, but Sri Lanka comfortably triumphed on this occasion by seven wickets to claim the trophy.
Almost retired
After the World Cup, Bob Simpson was replaced as Australia's coach by Geoff Marsh, Taylor's former opening partner. Australia's first tournament after the World Cup was the Singer World Series in Sri Lanka. Taylor opted out of the tournament, and in his absence, Australia reached the final but lost by 50 runs to the hosts.
On a short tour to India, Taylor made his first ODI century at Bangalore, with 105 against India in his 98th match, having been out in the 90s on three previous occasions. Taylor performed strongly in the ODIs, with a total of 302 runs at 60.40. However, it was a disappointing tour for the team; the solitary Test in Delhi was lost, as were all five ODIs played during the Titan Cup.
In 1996–97, Australia confirmed its ascendancy over the West Indies with a 3–2 series win, but Taylor endured a poor season with the bat and failed to pass 50 in nine innings. His partnership with Slater was terminated when the latter was dropped, replaced by Matthew Elliott. Following an injury to Elliott, Matthew Hayden became Taylor's partner for three Tests.
Unable to recover form in the ODI series, Taylor's scratchy batting led to many poor starts for Australia. The team suffered five consecutive defeats, and missed the finals of the tournament for the first time in 17 years. Taylor managed only 143 runs at 17.88 with a highest score of 29.
The early 1997 tour to South Africa brought no upturn in Taylor's batting despite Australia's 2–1 victory in the series: he scored 80 runs at 16.00. His form was such that it influenced the selection of the team. For the Second Test at Port Elizabeth, played on a green pitch, Australia played Michael Bevan as a second spinner batting at number seven to reinforce the batting, instead of a third seamer to exploit the conditions. After scoring seven and 17 in the first two ODIs, Taylor dropped himself from the team for the remaining five matches.
The 1997 Ashes tour started poorly amid rumours that Taylor was on the verge of losing his place in the side. He batted ineffectively as Australia lost the one day series 0–3, scoring seven and 11, before dropping himself for the final match. In the First Test, Australia were dismissed for 118 in the first innings, with Taylor contributing seven: he had not managed to pass 50 in his last 21 Test innings. England amassed a big lead of 360 runs. With Australia facing a heavy defeat, media criticism of his position intensified. The Melbourne Age ran a competition for its readers to forecast how many runs he would make. Most respondents guessed less than 10 runs. The team's erstwhile coach, Bob Simpson, said that Taylor's retention in the team in spite of his poor form was fostering resentment among the players and destabilising the team.
Taylor started nervously in the second innings, but went on to score of 129, which saved his career, but not the match. His performance prompted personal congratulations from Prime Minister John Howard and the team's management allowed the media a rare opportunity to enter the dressing room and interview Taylor. During the period he refused offers by the manager to handle the media on his behalf. Australia went on to win the Third, Fourth and Fifth Tests and retain the Ashes 3–2. Although Taylor made single figures in the three Tests following his century, he contributed 76 and 45 in the series-clinching Test at Nottingham. Taylor ended the series with 317 runs at 31.7.
Dual teams
However, Taylor's ODI form was not to the satisfaction of the selectors. At the start of the 1997–98 season, a new selection policy was announced: the Test and ODI teams became separate entities, with specialists in each form of the game selected accordingly. Taylor was dropped from the ODI team, in favour of the aggressive Michael di Venuto. Tactically, ODI cricket was transformed by Sri Lanka's World Cup success, when it employed the highly aggressive opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana.
At this time, Taylor was a central figure in a pay dispute between the players and the ACB, with a strike action threatened by the players. Taylor continued as Test captain and led the team to a 2–0 win over New Zealand. The first two matches were won by 186 runs and an innings, while the Third Test ended with Australia one wicket from victory after almost two days' play was washed out.
Taylor scored a century (112 on the first day of the First Test, and an unbeaten 66 in the Third Test, compiling 214 runs at 53.50 for the series. This was followed by three Tests against South Africa. After South Africa withheld the Australian bowling on the final day to secure a draw in the Boxing Day Test, Australia took a 1–0 lead in the New Year's Test at Sydney with an innings victory. Taylor carried his bat for 169 in the first innings of the Third Test at Adelaide which helped Australia to draw the match and clinch the series.
On the 1998 tour of India, Elliott was dropped and Taylor reunited with Slater as the opening pair. Australia started well by taking a 71-run first-innings lead in the First Test at Chennai, but Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 155 put Australia under pressure to save the match on the final day. They were unable to resist and lost by 179 runs. Australia was crushed by an innings and 219 runs in the Second Test at Calcutta, Australia first series loss in four years and the first time that Australia had lost by an innings for five years. Thus, a series victory in India, which Australia had not achieved since 1969–70, remained elusive. Australia won the Third Test in Bangalore by eight wickets, with Taylor scoring an unbeaten 102 in a second innings run chase.
Record equalled
Later in 1998, Taylor led his team to Pakistan, where a convincing win in the First Test at Rawalpindi by an innings and 99 runs was Australia's first Test victory in the country for 39 years. Taylor then attended a court hearing investigating the claims of match-fixing made during the 1994 tour. In the Second Test at Peshawar, Taylor played the longest innings of his career. He batted two days to amass 334 not out, equalling Sir Donald Bradman's Australian record set in 1930. In temperatures above 32 °C, Taylor survived two dropped catches before he had reached 25 and scored slowly on the first day. He shared a 206-run partnership with Justin Langer. The next day, he added 103 runs in a morning session extended from two to three hours. After the tea interval, he discarded his helmet in favour of a white sun hat, to deal with the extreme heat. He passed 311, eclipsing Bob Simpson's record score by an Australian captain. In the final over, Taylor equalled Bradman's Australian Test record when a shot to midwicket was barely stopped by Ijaz Ahmed, which reduced the scoring opportunity to a single run.
At the end of the day's play, Taylor was encouraged by the media, the public and his teammates to attempt to break Brian Lara's world record score of 375. An unusually large crowd turned out the following day in anticipation. However, Taylor declared the innings closed, opting to share the record with Bradman, and making the team's chances of winning the game paramount. He was widely praised for this decision. He made 92 in the second innings, giving him the second highest Test match aggregate after English batsmen Graham Gooch, who scored 333 and 123 for a total of 456 against India at Lord's on 26 July 1990. His fifteen hours batting in one Test was second only to Hanif Mohammad. The match ended in a draw, as did the Third Test, so Australia won the series and Taylor ended with 513 runs at 128.25 average.
Final season
Taylor's swansong was the 1998–99 Ashes series against England, which began with his 100th Test in the First Test in Brisbane. He scored 46 and a duck—his first in Australia—as England were saved when thunderstorms forced the abandonment of play on the final afternoon. Two half centuries in the next two Tests in Perth and Adelaide saw Australia win by seven wickets and 205 runs respectively, thereby retaining the series 2–0. After losing the Fourth Test by 12 runs after a dramatic final day collapse, Taylor headed to his home ground, the Sydney Cricket Ground, for what would be his final Test. Australia went on to win the Test by 98 runs and take the series 3–1. Taylor only scored two in both innings, but he broke Border's world record for the most Test catches. His catch in the first innings equalled Border's 156 and another in the second made him the sole owner of the record.
He also jointly holds the record in Test cricket (along with Ian Healy) of being the only cricketers to have been run out in both innings of a Test on two occasions.
Legacy
The improvement of the Australian team, begun during Border's tenure, continued under the captaincy of Taylor. After the defeat of the West Indies in 1995, Taylor's teams won home and away series against every Test team they played, with the exception of winning a series in India. Wisden wrote:
Taylor talked so well that he raised the standard of debate in Australia—and perhaps of cricket itself—in a way which was an example to all professional cricketers ... Border stopped Australia losing. Taylor made them into winners, the acknowledged if not official world champions of Test cricket.
Taylor made a concerted effort to decrease the amount of sledging committed by his team, a trait that brought criticism of Australian teams during other eras. In total, he captained the side in 50 Tests, winning 26 and losing 13, a success rate unmatched in the previous fifty years except for Don Bradman and Viv Richards.
Career best performances
Retirement
Taylor retired from professional cricket in early 1999 after the Ashes series. On Australia Day, he was named the Australian of the Year. He was awarded an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and a Centenary Medal in 2001. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2002 and made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2003. In 2011, he was inducted into the Cricket Hall of Fame by the CA.
He is now a commentator for Channel Nine for 21 years. Despite the network losing the TV rights in April 2018, Taylor re-signed for another three years to give his expert analysis on the Ashes 2019, 2019 Cricket World Cup & 2020 World Twenty20 and as a digital contributor.
He mainly commentates on One Day International and Test matches in Australia until the network's final year of cricket telecasts, so he can now spend more time with his family. He used to also appear on The Cricket Show with Simon O'Donnell, and is a spokesman for Fujitsu air-conditioners. He also commentates for radio.
Taylor is patron of the Mark Taylor Shield Cricket competition run for NSW Catholic Primary schools in and around the Sydney region. On 6 November 2011, Waitara Oval, the home of the Northern District Cricket Club, had its name formally changed to Mark Taylor Oval, to honour its former First Grade captain and life member.
In October 2015, The Primary Club of Australia announced that Mark Taylor had accepted the role of Twelfth Man and Patron following the passing of their former Patron, Richie Benaud OBE. He also became Director of Cricket Australia, who commissioned a replacement cap for Benaud, only for his ill health and subsequent passing to have the cap presented to his wife.
References
Further reading
External links
1964 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Wagga Wagga
Australia Test cricketers
Australia One Day International cricketers
Australia Test cricket captains
New South Wales cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Australian cricket commentators
People educated at Chatswood High School
Australian of the Year Award winners
Officers of the Order of Australia
Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal
Recipients of the Centenary Medal
Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees
University of New South Wales alumni
Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees
People from the Riverina
Chatswood, New South Wales
Australian republicans
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"Jack Andrew Leaning (born 18 October 1993) is an English first-class cricketer. A right-handed batsman and right arm off-spin bowler, Leaning joined Kent County Cricket Club at the end of the 2019 season, having previously played all of his professional cricket for Yorkshire after making his professional debut in 2012.\n\nLeaning joined Yorkshire in 2008, starting at under 15 level. He went on to play for the Yorkshire Academy in the Yorkshire ECB County Premier League, and the Yorkshire Second XI in the Second XI Championship, before making his List A debut against Warwickshire in August 2012 and his first-class debut against Surrey in June 2013. He became an established member of the Yorkshire side during the 2014 season.\n\nIn 2014, several York City F.C. fans sponsored Leaning in his first season as a full professional cricketer. His father Andy is a former player and goalkeeping coach of York.\n\nIn August 2019 it was announced that Leaning would join Kent County Cricket Club at the end of the 2019 English cricket season. In his second match for Kent he scored his maiden double-century, making 220 not out in a Kent record partnership for any wicket of 423 runs against Sussex at Canterbury in the 2020 Bob Willis Trophy. The innings was his first century for three seasons.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1993 births\nLiving people\nEnglish cricketers\nYorkshire cricketers\nKent cricketers\nCricketers from Bristol\nNorth v South cricketers\nTrent Rockets cricketers",
"Tapash Baisya () (born 25 December 1982) is a former Bangladeshi international cricketer.\n\nTapash Baisya took 36 Test wickets, although they came at a bowling average of nearly 60. Nevertheless, he has taken the third-most wickets of any Bangladeshi fast bowler, behind Mashrafe Mortaza and Shahadat Hossain. He took four wickets in a Test innings only once: four for 72 against West Indies on their 2002–03 tour of Bangladesh. With the bat he scored two Test fifties.\n\nHe played first-class cricket for Sylhet Division from 2000–01 to 2012–13. His highest score was 112 off 173 balls, batting at number eight against Chittagong Division in 2006–07. His best bowling figures were 6 for 37 against Dhaka Division in 2012–13.\n\nPersonal life\nTapash moved to USA during 2016 with his wife and two kids. Later his wife gave birth another baby girl. Currently he is playing professional cricket for a team in the United States of America in New Jersey. He is also a cricket coach who teaches many young kids in bat and ball.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1982 births\nLiving people\nBangladesh One Day International cricketers\nBangladesh Test cricketers\nBangladeshi cricketers\nBangladeshi Hindus\nBangladeshi emigrants to the United States\nSylhet Division cricketers\nRangpur Rangers cricketers\nCricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup\nPeople from Sylhet\nAbahani Limited cricketers\nPrime Bank Cricket Club cricketers\nICL Bangladesh XI cricketers\nDhaka Warriors cricketers\nBangladesh East Zone cricketers\nDhaka Division cricketers"
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"Mark Taylor (cricketer)",
"Early years",
"Where did Mark Taylor first start playing cricket?",
"He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him.",
"Were any of his relatives professional cricketers?",
"I don't know."
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Did Mark Taylor attend college?
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Did Mark Taylor attend college?
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Mark Taylor (cricketer)
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The second of three children born to bank manager Tony Taylor, and his wife Judy, Mark Taylor's early years were spent at Wagga Wagga, where his family relocated when he was eight. His father had a sporting background, playing first grade rugby in Newcastle. The young Taylor preferred Australian rules football and cricket. He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him. Taylor idolised Arthur Morris, the left-handed opening batsmen from New South Wales who led the aggregates on the 1948 "Invincibles" tour of England. Taylor played for his primary school as an opening batsman, and made his first century at the age of thirteen for the Lake Albert club at Bolton Park in Wagga. His family then moved to the north shore of Sydney, where he joined Northern District in Sydney Grade Cricket. Completing his secondary education at Chatswood High School, he later obtained a degree in surveying at the University of New South Wales. Along with the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, Taylor played in under-19 youth internationals for Australia against Sri Lanka in 1982-83. Taylor made his Sheffield Shield debut in 1985-86 when NSW was depleted by the defection of regular openers Steve Smith and John Dyson to a rebel tour of South Africa. Opening with fellow debutant Mark Waugh, he scored 12 and 56 not out against Tasmania. His first season was highlighted by home and away centuries against South Australia in a total of 937 runs at 49.31 average. He had a lean season in 1987-88, after which he spent the English summer with Greenmount, helping them to win their first Bolton League title by scoring more than 1,300 runs at an average of 70. He originally trained as a surveyor, and received a degree in surveying from the University of New South Wales in 1987. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Mark Anthony Taylor (born 27 October 1964) is a former Australian cricketer and currently a Cricket Australia director and Nine Network commentator.
He was Test opening batsman from 1988 to 1999, as well as captain from 1994 to 1999, succeeding Allan Border. His predominant fielding position was first slip. He was widely regarded as an instrumental component in Australia's rise to Test cricket dominance, and his captaincy was regarded as adventurous and highly effective. However, he was considered less than ideal for One-Day International cricket and was eventually dropped as one-day captain after a 0–3 drubbing at the hands of England in 1997.
He moved to Wagga Wagga in 1972 and played for Lake Albert Cricket Club. His debut was for New South Wales in 1985.
He retired from Test cricket on 2 February 1999. In 104 Test matches, he scored 7,525 runs with a batting average of 43.49, including 19 centuries and 40 fifties. He was also an excellent first slip – his 157 catches, at the time, a Test record (now held by Rahul Dravid). In contrast to his predecessor Allan Border, who acquired the nickname 'Captain Grumpy', Taylor won plaudits for his always cheerful and positive demeanour. His successor, Steve Waugh, further honed the Australian team built by Border and Taylor and went on to set numerous records for victories as captain. Having been named Australian of the Year in 1999, he is now a cricket commentator for the Nine Network, and former Director of Cricket Australia.
Early years
The second of three children born to bank manager Tony Taylor, and his wife Judy, Mark Taylor's early years were spent at Wagga Wagga, where his family relocated when he was eight. His father had a sporting background, playing first grade rugby in Newcastle. The young Taylor preferred Australian rules football and cricket. He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him. Taylor idolised Arthur Morris, the left-handed opening batsmen from New South Wales who led the aggregates on the 1948 "Invincibles" tour of England.
Taylor played for his primary school as an opening batsman, and made his first century at the age of thirteen for the Lake Albert club at Bolton Park in Wagga. His family then moved to the north shore of Sydney, where he joined Northern District in Sydney Grade Cricket. Completing his secondary education at Chatswood High School, he later obtained a degree in surveying at the University of New South Wales in 1987. Along with the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, Taylor played in under-19 youth internationals for Australia against Sri Lanka in 1982–83.
Taylor made his Sheffield Shield debut in 1985–86 when NSW was depleted by the defection of regular openers Steve Smith and John Dyson to a rebel tour of South Africa. Opening with fellow debutant Mark Waugh, he scored 12 and 56 not out against Tasmania. His first season was highlighted by home and away centuries against South Australia in a total of 937 runs at 49.31 average. He had a lean season in 1987–88, after which he spent the English summer with Greenmount, helping them to win their first Bolton League title by scoring more than 1,300 runs at an average of 70.
International career
Test career
Solid form for NSW in 1988–89 resulted in Taylor's selection for his Test debut in the Fourth Test against the West Indies at the SCG, replacing middle-order batsman Graeme Wood. For three years, the opening combination of Geoff Marsh and David Boon had been successful for Australia. However, team coach Bob Simpson wanted a left and right-handed opening combination, and stability added to the middle order. Therefore, the left-handed Taylor partnered the right-handed Marsh, while Boon batted at number three. Taylor's safe catching at slip was also a factor in his selection. He made 25 and 3 in a winning team, then was run out twice in the Fifth Test. A first-class aggregate of 1,241 runs (at 49.64 average) for the season earned him a place on the 1989 Ashes tour.
Record-breaking start
Beginning with a century at Headingley in his First Test against England, Taylor amassed 839 runs at 83.90 in the six Tests: the second best aggregate in an Ashes series in England, behind Don Bradman's 974 runs in 1930. He occupied the crease for a total of 38 hours, more than six full days of play. The highlight of his tour was the Fifth Test at Trent Bridge when he and Geoff Marsh became the first pair to bat throughout a day's play of Test cricket in England, amassing 301 runs. Taylor made 219 in a partnership of 329, an Ashes record. He finished with 71 and 48 in the Sixth Test to overtake Neil Harvey for the third-highest series aggregate in Test history and totalled 1,669 first-class runs for the tour. Australia won the series 4–0 to regain the Ashes. However, Taylor was overlooked for selection in the ODIs.
Returning to Australia, Taylor made 1,403 first-class runs at 70.15 during the 1989–90 season, and ended 1989 with 1,219 Test runs, thus becoming the first player to better one thousand Test runs in his debut calendar year, something only matched twice since by England opener Alastair Cook and Australian Adam Voges. In Taylor's first nine Tests, Australia passed 400 in the first innings. He scored centuries in successive Tests against Sri Lanka, and against Pakistan his scores were 52 and 101 at the MCG, 77 and 59 at the Adelaide Oval and an unbeaten 101 at Sydney. Australia won both series 1–0. In just over twelve months, he had amassed 1,618 runs at 70.35. This outstanding start to his career earned Taylor nomination as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1990. At the season's end, he demonstrated his leadership abilities for the first time. Standing in as NSW captain in place of the injured Geoff Lawson for the 1989–90 Sheffield Shield final in Sydney, Taylor scored 127 and 100. NSW won by 345 runs to secure its 40th title.
A year after his Test debut, Taylor was selected to make his ODI debut, which came on Boxing Day of 1989 against Sri Lanka. He made 11 as Australia won by 30 runs. He was selected for nine of Australia's ten ODIs for the season's triangular tournament, scoring 294 runs at 32.66 with two half-centuries. His highest score of 76 came as Australia defeated Pakistan by 69 runs to clinch the finals series in Sydney. The season ended with ODI tournaments in New Zealand and Sharjah. He played six of the eight matches, scoring 222 runs at 37.00 with two half-centuries, but was dropped for the final in New Zealand.
Inconsistent form
Taylor experienced a slump during the 1990–91 Ashes series. After making two-half centuries in the first two Tests, he failed to pass 20 in the last three and finished with 213 runs at 23.66 in a team that won 3–0. He found himself on the outer for the ODI triangular tournament, missing all eight of the preliminary matches before returning to score 41 and 71 as Australia won the finals 2–0.
His moderate form continued during the 1991 tour of the West Indies, where he was selected in only two of the five ODIs, scoring three and five. He ended the run with a rear-guard innings of 76 in the second innings of the Fourth Test at Barbados. Despite his effort, Australia lost and the West Indies took an unassailable lead of 2–0. In the Fifth Test St. Johns, Antigua, Australia gained a consolation victory due mainly to Taylor's scores of 59 and 144 (out of a total of 265). This late rush of form boosted his average for the series to 49. In late 1991, before the Australian season started, Taylor was appointed to lead an Australia A side to tour Zimbabwe. The team was composed of younger Test players and other young players who were seeking to break into international cricket. The selectors were attempting to groom Taylor as a potential replacement for Border.
During the 1991–92 Australian season, Taylor batted consistently in a 4–0 series victory over India. He scored 94 and 35* in a ten-wicket win at Brisbane. He scored half-centuries in each of the next two Tests before striking 100 in the second innings of the Fourth Test at Adelaide. It helped Australia to wipe out a first innings deficit of 80 and set up a winning target. His opening partner Marsh was dropped for the Fifth Test, so the selectors elevated Taylor to the vice-captaincy of the team. Over the next twelve months, a number of players were tried as Taylor's opening partner. Taylor struggled in his first match with new partner Wayne N. Phillips, scoring two and 16. Nevertheless, he had scored 422 runs at 46.89. Taylor continued to be overlooked by the selectors in the shorter version of the game, missing selection for all of the season's triangular tournament. He was selected for the squad for the 1992 Cricket World Cup held on home soil, and after Australia lost its first two matches, Taylor was recalled for his first ODI in 12 months. He made 13 as Australia beat India by one run, but scored his first ODI duck in the next match as England won by eight wickets. He was dropped for the remainder of the tournament.
On the 1992 tour of Sri Lanka, Taylor struggled in scoring 148 runs at 24.67. After scoring 42 and 43 in Australia's win in the First Test, Taylor failed to again pass 30. With new opening partner Tom Moody also struggling with 71 runs at 11.83, Australia frequently struggled at the top of their innings. He played in all three ODIs, scoring 138 runs at 46.00. His 94 in the first match was his highest score in ODIs to that point.
Against the West Indies in 1992–93, Taylor was now opening alongside David Boon with Moody having been dropped. Taylor was ineffective and failed to pass fifty in the first four Tests. After Australia failed by one run to win the Fourth Test and thus the series, Taylor was dropped for the deciding Test at Perth, having failed to make double figures in either innings. In his absence, Australia lost by an innings in three days and conceded the series 1–2. He had scored 170 runs at 24.29 for the series. However, he played all of Australia's ten ODIs, scoring 286 runs at 28.60 with two half-centuries.
Taylor and Slater
As a result of the innings defeat in Perth, Taylor was immediately recalled for the tour of New Zealand, where he scored 82 in the First Test at Christchurch to help Australia to an innings victory. He then scored 50 in the drawn Second Test and bowled for the first time at Test level, taking 0/15. He failed to pass 20 in the Third Test and ended the series with 148 runs at 37.00 as the home side squared the series. Australia then played five ODIs in New Zealand before starting the England tour with three more. Taylor played in all eight, scoring 307 runs at 38.38 with four half-centuries.
The problem of finding him a long-term partner was solved on the tour of England that followed. NSW batsman Michael Slater, who also grew up in Wagga Wagga, made his debut in the First Test of the 1993 Ashes series. In the First Test at Old Trafford, Taylor made 124 after an opening partnership of 128, as Australia managed only 289 after being sent in. Australia managed to scrape out a lead of 79, before going on to a 179-run win.
This was followed by a stand of 260 at Lord's in the Second Test, with Taylor making 111. In the process, he passed 1000 Test runs against England and the partnership broke the Ashes partnership record at Lord's, which had been set by Bill Woodfull and Don Bradman in 1930. The partnership laid the platform for Australia's total of 4/632, as the tourists proceeded to an innings victory.
His scoring was more sedate in the remaining Tests as Australia won 4–1, and he finished with 428 runs at 42.80. He passed 30 only once more, with 70 in the first innings of the Sixth Test at The Oval.
Against New Zealand in 1993–94, Taylor made 64 and 142 not out in the First Test at Perth, which ended in a draw. He then scored 27 and 53 as Australia won the next two Tests by an innings, totalling 286 runs at 95.33 in three Tests as Australia won 2–0. In the rain-affected Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Taylor played his 50th Test and celebrated with 170 against South Africa, the first Test between the two countries since 1970. This made him the first batsman to score centuries on Test debut against four countries. In addition, he passed 4,000 Test runs during the innings. Taylor had scored more than 1,000 Test runs for the calendar year, ending with 1106 runs Taylor scored 62 in the Third Test, his only other half-century for the series, which he ended with 304 runs at 60.80.
On the reciprocal tour of South Africa at the end of the season, Taylor missed a Test because of injury for the only time in his career. Matthew Hayden filled in for the First Test in Johannesburg, which Australia lost. On his return for the Second Test at Cape Town, he scored 70 and ended the series with 97 runs at 24.25. Both series were drawn 1–1.
Captaincy
After the retirement of Allan Border, Taylor was appointed captain.
Frequently omitted from the ODI team due to slow scoring, Taylor missed the finals of the ODI series in Australia against South Africa. On the tour of South Africa, he missed three consecutive ODIs when tour selectors and fellow players Ian Healy and Steve Waugh voted him off the team. In all, Taylor had only played in 11 of Australia's 19 ODIs for the season, scoring 281 runs at 25.55. Taylor requested an extended trial as opener for the ODI side to help consolidate his captaincy of both teams.
Taylor started his ODI captaincy with two tournaments in Sharjah and Sri Lanka. Australia missed the finals in both tournaments, winning three of their six matches. After scoring 68* to guide his team to a nine-wicket win in the first match against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, Taylor's form tapered off, scoring only 64 more runs to end the two tournaments with a total of 132 runs at 33.00.
His first task was a tour of Pakistan in 1994, where Australia had not won a Test since the 1959 tour. To make matters worse, Australia's first-choice pace pairing of Craig McDermott and Merv Hughes missed the tour due to injury. The First Test at Karachi was a personal disaster for Taylor as he scored a pair, the first player in Test history to do so on his captaincy debut. Paceman Glenn McGrath then broke down in the middle of the match. Australia was in the box seat with Pakistan needing 56 runs with one wicket in hand, but lost by one wicket after Ian Healy missed a stumping opportunity and the ball went for the winning runs. Recovering to score 69 in the Second Test at Rawalpindi, Taylor forced Pakistan to follow on after taking a 261-run lead. However, he dropped Pakistan captain Salim Malik when he was on 20. Malik went on to make 237 as Pakistan made 537 and saved the Test. Australia again took a first innings lead in the Third Test, but could not force a result, as Malik scored another second innings century to ensure safety and a 1–0 series win. Taylor ended the series with 106 runs at 26.50. Australia fared better in the ODI triangular tournament, winning five of their six matches. Taylor scored 56 in the final as Australia beat Pakistan by 64 runs to end the tournament with 193 runs at 32.16.
Beginning the 1994–95 season with 150 for NSW in a tour match against England, Taylor followed up with 59 in an opening stand of 97 as Australia made 426 in the first innings to take the initiative in the First Test in Brisbane. Australia amassed a 259-run first innings lead, but Taylor, mindful of the Test match at Rawalpindi, became the first Australian captain since 1977–78 to not enforce the follow-on. Although heavily criticised as a conservative decision, Australia still won the match by 184 runs, with Taylor adding 58 in the second innings. Having scored the first win of his Test captaincy, Taylor led his team to a 295-run win in the Second Test.
Taylor played his best cricket of the summer in the Third Test at Sydney. Last man out for 49 in a total of 116 in the first innings, he defied a pitch that had begun to seam and swing after a shower and cloud cover as Australia narrowly avoided the follow on. In the second innings, he made a bold attempt at chasing a world record target of 449 by scoring 113, but Australia played for a draw after Slater and Taylor fell following a double-century stand. Australia collapsed to 7/292 before hanging on in near-darkness. In the final two Tests, he scored half-centuries as Australia won 3–1. Australia dramatically lost the Fourth Test when England led by only 154 on the final day with four wickets in hand. Aggressive lower order batting saw Australia set 263 in just over two sessions, but a heavy collapse saw Australia eight wickets down with more than 2 hours to play. Almost two hours of resistance later, England took a 106-run win late in the day. However, Australia bounced back to win the Fifth Test by 329 runs, the largest margin of the series. Taylor's partnership with Slater yielded three century opening stands at an average of 76.60 for the series and Taylor's individual return was 471 runs at 47.10.
The southern hemisphere summer ended with a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand, where Australia won two of their three group matches to proceed to the final. Taylor scored 44 in a six-wicket triumph over New Zealand and totalled 165 runs at 41.25. His best score was 97 against the hosts in the preliminary round meant that he was still yet to post his first ODI century, five years after his debut.
Caribbean tour 1995
This victory was followed by the 1995 tour of the West Indies, where Australia had not won a Test series for 22 years. Australia lost the ODI series which preceded the Tests 1–4, with Taylor making 152 runs at 30.40. The difficulty of Australia's task was increased when fast bowlers Craig McDermott and Damien Fleming went home injured at the start of the tour. Australia fielded a pace attack of Glenn McGrath, Brendon Julian and Paul Reiffel who had played only 23 Tests between them. Despite this, Australia won by ten wickets in the first Test at Barbados, with Taylor contributing a half-century. After the Second Test was a rained-out draw, the West Indies beat Australia inside three days on a "green" Trinidad pitch in the Third Test. Australia regained the Frank Worrell Trophy with an innings victory in the Fourth Test at Jamaica, with Taylor taking the winning catch from the bowling of Shane Warne. Although he only managed 153 runs (at 25.50 average) for the series, Taylor held nine catches and his leadership was cited as a key factor in the result.
Controversy with Sri Lanka
This was followed by two and three-Test series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively in the 1995–96 Australian season. The Pakistan series began among a media circus when Salim Malik arrived with publicity focused on the bribery allegations which had surfaced a year earlier. Australia won the First Test in Brisbane by an innings in three and a half days, with Taylor contributing 69. In the Second Test at Bellerive Oval, Taylor scored 123 in the second innings to set up a winning total. In the Third Test in Sydney, he made 59 as Australia collapsed for 172 in the second innings and conceded the match. He ended the series with a healthy 338 runs at 67.60.
The subsequent Test and ODI series involving Sri Lanka were overshadowed by a series of spiteful clashes. The Tests were won 3–0 by the Australians with heavy margins of an innings, ten wickets and 148 runs respectively. Taylor's highlight being a 96 in the First Test at Perth as he compiled 159 runs at 39.75. He also made his 100th Test catch during the series. After accusations of ball tampering were levelled against the tourists in the First Test, leading spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was no-balled seven times in the Second Test, and during the ODI series, the Sri Lankans accused Taylor's men of cheating. The season hit a low point with the Sri Lankans which saw the teams refuse to shake hands at the end of the second final of the triangular series which Australia won 2–0. The match had included physical jostling between McGrath and Sanath Jayasuriya mid pitch, with the latter accusing McGrath of making racist attacks. Later in the match, stump microphones showed Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy alleging that portly Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga was feigning injury and calling for a runner because of his lack of physical fitness.
On the field, the ODI tournament saw Mark Waugh elevated to be Taylor's ODI opening partner after the axing of Slater midway through the season. In their first match together in Perth, the pair put on 190, with Taylor scoring 85. They put on another century stand in the second final, with Taylor scoring 82. Taylor scored heavily in the ODI tournament, with 423 runs at 42.30 with four half-centuries. Australia warmed up for the 1996 Cricket World Cup by winning five of their eight round-robin matches, and taking the finals 2–0, but many of the matches were closely contested. The finals were won by 18 and nine runs respectively, while three of the group matches were decided in the last over.
After the spiteful summer, a Tamil Tiger bombing in Colombo coupled with death threats to some members of the team forced Taylor to forfeit his team's scheduled World Cup match against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Taylor made six as Australia started their campaign with a 97-run win over Kenya. He then made 59 in a century stand with Waugh as Australia defeated co-hosts India in Mumbai. Taylor scored 34 in a nine-wicket win over Zimbabwe, before scoring nine in a defeat to the West Indies in the last group match. Australia finished second in their group and faced New Zealand in the quarter-finals. Taylor made only 10 as Australia chased 289 for victory, but made a surprise tactic by sending in Shane Warne as a pinch hitter. Warne made 24 from 15 balls in a partnership with Waugh, to allow Australia to take the momentum and take victory by six wickets. Taylor managed only one in the semi-final as Australia staggered to 8/207 against the West Indies. Australia appeared to be heading out of the tournament when the Caribbean team reached 2/165, but a sudden collapse saw Australia win by six runs in the last over.
Australia managed to reach the final, where they met Sri Lanka. Taylor scored 74, a record score by an Australian captain in the World Cup, but Sri Lanka comfortably triumphed on this occasion by seven wickets to claim the trophy.
Almost retired
After the World Cup, Bob Simpson was replaced as Australia's coach by Geoff Marsh, Taylor's former opening partner. Australia's first tournament after the World Cup was the Singer World Series in Sri Lanka. Taylor opted out of the tournament, and in his absence, Australia reached the final but lost by 50 runs to the hosts.
On a short tour to India, Taylor made his first ODI century at Bangalore, with 105 against India in his 98th match, having been out in the 90s on three previous occasions. Taylor performed strongly in the ODIs, with a total of 302 runs at 60.40. However, it was a disappointing tour for the team; the solitary Test in Delhi was lost, as were all five ODIs played during the Titan Cup.
In 1996–97, Australia confirmed its ascendancy over the West Indies with a 3–2 series win, but Taylor endured a poor season with the bat and failed to pass 50 in nine innings. His partnership with Slater was terminated when the latter was dropped, replaced by Matthew Elliott. Following an injury to Elliott, Matthew Hayden became Taylor's partner for three Tests.
Unable to recover form in the ODI series, Taylor's scratchy batting led to many poor starts for Australia. The team suffered five consecutive defeats, and missed the finals of the tournament for the first time in 17 years. Taylor managed only 143 runs at 17.88 with a highest score of 29.
The early 1997 tour to South Africa brought no upturn in Taylor's batting despite Australia's 2–1 victory in the series: he scored 80 runs at 16.00. His form was such that it influenced the selection of the team. For the Second Test at Port Elizabeth, played on a green pitch, Australia played Michael Bevan as a second spinner batting at number seven to reinforce the batting, instead of a third seamer to exploit the conditions. After scoring seven and 17 in the first two ODIs, Taylor dropped himself from the team for the remaining five matches.
The 1997 Ashes tour started poorly amid rumours that Taylor was on the verge of losing his place in the side. He batted ineffectively as Australia lost the one day series 0–3, scoring seven and 11, before dropping himself for the final match. In the First Test, Australia were dismissed for 118 in the first innings, with Taylor contributing seven: he had not managed to pass 50 in his last 21 Test innings. England amassed a big lead of 360 runs. With Australia facing a heavy defeat, media criticism of his position intensified. The Melbourne Age ran a competition for its readers to forecast how many runs he would make. Most respondents guessed less than 10 runs. The team's erstwhile coach, Bob Simpson, said that Taylor's retention in the team in spite of his poor form was fostering resentment among the players and destabilising the team.
Taylor started nervously in the second innings, but went on to score of 129, which saved his career, but not the match. His performance prompted personal congratulations from Prime Minister John Howard and the team's management allowed the media a rare opportunity to enter the dressing room and interview Taylor. During the period he refused offers by the manager to handle the media on his behalf. Australia went on to win the Third, Fourth and Fifth Tests and retain the Ashes 3–2. Although Taylor made single figures in the three Tests following his century, he contributed 76 and 45 in the series-clinching Test at Nottingham. Taylor ended the series with 317 runs at 31.7.
Dual teams
However, Taylor's ODI form was not to the satisfaction of the selectors. At the start of the 1997–98 season, a new selection policy was announced: the Test and ODI teams became separate entities, with specialists in each form of the game selected accordingly. Taylor was dropped from the ODI team, in favour of the aggressive Michael di Venuto. Tactically, ODI cricket was transformed by Sri Lanka's World Cup success, when it employed the highly aggressive opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana.
At this time, Taylor was a central figure in a pay dispute between the players and the ACB, with a strike action threatened by the players. Taylor continued as Test captain and led the team to a 2–0 win over New Zealand. The first two matches were won by 186 runs and an innings, while the Third Test ended with Australia one wicket from victory after almost two days' play was washed out.
Taylor scored a century (112 on the first day of the First Test, and an unbeaten 66 in the Third Test, compiling 214 runs at 53.50 for the series. This was followed by three Tests against South Africa. After South Africa withheld the Australian bowling on the final day to secure a draw in the Boxing Day Test, Australia took a 1–0 lead in the New Year's Test at Sydney with an innings victory. Taylor carried his bat for 169 in the first innings of the Third Test at Adelaide which helped Australia to draw the match and clinch the series.
On the 1998 tour of India, Elliott was dropped and Taylor reunited with Slater as the opening pair. Australia started well by taking a 71-run first-innings lead in the First Test at Chennai, but Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 155 put Australia under pressure to save the match on the final day. They were unable to resist and lost by 179 runs. Australia was crushed by an innings and 219 runs in the Second Test at Calcutta, Australia first series loss in four years and the first time that Australia had lost by an innings for five years. Thus, a series victory in India, which Australia had not achieved since 1969–70, remained elusive. Australia won the Third Test in Bangalore by eight wickets, with Taylor scoring an unbeaten 102 in a second innings run chase.
Record equalled
Later in 1998, Taylor led his team to Pakistan, where a convincing win in the First Test at Rawalpindi by an innings and 99 runs was Australia's first Test victory in the country for 39 years. Taylor then attended a court hearing investigating the claims of match-fixing made during the 1994 tour. In the Second Test at Peshawar, Taylor played the longest innings of his career. He batted two days to amass 334 not out, equalling Sir Donald Bradman's Australian record set in 1930. In temperatures above 32 °C, Taylor survived two dropped catches before he had reached 25 and scored slowly on the first day. He shared a 206-run partnership with Justin Langer. The next day, he added 103 runs in a morning session extended from two to three hours. After the tea interval, he discarded his helmet in favour of a white sun hat, to deal with the extreme heat. He passed 311, eclipsing Bob Simpson's record score by an Australian captain. In the final over, Taylor equalled Bradman's Australian Test record when a shot to midwicket was barely stopped by Ijaz Ahmed, which reduced the scoring opportunity to a single run.
At the end of the day's play, Taylor was encouraged by the media, the public and his teammates to attempt to break Brian Lara's world record score of 375. An unusually large crowd turned out the following day in anticipation. However, Taylor declared the innings closed, opting to share the record with Bradman, and making the team's chances of winning the game paramount. He was widely praised for this decision. He made 92 in the second innings, giving him the second highest Test match aggregate after English batsmen Graham Gooch, who scored 333 and 123 for a total of 456 against India at Lord's on 26 July 1990. His fifteen hours batting in one Test was second only to Hanif Mohammad. The match ended in a draw, as did the Third Test, so Australia won the series and Taylor ended with 513 runs at 128.25 average.
Final season
Taylor's swansong was the 1998–99 Ashes series against England, which began with his 100th Test in the First Test in Brisbane. He scored 46 and a duck—his first in Australia—as England were saved when thunderstorms forced the abandonment of play on the final afternoon. Two half centuries in the next two Tests in Perth and Adelaide saw Australia win by seven wickets and 205 runs respectively, thereby retaining the series 2–0. After losing the Fourth Test by 12 runs after a dramatic final day collapse, Taylor headed to his home ground, the Sydney Cricket Ground, for what would be his final Test. Australia went on to win the Test by 98 runs and take the series 3–1. Taylor only scored two in both innings, but he broke Border's world record for the most Test catches. His catch in the first innings equalled Border's 156 and another in the second made him the sole owner of the record.
He also jointly holds the record in Test cricket (along with Ian Healy) of being the only cricketers to have been run out in both innings of a Test on two occasions.
Legacy
The improvement of the Australian team, begun during Border's tenure, continued under the captaincy of Taylor. After the defeat of the West Indies in 1995, Taylor's teams won home and away series against every Test team they played, with the exception of winning a series in India. Wisden wrote:
Taylor talked so well that he raised the standard of debate in Australia—and perhaps of cricket itself—in a way which was an example to all professional cricketers ... Border stopped Australia losing. Taylor made them into winners, the acknowledged if not official world champions of Test cricket.
Taylor made a concerted effort to decrease the amount of sledging committed by his team, a trait that brought criticism of Australian teams during other eras. In total, he captained the side in 50 Tests, winning 26 and losing 13, a success rate unmatched in the previous fifty years except for Don Bradman and Viv Richards.
Career best performances
Retirement
Taylor retired from professional cricket in early 1999 after the Ashes series. On Australia Day, he was named the Australian of the Year. He was awarded an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and a Centenary Medal in 2001. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2002 and made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2003. In 2011, he was inducted into the Cricket Hall of Fame by the CA.
He is now a commentator for Channel Nine for 21 years. Despite the network losing the TV rights in April 2018, Taylor re-signed for another three years to give his expert analysis on the Ashes 2019, 2019 Cricket World Cup & 2020 World Twenty20 and as a digital contributor.
He mainly commentates on One Day International and Test matches in Australia until the network's final year of cricket telecasts, so he can now spend more time with his family. He used to also appear on The Cricket Show with Simon O'Donnell, and is a spokesman for Fujitsu air-conditioners. He also commentates for radio.
Taylor is patron of the Mark Taylor Shield Cricket competition run for NSW Catholic Primary schools in and around the Sydney region. On 6 November 2011, Waitara Oval, the home of the Northern District Cricket Club, had its name formally changed to Mark Taylor Oval, to honour its former First Grade captain and life member.
In October 2015, The Primary Club of Australia announced that Mark Taylor had accepted the role of Twelfth Man and Patron following the passing of their former Patron, Richie Benaud OBE. He also became Director of Cricket Australia, who commissioned a replacement cap for Benaud, only for his ill health and subsequent passing to have the cap presented to his wife.
References
Further reading
External links
1964 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Wagga Wagga
Australia Test cricketers
Australia One Day International cricketers
Australia Test cricket captains
New South Wales cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Australian cricket commentators
People educated at Chatswood High School
Australian of the Year Award winners
Officers of the Order of Australia
Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal
Recipients of the Centenary Medal
Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees
University of New South Wales alumni
Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees
People from the Riverina
Chatswood, New South Wales
Australian republicans
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[
"Albert Reynolds Taylor (October 16, 1864 – August 11, 1929) was an American educator serving as president and professor at several institutions. Taylor was most notable for being a founder and the first president of Millikin University. Before serving as president of Millikin University, Taylor served as the Kansas State Normal School's fifth president.\n\nBiography\n\nEarly life and education\nTaylor was born in 1846. Taylor originally attended Illinois State Normal in 1864, but left for Wenona Seminary and did not graduate. After various jobs, Taylor decided to return to school and attended Knox College before graduating in 1872 from Lincoln University. Taylor started his career in education as a professor.\n\nKansas State Normal\nOn July 1, 1882, Taylor succeeded Rudolph B. Welch as the fifth next president of the Kansas State Normal. Two years after becoming president, Taylor moved the school from a two-year institution to a four-year institution. Taylor decided that in order for enrollment grow, he would reimburse students who travelled more than a hundred miles to attend the school. Taylor resigned on June 6, 1901, to become president of Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois.\n\nMillikin University\nIn 1901 Taylor became the first president of Millikin University. During his administration, many things happened on campus including United States President Theodore Roosevelt dedicated the new college, 562 students attended opening day, degrees awarded to the first four-year graduating class, a women's residence hall opened, and another U.S. President William Howard Taft gave a speech. Taylor resigned in 1913, but later returned in 1915 as president serving until 1920.\n\nPersonal life\nTaylor Minerva Dent in 1873 and had two daughters. On August 11, 1929, Taylor died.\n\nReferences\n\nPresidents of Emporia State University\nLincoln College (Illinois) alumni\nPeople from Putnam County, Illinois\n1846 births\n1929 deaths",
"John Taylor (c. 1503 – 1554) was an English churchman and academic, Bishop of Lincoln from 1552 to 1554.\n\nLife\nTaylor served as bursar then proctor of Queens' College, Cambridge from 1523 to 1537, and master of St John's College, Cambridge from 1538 to 1546. He was rector of St Peter upon Cornhill, London, of Tatenhill, Staffordshire, Dean of Lincoln Cathedral, a Reformer and Commissioner for the first Prayer Book.\n\nAccording to John Foxe's Acts and Monuments, John Taylor walked out of mass celebrated at the commencement of the 1553 parliament. He was discharged from parliament and convocation on 5 October 1553, In 1553 Taylor was sent by Mary to the Tower for his action and that he died soon after. In later editions Foxe corrected this, asserting Taylor was commanded to attend and died shortly afterwards at Ankerwyke House at Wraysbury in Buckinghamshire.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nJohn Foxe's Book of Martyrs - page with John Taylor\n\n \n\n1500s births\n1554 deaths\nFellows of Queens' College, Cambridge\nAlumni of St John's College, Cambridge\nMasters of St John's College, Cambridge\nBishops of Lincoln\n16th-century Church of England bishops\nDeans of Lincoln\n1503 births"
] |
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"Mark Taylor (cricketer)",
"Early years",
"Where did Mark Taylor first start playing cricket?",
"He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him.",
"Were any of his relatives professional cricketers?",
"I don't know.",
"Did Mark Taylor attend college?",
"I don't know."
] |
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What was his first team?
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What was Mark Taylor first cricket team?
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Mark Taylor (cricketer)
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The second of three children born to bank manager Tony Taylor, and his wife Judy, Mark Taylor's early years were spent at Wagga Wagga, where his family relocated when he was eight. His father had a sporting background, playing first grade rugby in Newcastle. The young Taylor preferred Australian rules football and cricket. He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him. Taylor idolised Arthur Morris, the left-handed opening batsmen from New South Wales who led the aggregates on the 1948 "Invincibles" tour of England. Taylor played for his primary school as an opening batsman, and made his first century at the age of thirteen for the Lake Albert club at Bolton Park in Wagga. His family then moved to the north shore of Sydney, where he joined Northern District in Sydney Grade Cricket. Completing his secondary education at Chatswood High School, he later obtained a degree in surveying at the University of New South Wales. Along with the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, Taylor played in under-19 youth internationals for Australia against Sri Lanka in 1982-83. Taylor made his Sheffield Shield debut in 1985-86 when NSW was depleted by the defection of regular openers Steve Smith and John Dyson to a rebel tour of South Africa. Opening with fellow debutant Mark Waugh, he scored 12 and 56 not out against Tasmania. His first season was highlighted by home and away centuries against South Australia in a total of 937 runs at 49.31 average. He had a lean season in 1987-88, after which he spent the English summer with Greenmount, helping them to win their first Bolton League title by scoring more than 1,300 runs at an average of 70. He originally trained as a surveyor, and received a degree in surveying from the University of New South Wales in 1987. CANNOTANSWER
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Lake Albert club
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Mark Anthony Taylor (born 27 October 1964) is a former Australian cricketer and currently a Cricket Australia director and Nine Network commentator.
He was Test opening batsman from 1988 to 1999, as well as captain from 1994 to 1999, succeeding Allan Border. His predominant fielding position was first slip. He was widely regarded as an instrumental component in Australia's rise to Test cricket dominance, and his captaincy was regarded as adventurous and highly effective. However, he was considered less than ideal for One-Day International cricket and was eventually dropped as one-day captain after a 0–3 drubbing at the hands of England in 1997.
He moved to Wagga Wagga in 1972 and played for Lake Albert Cricket Club. His debut was for New South Wales in 1985.
He retired from Test cricket on 2 February 1999. In 104 Test matches, he scored 7,525 runs with a batting average of 43.49, including 19 centuries and 40 fifties. He was also an excellent first slip – his 157 catches, at the time, a Test record (now held by Rahul Dravid). In contrast to his predecessor Allan Border, who acquired the nickname 'Captain Grumpy', Taylor won plaudits for his always cheerful and positive demeanour. His successor, Steve Waugh, further honed the Australian team built by Border and Taylor and went on to set numerous records for victories as captain. Having been named Australian of the Year in 1999, he is now a cricket commentator for the Nine Network, and former Director of Cricket Australia.
Early years
The second of three children born to bank manager Tony Taylor, and his wife Judy, Mark Taylor's early years were spent at Wagga Wagga, where his family relocated when he was eight. His father had a sporting background, playing first grade rugby in Newcastle. The young Taylor preferred Australian rules football and cricket. He learned to bat in the family garage, with his father throwing cork balls to him. Taylor idolised Arthur Morris, the left-handed opening batsmen from New South Wales who led the aggregates on the 1948 "Invincibles" tour of England.
Taylor played for his primary school as an opening batsman, and made his first century at the age of thirteen for the Lake Albert club at Bolton Park in Wagga. His family then moved to the north shore of Sydney, where he joined Northern District in Sydney Grade Cricket. Completing his secondary education at Chatswood High School, he later obtained a degree in surveying at the University of New South Wales in 1987. Along with the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, Taylor played in under-19 youth internationals for Australia against Sri Lanka in 1982–83.
Taylor made his Sheffield Shield debut in 1985–86 when NSW was depleted by the defection of regular openers Steve Smith and John Dyson to a rebel tour of South Africa. Opening with fellow debutant Mark Waugh, he scored 12 and 56 not out against Tasmania. His first season was highlighted by home and away centuries against South Australia in a total of 937 runs at 49.31 average. He had a lean season in 1987–88, after which he spent the English summer with Greenmount, helping them to win their first Bolton League title by scoring more than 1,300 runs at an average of 70.
International career
Test career
Solid form for NSW in 1988–89 resulted in Taylor's selection for his Test debut in the Fourth Test against the West Indies at the SCG, replacing middle-order batsman Graeme Wood. For three years, the opening combination of Geoff Marsh and David Boon had been successful for Australia. However, team coach Bob Simpson wanted a left and right-handed opening combination, and stability added to the middle order. Therefore, the left-handed Taylor partnered the right-handed Marsh, while Boon batted at number three. Taylor's safe catching at slip was also a factor in his selection. He made 25 and 3 in a winning team, then was run out twice in the Fifth Test. A first-class aggregate of 1,241 runs (at 49.64 average) for the season earned him a place on the 1989 Ashes tour.
Record-breaking start
Beginning with a century at Headingley in his First Test against England, Taylor amassed 839 runs at 83.90 in the six Tests: the second best aggregate in an Ashes series in England, behind Don Bradman's 974 runs in 1930. He occupied the crease for a total of 38 hours, more than six full days of play. The highlight of his tour was the Fifth Test at Trent Bridge when he and Geoff Marsh became the first pair to bat throughout a day's play of Test cricket in England, amassing 301 runs. Taylor made 219 in a partnership of 329, an Ashes record. He finished with 71 and 48 in the Sixth Test to overtake Neil Harvey for the third-highest series aggregate in Test history and totalled 1,669 first-class runs for the tour. Australia won the series 4–0 to regain the Ashes. However, Taylor was overlooked for selection in the ODIs.
Returning to Australia, Taylor made 1,403 first-class runs at 70.15 during the 1989–90 season, and ended 1989 with 1,219 Test runs, thus becoming the first player to better one thousand Test runs in his debut calendar year, something only matched twice since by England opener Alastair Cook and Australian Adam Voges. In Taylor's first nine Tests, Australia passed 400 in the first innings. He scored centuries in successive Tests against Sri Lanka, and against Pakistan his scores were 52 and 101 at the MCG, 77 and 59 at the Adelaide Oval and an unbeaten 101 at Sydney. Australia won both series 1–0. In just over twelve months, he had amassed 1,618 runs at 70.35. This outstanding start to his career earned Taylor nomination as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1990. At the season's end, he demonstrated his leadership abilities for the first time. Standing in as NSW captain in place of the injured Geoff Lawson for the 1989–90 Sheffield Shield final in Sydney, Taylor scored 127 and 100. NSW won by 345 runs to secure its 40th title.
A year after his Test debut, Taylor was selected to make his ODI debut, which came on Boxing Day of 1989 against Sri Lanka. He made 11 as Australia won by 30 runs. He was selected for nine of Australia's ten ODIs for the season's triangular tournament, scoring 294 runs at 32.66 with two half-centuries. His highest score of 76 came as Australia defeated Pakistan by 69 runs to clinch the finals series in Sydney. The season ended with ODI tournaments in New Zealand and Sharjah. He played six of the eight matches, scoring 222 runs at 37.00 with two half-centuries, but was dropped for the final in New Zealand.
Inconsistent form
Taylor experienced a slump during the 1990–91 Ashes series. After making two-half centuries in the first two Tests, he failed to pass 20 in the last three and finished with 213 runs at 23.66 in a team that won 3–0. He found himself on the outer for the ODI triangular tournament, missing all eight of the preliminary matches before returning to score 41 and 71 as Australia won the finals 2–0.
His moderate form continued during the 1991 tour of the West Indies, where he was selected in only two of the five ODIs, scoring three and five. He ended the run with a rear-guard innings of 76 in the second innings of the Fourth Test at Barbados. Despite his effort, Australia lost and the West Indies took an unassailable lead of 2–0. In the Fifth Test St. Johns, Antigua, Australia gained a consolation victory due mainly to Taylor's scores of 59 and 144 (out of a total of 265). This late rush of form boosted his average for the series to 49. In late 1991, before the Australian season started, Taylor was appointed to lead an Australia A side to tour Zimbabwe. The team was composed of younger Test players and other young players who were seeking to break into international cricket. The selectors were attempting to groom Taylor as a potential replacement for Border.
During the 1991–92 Australian season, Taylor batted consistently in a 4–0 series victory over India. He scored 94 and 35* in a ten-wicket win at Brisbane. He scored half-centuries in each of the next two Tests before striking 100 in the second innings of the Fourth Test at Adelaide. It helped Australia to wipe out a first innings deficit of 80 and set up a winning target. His opening partner Marsh was dropped for the Fifth Test, so the selectors elevated Taylor to the vice-captaincy of the team. Over the next twelve months, a number of players were tried as Taylor's opening partner. Taylor struggled in his first match with new partner Wayne N. Phillips, scoring two and 16. Nevertheless, he had scored 422 runs at 46.89. Taylor continued to be overlooked by the selectors in the shorter version of the game, missing selection for all of the season's triangular tournament. He was selected for the squad for the 1992 Cricket World Cup held on home soil, and after Australia lost its first two matches, Taylor was recalled for his first ODI in 12 months. He made 13 as Australia beat India by one run, but scored his first ODI duck in the next match as England won by eight wickets. He was dropped for the remainder of the tournament.
On the 1992 tour of Sri Lanka, Taylor struggled in scoring 148 runs at 24.67. After scoring 42 and 43 in Australia's win in the First Test, Taylor failed to again pass 30. With new opening partner Tom Moody also struggling with 71 runs at 11.83, Australia frequently struggled at the top of their innings. He played in all three ODIs, scoring 138 runs at 46.00. His 94 in the first match was his highest score in ODIs to that point.
Against the West Indies in 1992–93, Taylor was now opening alongside David Boon with Moody having been dropped. Taylor was ineffective and failed to pass fifty in the first four Tests. After Australia failed by one run to win the Fourth Test and thus the series, Taylor was dropped for the deciding Test at Perth, having failed to make double figures in either innings. In his absence, Australia lost by an innings in three days and conceded the series 1–2. He had scored 170 runs at 24.29 for the series. However, he played all of Australia's ten ODIs, scoring 286 runs at 28.60 with two half-centuries.
Taylor and Slater
As a result of the innings defeat in Perth, Taylor was immediately recalled for the tour of New Zealand, where he scored 82 in the First Test at Christchurch to help Australia to an innings victory. He then scored 50 in the drawn Second Test and bowled for the first time at Test level, taking 0/15. He failed to pass 20 in the Third Test and ended the series with 148 runs at 37.00 as the home side squared the series. Australia then played five ODIs in New Zealand before starting the England tour with three more. Taylor played in all eight, scoring 307 runs at 38.38 with four half-centuries.
The problem of finding him a long-term partner was solved on the tour of England that followed. NSW batsman Michael Slater, who also grew up in Wagga Wagga, made his debut in the First Test of the 1993 Ashes series. In the First Test at Old Trafford, Taylor made 124 after an opening partnership of 128, as Australia managed only 289 after being sent in. Australia managed to scrape out a lead of 79, before going on to a 179-run win.
This was followed by a stand of 260 at Lord's in the Second Test, with Taylor making 111. In the process, he passed 1000 Test runs against England and the partnership broke the Ashes partnership record at Lord's, which had been set by Bill Woodfull and Don Bradman in 1930. The partnership laid the platform for Australia's total of 4/632, as the tourists proceeded to an innings victory.
His scoring was more sedate in the remaining Tests as Australia won 4–1, and he finished with 428 runs at 42.80. He passed 30 only once more, with 70 in the first innings of the Sixth Test at The Oval.
Against New Zealand in 1993–94, Taylor made 64 and 142 not out in the First Test at Perth, which ended in a draw. He then scored 27 and 53 as Australia won the next two Tests by an innings, totalling 286 runs at 95.33 in three Tests as Australia won 2–0. In the rain-affected Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Taylor played his 50th Test and celebrated with 170 against South Africa, the first Test between the two countries since 1970. This made him the first batsman to score centuries on Test debut against four countries. In addition, he passed 4,000 Test runs during the innings. Taylor had scored more than 1,000 Test runs for the calendar year, ending with 1106 runs Taylor scored 62 in the Third Test, his only other half-century for the series, which he ended with 304 runs at 60.80.
On the reciprocal tour of South Africa at the end of the season, Taylor missed a Test because of injury for the only time in his career. Matthew Hayden filled in for the First Test in Johannesburg, which Australia lost. On his return for the Second Test at Cape Town, he scored 70 and ended the series with 97 runs at 24.25. Both series were drawn 1–1.
Captaincy
After the retirement of Allan Border, Taylor was appointed captain.
Frequently omitted from the ODI team due to slow scoring, Taylor missed the finals of the ODI series in Australia against South Africa. On the tour of South Africa, he missed three consecutive ODIs when tour selectors and fellow players Ian Healy and Steve Waugh voted him off the team. In all, Taylor had only played in 11 of Australia's 19 ODIs for the season, scoring 281 runs at 25.55. Taylor requested an extended trial as opener for the ODI side to help consolidate his captaincy of both teams.
Taylor started his ODI captaincy with two tournaments in Sharjah and Sri Lanka. Australia missed the finals in both tournaments, winning three of their six matches. After scoring 68* to guide his team to a nine-wicket win in the first match against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, Taylor's form tapered off, scoring only 64 more runs to end the two tournaments with a total of 132 runs at 33.00.
His first task was a tour of Pakistan in 1994, where Australia had not won a Test since the 1959 tour. To make matters worse, Australia's first-choice pace pairing of Craig McDermott and Merv Hughes missed the tour due to injury. The First Test at Karachi was a personal disaster for Taylor as he scored a pair, the first player in Test history to do so on his captaincy debut. Paceman Glenn McGrath then broke down in the middle of the match. Australia was in the box seat with Pakistan needing 56 runs with one wicket in hand, but lost by one wicket after Ian Healy missed a stumping opportunity and the ball went for the winning runs. Recovering to score 69 in the Second Test at Rawalpindi, Taylor forced Pakistan to follow on after taking a 261-run lead. However, he dropped Pakistan captain Salim Malik when he was on 20. Malik went on to make 237 as Pakistan made 537 and saved the Test. Australia again took a first innings lead in the Third Test, but could not force a result, as Malik scored another second innings century to ensure safety and a 1–0 series win. Taylor ended the series with 106 runs at 26.50. Australia fared better in the ODI triangular tournament, winning five of their six matches. Taylor scored 56 in the final as Australia beat Pakistan by 64 runs to end the tournament with 193 runs at 32.16.
Beginning the 1994–95 season with 150 for NSW in a tour match against England, Taylor followed up with 59 in an opening stand of 97 as Australia made 426 in the first innings to take the initiative in the First Test in Brisbane. Australia amassed a 259-run first innings lead, but Taylor, mindful of the Test match at Rawalpindi, became the first Australian captain since 1977–78 to not enforce the follow-on. Although heavily criticised as a conservative decision, Australia still won the match by 184 runs, with Taylor adding 58 in the second innings. Having scored the first win of his Test captaincy, Taylor led his team to a 295-run win in the Second Test.
Taylor played his best cricket of the summer in the Third Test at Sydney. Last man out for 49 in a total of 116 in the first innings, he defied a pitch that had begun to seam and swing after a shower and cloud cover as Australia narrowly avoided the follow on. In the second innings, he made a bold attempt at chasing a world record target of 449 by scoring 113, but Australia played for a draw after Slater and Taylor fell following a double-century stand. Australia collapsed to 7/292 before hanging on in near-darkness. In the final two Tests, he scored half-centuries as Australia won 3–1. Australia dramatically lost the Fourth Test when England led by only 154 on the final day with four wickets in hand. Aggressive lower order batting saw Australia set 263 in just over two sessions, but a heavy collapse saw Australia eight wickets down with more than 2 hours to play. Almost two hours of resistance later, England took a 106-run win late in the day. However, Australia bounced back to win the Fifth Test by 329 runs, the largest margin of the series. Taylor's partnership with Slater yielded three century opening stands at an average of 76.60 for the series and Taylor's individual return was 471 runs at 47.10.
The southern hemisphere summer ended with a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand, where Australia won two of their three group matches to proceed to the final. Taylor scored 44 in a six-wicket triumph over New Zealand and totalled 165 runs at 41.25. His best score was 97 against the hosts in the preliminary round meant that he was still yet to post his first ODI century, five years after his debut.
Caribbean tour 1995
This victory was followed by the 1995 tour of the West Indies, where Australia had not won a Test series for 22 years. Australia lost the ODI series which preceded the Tests 1–4, with Taylor making 152 runs at 30.40. The difficulty of Australia's task was increased when fast bowlers Craig McDermott and Damien Fleming went home injured at the start of the tour. Australia fielded a pace attack of Glenn McGrath, Brendon Julian and Paul Reiffel who had played only 23 Tests between them. Despite this, Australia won by ten wickets in the first Test at Barbados, with Taylor contributing a half-century. After the Second Test was a rained-out draw, the West Indies beat Australia inside three days on a "green" Trinidad pitch in the Third Test. Australia regained the Frank Worrell Trophy with an innings victory in the Fourth Test at Jamaica, with Taylor taking the winning catch from the bowling of Shane Warne. Although he only managed 153 runs (at 25.50 average) for the series, Taylor held nine catches and his leadership was cited as a key factor in the result.
Controversy with Sri Lanka
This was followed by two and three-Test series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively in the 1995–96 Australian season. The Pakistan series began among a media circus when Salim Malik arrived with publicity focused on the bribery allegations which had surfaced a year earlier. Australia won the First Test in Brisbane by an innings in three and a half days, with Taylor contributing 69. In the Second Test at Bellerive Oval, Taylor scored 123 in the second innings to set up a winning total. In the Third Test in Sydney, he made 59 as Australia collapsed for 172 in the second innings and conceded the match. He ended the series with a healthy 338 runs at 67.60.
The subsequent Test and ODI series involving Sri Lanka were overshadowed by a series of spiteful clashes. The Tests were won 3–0 by the Australians with heavy margins of an innings, ten wickets and 148 runs respectively. Taylor's highlight being a 96 in the First Test at Perth as he compiled 159 runs at 39.75. He also made his 100th Test catch during the series. After accusations of ball tampering were levelled against the tourists in the First Test, leading spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was no-balled seven times in the Second Test, and during the ODI series, the Sri Lankans accused Taylor's men of cheating. The season hit a low point with the Sri Lankans which saw the teams refuse to shake hands at the end of the second final of the triangular series which Australia won 2–0. The match had included physical jostling between McGrath and Sanath Jayasuriya mid pitch, with the latter accusing McGrath of making racist attacks. Later in the match, stump microphones showed Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy alleging that portly Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga was feigning injury and calling for a runner because of his lack of physical fitness.
On the field, the ODI tournament saw Mark Waugh elevated to be Taylor's ODI opening partner after the axing of Slater midway through the season. In their first match together in Perth, the pair put on 190, with Taylor scoring 85. They put on another century stand in the second final, with Taylor scoring 82. Taylor scored heavily in the ODI tournament, with 423 runs at 42.30 with four half-centuries. Australia warmed up for the 1996 Cricket World Cup by winning five of their eight round-robin matches, and taking the finals 2–0, but many of the matches were closely contested. The finals were won by 18 and nine runs respectively, while three of the group matches were decided in the last over.
After the spiteful summer, a Tamil Tiger bombing in Colombo coupled with death threats to some members of the team forced Taylor to forfeit his team's scheduled World Cup match against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Taylor made six as Australia started their campaign with a 97-run win over Kenya. He then made 59 in a century stand with Waugh as Australia defeated co-hosts India in Mumbai. Taylor scored 34 in a nine-wicket win over Zimbabwe, before scoring nine in a defeat to the West Indies in the last group match. Australia finished second in their group and faced New Zealand in the quarter-finals. Taylor made only 10 as Australia chased 289 for victory, but made a surprise tactic by sending in Shane Warne as a pinch hitter. Warne made 24 from 15 balls in a partnership with Waugh, to allow Australia to take the momentum and take victory by six wickets. Taylor managed only one in the semi-final as Australia staggered to 8/207 against the West Indies. Australia appeared to be heading out of the tournament when the Caribbean team reached 2/165, but a sudden collapse saw Australia win by six runs in the last over.
Australia managed to reach the final, where they met Sri Lanka. Taylor scored 74, a record score by an Australian captain in the World Cup, but Sri Lanka comfortably triumphed on this occasion by seven wickets to claim the trophy.
Almost retired
After the World Cup, Bob Simpson was replaced as Australia's coach by Geoff Marsh, Taylor's former opening partner. Australia's first tournament after the World Cup was the Singer World Series in Sri Lanka. Taylor opted out of the tournament, and in his absence, Australia reached the final but lost by 50 runs to the hosts.
On a short tour to India, Taylor made his first ODI century at Bangalore, with 105 against India in his 98th match, having been out in the 90s on three previous occasions. Taylor performed strongly in the ODIs, with a total of 302 runs at 60.40. However, it was a disappointing tour for the team; the solitary Test in Delhi was lost, as were all five ODIs played during the Titan Cup.
In 1996–97, Australia confirmed its ascendancy over the West Indies with a 3–2 series win, but Taylor endured a poor season with the bat and failed to pass 50 in nine innings. His partnership with Slater was terminated when the latter was dropped, replaced by Matthew Elliott. Following an injury to Elliott, Matthew Hayden became Taylor's partner for three Tests.
Unable to recover form in the ODI series, Taylor's scratchy batting led to many poor starts for Australia. The team suffered five consecutive defeats, and missed the finals of the tournament for the first time in 17 years. Taylor managed only 143 runs at 17.88 with a highest score of 29.
The early 1997 tour to South Africa brought no upturn in Taylor's batting despite Australia's 2–1 victory in the series: he scored 80 runs at 16.00. His form was such that it influenced the selection of the team. For the Second Test at Port Elizabeth, played on a green pitch, Australia played Michael Bevan as a second spinner batting at number seven to reinforce the batting, instead of a third seamer to exploit the conditions. After scoring seven and 17 in the first two ODIs, Taylor dropped himself from the team for the remaining five matches.
The 1997 Ashes tour started poorly amid rumours that Taylor was on the verge of losing his place in the side. He batted ineffectively as Australia lost the one day series 0–3, scoring seven and 11, before dropping himself for the final match. In the First Test, Australia were dismissed for 118 in the first innings, with Taylor contributing seven: he had not managed to pass 50 in his last 21 Test innings. England amassed a big lead of 360 runs. With Australia facing a heavy defeat, media criticism of his position intensified. The Melbourne Age ran a competition for its readers to forecast how many runs he would make. Most respondents guessed less than 10 runs. The team's erstwhile coach, Bob Simpson, said that Taylor's retention in the team in spite of his poor form was fostering resentment among the players and destabilising the team.
Taylor started nervously in the second innings, but went on to score of 129, which saved his career, but not the match. His performance prompted personal congratulations from Prime Minister John Howard and the team's management allowed the media a rare opportunity to enter the dressing room and interview Taylor. During the period he refused offers by the manager to handle the media on his behalf. Australia went on to win the Third, Fourth and Fifth Tests and retain the Ashes 3–2. Although Taylor made single figures in the three Tests following his century, he contributed 76 and 45 in the series-clinching Test at Nottingham. Taylor ended the series with 317 runs at 31.7.
Dual teams
However, Taylor's ODI form was not to the satisfaction of the selectors. At the start of the 1997–98 season, a new selection policy was announced: the Test and ODI teams became separate entities, with specialists in each form of the game selected accordingly. Taylor was dropped from the ODI team, in favour of the aggressive Michael di Venuto. Tactically, ODI cricket was transformed by Sri Lanka's World Cup success, when it employed the highly aggressive opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana.
At this time, Taylor was a central figure in a pay dispute between the players and the ACB, with a strike action threatened by the players. Taylor continued as Test captain and led the team to a 2–0 win over New Zealand. The first two matches were won by 186 runs and an innings, while the Third Test ended with Australia one wicket from victory after almost two days' play was washed out.
Taylor scored a century (112 on the first day of the First Test, and an unbeaten 66 in the Third Test, compiling 214 runs at 53.50 for the series. This was followed by three Tests against South Africa. After South Africa withheld the Australian bowling on the final day to secure a draw in the Boxing Day Test, Australia took a 1–0 lead in the New Year's Test at Sydney with an innings victory. Taylor carried his bat for 169 in the first innings of the Third Test at Adelaide which helped Australia to draw the match and clinch the series.
On the 1998 tour of India, Elliott was dropped and Taylor reunited with Slater as the opening pair. Australia started well by taking a 71-run first-innings lead in the First Test at Chennai, but Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 155 put Australia under pressure to save the match on the final day. They were unable to resist and lost by 179 runs. Australia was crushed by an innings and 219 runs in the Second Test at Calcutta, Australia first series loss in four years and the first time that Australia had lost by an innings for five years. Thus, a series victory in India, which Australia had not achieved since 1969–70, remained elusive. Australia won the Third Test in Bangalore by eight wickets, with Taylor scoring an unbeaten 102 in a second innings run chase.
Record equalled
Later in 1998, Taylor led his team to Pakistan, where a convincing win in the First Test at Rawalpindi by an innings and 99 runs was Australia's first Test victory in the country for 39 years. Taylor then attended a court hearing investigating the claims of match-fixing made during the 1994 tour. In the Second Test at Peshawar, Taylor played the longest innings of his career. He batted two days to amass 334 not out, equalling Sir Donald Bradman's Australian record set in 1930. In temperatures above 32 °C, Taylor survived two dropped catches before he had reached 25 and scored slowly on the first day. He shared a 206-run partnership with Justin Langer. The next day, he added 103 runs in a morning session extended from two to three hours. After the tea interval, he discarded his helmet in favour of a white sun hat, to deal with the extreme heat. He passed 311, eclipsing Bob Simpson's record score by an Australian captain. In the final over, Taylor equalled Bradman's Australian Test record when a shot to midwicket was barely stopped by Ijaz Ahmed, which reduced the scoring opportunity to a single run.
At the end of the day's play, Taylor was encouraged by the media, the public and his teammates to attempt to break Brian Lara's world record score of 375. An unusually large crowd turned out the following day in anticipation. However, Taylor declared the innings closed, opting to share the record with Bradman, and making the team's chances of winning the game paramount. He was widely praised for this decision. He made 92 in the second innings, giving him the second highest Test match aggregate after English batsmen Graham Gooch, who scored 333 and 123 for a total of 456 against India at Lord's on 26 July 1990. His fifteen hours batting in one Test was second only to Hanif Mohammad. The match ended in a draw, as did the Third Test, so Australia won the series and Taylor ended with 513 runs at 128.25 average.
Final season
Taylor's swansong was the 1998–99 Ashes series against England, which began with his 100th Test in the First Test in Brisbane. He scored 46 and a duck—his first in Australia—as England were saved when thunderstorms forced the abandonment of play on the final afternoon. Two half centuries in the next two Tests in Perth and Adelaide saw Australia win by seven wickets and 205 runs respectively, thereby retaining the series 2–0. After losing the Fourth Test by 12 runs after a dramatic final day collapse, Taylor headed to his home ground, the Sydney Cricket Ground, for what would be his final Test. Australia went on to win the Test by 98 runs and take the series 3–1. Taylor only scored two in both innings, but he broke Border's world record for the most Test catches. His catch in the first innings equalled Border's 156 and another in the second made him the sole owner of the record.
He also jointly holds the record in Test cricket (along with Ian Healy) of being the only cricketers to have been run out in both innings of a Test on two occasions.
Legacy
The improvement of the Australian team, begun during Border's tenure, continued under the captaincy of Taylor. After the defeat of the West Indies in 1995, Taylor's teams won home and away series against every Test team they played, with the exception of winning a series in India. Wisden wrote:
Taylor talked so well that he raised the standard of debate in Australia—and perhaps of cricket itself—in a way which was an example to all professional cricketers ... Border stopped Australia losing. Taylor made them into winners, the acknowledged if not official world champions of Test cricket.
Taylor made a concerted effort to decrease the amount of sledging committed by his team, a trait that brought criticism of Australian teams during other eras. In total, he captained the side in 50 Tests, winning 26 and losing 13, a success rate unmatched in the previous fifty years except for Don Bradman and Viv Richards.
Career best performances
Retirement
Taylor retired from professional cricket in early 1999 after the Ashes series. On Australia Day, he was named the Australian of the Year. He was awarded an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and a Centenary Medal in 2001. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2002 and made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2003. In 2011, he was inducted into the Cricket Hall of Fame by the CA.
He is now a commentator for Channel Nine for 21 years. Despite the network losing the TV rights in April 2018, Taylor re-signed for another three years to give his expert analysis on the Ashes 2019, 2019 Cricket World Cup & 2020 World Twenty20 and as a digital contributor.
He mainly commentates on One Day International and Test matches in Australia until the network's final year of cricket telecasts, so he can now spend more time with his family. He used to also appear on The Cricket Show with Simon O'Donnell, and is a spokesman for Fujitsu air-conditioners. He also commentates for radio.
Taylor is patron of the Mark Taylor Shield Cricket competition run for NSW Catholic Primary schools in and around the Sydney region. On 6 November 2011, Waitara Oval, the home of the Northern District Cricket Club, had its name formally changed to Mark Taylor Oval, to honour its former First Grade captain and life member.
In October 2015, The Primary Club of Australia announced that Mark Taylor had accepted the role of Twelfth Man and Patron following the passing of their former Patron, Richie Benaud OBE. He also became Director of Cricket Australia, who commissioned a replacement cap for Benaud, only for his ill health and subsequent passing to have the cap presented to his wife.
References
Further reading
External links
1964 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Wagga Wagga
Australia Test cricketers
Australia One Day International cricketers
Australia Test cricket captains
New South Wales cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Australian cricket commentators
People educated at Chatswood High School
Australian of the Year Award winners
Officers of the Order of Australia
Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal
Recipients of the Centenary Medal
Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees
University of New South Wales alumni
Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees
People from the Riverina
Chatswood, New South Wales
Australian republicans
| true |
[
"The 1933 Dixie Rebels football team was an American football team that represented Dixie University (affiliated with Somerville School of Law) during the 1933 college football season. In its first season of intercollegiate football, albeit with a mostly veteran team from the 1932 Jefferson Rangers football team, Dixie compiled a 2–4 record with victories over and , though they scored just one touchdown in each win. In what was considered a benchmark game, Dixie traveled to Lubbock, Texas to play Texas Tech and was trounced 33–0. The head coach of Dixie was Nick Dobbs, and was assisted by Jim Hamrick, the captain of the 1932 Jefferson Rangers. The team captain was star running back Jodie Whire, formerly at the University of Georgia, but he left the team and the school at the end of September and was succeeded by Jake \"Rabbit\" Minnehan as the captain. On October 27, Dobbs resigned prior to the season finale and was replaced by Hamrick. The Rebels finished with a close loss to North Dakota at Fair Park Stadium.\n\nDixie University was created by Nick Dobbs in collaboration with the Somerville Law School executives as a new college to transplant his football team-without-a-home Rangers. After Jefferson University kicked the team out of that university, Dobbs proclaimed “What is wrong with a ready-made football team getting itself a university?” And with that Dixie was born to house the football team and apparently some college curricula. But the excitement that Dobbs created in 1932 had vanished almost as fast and his 1933 Rebels started to fall apart.\n\nSchedule\n\nReferences\n\nDixie\nDixie Rebels football seasons\nDixie Rebels football",
"Ponnabeth Mambally Raghavan (18 December 1920, date of death unknown) was an Indian cricketer who played at first-class level for Travancore-Cochin (now Kerala) from 1951 to 1956. A right-handed batsman and right-arm medium-pace bowler, he captained the side in its inaugural Ranji Trophy match during the 1951–52 season.\n\nRaghavan was born in Tellicherry (now Thalassery), in what was then part of the Madras Presidency but is now in Kerala State. In December 1951, aged 30, he was chosen to captain the new State of Travancore-Cochin in its Ranji Trophy debut against Mysore (now Karnataka). Although Raghavan topscored with 27 in the second innings, his team lost by an innings and 87 runs, and was consequently eliminated from the competition, which was played on a knockout basis at the time. He was re-appointed captain for the following season's Ranji fixture, where his team once again lost by an innings margin within two days. During the 1953–54 season, Travancore-Cochin was drawn to play Hyderabad in the opening round. Raghavan was selected to play, but was replaced as captain by his younger brother, P. M. Anandan. The match was drawn, but Travancore-Cochin was declared the winner based on its higher first innings total, and consequently proceeded to the next round of matches. Despite this, Raghavan was restored to the captaincy for the second-round fixture against Madras (now Tamil Nadu). He took career-best bowling figures of 2/43 in Madras's second innings, but Travancore-Cochin lost by 316 runs.\n\nAnandan once again replaced Raghavan as captain for the 1954–55 season's first-round fixture, a loss to Madras on first innings. Raghavan's fourth and final match as captain of Travancore-Cochin came the following season, in what was to be his final first-class appearance. Aged 35, he recorded a duck in the first innings against Andhra and was absent hurt in the second, as his team succumbed to an innings defeat. Besides his young brother, Anandan, several others members of Raghavan's family represented what is now Kerala at first-class level, including his son, A. P. M. Gopalakrishnan, and two nephews, brothers P. M. K. Raghunath and P. M. K. Mohandas. Outside of playing cricket, the family have been prominent in the baking trade in Kerala.\n\nReferences\n\n1920 births\nYear of death missing\nCricketers from Kerala\nIndian cricketers\nKerala cricketers\nPeople from Thalassery\nTravancore-Cochin cricketers"
] |
[
"Edward Weston",
"Writings"
] |
C_7efe68873f1f4b09adc565dfd928bf98_0
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What was his most famous photograph?
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What was Edward Weston's most famous photograph?
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Edward Weston
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Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957, and he hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children. In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died. Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure." In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still-lifes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies. It is said that he developed a "quintessentially American, and especially Californian, approach to modern photography" because of his focus on the people and places of the American West. In 1937 Weston was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, and over the next two years he produced nearly 1,400 negatives using his 8 × 10 view camera. Some of his most famous
photographs were taken of the trees and rocks at Point Lobos, California, near where he lived for many years.
Weston was born in Chicago and moved to California when he was 21. He knew he wanted to be a photographer from an early age, and initially his work was typical of the soft focus pictorialism that was popular at the time. Within a few years, however he abandoned that style and went on to be one of the foremost champions of highly detailed photographic images.
In 1947 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and he soon stopped photographing. He spent the remaining ten years of his life overseeing the printing of more than 1,000 of his most famous images.
Life and work
1886–1906: Early life
Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois, the second child and only son of Edward Burbank Weston, an obstetrician, and Alice Jeanette Brett, a Shakespearean actress. His mother died when he was five years old and he was raised mostly by his sister Mary, whom he called "May" or "Maisie". She was nine years older than he, and they developed a very close bond that was one of the few steady relationships in Weston's life.
His father remarried when he was nine, but neither Weston nor his sister got along with their new stepmother and stepbrother. After May was married and left their home in 1897, Weston's father devoted most of his time to his new wife and her son. Weston was left on his own much of the time; he stopped going to school and withdrew into his own room in their large home.
As a present for his 16th birthday Weston's father gave him his first camera, a Kodak Bull's-Eye No. 2, which was a simple box camera. He took it on vacation in the Midwest, and by the time he returned home his interest in photography was enough to lead him to purchase a used 5 × 7 inch view camera. He began photographing in Chicago parks and a farm owned by his aunt, and developed his own film and prints. Later he would remember that even at that early age his work showed strong artistic merit. He said, "I feel that my earliest work of 1903 ‒ though immature ‒ is related more closely, both with technique and composition, to my latest work than are several of my photographs dating from 1913 to 1920, a period in which I was trying to be artistic."
In 1904 May and her family moved to California, leaving Weston further isolated in Chicago. He earned a living by taking a job at a local department store, but he continued to spend most of his free time taking photos, Within two years he felt confident enough of his photography that he submitted his work to the magazine Camera and Darkroom, and in the April 1906 issue they published a full-page reproduction of his picture Spring, Chicago. This is the first known publication of any of his photographs.
In September 1904, Weston took part in the men's double American round archery event at the 1904 Summer Olympics with his father also taking part in the same event.
1906–23: Becoming a photographer
At his sister's urging Weston left Chicago in the spring of 1906 and moved near May's home in Tropico, California (now a neighborhood in Glendale). He decided to stay there and pursue a career in photography, but he soon realized he needed more professional training. A year later he moved to Effingham, Illinois, to enroll in the Illinois College of Photography. They taught a nine-month course, but Weston finished all of the class work in six months. The school refused to give him a diploma unless he paid for the full nine months; Weston refused and instead moved back to California in the spring of 1908.
He briefly worked at the photography studio of George Steckel in Los Angeles, as a negative retoucher. Within a few months he moved to the more established studio of Louis Mojonier. For the next several years he learned the techniques and business of operating a photography studio under Mojonier's direction.
Within days of his visit to Tropico, Weston was introduced to his sister's best friend, Flora May Chandler. She was a graduate of the Normal School, later to become UCLA. She assumed the position of a grade-school teacher in Tropico.
She was seven years older than Weston and a distant relative of Harry Chandler, who at that time was described as the head of "the single most powerful family in Southern California". This fact did not go unnoticed by Weston and his biographers.
On January 30, 1909, Weston and Chandler married in a simple ceremony. The first of their four sons, Edward Chandler Weston (1910–1993), known as Chandler, was born on April 26, 1910.
Named Edward Chandler, after Weston and his wife, he later became an excellent photographer on his own. He clearly learned much by being an assistant to his father in the bungalow studio. In 1923 he bid farewell to his mother and sibling brothers and sailed off to Mexico with his father and his then-muse, Tina Modotti. He gave up any aspirations in pursuing photography as a career after his adventures in Mexico. The lifestyle of fame and its fortune affected him greatly. His later photographs, as a hobbyist, albeit rare, certainly reflect an innate talent for the form.
In 1910 Weston opened his own business, called "The Little Studio", in Tropico. His sister later asked him why he opened his studio in Tropico rather than in the nearby metropolis of Los Angeles, and he replied "Sis, I'm going to make my name so famous that it won't matter where I live."
For the next three years he worked, alone and sometimes with the assistance of family members in his studio. Even at that early stage of his career he was highly particular about his work; in an interview at that time he said "[photographic] plates are nothing to me unless I get what I want. I have used thirty of them at a sitting if I did not secure the effect to suit me."
His critical eye paid off for him and he quickly gained more recognition for his work. He won prizes in national competitions, published several more photographs and wrote articles for magazines such as Photo-Era and American Photography, championing the pictorial style.
On December 16, 1911, Weston's second son, Theodore Brett Weston (1911–1993), was born. He became a long-time artistic collaborator with his father and an important photographer on his own.
Sometime in the fall of 1913, Los Angeles photographer, Margrethe Mather visited Weston's studio because of his growing reputation, and within a few months they developed an intense relationship. Weston was a quiet Midwestern transplant to California, and Mather was a part of the growing bohemian cultural scene in Los Angeles. She was very outgoing and artistic in a flamboyant way, and her permissive sexual morals were far different from the conservative Weston at the time – Mather had been a prostitute and was bisexual with a preference for women. Mather presented a stark contrast to Weston's home life; his wife Flora was described as a "homely, rigid Puritan, and an utterly conventional woman, with whom he had little in common since he abhorred conventions" ‒ and he found Mather's uninhibited lifestyle irresistible and her photographic vision intriguing.
He asked Mather to be his studio assistant, and for the next decade they worked closely together, making individual and jointly signed portraits of writers Carl Sandburg and Max Eastman. A joint exhibition of their work in 2001 revealed that during this period Weston emulated Mather's style and, later, her choice of subjects. On her own Mather photographed "fans, hands, eggs, melons, waves, bathroom fixtures, seashells and birds wings, all subjects that Weston would also explore." A decade later he described her as "the first important person in my life, and perhaps even now, though personal contact has gone, the most important."
In early 1915 Weston began keeping detailed journals he later came to call his "Daybooks". For the next two decades he recorded his thoughts about his work, observations about photography, and his interactions with friends, lovers and family. On December 6, 1916, a third son, Lawrence Neil Weston, was born. He also followed in the footsteps of his father and became a well-known photographer. It was during this period that Weston first met photographer Johan Hagemeyer, whom Weston mentored and lent his studio to from time to time. Later, Hagemeyer would return the favor by letting Weston use his studio in Carmel after he returned from Mexico. For the next several years Weston continued to earn a living by taking portraits in his small studio which he called "the shack".
Meanwhile, Flora was spending all of her time caring for their children. Their fourth son, Cole Weston (1919–2003), was born on January 30, 1919, and afterward she rarely had time to leave their home.
Over the summer of 1920 Weston met two people who were part of the growing Los Angeles cultural scene: Roubaix de l'Abrie Richey, known as "Robo" and a woman he called his wife, Tina Modotti. Modotti, who was then known only as a stage and film actress, was never married to Robo, but they pretended to be for the sake of his family. Weston and Modotti were immediately attracted to each other, and they soon became lovers. Richey knew of Modotti's affair, but he continued to be friends with Weston and later invited him to come to Mexico and share his studio.
The following year Weston agreed to allow Mather to become an equal partner in his studio. For several months they took portraits that they signed with both of their names. This was the only time in his long career that Weston shared credit with another photographer.
Sometime in 1920 he began photographing nude models for the first time. His first models were his wife Flora and their children, but soon thereafter he took at least three nude studies of Mather. He followed these with several more photographs of nude models, the first of dozens of figure studies he would make of friends and lovers over the next twenty years.
Until now Weston had kept his relationships with other women a secret from his wife, but as he began to photograph more nudes Flora became suspicious about what went on with him and his models. Chandler recalled that his mother regularly sent him on "errands" to his father's studio and asked him to tell her who was there and what they were doing.
One of the first who agreed to model nude for Weston was Modotti. She became his primary model for the next several years.
In 1922 he visited his sister May, who had moved to Middletown, Ohio. While there he made five or six photographs of the tall smoke stacks at the nearby Armco steel mill. These images signaled a change in Weston's photographic style, a transition from the soft-focus pictorialism of the past to a new, cleaner-edge style. He immediately recognized the change and later recorded it in his notes: "The Middletown visit was something to remember...most of all in importance was my photographing of 'Armco'...That day I made great photographs, even Stieglitz thought they were important!"
At that time New York City was the cultural center for photography as an art form in America, and Alfred Stieglitz was the most influential figure in photography. Weston badly wanted to go to New York to meet with him, but he did not have enough money to make the trip. His brother-in-law gave him enough money to continue on from Middletown to New York City, and he spent most of October and early November there. While there he met artist Charles Sheeler and photographers Clarence H. White, Gertrude Kasebier, as well as Stieglitz. Weston wrote that Stieglitz told him, "Your work and attitude reassures me. You have shown me at least several prints which have given me a great deal of joy. And I can seldom say that of photographs."
Soon after Weston returned from New York, Robo moved to Mexico and set up a studio there to create batiks. Within a short while he had arranged for a joint exhibition of his work and of photographs by Weston, Mather and a few others. In early 1923 Modotti left by train to be with Robo in Mexico, but he contracted smallpox and died shortly before she arrived. Modotti was grief-stricken, but within a few weeks she felt well enough that she decided to stay and carry out the exhibition that Robo had planned. The show was a success, and due in no small part to his nude studies of Modotti, it firmly established Weston's artistic reputation in Mexico.
After the show closed Modotti returned to California, and Weston and she made plans to return to Mexico together. He wanted to spend a couple of months there photographing and promoting his work, and, conveniently, he could travel under the pretense of Modotti being his assistant and translator.
The week before he left for Mexico, Weston briefly reunited with Mather and took several nudes of her lying in the sand at Redondo Beach. These images were very different from his previous nude studies – sharply focused and showing her entire body in relation to the natural setting. They have been called the artistic prototypes for his most famous nudes, those of Charis Wilson which he would take more than a decade later.
1923–27: Mexico
On July 30, 1923, Weston, his son Chandler, and Modotti left on a steamer for the extended trip to Mexico. His wife, Flora, and their other three sons waved goodbye to them at the dock. It's unknown what Flora understood or thought about the relationship between Weston and Modotti, but she is reported to have called out at the dock, "Tina, take good care of my boys."
They arrived in Mexico City on August 11 and rented a large hacienda outside of the city. Within a month he had arranged for an exhibition of his work at the Aztec Land Gallery, and on October 17 the show opened to glowing press reviews. He was particularly proud of a review by Marius de Zayas that said "Photography is beginning to be photography, for until now it has only been art."
The different culture and scenery in Mexico forced Weston to look at things in new ways. He became more responsive to what was in front of him, and he turned his camera on everyday objects like toys, doorways and bathroom fixtures. He also made several intimate nudes and portraits of Modotti. He wrote in his Daybooks:
The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself...I feel definite in the belief that the approach to photography is through realism.
Weston continued to photograph the people and things around him, and his reputation in Mexico increased the longer he stayed. He had a second exhibition at the Aztec Land Gallery in 1924, and he had a steady stream of local socialites asking him to take their portraits. At the same time, Weston began to miss his other sons back in the U.S. As with many of his actions, though, it was a woman who motivated him most. He had recently corresponded with a woman he had known for several years named Miriam Lerner, and as her letters became more passionate he longed to see her again.
He and Chandler returned to San Francisco at the end of 1924, and the next month he set up a studio with Johan Hagemeyer. Weston seemed to be struggling with his past and his future during this period. He burned all of his pre-Mexico journals, as though trying to erase the past, and started a new series of nudes with Lerner and with his son Neil. He wrote that these images were "the start of a new period in my approach and attitude towards photography."
His new relationship with Lerner did not last long, and in August 1925 he returned to Mexico, this time with his son Brett. Modotti had arranged a joint show of their photographs, and it opened the week he returned. He received new critical acclaim and six of his prints were purchased for the State Museum. For the next several months he concentrated once again on photographing folk art, toys and local scenes. One of his strongest images of this period is of three black clay pots that art historian Rene d'Harnoncourt described as "the beginning of a new art."
In May 1926 Weston signed a contract with writer Anita Brenner for $1,000 to make photographs for a book she was writing about Mexican folk art. In June he, Modotti and Brett started traveling around the country in search of lesser known native arts and crafts. His contract required him to give Brenner three finished prints from 400 8x10 negatives, and it took him until November of that year to complete the work. During their travels, Brett received a crash course in photography from his father, and he made more than two dozen prints which his father judged to be of exceptional quality.
By the time they returned from their trip, Weston and Modotti's relationship had crumbled, and within less than two weeks he and Brett returned to California. He never traveled to Mexico again.
1927–35: Glendale to Carmel
Weston initially returned to his old studio in Glendale (previously called Tropico). He hastily arranged a dual exhibition at University of California of the photographs that he and Brett had made the year before. The father showed 100 prints and the son showed 20. Brett was only 15 years old at the time.
In February he started a new series of nudes, this time of dancer Bertha Wardell. One of this series, of her kneeling body cut off at the shoulders, is one of Weston's most well-known figure studies. At this same time he met Canadian painter Henrietta Shore, whom he asked to comment on the photos of Wardell. He was surprised by her honest critique: "I wish you would not do so many nudes – you are getting used to them, the subject no longer amazes you ‒ most of these are just nudes."
He asked to look at her work and was intrigued by her large paintings of sea shells. He borrowed several shells from her, thinking he might find some inspiration for a new still life series. Over the next few weeks he explored many different kinds of shell and background combinations – in his log of photographs taken for 1927 he listed fourteen negatives of shells. One of these, simply called Nautilus, 1927" (sometimes called Shell, 1927), became one of his most famous images. Modotti called the image "mystical and erotic," and when she showed it to Rene d'Harnoncourt he said he felt "weak at the knees." Weston is known to have made at least twenty-eight prints of this image, more than he had made of any other shell image.
In September of that year Weston had a major exhibition at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. At the opening of the show he met fellow photographer Willard Van Dyke, who later introduced Weston to Ansel Adams.
In May 1928, Weston and Brett made a brief but important trip to the Mojave Desert. It was there that he first explored and photographed landscapes as an art form. He found the stark rock forms and empty spaces to be a visual revelation, and over a long weekend he took twenty-seven photographs. In his journal he declared "these negatives are the most important I have ever done."
Later that year he and Brett moved to San Francisco, where they lived and worked in a small studio owned by Hagemeyer. He made portraits to earn an income, but he longed to get away by himself and get back to his art. In early 1929 he moved to Hagemeyer's cottage in Carmel, and it was there that he finally found the solitude and the inspiration that he was seeking. He placed a sign in studio window that said, "Edward Weston, photographer, Unretouched Portraits, Prints for Collectors."
He started making regular trips to nearby Point Lobos, where he would continue to photograph until the end of his career. It was there that he learned to fine-tune his photographic vision to match the visual space of his view camera, and the images he took there, of kelp, rocks and wind-blown trees, are among his finest. Looking at his work from this period, one biographer wrote:
"Weston arranged his compositions so that things happened on the edges; lines almost cross or meet and circular lines just touch the edges tangentially; his compositions were now created exclusively for a space with the proportions of eight by ten. There is no extraneous space nor is there too little."
In early April 1929, Weston met photographer Sonya Noskowiak at a party, and by the end of the month she was living with him. As with many of his other relationships, she became his model, muse, pupil and assistant. They would continue to live together for five years.
Intrigued by the many kinds and shapes of kelp he found on the beaches near Carmel, in 1930 Weston began taking close-ups of vegetables and fruits. He made a variety of photographs of cabbage, kale, onions, bananas, and finally, his most iconic image, peppers. In August of that year Noskowiak brought him several green peppers, and over a four-day period he shot at least thirty different negatives. Of these, Pepper No. 30, is among the all-time masterpieces of photography.
Weston had a series of important one-man exhibitions in 1930–31. The first was at Alma Reed's Delphic Studio Gallery in New York, followed closely by a mounting of the same show at the Denny Watrous Gallery in Carmel. Both received rave reviews, including a two-page article in the New York Times Magazine. These were followed by shows at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and the Galerie Jean Naert in Paris.
Although he was succeeding professionally his personal life was very complex. For most of their marriage, Flora was able to take care of their children because of an inheritance from her parents. However, the Wall Street crash of 1929 had wiped out most of her savings, and Weston felt increased pressure to help provide more for her and his sons. He described this time as "the most trying economic period of my life."
In 1932, The Art of Edward Weston, the first book devoted exclusively to Weston's work, was published. It was edited by Merle Armitage and dedicated to Alice Rohrer, an admirer and patron of Weston whose $500 donation helped pay for the book to be published.
During the same time a small group of like-minded photographers in the San Francisco area, led by Van Dyke and Ansel Adams, began informally meeting to discuss their common interest and aesthetics. Inspired by Weston's show at the De Young Museum the previous year, they approached the museum with the idea of mounting a group exhibition of their work. They named themselves Group f/64, and in November 1932, an exhibition of 80 of their prints opened at the museum. The show was a critical success.
In 1933 Weston bought a 4 × 5 Graflex camera, which was much smaller and lighter than the large view camera he had used for many years. He began taking close-up nudes of Noskowiak and other models. The smaller camera allowed him to interact more with his models, while at the same time the nudes he took during this period began to resemble some of the contorted root and vegetables he had taken the year before.
In early 1934, "a new and important chapter opened" in Weston's life when he met Charis Wilson at a concert. Even more than with his previous lovers, Weston was immediately captivated by her beauty and her personality. He wrote: "A new love came into my life, a most beautiful one, one which will, I believe, stand the test of time." On April 22 he photographed her nude for the first time, and they entered into an intense relationship. He was still living with Noskowiak at that time, but within two weeks he asked her to move out, declaring that for him other women were "as inevitable as the tides".
Perhaps because of the intensity of his new relationship, he stopped writing in his Daybooks at this same time. Six months later he wrote one final entry, looking back from April 22:
After eight months we are closer together than ever. Perhaps C. will be remembered as the great love of my life. Already I have achieved certain heights reached with no other love.
1935–45: Guggenheim grant to Wildcat Hill
In January 1935 Weston was facing increasing financial difficulties. He closed his studio in Carmel and moved to Santa Monica Canyon, California, where he opened a new studio with Brett. He implored Wilson to come and live with him, and in August 1935 she finally agreed. While she had an intense interest in his work, Wilson was the first woman Weston had lived with since Flora who had no interest in becoming a photographer. This allowed Weston to concentrate on her as his muse and model, and in turn Wilson devoted her time to promoting Weston's art as his assistant and quasi-agent.
Almost immediately he began taking a new series of nudes with Wilson as the model. One of the first photographs he took of her, on the balcony of their home, became one of his most published images (Nude (Charis, Santa Monica)). Soon after they took the first of several trips to Oceano Dunes. It was there that Weston made some of his most daring and intimate photographs of any of his models, capturing Wilson in completely uninhibited poses in the sand dunes. He exhibited only one or two of this series in his lifetime, thinking several of the others were "too erotic" for the general public.
Although his recent work had received critical acclaim, he was not earning enough income from his artistic images to provide a steady income. Rather than going back to relying solely on portraiture, he started the "Edward Weston Print of the Month Club", offering selections of his photos for a monthly $5 subscription. Each month subscribers would receive a new print from Weston, with a limited edition of 40 copies of each print. Although he created these prints with the same high standards that he did for his exhibition prints, it is thought that he never had more than eleven subscribers.
At the suggestion of Beaumont Newhall, Weston decided to apply for a Guggenheim Foundation grant (now known as a Guggenheim Fellowship). He wrote a two-sentence description about his work, assembled thirty-five of his favorite prints, and sent it in. Afterward Dorothea Lange and her husband suggested that the application was too brief to be seriously considered, and Weston resubmitted it with a four-page letter and work plan. He did not mention that Wilson had written the new application for him.
On March 22, 1937, Weston received notification that he had been awarded a Guggenheim grant, the first ever given to a photographer. The award was $2,000 for one year, a significant amount of money at that time. He was able to further capitalize on the award by arranging to provide the editor of AAA Westway Magazine with 8–10 photos per month for $50 during their travels, with Wilson getting an additional $15 monthly for photo captions and short narratives. They purchased a new car and set out on Weston's dream trip to go and photograph whatever he wanted. Over the next twelve months they made seventeen trips and covered 16,697 miles according to Wilson's detailed log. Weston made 1,260 negatives during the trip.
The freedom of this trip with the "love of his life", combined with all of his sons now reaching the age of adulthood, gave Weston the motivation to finally divorce his wife. They had been living apart for sixteen years.
Due to the success of the past year, Weston applied for and received a second year of Guggenheim support. Although he wanted to do some additional traveling, he intended to use most of the money to allow him to print his past year's work. He commissioned Neil to build a small home in the Carmel Highlands on property owned by Wilson's father. They named the place "Wildcat Hill" because of the many domestic cats that soon occupied the grounds.
Wilson set up a writing studio in what was intended to be a small garage behind the house, and she spent several months writing and editing stories from their travels.
In 1939, Seeing California with Edward Weston was published, with photographs by Weston and writing by Wilson. Finally relieved from the financial stresses of the past and inordinately happy with his work and his relationship, Weston married Wilson in a small ceremony on April 24.
Buoyed by the success of their first book, in 1940 they published California and the West. The first edition, featuring 96 of Weston's photos with text by Wilson, sold for $3.95. Over the summer, Weston taught photography at the first Ansel Adams Workshop at Yosemite National Park.
Just as the Guggenheim money was running out, Weston was invited to illustrate a new edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. He would receive $1,000 for photographs and $500 travel expenses. Weston insisted on having artistic control of the images he would take and insisted that he would not be taking literal illustrations of Whitman's text. On May 28 he and Wilson began a trip that would cover 20,000 miles through 24 states; he took between 700 and 800 8x10 negatives as well as dozens of Graflex portraits.
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the United States entered World War II. Weston was near the end of the Whitman trip, and he was deeply affected by the outbreak of the war. He wrote: "When the war broke out we scurried home. Charis did not want to scurry. I did."
He spent the first few months of 1942 organizing and printing the negatives from the Whitman trip. Of the hundreds of images he took, forty-nine were selected for publication.
Due to the war, Point Lobos was closed to the public for several years. Weston continued to work on images centered on Wildcat Hill, including shots of the many cats that lived there. Weston treated them with the same serious intent that he applied to all of his other subjects, and Charis assembled the results into their most unusual publication, The Cats of Wildcat Hill, which was finally published in 1947.
The year 1945 marked the beginning of significant changes for Weston. He began to experience the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a debilitating ailment that gradually stole his strength and his ability to photograph. He withdrew from Wilson, who at the same time began to become more involved in local politics and the Carmel cultural scene. A strength that originally brought them together – her lack of interest in becoming a photographer herself – eventually led to their break-up. She wrote, "My flight from Edward was also partly an escape from photography, which had taken up so much room in my life for so many years."
While working on a major retrospective exhibition for the Museum of Modern Art, he and Wilson separated. Weston returned to Glendale since the land for their cabin at Wildcat Hill still belonged to Wilson's father. Within a few months she moved out and arranged to sell the property to him.
1946–58: Final years
In February 1946, Weston's major retrospective opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He and Beaumont Newhall selected 313 prints for the exhibition, and eventually 250 photographs were displayed along with 11 negatives. At that time many of his prints were still for sale, and he sold 97 prints from the exhibit at $25 per print. Later that year, Weston was asked by Dr. George L. Waters of Kodak to produce 8 × 10 Kodachrome transparencies for their advertising campaign. Weston had never worked in color before, primarily because he had no means of developing or printing the more complicated color process. He accepted their offer in no small part because they offered him $250 per image, the highest amount he would be paid for any single work in his lifetime. He eventually sold seven color works to Kodak of landscapes and scenery at Point Lobos and nearby Monterey harbor.
In 1947 as his Parkinson's disease progressed, Weston began looking for an assistant. Serendipitously, an eager young photographic enthusiast, Dody Weston Thompson, contacted him in search of employment.
Weston mentioned he had just that morning written a letter to Ansel Adams, looking for someone seeking to learn photography in exchange for carrying his bulky large-format camera and to provide a much needed automobile. There was a swift meeting of creative minds. For the remainder of 1947 through the beginning of 1948, Dody commuted from San Francisco on weekends to learn from Weston the basics of photography. In early 1948, Dody moved into "Bodie House," the guest cottage at Edward's Wildcat Hill compound, as his full-time assistant.
By late 1948 he was no longer physically able to use his large view camera. That year he took his last photographs, at Point Lobos. His final negative was an image he called, "Rocks and Pebbles, 1948". Although diminished in his capacity, Weston never stopped being a photographer. He worked with his sons and Dody to catalog his images and especially to oversee the publication and printing of his work. In 1950 there was a major retrospective of his work at the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris, and in 1952 he published a Fiftieth Anniversary portfolio, with images printed by Brett.
During this time he worked with Cole, Brett, and Dody Thompson (Brett's wife by 1952), to select and have them print a master set of what he considered his best work. They spent many long hours together in the darkroom, and by 1956 they had produced what Weston called "The Project Prints", eight sets of 8" × 10" prints from 830 of his negatives. The only complete set today is housed at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Later that same year the Smithsonian Institution displayed nearly 100 of these prints at a major exhibit, "The World of Edward Weston", paying tribute to his accomplishments in American photography.
Weston died at his home on Wildcat Hill on New Year's Day, 1958. His sons scattered his ashes into the Pacific Ocean at an area then known as Pebbly Beach on Point Lobos. Due to Weston's significant influence in the area, the beach was later renamed Weston Beach. He had $300 in his bank account at the time of his death.
Equipment and techniques
Cameras and lenses
During his lifetime Weston worked with several cameras. He began as a more serious photographer in 1902 when he purchased a 5 × 7 camera. When he moved to Tropico, now part of Glendale, and opened his studio in 1911, he acquired an enormous 11 x 14 Graf Variable studio portrait camera. Roi Partridge, Imogen Cunningham's husband, later made an etching of Weston in his studio, dwarfed by the giant camera in front of him. After he began taking more portraits of children, he bought a 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ Graflex in 1912 to better capture their quickly changing expressions.
When he went to Mexico in 1924 he took an 8 × 10 Seneca folding-bed view camera with several lenses, including a Graf Variable and a Wollensak Verito. While in Mexico he purchased a used Rapid Rectilinear lens which was his primary lens for many years. The lens, now in the George Eastman House, did not have a manufacturer's name. He also took to Mexico a 3¼ × 4¼ Graflex with a ƒ/4.5 Tessar lens, which he used for portraits.
In 1933 he purchased a 4 × 5 R. B. Auto-Graflex] and used it thereafter for all portraits. He continued to use the Seneca view camera for all other work.
In 1939 he listed the following items as his standard equipment:
8 x 10 Century Universal
Triple convertible Turner Reich, 12", 21", 28"
K2, G, A filters
12 film holders
Paul Ries Tripod
He continued to use this equipment throughout his life.
Film
Prior to 1921 Weston used an orthochromatic sheet film, but when panchromatic film became widely available in 1921 he switched to it for all of his work. According to his son Cole, after Agfa Isopan film came out in the 1930s Weston used it for his black-and-white images for the rest of his life. This film was rated at about ISO 25, but the developing technique Weston used reduced the effective rating to about ISO 12.
The 8 × 10 cameras he preferred were large and heavy, and due to the weight and the cost of the film he never carried more than twelve sheet film holders with him. At the end of each day, he had to go into a darkroom, unload the film holders and load them with new film. This was especially challenging when he was traveling since he had to find a darkened room somewhere or else set up a makeshift darkroom made from heavy canvas.
In spite of the bulky size of the view camera, Weston boasted he could "set up the tripod, fasten the camera securely to it, attach the lens to the camera, open the shutter, study the image on the ground glass, focus it, close the shutter, insert the plate holder, cock the shutter, set it to the appropriate aperture and speed, remove the slide from the plate holder, make the exposure, replace the slide, and remove the plate holder in two minutes and twenty seconds."
The smaller Graflex cameras he used had the advantage of using film magazines that held either 12 or 18 sheets of film. Weston preferred these cameras when taking portraits because he could respond more quickly to the sitter. He reported that with his Graflex he once made three dozen negatives of Tina Modotti within 20 minutes.In 1946 a representative from Kodak asked Weston to try out their new Kodachrome film, and over the next two years he made at least 60 8 x 10 color images using this film." They were some of the last photographs he took, since by late 1948 he was no longer able to operate a camera due to the effects of his Parkinson's disease.
Exposures
During the first 20 years of his photography Weston determined all of his exposure settings by estimation based on his previous experiences and the relatively narrow tolerances of the film at that time. He said, "I dislike to figure out time, and find my exposures more accurate when only "felt"." In the late 1930s he acquired a Weston exposure meter and continued to use it as an aid to determine exposures throughout his career. Photo historian Nancy Newhall wrote that "Young photographers are confused and amazed when they behold him measuring with his meter every value in the sphere where he intends to work, from the sky to the ground under his feet. He is "feeling the light" and checking his own observations. After which he puts the meter away and does what he thinks. Often he adds up everything ‒ filters, extension, film, speed, and so on ‒ and doubles the computation." Weston, Newhall noted, believed in "massive exposure", which he then compensated for by hand-processing the film in a weak developer solution and individually inspecting each negative as it continued to develop to get the right balance of highlights and shadows.
The low ISO rating of the sheet film Weston used necessitated very long exposures when using his view camera, ranging from 1 to 3 seconds for outdoor landscape exposures to as long as 4½ hours for still lifes such as peppers or shells. When he used one of the Graflex cameras the exposure times were much shorter (usually less than ¼ second), and he was sometimes able to work without a tripod.
Darkroom
Weston always made contact prints, meaning that the print was exactly the same size as the negative. This was essential for the platinum printing that he preferred early in his career, since at that time the platinum papers required ultra-violet light to activate. Weston did not have an artificial ultra-violet light source, so he had to place the contact print directly in sunlight to expose it. This limited him to printing only on sunny days.
When he wanted a print that was larger than the original negative size, he used an enlarger to create a larger inter-positive, then contact printed it to a new negative. The new larger negative was then used to make a print of that size. This process was very labor-intensive; he once wrote in his Daybooks "I am utterly exhausted tonight after a whole day in the darkroom, making eight contact negatives from the enlarged positives."
In 1924 Weston wrote this about his darkroom process, "I have returned, after several years use of Metol-Hydroquinine open-tank" developer to a three-solution Pyro developer, and I develop one at a time in a tray instead of a dozen in a tank." Each sheet of film was viewed under either a green or an orange safelight in his darkroom, allowing him to control the individual development of a negative. He continued to use this technique for the rest of his life.
Weston was known to extensively use dodging and burning to achieve the look he wanted in his prints.
Paper
Early in his career Weston printed on several kinds of paper, including Velox, Apex, Convira, Defender Velour Black and Haloid. When he went to Mexico he learned how to use platinum and palladium paper, made by Willis & Clement and imported from England. After his return to California, he abandoned platinum and palladium printing due to the scarcity and increasing price of the paper. Eventually he was able to get most of the same qualities he preferred with Kodak's Azo glossy silver gelatin paper developed in Amidol. He continued to use this paper almost exclusively until he stopped printing.
Writings
Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957. He hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children.
In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died.
Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure."
In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers.
Quotations
"Form follows function." Who said this I don't know, but the writer spoke well.
I am not a technician and have no interest in technique for its own sake. If my technique is adequate to present my seeing then I need nothing more.
I see no reason for recording the obvious.
If there is symbolism in my work, it can only be the seeing of parts ‒ fragments ‒ as universal symbols. All basic forms are so closely related as to be visually equivalent.
My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea.
My work-purpose, my theme, can most nearly be stated as the recognition, recording and presentation of the interdependence, the relativity, of all things ‒ the universality of basic form.
The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?
This then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock.
What then is the end toward which I work? To present the significance of facts, so that they are transformed from things seen to things known.
When money enters in ‒ then, for a price, I become a liar ‒ and a good one I can be whether with pencil or subtle lighting or viewpoint. I hate it all, but so do I support not only my family, but my own work.
Legacy
As of 2013, two of Weston's photographs feature among the most expensive photographs ever sold. The Nude, 1925 taken in 1925 was bought by the gallerist Peter MacGill for $1.6 million in 2008. Nautilus of 1927 was sold for $1.1 million in 2010, also to MacGill.
Major exhibitions
1970, the Rencontres d'Arles festival (France) presented an exhibition "Hommage à Edward Weston" and an evening screening of the film The Photographer (1948) by Willard Van Dyke.
November 25, 1986 – March 29, 1987 Edward Weston in Los Angeles at Huntington Library
1986 Edward Weston: Color Photography at Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
May 13 – August 27, 1989 Edward Weston in New Mexico at Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe
Edward Weston : the Last Years in Carmel at The Art Institute of Chicago, June 2 – September 16, 2001, and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mar. 1 – July 9, 2002.
List of photographs
The artistic career of Weston spanned more than forty years, from roughly 1915 to 1956. A prolific photographer, he produced more than 1,000 black-and-white photographs and some 50 color images. This list is an incomplete selection of Weston's better-known photographs.
Notes
References
Sources
Abbott, Brett. Edward Weston: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005.
Alinder, Mary Street. Group f.64: Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and the Community of Artists Who Revolutionized American Photography. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2014.
Bunnell, Peter C. Edward Weston on Photography. Salt Lake City: P. Smith Books, 1983.
Bunnell, Peter C., David Featherston et al. EW 100: Centennial Essays in Honor of Edward Weston. Carmel, Calif. : Friends of Photography, 1986.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston in Mexico, 1923–1926. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983.
Conger, Amy (1992). Edward Weston – Photographs From the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1992.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston: The Form of The Nude. NY: Phaidon, 2006.
Edward Weston : Color Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1986.
Enyeart, James. Edward Weston's California landscapes. Boston : Little, Brown, 1984.
Foley, Kathy Kelsey. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister. Dayton: Dayton Art Institute, 1978.
Heyman, There Thau. Seeing Straight: The f.64 Revolution in Photography. Oakland: Oakland Art Museum, 1992.
Higgins, Gary. Truth, Myth and Erasure: Tina Modotti and Edward Weston. Tempe, Ariz. : School of Art, Arizona State University, 1991.
Hochberg, Judith and Michael P. Mattis. Edward Weston: Life Work. Photographs from the Collection of Judith G. Hochberg and Michael P. Mattis. Revere, Pa.: Lodima Press, c2003.
Hooks, Margaret. Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary. London: Pandora, 1993.
Lowe, Sarah M. Tina Modotti and Edward Weston the Mexico Years. London: Merrell, 2004.
Maddow, Ben. Edward Weston: Fifty Years; The Definitive Volume of His Photographic Work. Millerton, N.Y., Aperture, 1973. ,
Maggia, Filippo. Edward Weston. New York: Skira, 2013.
Mora, Gilles (ed.). Edward Weston: Forms of Passion. NY: Abrams, 1995.
Morgan, Susan. Portraits / Edward Weston. NY: Aperture, 1995.
Newhall, Beaumont (1984). Edward Weston Omnibus: A Critical Anthology. Salt Lake City : Peregrine Smith Books, 1984.
Newhall, Beaumont . Supreme Instants: The Photography of Edward Weston. Boston : Little, Brown, 1986.
Newhall, Nancy (ed.). Edward Weston; The Flame of Recognition: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY: Aperture, 1971.
Pitts, Terence. Edward Weston 1886–1958. Köln: Taschen, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E., Karen Quinn and Leslie Furth. Edward Weston : Photography and Modernism. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E. Weston's Westons : Portraits and Nudes. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1989.
Travis, David. Edward Weston, The Last Years in Carmel. Chicago: Art Institute, 2001.
Warren, Beth Gates. Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011.
Warren, Beth Gates. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs. NY: Sotheby's, 2008.
Warren, Beth Gates (2001). Margrethe Mather & Edward Weston: A Passionate Collaboration. NY: Norton, 2001.
Watts, Jennifer A. (ed.). Edward Weston : A Legacy. London: Merrell, 2003.
Weston, Edward (1964). The Daybooks of Edward Weston. Edited by Nancy Nehall. NY: Horizon Press, 1961–1964. 2 vols.
Weston, Edward. My Camera on Point Lobos; 30 Photographs and Excerpts from E. W.’s Daybook. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.
Weston, Paulette. Laughing Eyes: a Book of Letters Between Edward and Cole Weston 1923–1946. Carmel: Carmel Publishing Co., 1999.
Wilson, Charis. Edward Weston Nudes: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY : Aperture, 1977.
Wilson, Charis. Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
Woods, John. Dune: Edward & Brett Weston. Kalispell, MT: Wild Horse Island Press, 2003.
External links
edward-weston.com
Edward Weston Collection at the Center for Creative Photography
Ben Maddow "Edward Weston Lecture" The Baltimore Museum of Art: Baltimore, Maryland, 1976. Retrieved June 26, 2012
The Eloquent Nude: The Love and Legacy of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson Documentary concerning Edward Weston, his muse Charis Wilson and photographer Ansel Adams.
Encyclopædia Britannica
Landscape photographers
American portrait photographers
1886 births
1958 deaths
History of platinum printing
Photographers from California
Artists from Chicago
People from Highland Park, Illinois
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Neurological disease deaths in California
20th-century American photographers
Fine art photographers
Olympic archers of the United States
American male archers
Archers at the 1904 Summer Olympics
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[
"Hill Top is an unincorporated community in Fleming County, Kentucky, United States. Hill Top is located at the junction of Kentucky Route 170 and Kentucky Route 1347, southwest of Flemingsburg.\n\nNotable residents\nFranklin Sousley, one of the men shown in the famous Joe Rosenthal Associated Press photograph of US Marines and Sailors raising the second US flag on Iwo Jima, was born in Hill Top on 19 September 1925. He was killed in action on Iwo Jima after having been shot by a Japanese sniper on 21 March 1945, about a month after the famous photograph was captured. He was only 19 years of age. His body was first interred on Iwo Jima, but was later returned home for his final interment on May 8, 1947, in Elizaville Cemetery.\n\nReferences\n\nUnincorporated communities in Fleming County, Kentucky\nUnincorporated communities in Kentucky",
"Grace is a photograph by Eric Enstrom. It depicts an elderly man with hands folded, saying a prayer over a table with a simple meal. In 2002, an act of the Minnesota State Legislature established it as the state photograph.\n\nHistory and background\n\nThe original photograph was taken at Enstrom's photography studio in Bovey, Minnesota. Most sources indicate 1918 as the year, though Enstrom's daughter Rhoda, born in 1917, claimed to remember being present when the photograph was taken, which might have been around 1920. The man depicted in the photograph is Charles Wilden, who earned a meager living as a peddler and lived in a sod house. While the photograph conveys a sense of piety to many viewers, according to the Enstrom family's story, the book seen in the photo is actually a dictionary. However Wilden wrote \"Bible\" on the waiver of rights to the photo which he signed in exchange for payment, giving credence to the idea that, even if the actual prop used was a dictionary, it was a proxy representing a bible in the photograph. Likewise, local stories about Wilden \"centered more around drinking and not accomplishing very much\", than religious observation.\n\nWhat happened to Wilden after the photograph is unknown. In 1926, he was paid $5 by Enstrom in return for waiving his rights to the photograph; he disappeared thereafter. After the photograph became popular, Enstrom attempted to track Wilden down but was unsuccessful. Numerous family members and local historians have also attempted to determine what became of Wilden, but have not been able to locate definitive evidence.\n\nEnstrom first licensed the photograph to Augsburg Publishing House in 1930. In the 1940s, his daughter, Rhoda Nyberg, colorized the photo by hand. This version was featured in prints produced during the 1940s onward and became the more widespread and popularly known version of the photo.\n\nEnstrom earned a modest sum from the photograph for the remainder of his life until his death in 1968. Nyberg died in 2012.\n\nLegacy \nIn 2014, the stage play Picturing Grace premiered, which presents a dramatized retelling of the story behind the photograph, its photographer and subject. The play premiered in Itasca County, the same region in which the photograph was captured.\n \nThe water tower in the town of Bovey, MN has the following words painted on the side: BOVEY / / \"GRACE\".\n\nThe extremely deep lake (previously an iron ore mine) which borders Bovey on the west and north has not been named on any known map. A past resident of Bovey has used social media to promote the idea of naming it Lake Grace.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nGrace (Minnesota state photograph) in MNopedia: the Minnesota Encyclopedia\nGrace, by Enstrom – Official, Enstrom family website\n\n1918 works\n1918 in art\n1918 in the United States\nSymbols of Minnesota\nBlack-and-white photographs\nPhotographs of the United States\nPrayer\nChristian art\n1910s photographs"
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[
"Edward Weston",
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"What was his most famous photograph?",
"I don't know."
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C_7efe68873f1f4b09adc565dfd928bf98_0
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How long did each photo take to produce?
| 2 |
How long did each photo take Edward Weston to produce?
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Edward Weston
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Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957, and he hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children. In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died. Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure." In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers. CANNOTANSWER
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Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still-lifes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies. It is said that he developed a "quintessentially American, and especially Californian, approach to modern photography" because of his focus on the people and places of the American West. In 1937 Weston was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, and over the next two years he produced nearly 1,400 negatives using his 8 × 10 view camera. Some of his most famous
photographs were taken of the trees and rocks at Point Lobos, California, near where he lived for many years.
Weston was born in Chicago and moved to California when he was 21. He knew he wanted to be a photographer from an early age, and initially his work was typical of the soft focus pictorialism that was popular at the time. Within a few years, however he abandoned that style and went on to be one of the foremost champions of highly detailed photographic images.
In 1947 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and he soon stopped photographing. He spent the remaining ten years of his life overseeing the printing of more than 1,000 of his most famous images.
Life and work
1886–1906: Early life
Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois, the second child and only son of Edward Burbank Weston, an obstetrician, and Alice Jeanette Brett, a Shakespearean actress. His mother died when he was five years old and he was raised mostly by his sister Mary, whom he called "May" or "Maisie". She was nine years older than he, and they developed a very close bond that was one of the few steady relationships in Weston's life.
His father remarried when he was nine, but neither Weston nor his sister got along with their new stepmother and stepbrother. After May was married and left their home in 1897, Weston's father devoted most of his time to his new wife and her son. Weston was left on his own much of the time; he stopped going to school and withdrew into his own room in their large home.
As a present for his 16th birthday Weston's father gave him his first camera, a Kodak Bull's-Eye No. 2, which was a simple box camera. He took it on vacation in the Midwest, and by the time he returned home his interest in photography was enough to lead him to purchase a used 5 × 7 inch view camera. He began photographing in Chicago parks and a farm owned by his aunt, and developed his own film and prints. Later he would remember that even at that early age his work showed strong artistic merit. He said, "I feel that my earliest work of 1903 ‒ though immature ‒ is related more closely, both with technique and composition, to my latest work than are several of my photographs dating from 1913 to 1920, a period in which I was trying to be artistic."
In 1904 May and her family moved to California, leaving Weston further isolated in Chicago. He earned a living by taking a job at a local department store, but he continued to spend most of his free time taking photos, Within two years he felt confident enough of his photography that he submitted his work to the magazine Camera and Darkroom, and in the April 1906 issue they published a full-page reproduction of his picture Spring, Chicago. This is the first known publication of any of his photographs.
In September 1904, Weston took part in the men's double American round archery event at the 1904 Summer Olympics with his father also taking part in the same event.
1906–23: Becoming a photographer
At his sister's urging Weston left Chicago in the spring of 1906 and moved near May's home in Tropico, California (now a neighborhood in Glendale). He decided to stay there and pursue a career in photography, but he soon realized he needed more professional training. A year later he moved to Effingham, Illinois, to enroll in the Illinois College of Photography. They taught a nine-month course, but Weston finished all of the class work in six months. The school refused to give him a diploma unless he paid for the full nine months; Weston refused and instead moved back to California in the spring of 1908.
He briefly worked at the photography studio of George Steckel in Los Angeles, as a negative retoucher. Within a few months he moved to the more established studio of Louis Mojonier. For the next several years he learned the techniques and business of operating a photography studio under Mojonier's direction.
Within days of his visit to Tropico, Weston was introduced to his sister's best friend, Flora May Chandler. She was a graduate of the Normal School, later to become UCLA. She assumed the position of a grade-school teacher in Tropico.
She was seven years older than Weston and a distant relative of Harry Chandler, who at that time was described as the head of "the single most powerful family in Southern California". This fact did not go unnoticed by Weston and his biographers.
On January 30, 1909, Weston and Chandler married in a simple ceremony. The first of their four sons, Edward Chandler Weston (1910–1993), known as Chandler, was born on April 26, 1910.
Named Edward Chandler, after Weston and his wife, he later became an excellent photographer on his own. He clearly learned much by being an assistant to his father in the bungalow studio. In 1923 he bid farewell to his mother and sibling brothers and sailed off to Mexico with his father and his then-muse, Tina Modotti. He gave up any aspirations in pursuing photography as a career after his adventures in Mexico. The lifestyle of fame and its fortune affected him greatly. His later photographs, as a hobbyist, albeit rare, certainly reflect an innate talent for the form.
In 1910 Weston opened his own business, called "The Little Studio", in Tropico. His sister later asked him why he opened his studio in Tropico rather than in the nearby metropolis of Los Angeles, and he replied "Sis, I'm going to make my name so famous that it won't matter where I live."
For the next three years he worked, alone and sometimes with the assistance of family members in his studio. Even at that early stage of his career he was highly particular about his work; in an interview at that time he said "[photographic] plates are nothing to me unless I get what I want. I have used thirty of them at a sitting if I did not secure the effect to suit me."
His critical eye paid off for him and he quickly gained more recognition for his work. He won prizes in national competitions, published several more photographs and wrote articles for magazines such as Photo-Era and American Photography, championing the pictorial style.
On December 16, 1911, Weston's second son, Theodore Brett Weston (1911–1993), was born. He became a long-time artistic collaborator with his father and an important photographer on his own.
Sometime in the fall of 1913, Los Angeles photographer, Margrethe Mather visited Weston's studio because of his growing reputation, and within a few months they developed an intense relationship. Weston was a quiet Midwestern transplant to California, and Mather was a part of the growing bohemian cultural scene in Los Angeles. She was very outgoing and artistic in a flamboyant way, and her permissive sexual morals were far different from the conservative Weston at the time – Mather had been a prostitute and was bisexual with a preference for women. Mather presented a stark contrast to Weston's home life; his wife Flora was described as a "homely, rigid Puritan, and an utterly conventional woman, with whom he had little in common since he abhorred conventions" ‒ and he found Mather's uninhibited lifestyle irresistible and her photographic vision intriguing.
He asked Mather to be his studio assistant, and for the next decade they worked closely together, making individual and jointly signed portraits of writers Carl Sandburg and Max Eastman. A joint exhibition of their work in 2001 revealed that during this period Weston emulated Mather's style and, later, her choice of subjects. On her own Mather photographed "fans, hands, eggs, melons, waves, bathroom fixtures, seashells and birds wings, all subjects that Weston would also explore." A decade later he described her as "the first important person in my life, and perhaps even now, though personal contact has gone, the most important."
In early 1915 Weston began keeping detailed journals he later came to call his "Daybooks". For the next two decades he recorded his thoughts about his work, observations about photography, and his interactions with friends, lovers and family. On December 6, 1916, a third son, Lawrence Neil Weston, was born. He also followed in the footsteps of his father and became a well-known photographer. It was during this period that Weston first met photographer Johan Hagemeyer, whom Weston mentored and lent his studio to from time to time. Later, Hagemeyer would return the favor by letting Weston use his studio in Carmel after he returned from Mexico. For the next several years Weston continued to earn a living by taking portraits in his small studio which he called "the shack".
Meanwhile, Flora was spending all of her time caring for their children. Their fourth son, Cole Weston (1919–2003), was born on January 30, 1919, and afterward she rarely had time to leave their home.
Over the summer of 1920 Weston met two people who were part of the growing Los Angeles cultural scene: Roubaix de l'Abrie Richey, known as "Robo" and a woman he called his wife, Tina Modotti. Modotti, who was then known only as a stage and film actress, was never married to Robo, but they pretended to be for the sake of his family. Weston and Modotti were immediately attracted to each other, and they soon became lovers. Richey knew of Modotti's affair, but he continued to be friends with Weston and later invited him to come to Mexico and share his studio.
The following year Weston agreed to allow Mather to become an equal partner in his studio. For several months they took portraits that they signed with both of their names. This was the only time in his long career that Weston shared credit with another photographer.
Sometime in 1920 he began photographing nude models for the first time. His first models were his wife Flora and their children, but soon thereafter he took at least three nude studies of Mather. He followed these with several more photographs of nude models, the first of dozens of figure studies he would make of friends and lovers over the next twenty years.
Until now Weston had kept his relationships with other women a secret from his wife, but as he began to photograph more nudes Flora became suspicious about what went on with him and his models. Chandler recalled that his mother regularly sent him on "errands" to his father's studio and asked him to tell her who was there and what they were doing.
One of the first who agreed to model nude for Weston was Modotti. She became his primary model for the next several years.
In 1922 he visited his sister May, who had moved to Middletown, Ohio. While there he made five or six photographs of the tall smoke stacks at the nearby Armco steel mill. These images signaled a change in Weston's photographic style, a transition from the soft-focus pictorialism of the past to a new, cleaner-edge style. He immediately recognized the change and later recorded it in his notes: "The Middletown visit was something to remember...most of all in importance was my photographing of 'Armco'...That day I made great photographs, even Stieglitz thought they were important!"
At that time New York City was the cultural center for photography as an art form in America, and Alfred Stieglitz was the most influential figure in photography. Weston badly wanted to go to New York to meet with him, but he did not have enough money to make the trip. His brother-in-law gave him enough money to continue on from Middletown to New York City, and he spent most of October and early November there. While there he met artist Charles Sheeler and photographers Clarence H. White, Gertrude Kasebier, as well as Stieglitz. Weston wrote that Stieglitz told him, "Your work and attitude reassures me. You have shown me at least several prints which have given me a great deal of joy. And I can seldom say that of photographs."
Soon after Weston returned from New York, Robo moved to Mexico and set up a studio there to create batiks. Within a short while he had arranged for a joint exhibition of his work and of photographs by Weston, Mather and a few others. In early 1923 Modotti left by train to be with Robo in Mexico, but he contracted smallpox and died shortly before she arrived. Modotti was grief-stricken, but within a few weeks she felt well enough that she decided to stay and carry out the exhibition that Robo had planned. The show was a success, and due in no small part to his nude studies of Modotti, it firmly established Weston's artistic reputation in Mexico.
After the show closed Modotti returned to California, and Weston and she made plans to return to Mexico together. He wanted to spend a couple of months there photographing and promoting his work, and, conveniently, he could travel under the pretense of Modotti being his assistant and translator.
The week before he left for Mexico, Weston briefly reunited with Mather and took several nudes of her lying in the sand at Redondo Beach. These images were very different from his previous nude studies – sharply focused and showing her entire body in relation to the natural setting. They have been called the artistic prototypes for his most famous nudes, those of Charis Wilson which he would take more than a decade later.
1923–27: Mexico
On July 30, 1923, Weston, his son Chandler, and Modotti left on a steamer for the extended trip to Mexico. His wife, Flora, and their other three sons waved goodbye to them at the dock. It's unknown what Flora understood or thought about the relationship between Weston and Modotti, but she is reported to have called out at the dock, "Tina, take good care of my boys."
They arrived in Mexico City on August 11 and rented a large hacienda outside of the city. Within a month he had arranged for an exhibition of his work at the Aztec Land Gallery, and on October 17 the show opened to glowing press reviews. He was particularly proud of a review by Marius de Zayas that said "Photography is beginning to be photography, for until now it has only been art."
The different culture and scenery in Mexico forced Weston to look at things in new ways. He became more responsive to what was in front of him, and he turned his camera on everyday objects like toys, doorways and bathroom fixtures. He also made several intimate nudes and portraits of Modotti. He wrote in his Daybooks:
The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself...I feel definite in the belief that the approach to photography is through realism.
Weston continued to photograph the people and things around him, and his reputation in Mexico increased the longer he stayed. He had a second exhibition at the Aztec Land Gallery in 1924, and he had a steady stream of local socialites asking him to take their portraits. At the same time, Weston began to miss his other sons back in the U.S. As with many of his actions, though, it was a woman who motivated him most. He had recently corresponded with a woman he had known for several years named Miriam Lerner, and as her letters became more passionate he longed to see her again.
He and Chandler returned to San Francisco at the end of 1924, and the next month he set up a studio with Johan Hagemeyer. Weston seemed to be struggling with his past and his future during this period. He burned all of his pre-Mexico journals, as though trying to erase the past, and started a new series of nudes with Lerner and with his son Neil. He wrote that these images were "the start of a new period in my approach and attitude towards photography."
His new relationship with Lerner did not last long, and in August 1925 he returned to Mexico, this time with his son Brett. Modotti had arranged a joint show of their photographs, and it opened the week he returned. He received new critical acclaim and six of his prints were purchased for the State Museum. For the next several months he concentrated once again on photographing folk art, toys and local scenes. One of his strongest images of this period is of three black clay pots that art historian Rene d'Harnoncourt described as "the beginning of a new art."
In May 1926 Weston signed a contract with writer Anita Brenner for $1,000 to make photographs for a book she was writing about Mexican folk art. In June he, Modotti and Brett started traveling around the country in search of lesser known native arts and crafts. His contract required him to give Brenner three finished prints from 400 8x10 negatives, and it took him until November of that year to complete the work. During their travels, Brett received a crash course in photography from his father, and he made more than two dozen prints which his father judged to be of exceptional quality.
By the time they returned from their trip, Weston and Modotti's relationship had crumbled, and within less than two weeks he and Brett returned to California. He never traveled to Mexico again.
1927–35: Glendale to Carmel
Weston initially returned to his old studio in Glendale (previously called Tropico). He hastily arranged a dual exhibition at University of California of the photographs that he and Brett had made the year before. The father showed 100 prints and the son showed 20. Brett was only 15 years old at the time.
In February he started a new series of nudes, this time of dancer Bertha Wardell. One of this series, of her kneeling body cut off at the shoulders, is one of Weston's most well-known figure studies. At this same time he met Canadian painter Henrietta Shore, whom he asked to comment on the photos of Wardell. He was surprised by her honest critique: "I wish you would not do so many nudes – you are getting used to them, the subject no longer amazes you ‒ most of these are just nudes."
He asked to look at her work and was intrigued by her large paintings of sea shells. He borrowed several shells from her, thinking he might find some inspiration for a new still life series. Over the next few weeks he explored many different kinds of shell and background combinations – in his log of photographs taken for 1927 he listed fourteen negatives of shells. One of these, simply called Nautilus, 1927" (sometimes called Shell, 1927), became one of his most famous images. Modotti called the image "mystical and erotic," and when she showed it to Rene d'Harnoncourt he said he felt "weak at the knees." Weston is known to have made at least twenty-eight prints of this image, more than he had made of any other shell image.
In September of that year Weston had a major exhibition at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. At the opening of the show he met fellow photographer Willard Van Dyke, who later introduced Weston to Ansel Adams.
In May 1928, Weston and Brett made a brief but important trip to the Mojave Desert. It was there that he first explored and photographed landscapes as an art form. He found the stark rock forms and empty spaces to be a visual revelation, and over a long weekend he took twenty-seven photographs. In his journal he declared "these negatives are the most important I have ever done."
Later that year he and Brett moved to San Francisco, where they lived and worked in a small studio owned by Hagemeyer. He made portraits to earn an income, but he longed to get away by himself and get back to his art. In early 1929 he moved to Hagemeyer's cottage in Carmel, and it was there that he finally found the solitude and the inspiration that he was seeking. He placed a sign in studio window that said, "Edward Weston, photographer, Unretouched Portraits, Prints for Collectors."
He started making regular trips to nearby Point Lobos, where he would continue to photograph until the end of his career. It was there that he learned to fine-tune his photographic vision to match the visual space of his view camera, and the images he took there, of kelp, rocks and wind-blown trees, are among his finest. Looking at his work from this period, one biographer wrote:
"Weston arranged his compositions so that things happened on the edges; lines almost cross or meet and circular lines just touch the edges tangentially; his compositions were now created exclusively for a space with the proportions of eight by ten. There is no extraneous space nor is there too little."
In early April 1929, Weston met photographer Sonya Noskowiak at a party, and by the end of the month she was living with him. As with many of his other relationships, she became his model, muse, pupil and assistant. They would continue to live together for five years.
Intrigued by the many kinds and shapes of kelp he found on the beaches near Carmel, in 1930 Weston began taking close-ups of vegetables and fruits. He made a variety of photographs of cabbage, kale, onions, bananas, and finally, his most iconic image, peppers. In August of that year Noskowiak brought him several green peppers, and over a four-day period he shot at least thirty different negatives. Of these, Pepper No. 30, is among the all-time masterpieces of photography.
Weston had a series of important one-man exhibitions in 1930–31. The first was at Alma Reed's Delphic Studio Gallery in New York, followed closely by a mounting of the same show at the Denny Watrous Gallery in Carmel. Both received rave reviews, including a two-page article in the New York Times Magazine. These were followed by shows at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and the Galerie Jean Naert in Paris.
Although he was succeeding professionally his personal life was very complex. For most of their marriage, Flora was able to take care of their children because of an inheritance from her parents. However, the Wall Street crash of 1929 had wiped out most of her savings, and Weston felt increased pressure to help provide more for her and his sons. He described this time as "the most trying economic period of my life."
In 1932, The Art of Edward Weston, the first book devoted exclusively to Weston's work, was published. It was edited by Merle Armitage and dedicated to Alice Rohrer, an admirer and patron of Weston whose $500 donation helped pay for the book to be published.
During the same time a small group of like-minded photographers in the San Francisco area, led by Van Dyke and Ansel Adams, began informally meeting to discuss their common interest and aesthetics. Inspired by Weston's show at the De Young Museum the previous year, they approached the museum with the idea of mounting a group exhibition of their work. They named themselves Group f/64, and in November 1932, an exhibition of 80 of their prints opened at the museum. The show was a critical success.
In 1933 Weston bought a 4 × 5 Graflex camera, which was much smaller and lighter than the large view camera he had used for many years. He began taking close-up nudes of Noskowiak and other models. The smaller camera allowed him to interact more with his models, while at the same time the nudes he took during this period began to resemble some of the contorted root and vegetables he had taken the year before.
In early 1934, "a new and important chapter opened" in Weston's life when he met Charis Wilson at a concert. Even more than with his previous lovers, Weston was immediately captivated by her beauty and her personality. He wrote: "A new love came into my life, a most beautiful one, one which will, I believe, stand the test of time." On April 22 he photographed her nude for the first time, and they entered into an intense relationship. He was still living with Noskowiak at that time, but within two weeks he asked her to move out, declaring that for him other women were "as inevitable as the tides".
Perhaps because of the intensity of his new relationship, he stopped writing in his Daybooks at this same time. Six months later he wrote one final entry, looking back from April 22:
After eight months we are closer together than ever. Perhaps C. will be remembered as the great love of my life. Already I have achieved certain heights reached with no other love.
1935–45: Guggenheim grant to Wildcat Hill
In January 1935 Weston was facing increasing financial difficulties. He closed his studio in Carmel and moved to Santa Monica Canyon, California, where he opened a new studio with Brett. He implored Wilson to come and live with him, and in August 1935 she finally agreed. While she had an intense interest in his work, Wilson was the first woman Weston had lived with since Flora who had no interest in becoming a photographer. This allowed Weston to concentrate on her as his muse and model, and in turn Wilson devoted her time to promoting Weston's art as his assistant and quasi-agent.
Almost immediately he began taking a new series of nudes with Wilson as the model. One of the first photographs he took of her, on the balcony of their home, became one of his most published images (Nude (Charis, Santa Monica)). Soon after they took the first of several trips to Oceano Dunes. It was there that Weston made some of his most daring and intimate photographs of any of his models, capturing Wilson in completely uninhibited poses in the sand dunes. He exhibited only one or two of this series in his lifetime, thinking several of the others were "too erotic" for the general public.
Although his recent work had received critical acclaim, he was not earning enough income from his artistic images to provide a steady income. Rather than going back to relying solely on portraiture, he started the "Edward Weston Print of the Month Club", offering selections of his photos for a monthly $5 subscription. Each month subscribers would receive a new print from Weston, with a limited edition of 40 copies of each print. Although he created these prints with the same high standards that he did for his exhibition prints, it is thought that he never had more than eleven subscribers.
At the suggestion of Beaumont Newhall, Weston decided to apply for a Guggenheim Foundation grant (now known as a Guggenheim Fellowship). He wrote a two-sentence description about his work, assembled thirty-five of his favorite prints, and sent it in. Afterward Dorothea Lange and her husband suggested that the application was too brief to be seriously considered, and Weston resubmitted it with a four-page letter and work plan. He did not mention that Wilson had written the new application for him.
On March 22, 1937, Weston received notification that he had been awarded a Guggenheim grant, the first ever given to a photographer. The award was $2,000 for one year, a significant amount of money at that time. He was able to further capitalize on the award by arranging to provide the editor of AAA Westway Magazine with 8–10 photos per month for $50 during their travels, with Wilson getting an additional $15 monthly for photo captions and short narratives. They purchased a new car and set out on Weston's dream trip to go and photograph whatever he wanted. Over the next twelve months they made seventeen trips and covered 16,697 miles according to Wilson's detailed log. Weston made 1,260 negatives during the trip.
The freedom of this trip with the "love of his life", combined with all of his sons now reaching the age of adulthood, gave Weston the motivation to finally divorce his wife. They had been living apart for sixteen years.
Due to the success of the past year, Weston applied for and received a second year of Guggenheim support. Although he wanted to do some additional traveling, he intended to use most of the money to allow him to print his past year's work. He commissioned Neil to build a small home in the Carmel Highlands on property owned by Wilson's father. They named the place "Wildcat Hill" because of the many domestic cats that soon occupied the grounds.
Wilson set up a writing studio in what was intended to be a small garage behind the house, and she spent several months writing and editing stories from their travels.
In 1939, Seeing California with Edward Weston was published, with photographs by Weston and writing by Wilson. Finally relieved from the financial stresses of the past and inordinately happy with his work and his relationship, Weston married Wilson in a small ceremony on April 24.
Buoyed by the success of their first book, in 1940 they published California and the West. The first edition, featuring 96 of Weston's photos with text by Wilson, sold for $3.95. Over the summer, Weston taught photography at the first Ansel Adams Workshop at Yosemite National Park.
Just as the Guggenheim money was running out, Weston was invited to illustrate a new edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. He would receive $1,000 for photographs and $500 travel expenses. Weston insisted on having artistic control of the images he would take and insisted that he would not be taking literal illustrations of Whitman's text. On May 28 he and Wilson began a trip that would cover 20,000 miles through 24 states; he took between 700 and 800 8x10 negatives as well as dozens of Graflex portraits.
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the United States entered World War II. Weston was near the end of the Whitman trip, and he was deeply affected by the outbreak of the war. He wrote: "When the war broke out we scurried home. Charis did not want to scurry. I did."
He spent the first few months of 1942 organizing and printing the negatives from the Whitman trip. Of the hundreds of images he took, forty-nine were selected for publication.
Due to the war, Point Lobos was closed to the public for several years. Weston continued to work on images centered on Wildcat Hill, including shots of the many cats that lived there. Weston treated them with the same serious intent that he applied to all of his other subjects, and Charis assembled the results into their most unusual publication, The Cats of Wildcat Hill, which was finally published in 1947.
The year 1945 marked the beginning of significant changes for Weston. He began to experience the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a debilitating ailment that gradually stole his strength and his ability to photograph. He withdrew from Wilson, who at the same time began to become more involved in local politics and the Carmel cultural scene. A strength that originally brought them together – her lack of interest in becoming a photographer herself – eventually led to their break-up. She wrote, "My flight from Edward was also partly an escape from photography, which had taken up so much room in my life for so many years."
While working on a major retrospective exhibition for the Museum of Modern Art, he and Wilson separated. Weston returned to Glendale since the land for their cabin at Wildcat Hill still belonged to Wilson's father. Within a few months she moved out and arranged to sell the property to him.
1946–58: Final years
In February 1946, Weston's major retrospective opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He and Beaumont Newhall selected 313 prints for the exhibition, and eventually 250 photographs were displayed along with 11 negatives. At that time many of his prints were still for sale, and he sold 97 prints from the exhibit at $25 per print. Later that year, Weston was asked by Dr. George L. Waters of Kodak to produce 8 × 10 Kodachrome transparencies for their advertising campaign. Weston had never worked in color before, primarily because he had no means of developing or printing the more complicated color process. He accepted their offer in no small part because they offered him $250 per image, the highest amount he would be paid for any single work in his lifetime. He eventually sold seven color works to Kodak of landscapes and scenery at Point Lobos and nearby Monterey harbor.
In 1947 as his Parkinson's disease progressed, Weston began looking for an assistant. Serendipitously, an eager young photographic enthusiast, Dody Weston Thompson, contacted him in search of employment.
Weston mentioned he had just that morning written a letter to Ansel Adams, looking for someone seeking to learn photography in exchange for carrying his bulky large-format camera and to provide a much needed automobile. There was a swift meeting of creative minds. For the remainder of 1947 through the beginning of 1948, Dody commuted from San Francisco on weekends to learn from Weston the basics of photography. In early 1948, Dody moved into "Bodie House," the guest cottage at Edward's Wildcat Hill compound, as his full-time assistant.
By late 1948 he was no longer physically able to use his large view camera. That year he took his last photographs, at Point Lobos. His final negative was an image he called, "Rocks and Pebbles, 1948". Although diminished in his capacity, Weston never stopped being a photographer. He worked with his sons and Dody to catalog his images and especially to oversee the publication and printing of his work. In 1950 there was a major retrospective of his work at the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris, and in 1952 he published a Fiftieth Anniversary portfolio, with images printed by Brett.
During this time he worked with Cole, Brett, and Dody Thompson (Brett's wife by 1952), to select and have them print a master set of what he considered his best work. They spent many long hours together in the darkroom, and by 1956 they had produced what Weston called "The Project Prints", eight sets of 8" × 10" prints from 830 of his negatives. The only complete set today is housed at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Later that same year the Smithsonian Institution displayed nearly 100 of these prints at a major exhibit, "The World of Edward Weston", paying tribute to his accomplishments in American photography.
Weston died at his home on Wildcat Hill on New Year's Day, 1958. His sons scattered his ashes into the Pacific Ocean at an area then known as Pebbly Beach on Point Lobos. Due to Weston's significant influence in the area, the beach was later renamed Weston Beach. He had $300 in his bank account at the time of his death.
Equipment and techniques
Cameras and lenses
During his lifetime Weston worked with several cameras. He began as a more serious photographer in 1902 when he purchased a 5 × 7 camera. When he moved to Tropico, now part of Glendale, and opened his studio in 1911, he acquired an enormous 11 x 14 Graf Variable studio portrait camera. Roi Partridge, Imogen Cunningham's husband, later made an etching of Weston in his studio, dwarfed by the giant camera in front of him. After he began taking more portraits of children, he bought a 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ Graflex in 1912 to better capture their quickly changing expressions.
When he went to Mexico in 1924 he took an 8 × 10 Seneca folding-bed view camera with several lenses, including a Graf Variable and a Wollensak Verito. While in Mexico he purchased a used Rapid Rectilinear lens which was his primary lens for many years. The lens, now in the George Eastman House, did not have a manufacturer's name. He also took to Mexico a 3¼ × 4¼ Graflex with a ƒ/4.5 Tessar lens, which he used for portraits.
In 1933 he purchased a 4 × 5 R. B. Auto-Graflex] and used it thereafter for all portraits. He continued to use the Seneca view camera for all other work.
In 1939 he listed the following items as his standard equipment:
8 x 10 Century Universal
Triple convertible Turner Reich, 12", 21", 28"
K2, G, A filters
12 film holders
Paul Ries Tripod
He continued to use this equipment throughout his life.
Film
Prior to 1921 Weston used an orthochromatic sheet film, but when panchromatic film became widely available in 1921 he switched to it for all of his work. According to his son Cole, after Agfa Isopan film came out in the 1930s Weston used it for his black-and-white images for the rest of his life. This film was rated at about ISO 25, but the developing technique Weston used reduced the effective rating to about ISO 12.
The 8 × 10 cameras he preferred were large and heavy, and due to the weight and the cost of the film he never carried more than twelve sheet film holders with him. At the end of each day, he had to go into a darkroom, unload the film holders and load them with new film. This was especially challenging when he was traveling since he had to find a darkened room somewhere or else set up a makeshift darkroom made from heavy canvas.
In spite of the bulky size of the view camera, Weston boasted he could "set up the tripod, fasten the camera securely to it, attach the lens to the camera, open the shutter, study the image on the ground glass, focus it, close the shutter, insert the plate holder, cock the shutter, set it to the appropriate aperture and speed, remove the slide from the plate holder, make the exposure, replace the slide, and remove the plate holder in two minutes and twenty seconds."
The smaller Graflex cameras he used had the advantage of using film magazines that held either 12 or 18 sheets of film. Weston preferred these cameras when taking portraits because he could respond more quickly to the sitter. He reported that with his Graflex he once made three dozen negatives of Tina Modotti within 20 minutes.In 1946 a representative from Kodak asked Weston to try out their new Kodachrome film, and over the next two years he made at least 60 8 x 10 color images using this film." They were some of the last photographs he took, since by late 1948 he was no longer able to operate a camera due to the effects of his Parkinson's disease.
Exposures
During the first 20 years of his photography Weston determined all of his exposure settings by estimation based on his previous experiences and the relatively narrow tolerances of the film at that time. He said, "I dislike to figure out time, and find my exposures more accurate when only "felt"." In the late 1930s he acquired a Weston exposure meter and continued to use it as an aid to determine exposures throughout his career. Photo historian Nancy Newhall wrote that "Young photographers are confused and amazed when they behold him measuring with his meter every value in the sphere where he intends to work, from the sky to the ground under his feet. He is "feeling the light" and checking his own observations. After which he puts the meter away and does what he thinks. Often he adds up everything ‒ filters, extension, film, speed, and so on ‒ and doubles the computation." Weston, Newhall noted, believed in "massive exposure", which he then compensated for by hand-processing the film in a weak developer solution and individually inspecting each negative as it continued to develop to get the right balance of highlights and shadows.
The low ISO rating of the sheet film Weston used necessitated very long exposures when using his view camera, ranging from 1 to 3 seconds for outdoor landscape exposures to as long as 4½ hours for still lifes such as peppers or shells. When he used one of the Graflex cameras the exposure times were much shorter (usually less than ¼ second), and he was sometimes able to work without a tripod.
Darkroom
Weston always made contact prints, meaning that the print was exactly the same size as the negative. This was essential for the platinum printing that he preferred early in his career, since at that time the platinum papers required ultra-violet light to activate. Weston did not have an artificial ultra-violet light source, so he had to place the contact print directly in sunlight to expose it. This limited him to printing only on sunny days.
When he wanted a print that was larger than the original negative size, he used an enlarger to create a larger inter-positive, then contact printed it to a new negative. The new larger negative was then used to make a print of that size. This process was very labor-intensive; he once wrote in his Daybooks "I am utterly exhausted tonight after a whole day in the darkroom, making eight contact negatives from the enlarged positives."
In 1924 Weston wrote this about his darkroom process, "I have returned, after several years use of Metol-Hydroquinine open-tank" developer to a three-solution Pyro developer, and I develop one at a time in a tray instead of a dozen in a tank." Each sheet of film was viewed under either a green or an orange safelight in his darkroom, allowing him to control the individual development of a negative. He continued to use this technique for the rest of his life.
Weston was known to extensively use dodging and burning to achieve the look he wanted in his prints.
Paper
Early in his career Weston printed on several kinds of paper, including Velox, Apex, Convira, Defender Velour Black and Haloid. When he went to Mexico he learned how to use platinum and palladium paper, made by Willis & Clement and imported from England. After his return to California, he abandoned platinum and palladium printing due to the scarcity and increasing price of the paper. Eventually he was able to get most of the same qualities he preferred with Kodak's Azo glossy silver gelatin paper developed in Amidol. He continued to use this paper almost exclusively until he stopped printing.
Writings
Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957. He hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children.
In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died.
Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure."
In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers.
Quotations
"Form follows function." Who said this I don't know, but the writer spoke well.
I am not a technician and have no interest in technique for its own sake. If my technique is adequate to present my seeing then I need nothing more.
I see no reason for recording the obvious.
If there is symbolism in my work, it can only be the seeing of parts ‒ fragments ‒ as universal symbols. All basic forms are so closely related as to be visually equivalent.
My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea.
My work-purpose, my theme, can most nearly be stated as the recognition, recording and presentation of the interdependence, the relativity, of all things ‒ the universality of basic form.
The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?
This then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock.
What then is the end toward which I work? To present the significance of facts, so that they are transformed from things seen to things known.
When money enters in ‒ then, for a price, I become a liar ‒ and a good one I can be whether with pencil or subtle lighting or viewpoint. I hate it all, but so do I support not only my family, but my own work.
Legacy
As of 2013, two of Weston's photographs feature among the most expensive photographs ever sold. The Nude, 1925 taken in 1925 was bought by the gallerist Peter MacGill for $1.6 million in 2008. Nautilus of 1927 was sold for $1.1 million in 2010, also to MacGill.
Major exhibitions
1970, the Rencontres d'Arles festival (France) presented an exhibition "Hommage à Edward Weston" and an evening screening of the film The Photographer (1948) by Willard Van Dyke.
November 25, 1986 – March 29, 1987 Edward Weston in Los Angeles at Huntington Library
1986 Edward Weston: Color Photography at Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
May 13 – August 27, 1989 Edward Weston in New Mexico at Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe
Edward Weston : the Last Years in Carmel at The Art Institute of Chicago, June 2 – September 16, 2001, and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mar. 1 – July 9, 2002.
List of photographs
The artistic career of Weston spanned more than forty years, from roughly 1915 to 1956. A prolific photographer, he produced more than 1,000 black-and-white photographs and some 50 color images. This list is an incomplete selection of Weston's better-known photographs.
Notes
References
Sources
Abbott, Brett. Edward Weston: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005.
Alinder, Mary Street. Group f.64: Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and the Community of Artists Who Revolutionized American Photography. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2014.
Bunnell, Peter C. Edward Weston on Photography. Salt Lake City: P. Smith Books, 1983.
Bunnell, Peter C., David Featherston et al. EW 100: Centennial Essays in Honor of Edward Weston. Carmel, Calif. : Friends of Photography, 1986.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston in Mexico, 1923–1926. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983.
Conger, Amy (1992). Edward Weston – Photographs From the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1992.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston: The Form of The Nude. NY: Phaidon, 2006.
Edward Weston : Color Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1986.
Enyeart, James. Edward Weston's California landscapes. Boston : Little, Brown, 1984.
Foley, Kathy Kelsey. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister. Dayton: Dayton Art Institute, 1978.
Heyman, There Thau. Seeing Straight: The f.64 Revolution in Photography. Oakland: Oakland Art Museum, 1992.
Higgins, Gary. Truth, Myth and Erasure: Tina Modotti and Edward Weston. Tempe, Ariz. : School of Art, Arizona State University, 1991.
Hochberg, Judith and Michael P. Mattis. Edward Weston: Life Work. Photographs from the Collection of Judith G. Hochberg and Michael P. Mattis. Revere, Pa.: Lodima Press, c2003.
Hooks, Margaret. Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary. London: Pandora, 1993.
Lowe, Sarah M. Tina Modotti and Edward Weston the Mexico Years. London: Merrell, 2004.
Maddow, Ben. Edward Weston: Fifty Years; The Definitive Volume of His Photographic Work. Millerton, N.Y., Aperture, 1973. ,
Maggia, Filippo. Edward Weston. New York: Skira, 2013.
Mora, Gilles (ed.). Edward Weston: Forms of Passion. NY: Abrams, 1995.
Morgan, Susan. Portraits / Edward Weston. NY: Aperture, 1995.
Newhall, Beaumont (1984). Edward Weston Omnibus: A Critical Anthology. Salt Lake City : Peregrine Smith Books, 1984.
Newhall, Beaumont . Supreme Instants: The Photography of Edward Weston. Boston : Little, Brown, 1986.
Newhall, Nancy (ed.). Edward Weston; The Flame of Recognition: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY: Aperture, 1971.
Pitts, Terence. Edward Weston 1886–1958. Köln: Taschen, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E., Karen Quinn and Leslie Furth. Edward Weston : Photography and Modernism. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E. Weston's Westons : Portraits and Nudes. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1989.
Travis, David. Edward Weston, The Last Years in Carmel. Chicago: Art Institute, 2001.
Warren, Beth Gates. Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011.
Warren, Beth Gates. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs. NY: Sotheby's, 2008.
Warren, Beth Gates (2001). Margrethe Mather & Edward Weston: A Passionate Collaboration. NY: Norton, 2001.
Watts, Jennifer A. (ed.). Edward Weston : A Legacy. London: Merrell, 2003.
Weston, Edward (1964). The Daybooks of Edward Weston. Edited by Nancy Nehall. NY: Horizon Press, 1961–1964. 2 vols.
Weston, Edward. My Camera on Point Lobos; 30 Photographs and Excerpts from E. W.’s Daybook. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.
Weston, Paulette. Laughing Eyes: a Book of Letters Between Edward and Cole Weston 1923–1946. Carmel: Carmel Publishing Co., 1999.
Wilson, Charis. Edward Weston Nudes: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY : Aperture, 1977.
Wilson, Charis. Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
Woods, John. Dune: Edward & Brett Weston. Kalispell, MT: Wild Horse Island Press, 2003.
External links
edward-weston.com
Edward Weston Collection at the Center for Creative Photography
Ben Maddow "Edward Weston Lecture" The Baltimore Museum of Art: Baltimore, Maryland, 1976. Retrieved June 26, 2012
The Eloquent Nude: The Love and Legacy of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson Documentary concerning Edward Weston, his muse Charis Wilson and photographer Ansel Adams.
Encyclopædia Britannica
Landscape photographers
American portrait photographers
1886 births
1958 deaths
History of platinum printing
Photographers from California
Artists from Chicago
People from Highland Park, Illinois
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Neurological disease deaths in California
20th-century American photographers
Fine art photographers
Olympic archers of the United States
American male archers
Archers at the 1904 Summer Olympics
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"A picture editor, also known as a photo editor, is a professional who collects, reviews, and chooses photographs and/or photo illustrations for publication in alignment with preset guidelines. Publications include, but are not limited to, websites, books, magazines, newspapers, art galleries, museum catalogs, and corporate products, such as catalogs and annual reports. In choosing photographs and illustrations, picture editors take into account their publication’s standards, needs, and budget.\n\nTasks and skills \nA picture editor/ photo editor hires professional photographers for assignments. The main types of assignment work and skill sets to arrange are location shoots and studio shoots. The photo editor's skill set for location shoots may involve obtaining permissions, permits, and scheduling subjects, scheduling travel, and creating a shot list. and organizational skills to produce a photo shoot which means may involve hiring studios, models, prop and wardrobe stylists, set builders, and hair and makeup professionals. The picture editor has a thorough knowledge of photographers working in many genres and located in many part of the globe; they understand copyright and legal standards for all types of photographic usage and may also need to be familiar with moving images (videos). A picture editor knows how to find the most relevant image to suit the content they have to illustrate. A picture editor may oversee the edit and sequencing of images in stories, including photo essays, or photo books. The picture editor manages licenses, clears copyrights, and works within a budget.\n\nSometimes photo editors are in charge of an image data base ; they are called photo librarians.\n\nHow the job is changing \nNew technologies and the omnipresence of images nowadays have drastically changed the way picture editors work. They do their research mostly on the Internet, and have to browse a never-ending flow of images.\n\nThere are professional picture editors organizations, such as ANI in France or Picture Research Association in the UK.\n\nReferences \n\nTypes of editors",
"\"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\" is a single by British pop rock group the Beautiful South from their sixth album, Quench (1998). It was written by Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray. The lyrics, which take the form of a conversation between two reconciling lovers, are noted for a reference to the TARDIS from Doctor Who. According to the book Last Orders at the Liars Bar: the Official Story of the Beautiful South, \"How Long's a Tear Take To Dry?\" was originally to be called \"She Bangs the Buns\" due to its chord structure reminiscent of Manchester's the Stone Roses. The song reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the band's twelfth and final top-twenty hit.\n\nSingle release\n\"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\" reached number 12 in the UK Singles Chart in March 1999. Although not released on vinyl, it was given a dual-CD release in the UK. B-sides included a remix of \"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\" as well as acoustic versions of three other songs: \"Perfect 10\", \"Big Coin\", and \"Rotterdam\". On 18 March 1999, the band performed \"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\" live on the BBC music programme Top of the Pops.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video, available on The Beautiful South's compilation DVD Munch, is a humorous account of The Beautiful South on a world tour in order to pay for drinks at the local bar. The band is portrayed by cartoon versions of themselves, in a style reminiscent of 1960s-era Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and Scooby-Doo in particular. In the commentary track on the Munch DVD, Paul Heaton explains that the video was actually produced by Hanna-Barbera.\n\nTrack listings\n\nUK CD1\n \"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\"\n \"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\" (remix)\n \"Perfect 10\" (acoustic)\n\nUK CD2\n \"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\"\n \"Big Coin\" (acoustic)\n \"Rotterdam\" (acoustic)\n\nUK cassette single\n \"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\"\n \"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\" (remix)\n\nEuropean CD single\n \"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\" (radio edit)\n \"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\" (remix)\n \"Perfect 10\" (acoustic)\n \"Rotterdam\" (acoustic)\n\nGerman CD single\n \"How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?\"\n \"Dumb\"\n \"I Sold My Heart to the Junkman\"\n \"Suck Harder\"\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n Pattenden, Mike - Last Orders at the Liars Bar: the Official Story of the Beautiful South ()\n\n1999 singles\n1998 songs\nThe Beautiful South songs\nGo! Discs singles\nHanna-Barbera\nMercury Records singles\nSongs written by David Rotheray\nSongs written by Paul Heaton"
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article other than his most famous photograph?
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Edward Weston
|
Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957, and he hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children. In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died. Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure." In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers. CANNOTANSWER
|
Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition.
|
Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still-lifes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies. It is said that he developed a "quintessentially American, and especially Californian, approach to modern photography" because of his focus on the people and places of the American West. In 1937 Weston was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, and over the next two years he produced nearly 1,400 negatives using his 8 × 10 view camera. Some of his most famous
photographs were taken of the trees and rocks at Point Lobos, California, near where he lived for many years.
Weston was born in Chicago and moved to California when he was 21. He knew he wanted to be a photographer from an early age, and initially his work was typical of the soft focus pictorialism that was popular at the time. Within a few years, however he abandoned that style and went on to be one of the foremost champions of highly detailed photographic images.
In 1947 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and he soon stopped photographing. He spent the remaining ten years of his life overseeing the printing of more than 1,000 of his most famous images.
Life and work
1886–1906: Early life
Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois, the second child and only son of Edward Burbank Weston, an obstetrician, and Alice Jeanette Brett, a Shakespearean actress. His mother died when he was five years old and he was raised mostly by his sister Mary, whom he called "May" or "Maisie". She was nine years older than he, and they developed a very close bond that was one of the few steady relationships in Weston's life.
His father remarried when he was nine, but neither Weston nor his sister got along with their new stepmother and stepbrother. After May was married and left their home in 1897, Weston's father devoted most of his time to his new wife and her son. Weston was left on his own much of the time; he stopped going to school and withdrew into his own room in their large home.
As a present for his 16th birthday Weston's father gave him his first camera, a Kodak Bull's-Eye No. 2, which was a simple box camera. He took it on vacation in the Midwest, and by the time he returned home his interest in photography was enough to lead him to purchase a used 5 × 7 inch view camera. He began photographing in Chicago parks and a farm owned by his aunt, and developed his own film and prints. Later he would remember that even at that early age his work showed strong artistic merit. He said, "I feel that my earliest work of 1903 ‒ though immature ‒ is related more closely, both with technique and composition, to my latest work than are several of my photographs dating from 1913 to 1920, a period in which I was trying to be artistic."
In 1904 May and her family moved to California, leaving Weston further isolated in Chicago. He earned a living by taking a job at a local department store, but he continued to spend most of his free time taking photos, Within two years he felt confident enough of his photography that he submitted his work to the magazine Camera and Darkroom, and in the April 1906 issue they published a full-page reproduction of his picture Spring, Chicago. This is the first known publication of any of his photographs.
In September 1904, Weston took part in the men's double American round archery event at the 1904 Summer Olympics with his father also taking part in the same event.
1906–23: Becoming a photographer
At his sister's urging Weston left Chicago in the spring of 1906 and moved near May's home in Tropico, California (now a neighborhood in Glendale). He decided to stay there and pursue a career in photography, but he soon realized he needed more professional training. A year later he moved to Effingham, Illinois, to enroll in the Illinois College of Photography. They taught a nine-month course, but Weston finished all of the class work in six months. The school refused to give him a diploma unless he paid for the full nine months; Weston refused and instead moved back to California in the spring of 1908.
He briefly worked at the photography studio of George Steckel in Los Angeles, as a negative retoucher. Within a few months he moved to the more established studio of Louis Mojonier. For the next several years he learned the techniques and business of operating a photography studio under Mojonier's direction.
Within days of his visit to Tropico, Weston was introduced to his sister's best friend, Flora May Chandler. She was a graduate of the Normal School, later to become UCLA. She assumed the position of a grade-school teacher in Tropico.
She was seven years older than Weston and a distant relative of Harry Chandler, who at that time was described as the head of "the single most powerful family in Southern California". This fact did not go unnoticed by Weston and his biographers.
On January 30, 1909, Weston and Chandler married in a simple ceremony. The first of their four sons, Edward Chandler Weston (1910–1993), known as Chandler, was born on April 26, 1910.
Named Edward Chandler, after Weston and his wife, he later became an excellent photographer on his own. He clearly learned much by being an assistant to his father in the bungalow studio. In 1923 he bid farewell to his mother and sibling brothers and sailed off to Mexico with his father and his then-muse, Tina Modotti. He gave up any aspirations in pursuing photography as a career after his adventures in Mexico. The lifestyle of fame and its fortune affected him greatly. His later photographs, as a hobbyist, albeit rare, certainly reflect an innate talent for the form.
In 1910 Weston opened his own business, called "The Little Studio", in Tropico. His sister later asked him why he opened his studio in Tropico rather than in the nearby metropolis of Los Angeles, and he replied "Sis, I'm going to make my name so famous that it won't matter where I live."
For the next three years he worked, alone and sometimes with the assistance of family members in his studio. Even at that early stage of his career he was highly particular about his work; in an interview at that time he said "[photographic] plates are nothing to me unless I get what I want. I have used thirty of them at a sitting if I did not secure the effect to suit me."
His critical eye paid off for him and he quickly gained more recognition for his work. He won prizes in national competitions, published several more photographs and wrote articles for magazines such as Photo-Era and American Photography, championing the pictorial style.
On December 16, 1911, Weston's second son, Theodore Brett Weston (1911–1993), was born. He became a long-time artistic collaborator with his father and an important photographer on his own.
Sometime in the fall of 1913, Los Angeles photographer, Margrethe Mather visited Weston's studio because of his growing reputation, and within a few months they developed an intense relationship. Weston was a quiet Midwestern transplant to California, and Mather was a part of the growing bohemian cultural scene in Los Angeles. She was very outgoing and artistic in a flamboyant way, and her permissive sexual morals were far different from the conservative Weston at the time – Mather had been a prostitute and was bisexual with a preference for women. Mather presented a stark contrast to Weston's home life; his wife Flora was described as a "homely, rigid Puritan, and an utterly conventional woman, with whom he had little in common since he abhorred conventions" ‒ and he found Mather's uninhibited lifestyle irresistible and her photographic vision intriguing.
He asked Mather to be his studio assistant, and for the next decade they worked closely together, making individual and jointly signed portraits of writers Carl Sandburg and Max Eastman. A joint exhibition of their work in 2001 revealed that during this period Weston emulated Mather's style and, later, her choice of subjects. On her own Mather photographed "fans, hands, eggs, melons, waves, bathroom fixtures, seashells and birds wings, all subjects that Weston would also explore." A decade later he described her as "the first important person in my life, and perhaps even now, though personal contact has gone, the most important."
In early 1915 Weston began keeping detailed journals he later came to call his "Daybooks". For the next two decades he recorded his thoughts about his work, observations about photography, and his interactions with friends, lovers and family. On December 6, 1916, a third son, Lawrence Neil Weston, was born. He also followed in the footsteps of his father and became a well-known photographer. It was during this period that Weston first met photographer Johan Hagemeyer, whom Weston mentored and lent his studio to from time to time. Later, Hagemeyer would return the favor by letting Weston use his studio in Carmel after he returned from Mexico. For the next several years Weston continued to earn a living by taking portraits in his small studio which he called "the shack".
Meanwhile, Flora was spending all of her time caring for their children. Their fourth son, Cole Weston (1919–2003), was born on January 30, 1919, and afterward she rarely had time to leave their home.
Over the summer of 1920 Weston met two people who were part of the growing Los Angeles cultural scene: Roubaix de l'Abrie Richey, known as "Robo" and a woman he called his wife, Tina Modotti. Modotti, who was then known only as a stage and film actress, was never married to Robo, but they pretended to be for the sake of his family. Weston and Modotti were immediately attracted to each other, and they soon became lovers. Richey knew of Modotti's affair, but he continued to be friends with Weston and later invited him to come to Mexico and share his studio.
The following year Weston agreed to allow Mather to become an equal partner in his studio. For several months they took portraits that they signed with both of their names. This was the only time in his long career that Weston shared credit with another photographer.
Sometime in 1920 he began photographing nude models for the first time. His first models were his wife Flora and their children, but soon thereafter he took at least three nude studies of Mather. He followed these with several more photographs of nude models, the first of dozens of figure studies he would make of friends and lovers over the next twenty years.
Until now Weston had kept his relationships with other women a secret from his wife, but as he began to photograph more nudes Flora became suspicious about what went on with him and his models. Chandler recalled that his mother regularly sent him on "errands" to his father's studio and asked him to tell her who was there and what they were doing.
One of the first who agreed to model nude for Weston was Modotti. She became his primary model for the next several years.
In 1922 he visited his sister May, who had moved to Middletown, Ohio. While there he made five or six photographs of the tall smoke stacks at the nearby Armco steel mill. These images signaled a change in Weston's photographic style, a transition from the soft-focus pictorialism of the past to a new, cleaner-edge style. He immediately recognized the change and later recorded it in his notes: "The Middletown visit was something to remember...most of all in importance was my photographing of 'Armco'...That day I made great photographs, even Stieglitz thought they were important!"
At that time New York City was the cultural center for photography as an art form in America, and Alfred Stieglitz was the most influential figure in photography. Weston badly wanted to go to New York to meet with him, but he did not have enough money to make the trip. His brother-in-law gave him enough money to continue on from Middletown to New York City, and he spent most of October and early November there. While there he met artist Charles Sheeler and photographers Clarence H. White, Gertrude Kasebier, as well as Stieglitz. Weston wrote that Stieglitz told him, "Your work and attitude reassures me. You have shown me at least several prints which have given me a great deal of joy. And I can seldom say that of photographs."
Soon after Weston returned from New York, Robo moved to Mexico and set up a studio there to create batiks. Within a short while he had arranged for a joint exhibition of his work and of photographs by Weston, Mather and a few others. In early 1923 Modotti left by train to be with Robo in Mexico, but he contracted smallpox and died shortly before she arrived. Modotti was grief-stricken, but within a few weeks she felt well enough that she decided to stay and carry out the exhibition that Robo had planned. The show was a success, and due in no small part to his nude studies of Modotti, it firmly established Weston's artistic reputation in Mexico.
After the show closed Modotti returned to California, and Weston and she made plans to return to Mexico together. He wanted to spend a couple of months there photographing and promoting his work, and, conveniently, he could travel under the pretense of Modotti being his assistant and translator.
The week before he left for Mexico, Weston briefly reunited with Mather and took several nudes of her lying in the sand at Redondo Beach. These images were very different from his previous nude studies – sharply focused and showing her entire body in relation to the natural setting. They have been called the artistic prototypes for his most famous nudes, those of Charis Wilson which he would take more than a decade later.
1923–27: Mexico
On July 30, 1923, Weston, his son Chandler, and Modotti left on a steamer for the extended trip to Mexico. His wife, Flora, and their other three sons waved goodbye to them at the dock. It's unknown what Flora understood or thought about the relationship between Weston and Modotti, but she is reported to have called out at the dock, "Tina, take good care of my boys."
They arrived in Mexico City on August 11 and rented a large hacienda outside of the city. Within a month he had arranged for an exhibition of his work at the Aztec Land Gallery, and on October 17 the show opened to glowing press reviews. He was particularly proud of a review by Marius de Zayas that said "Photography is beginning to be photography, for until now it has only been art."
The different culture and scenery in Mexico forced Weston to look at things in new ways. He became more responsive to what was in front of him, and he turned his camera on everyday objects like toys, doorways and bathroom fixtures. He also made several intimate nudes and portraits of Modotti. He wrote in his Daybooks:
The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself...I feel definite in the belief that the approach to photography is through realism.
Weston continued to photograph the people and things around him, and his reputation in Mexico increased the longer he stayed. He had a second exhibition at the Aztec Land Gallery in 1924, and he had a steady stream of local socialites asking him to take their portraits. At the same time, Weston began to miss his other sons back in the U.S. As with many of his actions, though, it was a woman who motivated him most. He had recently corresponded with a woman he had known for several years named Miriam Lerner, and as her letters became more passionate he longed to see her again.
He and Chandler returned to San Francisco at the end of 1924, and the next month he set up a studio with Johan Hagemeyer. Weston seemed to be struggling with his past and his future during this period. He burned all of his pre-Mexico journals, as though trying to erase the past, and started a new series of nudes with Lerner and with his son Neil. He wrote that these images were "the start of a new period in my approach and attitude towards photography."
His new relationship with Lerner did not last long, and in August 1925 he returned to Mexico, this time with his son Brett. Modotti had arranged a joint show of their photographs, and it opened the week he returned. He received new critical acclaim and six of his prints were purchased for the State Museum. For the next several months he concentrated once again on photographing folk art, toys and local scenes. One of his strongest images of this period is of three black clay pots that art historian Rene d'Harnoncourt described as "the beginning of a new art."
In May 1926 Weston signed a contract with writer Anita Brenner for $1,000 to make photographs for a book she was writing about Mexican folk art. In June he, Modotti and Brett started traveling around the country in search of lesser known native arts and crafts. His contract required him to give Brenner three finished prints from 400 8x10 negatives, and it took him until November of that year to complete the work. During their travels, Brett received a crash course in photography from his father, and he made more than two dozen prints which his father judged to be of exceptional quality.
By the time they returned from their trip, Weston and Modotti's relationship had crumbled, and within less than two weeks he and Brett returned to California. He never traveled to Mexico again.
1927–35: Glendale to Carmel
Weston initially returned to his old studio in Glendale (previously called Tropico). He hastily arranged a dual exhibition at University of California of the photographs that he and Brett had made the year before. The father showed 100 prints and the son showed 20. Brett was only 15 years old at the time.
In February he started a new series of nudes, this time of dancer Bertha Wardell. One of this series, of her kneeling body cut off at the shoulders, is one of Weston's most well-known figure studies. At this same time he met Canadian painter Henrietta Shore, whom he asked to comment on the photos of Wardell. He was surprised by her honest critique: "I wish you would not do so many nudes – you are getting used to them, the subject no longer amazes you ‒ most of these are just nudes."
He asked to look at her work and was intrigued by her large paintings of sea shells. He borrowed several shells from her, thinking he might find some inspiration for a new still life series. Over the next few weeks he explored many different kinds of shell and background combinations – in his log of photographs taken for 1927 he listed fourteen negatives of shells. One of these, simply called Nautilus, 1927" (sometimes called Shell, 1927), became one of his most famous images. Modotti called the image "mystical and erotic," and when she showed it to Rene d'Harnoncourt he said he felt "weak at the knees." Weston is known to have made at least twenty-eight prints of this image, more than he had made of any other shell image.
In September of that year Weston had a major exhibition at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. At the opening of the show he met fellow photographer Willard Van Dyke, who later introduced Weston to Ansel Adams.
In May 1928, Weston and Brett made a brief but important trip to the Mojave Desert. It was there that he first explored and photographed landscapes as an art form. He found the stark rock forms and empty spaces to be a visual revelation, and over a long weekend he took twenty-seven photographs. In his journal he declared "these negatives are the most important I have ever done."
Later that year he and Brett moved to San Francisco, where they lived and worked in a small studio owned by Hagemeyer. He made portraits to earn an income, but he longed to get away by himself and get back to his art. In early 1929 he moved to Hagemeyer's cottage in Carmel, and it was there that he finally found the solitude and the inspiration that he was seeking. He placed a sign in studio window that said, "Edward Weston, photographer, Unretouched Portraits, Prints for Collectors."
He started making regular trips to nearby Point Lobos, where he would continue to photograph until the end of his career. It was there that he learned to fine-tune his photographic vision to match the visual space of his view camera, and the images he took there, of kelp, rocks and wind-blown trees, are among his finest. Looking at his work from this period, one biographer wrote:
"Weston arranged his compositions so that things happened on the edges; lines almost cross or meet and circular lines just touch the edges tangentially; his compositions were now created exclusively for a space with the proportions of eight by ten. There is no extraneous space nor is there too little."
In early April 1929, Weston met photographer Sonya Noskowiak at a party, and by the end of the month she was living with him. As with many of his other relationships, she became his model, muse, pupil and assistant. They would continue to live together for five years.
Intrigued by the many kinds and shapes of kelp he found on the beaches near Carmel, in 1930 Weston began taking close-ups of vegetables and fruits. He made a variety of photographs of cabbage, kale, onions, bananas, and finally, his most iconic image, peppers. In August of that year Noskowiak brought him several green peppers, and over a four-day period he shot at least thirty different negatives. Of these, Pepper No. 30, is among the all-time masterpieces of photography.
Weston had a series of important one-man exhibitions in 1930–31. The first was at Alma Reed's Delphic Studio Gallery in New York, followed closely by a mounting of the same show at the Denny Watrous Gallery in Carmel. Both received rave reviews, including a two-page article in the New York Times Magazine. These were followed by shows at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and the Galerie Jean Naert in Paris.
Although he was succeeding professionally his personal life was very complex. For most of their marriage, Flora was able to take care of their children because of an inheritance from her parents. However, the Wall Street crash of 1929 had wiped out most of her savings, and Weston felt increased pressure to help provide more for her and his sons. He described this time as "the most trying economic period of my life."
In 1932, The Art of Edward Weston, the first book devoted exclusively to Weston's work, was published. It was edited by Merle Armitage and dedicated to Alice Rohrer, an admirer and patron of Weston whose $500 donation helped pay for the book to be published.
During the same time a small group of like-minded photographers in the San Francisco area, led by Van Dyke and Ansel Adams, began informally meeting to discuss their common interest and aesthetics. Inspired by Weston's show at the De Young Museum the previous year, they approached the museum with the idea of mounting a group exhibition of their work. They named themselves Group f/64, and in November 1932, an exhibition of 80 of their prints opened at the museum. The show was a critical success.
In 1933 Weston bought a 4 × 5 Graflex camera, which was much smaller and lighter than the large view camera he had used for many years. He began taking close-up nudes of Noskowiak and other models. The smaller camera allowed him to interact more with his models, while at the same time the nudes he took during this period began to resemble some of the contorted root and vegetables he had taken the year before.
In early 1934, "a new and important chapter opened" in Weston's life when he met Charis Wilson at a concert. Even more than with his previous lovers, Weston was immediately captivated by her beauty and her personality. He wrote: "A new love came into my life, a most beautiful one, one which will, I believe, stand the test of time." On April 22 he photographed her nude for the first time, and they entered into an intense relationship. He was still living with Noskowiak at that time, but within two weeks he asked her to move out, declaring that for him other women were "as inevitable as the tides".
Perhaps because of the intensity of his new relationship, he stopped writing in his Daybooks at this same time. Six months later he wrote one final entry, looking back from April 22:
After eight months we are closer together than ever. Perhaps C. will be remembered as the great love of my life. Already I have achieved certain heights reached with no other love.
1935–45: Guggenheim grant to Wildcat Hill
In January 1935 Weston was facing increasing financial difficulties. He closed his studio in Carmel and moved to Santa Monica Canyon, California, where he opened a new studio with Brett. He implored Wilson to come and live with him, and in August 1935 she finally agreed. While she had an intense interest in his work, Wilson was the first woman Weston had lived with since Flora who had no interest in becoming a photographer. This allowed Weston to concentrate on her as his muse and model, and in turn Wilson devoted her time to promoting Weston's art as his assistant and quasi-agent.
Almost immediately he began taking a new series of nudes with Wilson as the model. One of the first photographs he took of her, on the balcony of their home, became one of his most published images (Nude (Charis, Santa Monica)). Soon after they took the first of several trips to Oceano Dunes. It was there that Weston made some of his most daring and intimate photographs of any of his models, capturing Wilson in completely uninhibited poses in the sand dunes. He exhibited only one or two of this series in his lifetime, thinking several of the others were "too erotic" for the general public.
Although his recent work had received critical acclaim, he was not earning enough income from his artistic images to provide a steady income. Rather than going back to relying solely on portraiture, he started the "Edward Weston Print of the Month Club", offering selections of his photos for a monthly $5 subscription. Each month subscribers would receive a new print from Weston, with a limited edition of 40 copies of each print. Although he created these prints with the same high standards that he did for his exhibition prints, it is thought that he never had more than eleven subscribers.
At the suggestion of Beaumont Newhall, Weston decided to apply for a Guggenheim Foundation grant (now known as a Guggenheim Fellowship). He wrote a two-sentence description about his work, assembled thirty-five of his favorite prints, and sent it in. Afterward Dorothea Lange and her husband suggested that the application was too brief to be seriously considered, and Weston resubmitted it with a four-page letter and work plan. He did not mention that Wilson had written the new application for him.
On March 22, 1937, Weston received notification that he had been awarded a Guggenheim grant, the first ever given to a photographer. The award was $2,000 for one year, a significant amount of money at that time. He was able to further capitalize on the award by arranging to provide the editor of AAA Westway Magazine with 8–10 photos per month for $50 during their travels, with Wilson getting an additional $15 monthly for photo captions and short narratives. They purchased a new car and set out on Weston's dream trip to go and photograph whatever he wanted. Over the next twelve months they made seventeen trips and covered 16,697 miles according to Wilson's detailed log. Weston made 1,260 negatives during the trip.
The freedom of this trip with the "love of his life", combined with all of his sons now reaching the age of adulthood, gave Weston the motivation to finally divorce his wife. They had been living apart for sixteen years.
Due to the success of the past year, Weston applied for and received a second year of Guggenheim support. Although he wanted to do some additional traveling, he intended to use most of the money to allow him to print his past year's work. He commissioned Neil to build a small home in the Carmel Highlands on property owned by Wilson's father. They named the place "Wildcat Hill" because of the many domestic cats that soon occupied the grounds.
Wilson set up a writing studio in what was intended to be a small garage behind the house, and she spent several months writing and editing stories from their travels.
In 1939, Seeing California with Edward Weston was published, with photographs by Weston and writing by Wilson. Finally relieved from the financial stresses of the past and inordinately happy with his work and his relationship, Weston married Wilson in a small ceremony on April 24.
Buoyed by the success of their first book, in 1940 they published California and the West. The first edition, featuring 96 of Weston's photos with text by Wilson, sold for $3.95. Over the summer, Weston taught photography at the first Ansel Adams Workshop at Yosemite National Park.
Just as the Guggenheim money was running out, Weston was invited to illustrate a new edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. He would receive $1,000 for photographs and $500 travel expenses. Weston insisted on having artistic control of the images he would take and insisted that he would not be taking literal illustrations of Whitman's text. On May 28 he and Wilson began a trip that would cover 20,000 miles through 24 states; he took between 700 and 800 8x10 negatives as well as dozens of Graflex portraits.
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the United States entered World War II. Weston was near the end of the Whitman trip, and he was deeply affected by the outbreak of the war. He wrote: "When the war broke out we scurried home. Charis did not want to scurry. I did."
He spent the first few months of 1942 organizing and printing the negatives from the Whitman trip. Of the hundreds of images he took, forty-nine were selected for publication.
Due to the war, Point Lobos was closed to the public for several years. Weston continued to work on images centered on Wildcat Hill, including shots of the many cats that lived there. Weston treated them with the same serious intent that he applied to all of his other subjects, and Charis assembled the results into their most unusual publication, The Cats of Wildcat Hill, which was finally published in 1947.
The year 1945 marked the beginning of significant changes for Weston. He began to experience the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a debilitating ailment that gradually stole his strength and his ability to photograph. He withdrew from Wilson, who at the same time began to become more involved in local politics and the Carmel cultural scene. A strength that originally brought them together – her lack of interest in becoming a photographer herself – eventually led to their break-up. She wrote, "My flight from Edward was also partly an escape from photography, which had taken up so much room in my life for so many years."
While working on a major retrospective exhibition for the Museum of Modern Art, he and Wilson separated. Weston returned to Glendale since the land for their cabin at Wildcat Hill still belonged to Wilson's father. Within a few months she moved out and arranged to sell the property to him.
1946–58: Final years
In February 1946, Weston's major retrospective opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He and Beaumont Newhall selected 313 prints for the exhibition, and eventually 250 photographs were displayed along with 11 negatives. At that time many of his prints were still for sale, and he sold 97 prints from the exhibit at $25 per print. Later that year, Weston was asked by Dr. George L. Waters of Kodak to produce 8 × 10 Kodachrome transparencies for their advertising campaign. Weston had never worked in color before, primarily because he had no means of developing or printing the more complicated color process. He accepted their offer in no small part because they offered him $250 per image, the highest amount he would be paid for any single work in his lifetime. He eventually sold seven color works to Kodak of landscapes and scenery at Point Lobos and nearby Monterey harbor.
In 1947 as his Parkinson's disease progressed, Weston began looking for an assistant. Serendipitously, an eager young photographic enthusiast, Dody Weston Thompson, contacted him in search of employment.
Weston mentioned he had just that morning written a letter to Ansel Adams, looking for someone seeking to learn photography in exchange for carrying his bulky large-format camera and to provide a much needed automobile. There was a swift meeting of creative minds. For the remainder of 1947 through the beginning of 1948, Dody commuted from San Francisco on weekends to learn from Weston the basics of photography. In early 1948, Dody moved into "Bodie House," the guest cottage at Edward's Wildcat Hill compound, as his full-time assistant.
By late 1948 he was no longer physically able to use his large view camera. That year he took his last photographs, at Point Lobos. His final negative was an image he called, "Rocks and Pebbles, 1948". Although diminished in his capacity, Weston never stopped being a photographer. He worked with his sons and Dody to catalog his images and especially to oversee the publication and printing of his work. In 1950 there was a major retrospective of his work at the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris, and in 1952 he published a Fiftieth Anniversary portfolio, with images printed by Brett.
During this time he worked with Cole, Brett, and Dody Thompson (Brett's wife by 1952), to select and have them print a master set of what he considered his best work. They spent many long hours together in the darkroom, and by 1956 they had produced what Weston called "The Project Prints", eight sets of 8" × 10" prints from 830 of his negatives. The only complete set today is housed at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Later that same year the Smithsonian Institution displayed nearly 100 of these prints at a major exhibit, "The World of Edward Weston", paying tribute to his accomplishments in American photography.
Weston died at his home on Wildcat Hill on New Year's Day, 1958. His sons scattered his ashes into the Pacific Ocean at an area then known as Pebbly Beach on Point Lobos. Due to Weston's significant influence in the area, the beach was later renamed Weston Beach. He had $300 in his bank account at the time of his death.
Equipment and techniques
Cameras and lenses
During his lifetime Weston worked with several cameras. He began as a more serious photographer in 1902 when he purchased a 5 × 7 camera. When he moved to Tropico, now part of Glendale, and opened his studio in 1911, he acquired an enormous 11 x 14 Graf Variable studio portrait camera. Roi Partridge, Imogen Cunningham's husband, later made an etching of Weston in his studio, dwarfed by the giant camera in front of him. After he began taking more portraits of children, he bought a 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ Graflex in 1912 to better capture their quickly changing expressions.
When he went to Mexico in 1924 he took an 8 × 10 Seneca folding-bed view camera with several lenses, including a Graf Variable and a Wollensak Verito. While in Mexico he purchased a used Rapid Rectilinear lens which was his primary lens for many years. The lens, now in the George Eastman House, did not have a manufacturer's name. He also took to Mexico a 3¼ × 4¼ Graflex with a ƒ/4.5 Tessar lens, which he used for portraits.
In 1933 he purchased a 4 × 5 R. B. Auto-Graflex] and used it thereafter for all portraits. He continued to use the Seneca view camera for all other work.
In 1939 he listed the following items as his standard equipment:
8 x 10 Century Universal
Triple convertible Turner Reich, 12", 21", 28"
K2, G, A filters
12 film holders
Paul Ries Tripod
He continued to use this equipment throughout his life.
Film
Prior to 1921 Weston used an orthochromatic sheet film, but when panchromatic film became widely available in 1921 he switched to it for all of his work. According to his son Cole, after Agfa Isopan film came out in the 1930s Weston used it for his black-and-white images for the rest of his life. This film was rated at about ISO 25, but the developing technique Weston used reduced the effective rating to about ISO 12.
The 8 × 10 cameras he preferred were large and heavy, and due to the weight and the cost of the film he never carried more than twelve sheet film holders with him. At the end of each day, he had to go into a darkroom, unload the film holders and load them with new film. This was especially challenging when he was traveling since he had to find a darkened room somewhere or else set up a makeshift darkroom made from heavy canvas.
In spite of the bulky size of the view camera, Weston boasted he could "set up the tripod, fasten the camera securely to it, attach the lens to the camera, open the shutter, study the image on the ground glass, focus it, close the shutter, insert the plate holder, cock the shutter, set it to the appropriate aperture and speed, remove the slide from the plate holder, make the exposure, replace the slide, and remove the plate holder in two minutes and twenty seconds."
The smaller Graflex cameras he used had the advantage of using film magazines that held either 12 or 18 sheets of film. Weston preferred these cameras when taking portraits because he could respond more quickly to the sitter. He reported that with his Graflex he once made three dozen negatives of Tina Modotti within 20 minutes.In 1946 a representative from Kodak asked Weston to try out their new Kodachrome film, and over the next two years he made at least 60 8 x 10 color images using this film." They were some of the last photographs he took, since by late 1948 he was no longer able to operate a camera due to the effects of his Parkinson's disease.
Exposures
During the first 20 years of his photography Weston determined all of his exposure settings by estimation based on his previous experiences and the relatively narrow tolerances of the film at that time. He said, "I dislike to figure out time, and find my exposures more accurate when only "felt"." In the late 1930s he acquired a Weston exposure meter and continued to use it as an aid to determine exposures throughout his career. Photo historian Nancy Newhall wrote that "Young photographers are confused and amazed when they behold him measuring with his meter every value in the sphere where he intends to work, from the sky to the ground under his feet. He is "feeling the light" and checking his own observations. After which he puts the meter away and does what he thinks. Often he adds up everything ‒ filters, extension, film, speed, and so on ‒ and doubles the computation." Weston, Newhall noted, believed in "massive exposure", which he then compensated for by hand-processing the film in a weak developer solution and individually inspecting each negative as it continued to develop to get the right balance of highlights and shadows.
The low ISO rating of the sheet film Weston used necessitated very long exposures when using his view camera, ranging from 1 to 3 seconds for outdoor landscape exposures to as long as 4½ hours for still lifes such as peppers or shells. When he used one of the Graflex cameras the exposure times were much shorter (usually less than ¼ second), and he was sometimes able to work without a tripod.
Darkroom
Weston always made contact prints, meaning that the print was exactly the same size as the negative. This was essential for the platinum printing that he preferred early in his career, since at that time the platinum papers required ultra-violet light to activate. Weston did not have an artificial ultra-violet light source, so he had to place the contact print directly in sunlight to expose it. This limited him to printing only on sunny days.
When he wanted a print that was larger than the original negative size, he used an enlarger to create a larger inter-positive, then contact printed it to a new negative. The new larger negative was then used to make a print of that size. This process was very labor-intensive; he once wrote in his Daybooks "I am utterly exhausted tonight after a whole day in the darkroom, making eight contact negatives from the enlarged positives."
In 1924 Weston wrote this about his darkroom process, "I have returned, after several years use of Metol-Hydroquinine open-tank" developer to a three-solution Pyro developer, and I develop one at a time in a tray instead of a dozen in a tank." Each sheet of film was viewed under either a green or an orange safelight in his darkroom, allowing him to control the individual development of a negative. He continued to use this technique for the rest of his life.
Weston was known to extensively use dodging and burning to achieve the look he wanted in his prints.
Paper
Early in his career Weston printed on several kinds of paper, including Velox, Apex, Convira, Defender Velour Black and Haloid. When he went to Mexico he learned how to use platinum and palladium paper, made by Willis & Clement and imported from England. After his return to California, he abandoned platinum and palladium printing due to the scarcity and increasing price of the paper. Eventually he was able to get most of the same qualities he preferred with Kodak's Azo glossy silver gelatin paper developed in Amidol. He continued to use this paper almost exclusively until he stopped printing.
Writings
Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957. He hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children.
In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died.
Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure."
In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers.
Quotations
"Form follows function." Who said this I don't know, but the writer spoke well.
I am not a technician and have no interest in technique for its own sake. If my technique is adequate to present my seeing then I need nothing more.
I see no reason for recording the obvious.
If there is symbolism in my work, it can only be the seeing of parts ‒ fragments ‒ as universal symbols. All basic forms are so closely related as to be visually equivalent.
My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea.
My work-purpose, my theme, can most nearly be stated as the recognition, recording and presentation of the interdependence, the relativity, of all things ‒ the universality of basic form.
The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?
This then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock.
What then is the end toward which I work? To present the significance of facts, so that they are transformed from things seen to things known.
When money enters in ‒ then, for a price, I become a liar ‒ and a good one I can be whether with pencil or subtle lighting or viewpoint. I hate it all, but so do I support not only my family, but my own work.
Legacy
As of 2013, two of Weston's photographs feature among the most expensive photographs ever sold. The Nude, 1925 taken in 1925 was bought by the gallerist Peter MacGill for $1.6 million in 2008. Nautilus of 1927 was sold for $1.1 million in 2010, also to MacGill.
Major exhibitions
1970, the Rencontres d'Arles festival (France) presented an exhibition "Hommage à Edward Weston" and an evening screening of the film The Photographer (1948) by Willard Van Dyke.
November 25, 1986 – March 29, 1987 Edward Weston in Los Angeles at Huntington Library
1986 Edward Weston: Color Photography at Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
May 13 – August 27, 1989 Edward Weston in New Mexico at Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe
Edward Weston : the Last Years in Carmel at The Art Institute of Chicago, June 2 – September 16, 2001, and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mar. 1 – July 9, 2002.
List of photographs
The artistic career of Weston spanned more than forty years, from roughly 1915 to 1956. A prolific photographer, he produced more than 1,000 black-and-white photographs and some 50 color images. This list is an incomplete selection of Weston's better-known photographs.
Notes
References
Sources
Abbott, Brett. Edward Weston: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005.
Alinder, Mary Street. Group f.64: Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and the Community of Artists Who Revolutionized American Photography. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2014.
Bunnell, Peter C. Edward Weston on Photography. Salt Lake City: P. Smith Books, 1983.
Bunnell, Peter C., David Featherston et al. EW 100: Centennial Essays in Honor of Edward Weston. Carmel, Calif. : Friends of Photography, 1986.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston in Mexico, 1923–1926. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983.
Conger, Amy (1992). Edward Weston – Photographs From the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1992.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston: The Form of The Nude. NY: Phaidon, 2006.
Edward Weston : Color Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1986.
Enyeart, James. Edward Weston's California landscapes. Boston : Little, Brown, 1984.
Foley, Kathy Kelsey. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister. Dayton: Dayton Art Institute, 1978.
Heyman, There Thau. Seeing Straight: The f.64 Revolution in Photography. Oakland: Oakland Art Museum, 1992.
Higgins, Gary. Truth, Myth and Erasure: Tina Modotti and Edward Weston. Tempe, Ariz. : School of Art, Arizona State University, 1991.
Hochberg, Judith and Michael P. Mattis. Edward Weston: Life Work. Photographs from the Collection of Judith G. Hochberg and Michael P. Mattis. Revere, Pa.: Lodima Press, c2003.
Hooks, Margaret. Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary. London: Pandora, 1993.
Lowe, Sarah M. Tina Modotti and Edward Weston the Mexico Years. London: Merrell, 2004.
Maddow, Ben. Edward Weston: Fifty Years; The Definitive Volume of His Photographic Work. Millerton, N.Y., Aperture, 1973. ,
Maggia, Filippo. Edward Weston. New York: Skira, 2013.
Mora, Gilles (ed.). Edward Weston: Forms of Passion. NY: Abrams, 1995.
Morgan, Susan. Portraits / Edward Weston. NY: Aperture, 1995.
Newhall, Beaumont (1984). Edward Weston Omnibus: A Critical Anthology. Salt Lake City : Peregrine Smith Books, 1984.
Newhall, Beaumont . Supreme Instants: The Photography of Edward Weston. Boston : Little, Brown, 1986.
Newhall, Nancy (ed.). Edward Weston; The Flame of Recognition: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY: Aperture, 1971.
Pitts, Terence. Edward Weston 1886–1958. Köln: Taschen, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E., Karen Quinn and Leslie Furth. Edward Weston : Photography and Modernism. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E. Weston's Westons : Portraits and Nudes. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1989.
Travis, David. Edward Weston, The Last Years in Carmel. Chicago: Art Institute, 2001.
Warren, Beth Gates. Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011.
Warren, Beth Gates. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs. NY: Sotheby's, 2008.
Warren, Beth Gates (2001). Margrethe Mather & Edward Weston: A Passionate Collaboration. NY: Norton, 2001.
Watts, Jennifer A. (ed.). Edward Weston : A Legacy. London: Merrell, 2003.
Weston, Edward (1964). The Daybooks of Edward Weston. Edited by Nancy Nehall. NY: Horizon Press, 1961–1964. 2 vols.
Weston, Edward. My Camera on Point Lobos; 30 Photographs and Excerpts from E. W.’s Daybook. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.
Weston, Paulette. Laughing Eyes: a Book of Letters Between Edward and Cole Weston 1923–1946. Carmel: Carmel Publishing Co., 1999.
Wilson, Charis. Edward Weston Nudes: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY : Aperture, 1977.
Wilson, Charis. Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
Woods, John. Dune: Edward & Brett Weston. Kalispell, MT: Wild Horse Island Press, 2003.
External links
edward-weston.com
Edward Weston Collection at the Center for Creative Photography
Ben Maddow "Edward Weston Lecture" The Baltimore Museum of Art: Baltimore, Maryland, 1976. Retrieved June 26, 2012
The Eloquent Nude: The Love and Legacy of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson Documentary concerning Edward Weston, his muse Charis Wilson and photographer Ansel Adams.
Encyclopædia Britannica
Landscape photographers
American portrait photographers
1886 births
1958 deaths
History of platinum printing
Photographers from California
Artists from Chicago
People from Highland Park, Illinois
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Neurological disease deaths in California
20th-century American photographers
Fine art photographers
Olympic archers of the United States
American male archers
Archers at the 1904 Summer Olympics
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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"
] |
[
"Edward Weston",
"Writings",
"What was his most famous photograph?",
"I don't know.",
"How long did each photo take to produce?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition."
] |
C_7efe68873f1f4b09adc565dfd928bf98_0
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What were the main subjects of his writing?
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What were the main subjects of Edward Weston's writing?
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Edward Weston
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Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957, and he hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children. In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died. Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure." In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers. CANNOTANSWER
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Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization.
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Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still-lifes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies. It is said that he developed a "quintessentially American, and especially Californian, approach to modern photography" because of his focus on the people and places of the American West. In 1937 Weston was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, and over the next two years he produced nearly 1,400 negatives using his 8 × 10 view camera. Some of his most famous
photographs were taken of the trees and rocks at Point Lobos, California, near where he lived for many years.
Weston was born in Chicago and moved to California when he was 21. He knew he wanted to be a photographer from an early age, and initially his work was typical of the soft focus pictorialism that was popular at the time. Within a few years, however he abandoned that style and went on to be one of the foremost champions of highly detailed photographic images.
In 1947 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and he soon stopped photographing. He spent the remaining ten years of his life overseeing the printing of more than 1,000 of his most famous images.
Life and work
1886–1906: Early life
Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois, the second child and only son of Edward Burbank Weston, an obstetrician, and Alice Jeanette Brett, a Shakespearean actress. His mother died when he was five years old and he was raised mostly by his sister Mary, whom he called "May" or "Maisie". She was nine years older than he, and they developed a very close bond that was one of the few steady relationships in Weston's life.
His father remarried when he was nine, but neither Weston nor his sister got along with their new stepmother and stepbrother. After May was married and left their home in 1897, Weston's father devoted most of his time to his new wife and her son. Weston was left on his own much of the time; he stopped going to school and withdrew into his own room in their large home.
As a present for his 16th birthday Weston's father gave him his first camera, a Kodak Bull's-Eye No. 2, which was a simple box camera. He took it on vacation in the Midwest, and by the time he returned home his interest in photography was enough to lead him to purchase a used 5 × 7 inch view camera. He began photographing in Chicago parks and a farm owned by his aunt, and developed his own film and prints. Later he would remember that even at that early age his work showed strong artistic merit. He said, "I feel that my earliest work of 1903 ‒ though immature ‒ is related more closely, both with technique and composition, to my latest work than are several of my photographs dating from 1913 to 1920, a period in which I was trying to be artistic."
In 1904 May and her family moved to California, leaving Weston further isolated in Chicago. He earned a living by taking a job at a local department store, but he continued to spend most of his free time taking photos, Within two years he felt confident enough of his photography that he submitted his work to the magazine Camera and Darkroom, and in the April 1906 issue they published a full-page reproduction of his picture Spring, Chicago. This is the first known publication of any of his photographs.
In September 1904, Weston took part in the men's double American round archery event at the 1904 Summer Olympics with his father also taking part in the same event.
1906–23: Becoming a photographer
At his sister's urging Weston left Chicago in the spring of 1906 and moved near May's home in Tropico, California (now a neighborhood in Glendale). He decided to stay there and pursue a career in photography, but he soon realized he needed more professional training. A year later he moved to Effingham, Illinois, to enroll in the Illinois College of Photography. They taught a nine-month course, but Weston finished all of the class work in six months. The school refused to give him a diploma unless he paid for the full nine months; Weston refused and instead moved back to California in the spring of 1908.
He briefly worked at the photography studio of George Steckel in Los Angeles, as a negative retoucher. Within a few months he moved to the more established studio of Louis Mojonier. For the next several years he learned the techniques and business of operating a photography studio under Mojonier's direction.
Within days of his visit to Tropico, Weston was introduced to his sister's best friend, Flora May Chandler. She was a graduate of the Normal School, later to become UCLA. She assumed the position of a grade-school teacher in Tropico.
She was seven years older than Weston and a distant relative of Harry Chandler, who at that time was described as the head of "the single most powerful family in Southern California". This fact did not go unnoticed by Weston and his biographers.
On January 30, 1909, Weston and Chandler married in a simple ceremony. The first of their four sons, Edward Chandler Weston (1910–1993), known as Chandler, was born on April 26, 1910.
Named Edward Chandler, after Weston and his wife, he later became an excellent photographer on his own. He clearly learned much by being an assistant to his father in the bungalow studio. In 1923 he bid farewell to his mother and sibling brothers and sailed off to Mexico with his father and his then-muse, Tina Modotti. He gave up any aspirations in pursuing photography as a career after his adventures in Mexico. The lifestyle of fame and its fortune affected him greatly. His later photographs, as a hobbyist, albeit rare, certainly reflect an innate talent for the form.
In 1910 Weston opened his own business, called "The Little Studio", in Tropico. His sister later asked him why he opened his studio in Tropico rather than in the nearby metropolis of Los Angeles, and he replied "Sis, I'm going to make my name so famous that it won't matter where I live."
For the next three years he worked, alone and sometimes with the assistance of family members in his studio. Even at that early stage of his career he was highly particular about his work; in an interview at that time he said "[photographic] plates are nothing to me unless I get what I want. I have used thirty of them at a sitting if I did not secure the effect to suit me."
His critical eye paid off for him and he quickly gained more recognition for his work. He won prizes in national competitions, published several more photographs and wrote articles for magazines such as Photo-Era and American Photography, championing the pictorial style.
On December 16, 1911, Weston's second son, Theodore Brett Weston (1911–1993), was born. He became a long-time artistic collaborator with his father and an important photographer on his own.
Sometime in the fall of 1913, Los Angeles photographer, Margrethe Mather visited Weston's studio because of his growing reputation, and within a few months they developed an intense relationship. Weston was a quiet Midwestern transplant to California, and Mather was a part of the growing bohemian cultural scene in Los Angeles. She was very outgoing and artistic in a flamboyant way, and her permissive sexual morals were far different from the conservative Weston at the time – Mather had been a prostitute and was bisexual with a preference for women. Mather presented a stark contrast to Weston's home life; his wife Flora was described as a "homely, rigid Puritan, and an utterly conventional woman, with whom he had little in common since he abhorred conventions" ‒ and he found Mather's uninhibited lifestyle irresistible and her photographic vision intriguing.
He asked Mather to be his studio assistant, and for the next decade they worked closely together, making individual and jointly signed portraits of writers Carl Sandburg and Max Eastman. A joint exhibition of their work in 2001 revealed that during this period Weston emulated Mather's style and, later, her choice of subjects. On her own Mather photographed "fans, hands, eggs, melons, waves, bathroom fixtures, seashells and birds wings, all subjects that Weston would also explore." A decade later he described her as "the first important person in my life, and perhaps even now, though personal contact has gone, the most important."
In early 1915 Weston began keeping detailed journals he later came to call his "Daybooks". For the next two decades he recorded his thoughts about his work, observations about photography, and his interactions with friends, lovers and family. On December 6, 1916, a third son, Lawrence Neil Weston, was born. He also followed in the footsteps of his father and became a well-known photographer. It was during this period that Weston first met photographer Johan Hagemeyer, whom Weston mentored and lent his studio to from time to time. Later, Hagemeyer would return the favor by letting Weston use his studio in Carmel after he returned from Mexico. For the next several years Weston continued to earn a living by taking portraits in his small studio which he called "the shack".
Meanwhile, Flora was spending all of her time caring for their children. Their fourth son, Cole Weston (1919–2003), was born on January 30, 1919, and afterward she rarely had time to leave their home.
Over the summer of 1920 Weston met two people who were part of the growing Los Angeles cultural scene: Roubaix de l'Abrie Richey, known as "Robo" and a woman he called his wife, Tina Modotti. Modotti, who was then known only as a stage and film actress, was never married to Robo, but they pretended to be for the sake of his family. Weston and Modotti were immediately attracted to each other, and they soon became lovers. Richey knew of Modotti's affair, but he continued to be friends with Weston and later invited him to come to Mexico and share his studio.
The following year Weston agreed to allow Mather to become an equal partner in his studio. For several months they took portraits that they signed with both of their names. This was the only time in his long career that Weston shared credit with another photographer.
Sometime in 1920 he began photographing nude models for the first time. His first models were his wife Flora and their children, but soon thereafter he took at least three nude studies of Mather. He followed these with several more photographs of nude models, the first of dozens of figure studies he would make of friends and lovers over the next twenty years.
Until now Weston had kept his relationships with other women a secret from his wife, but as he began to photograph more nudes Flora became suspicious about what went on with him and his models. Chandler recalled that his mother regularly sent him on "errands" to his father's studio and asked him to tell her who was there and what they were doing.
One of the first who agreed to model nude for Weston was Modotti. She became his primary model for the next several years.
In 1922 he visited his sister May, who had moved to Middletown, Ohio. While there he made five or six photographs of the tall smoke stacks at the nearby Armco steel mill. These images signaled a change in Weston's photographic style, a transition from the soft-focus pictorialism of the past to a new, cleaner-edge style. He immediately recognized the change and later recorded it in his notes: "The Middletown visit was something to remember...most of all in importance was my photographing of 'Armco'...That day I made great photographs, even Stieglitz thought they were important!"
At that time New York City was the cultural center for photography as an art form in America, and Alfred Stieglitz was the most influential figure in photography. Weston badly wanted to go to New York to meet with him, but he did not have enough money to make the trip. His brother-in-law gave him enough money to continue on from Middletown to New York City, and he spent most of October and early November there. While there he met artist Charles Sheeler and photographers Clarence H. White, Gertrude Kasebier, as well as Stieglitz. Weston wrote that Stieglitz told him, "Your work and attitude reassures me. You have shown me at least several prints which have given me a great deal of joy. And I can seldom say that of photographs."
Soon after Weston returned from New York, Robo moved to Mexico and set up a studio there to create batiks. Within a short while he had arranged for a joint exhibition of his work and of photographs by Weston, Mather and a few others. In early 1923 Modotti left by train to be with Robo in Mexico, but he contracted smallpox and died shortly before she arrived. Modotti was grief-stricken, but within a few weeks she felt well enough that she decided to stay and carry out the exhibition that Robo had planned. The show was a success, and due in no small part to his nude studies of Modotti, it firmly established Weston's artistic reputation in Mexico.
After the show closed Modotti returned to California, and Weston and she made plans to return to Mexico together. He wanted to spend a couple of months there photographing and promoting his work, and, conveniently, he could travel under the pretense of Modotti being his assistant and translator.
The week before he left for Mexico, Weston briefly reunited with Mather and took several nudes of her lying in the sand at Redondo Beach. These images were very different from his previous nude studies – sharply focused and showing her entire body in relation to the natural setting. They have been called the artistic prototypes for his most famous nudes, those of Charis Wilson which he would take more than a decade later.
1923–27: Mexico
On July 30, 1923, Weston, his son Chandler, and Modotti left on a steamer for the extended trip to Mexico. His wife, Flora, and their other three sons waved goodbye to them at the dock. It's unknown what Flora understood or thought about the relationship between Weston and Modotti, but she is reported to have called out at the dock, "Tina, take good care of my boys."
They arrived in Mexico City on August 11 and rented a large hacienda outside of the city. Within a month he had arranged for an exhibition of his work at the Aztec Land Gallery, and on October 17 the show opened to glowing press reviews. He was particularly proud of a review by Marius de Zayas that said "Photography is beginning to be photography, for until now it has only been art."
The different culture and scenery in Mexico forced Weston to look at things in new ways. He became more responsive to what was in front of him, and he turned his camera on everyday objects like toys, doorways and bathroom fixtures. He also made several intimate nudes and portraits of Modotti. He wrote in his Daybooks:
The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself...I feel definite in the belief that the approach to photography is through realism.
Weston continued to photograph the people and things around him, and his reputation in Mexico increased the longer he stayed. He had a second exhibition at the Aztec Land Gallery in 1924, and he had a steady stream of local socialites asking him to take their portraits. At the same time, Weston began to miss his other sons back in the U.S. As with many of his actions, though, it was a woman who motivated him most. He had recently corresponded with a woman he had known for several years named Miriam Lerner, and as her letters became more passionate he longed to see her again.
He and Chandler returned to San Francisco at the end of 1924, and the next month he set up a studio with Johan Hagemeyer. Weston seemed to be struggling with his past and his future during this period. He burned all of his pre-Mexico journals, as though trying to erase the past, and started a new series of nudes with Lerner and with his son Neil. He wrote that these images were "the start of a new period in my approach and attitude towards photography."
His new relationship with Lerner did not last long, and in August 1925 he returned to Mexico, this time with his son Brett. Modotti had arranged a joint show of their photographs, and it opened the week he returned. He received new critical acclaim and six of his prints were purchased for the State Museum. For the next several months he concentrated once again on photographing folk art, toys and local scenes. One of his strongest images of this period is of three black clay pots that art historian Rene d'Harnoncourt described as "the beginning of a new art."
In May 1926 Weston signed a contract with writer Anita Brenner for $1,000 to make photographs for a book she was writing about Mexican folk art. In June he, Modotti and Brett started traveling around the country in search of lesser known native arts and crafts. His contract required him to give Brenner three finished prints from 400 8x10 negatives, and it took him until November of that year to complete the work. During their travels, Brett received a crash course in photography from his father, and he made more than two dozen prints which his father judged to be of exceptional quality.
By the time they returned from their trip, Weston and Modotti's relationship had crumbled, and within less than two weeks he and Brett returned to California. He never traveled to Mexico again.
1927–35: Glendale to Carmel
Weston initially returned to his old studio in Glendale (previously called Tropico). He hastily arranged a dual exhibition at University of California of the photographs that he and Brett had made the year before. The father showed 100 prints and the son showed 20. Brett was only 15 years old at the time.
In February he started a new series of nudes, this time of dancer Bertha Wardell. One of this series, of her kneeling body cut off at the shoulders, is one of Weston's most well-known figure studies. At this same time he met Canadian painter Henrietta Shore, whom he asked to comment on the photos of Wardell. He was surprised by her honest critique: "I wish you would not do so many nudes – you are getting used to them, the subject no longer amazes you ‒ most of these are just nudes."
He asked to look at her work and was intrigued by her large paintings of sea shells. He borrowed several shells from her, thinking he might find some inspiration for a new still life series. Over the next few weeks he explored many different kinds of shell and background combinations – in his log of photographs taken for 1927 he listed fourteen negatives of shells. One of these, simply called Nautilus, 1927" (sometimes called Shell, 1927), became one of his most famous images. Modotti called the image "mystical and erotic," and when she showed it to Rene d'Harnoncourt he said he felt "weak at the knees." Weston is known to have made at least twenty-eight prints of this image, more than he had made of any other shell image.
In September of that year Weston had a major exhibition at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. At the opening of the show he met fellow photographer Willard Van Dyke, who later introduced Weston to Ansel Adams.
In May 1928, Weston and Brett made a brief but important trip to the Mojave Desert. It was there that he first explored and photographed landscapes as an art form. He found the stark rock forms and empty spaces to be a visual revelation, and over a long weekend he took twenty-seven photographs. In his journal he declared "these negatives are the most important I have ever done."
Later that year he and Brett moved to San Francisco, where they lived and worked in a small studio owned by Hagemeyer. He made portraits to earn an income, but he longed to get away by himself and get back to his art. In early 1929 he moved to Hagemeyer's cottage in Carmel, and it was there that he finally found the solitude and the inspiration that he was seeking. He placed a sign in studio window that said, "Edward Weston, photographer, Unretouched Portraits, Prints for Collectors."
He started making regular trips to nearby Point Lobos, where he would continue to photograph until the end of his career. It was there that he learned to fine-tune his photographic vision to match the visual space of his view camera, and the images he took there, of kelp, rocks and wind-blown trees, are among his finest. Looking at his work from this period, one biographer wrote:
"Weston arranged his compositions so that things happened on the edges; lines almost cross or meet and circular lines just touch the edges tangentially; his compositions were now created exclusively for a space with the proportions of eight by ten. There is no extraneous space nor is there too little."
In early April 1929, Weston met photographer Sonya Noskowiak at a party, and by the end of the month she was living with him. As with many of his other relationships, she became his model, muse, pupil and assistant. They would continue to live together for five years.
Intrigued by the many kinds and shapes of kelp he found on the beaches near Carmel, in 1930 Weston began taking close-ups of vegetables and fruits. He made a variety of photographs of cabbage, kale, onions, bananas, and finally, his most iconic image, peppers. In August of that year Noskowiak brought him several green peppers, and over a four-day period he shot at least thirty different negatives. Of these, Pepper No. 30, is among the all-time masterpieces of photography.
Weston had a series of important one-man exhibitions in 1930–31. The first was at Alma Reed's Delphic Studio Gallery in New York, followed closely by a mounting of the same show at the Denny Watrous Gallery in Carmel. Both received rave reviews, including a two-page article in the New York Times Magazine. These were followed by shows at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and the Galerie Jean Naert in Paris.
Although he was succeeding professionally his personal life was very complex. For most of their marriage, Flora was able to take care of their children because of an inheritance from her parents. However, the Wall Street crash of 1929 had wiped out most of her savings, and Weston felt increased pressure to help provide more for her and his sons. He described this time as "the most trying economic period of my life."
In 1932, The Art of Edward Weston, the first book devoted exclusively to Weston's work, was published. It was edited by Merle Armitage and dedicated to Alice Rohrer, an admirer and patron of Weston whose $500 donation helped pay for the book to be published.
During the same time a small group of like-minded photographers in the San Francisco area, led by Van Dyke and Ansel Adams, began informally meeting to discuss their common interest and aesthetics. Inspired by Weston's show at the De Young Museum the previous year, they approached the museum with the idea of mounting a group exhibition of their work. They named themselves Group f/64, and in November 1932, an exhibition of 80 of their prints opened at the museum. The show was a critical success.
In 1933 Weston bought a 4 × 5 Graflex camera, which was much smaller and lighter than the large view camera he had used for many years. He began taking close-up nudes of Noskowiak and other models. The smaller camera allowed him to interact more with his models, while at the same time the nudes he took during this period began to resemble some of the contorted root and vegetables he had taken the year before.
In early 1934, "a new and important chapter opened" in Weston's life when he met Charis Wilson at a concert. Even more than with his previous lovers, Weston was immediately captivated by her beauty and her personality. He wrote: "A new love came into my life, a most beautiful one, one which will, I believe, stand the test of time." On April 22 he photographed her nude for the first time, and they entered into an intense relationship. He was still living with Noskowiak at that time, but within two weeks he asked her to move out, declaring that for him other women were "as inevitable as the tides".
Perhaps because of the intensity of his new relationship, he stopped writing in his Daybooks at this same time. Six months later he wrote one final entry, looking back from April 22:
After eight months we are closer together than ever. Perhaps C. will be remembered as the great love of my life. Already I have achieved certain heights reached with no other love.
1935–45: Guggenheim grant to Wildcat Hill
In January 1935 Weston was facing increasing financial difficulties. He closed his studio in Carmel and moved to Santa Monica Canyon, California, where he opened a new studio with Brett. He implored Wilson to come and live with him, and in August 1935 she finally agreed. While she had an intense interest in his work, Wilson was the first woman Weston had lived with since Flora who had no interest in becoming a photographer. This allowed Weston to concentrate on her as his muse and model, and in turn Wilson devoted her time to promoting Weston's art as his assistant and quasi-agent.
Almost immediately he began taking a new series of nudes with Wilson as the model. One of the first photographs he took of her, on the balcony of their home, became one of his most published images (Nude (Charis, Santa Monica)). Soon after they took the first of several trips to Oceano Dunes. It was there that Weston made some of his most daring and intimate photographs of any of his models, capturing Wilson in completely uninhibited poses in the sand dunes. He exhibited only one or two of this series in his lifetime, thinking several of the others were "too erotic" for the general public.
Although his recent work had received critical acclaim, he was not earning enough income from his artistic images to provide a steady income. Rather than going back to relying solely on portraiture, he started the "Edward Weston Print of the Month Club", offering selections of his photos for a monthly $5 subscription. Each month subscribers would receive a new print from Weston, with a limited edition of 40 copies of each print. Although he created these prints with the same high standards that he did for his exhibition prints, it is thought that he never had more than eleven subscribers.
At the suggestion of Beaumont Newhall, Weston decided to apply for a Guggenheim Foundation grant (now known as a Guggenheim Fellowship). He wrote a two-sentence description about his work, assembled thirty-five of his favorite prints, and sent it in. Afterward Dorothea Lange and her husband suggested that the application was too brief to be seriously considered, and Weston resubmitted it with a four-page letter and work plan. He did not mention that Wilson had written the new application for him.
On March 22, 1937, Weston received notification that he had been awarded a Guggenheim grant, the first ever given to a photographer. The award was $2,000 for one year, a significant amount of money at that time. He was able to further capitalize on the award by arranging to provide the editor of AAA Westway Magazine with 8–10 photos per month for $50 during their travels, with Wilson getting an additional $15 monthly for photo captions and short narratives. They purchased a new car and set out on Weston's dream trip to go and photograph whatever he wanted. Over the next twelve months they made seventeen trips and covered 16,697 miles according to Wilson's detailed log. Weston made 1,260 negatives during the trip.
The freedom of this trip with the "love of his life", combined with all of his sons now reaching the age of adulthood, gave Weston the motivation to finally divorce his wife. They had been living apart for sixteen years.
Due to the success of the past year, Weston applied for and received a second year of Guggenheim support. Although he wanted to do some additional traveling, he intended to use most of the money to allow him to print his past year's work. He commissioned Neil to build a small home in the Carmel Highlands on property owned by Wilson's father. They named the place "Wildcat Hill" because of the many domestic cats that soon occupied the grounds.
Wilson set up a writing studio in what was intended to be a small garage behind the house, and she spent several months writing and editing stories from their travels.
In 1939, Seeing California with Edward Weston was published, with photographs by Weston and writing by Wilson. Finally relieved from the financial stresses of the past and inordinately happy with his work and his relationship, Weston married Wilson in a small ceremony on April 24.
Buoyed by the success of their first book, in 1940 they published California and the West. The first edition, featuring 96 of Weston's photos with text by Wilson, sold for $3.95. Over the summer, Weston taught photography at the first Ansel Adams Workshop at Yosemite National Park.
Just as the Guggenheim money was running out, Weston was invited to illustrate a new edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. He would receive $1,000 for photographs and $500 travel expenses. Weston insisted on having artistic control of the images he would take and insisted that he would not be taking literal illustrations of Whitman's text. On May 28 he and Wilson began a trip that would cover 20,000 miles through 24 states; he took between 700 and 800 8x10 negatives as well as dozens of Graflex portraits.
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the United States entered World War II. Weston was near the end of the Whitman trip, and he was deeply affected by the outbreak of the war. He wrote: "When the war broke out we scurried home. Charis did not want to scurry. I did."
He spent the first few months of 1942 organizing and printing the negatives from the Whitman trip. Of the hundreds of images he took, forty-nine were selected for publication.
Due to the war, Point Lobos was closed to the public for several years. Weston continued to work on images centered on Wildcat Hill, including shots of the many cats that lived there. Weston treated them with the same serious intent that he applied to all of his other subjects, and Charis assembled the results into their most unusual publication, The Cats of Wildcat Hill, which was finally published in 1947.
The year 1945 marked the beginning of significant changes for Weston. He began to experience the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a debilitating ailment that gradually stole his strength and his ability to photograph. He withdrew from Wilson, who at the same time began to become more involved in local politics and the Carmel cultural scene. A strength that originally brought them together – her lack of interest in becoming a photographer herself – eventually led to their break-up. She wrote, "My flight from Edward was also partly an escape from photography, which had taken up so much room in my life for so many years."
While working on a major retrospective exhibition for the Museum of Modern Art, he and Wilson separated. Weston returned to Glendale since the land for their cabin at Wildcat Hill still belonged to Wilson's father. Within a few months she moved out and arranged to sell the property to him.
1946–58: Final years
In February 1946, Weston's major retrospective opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He and Beaumont Newhall selected 313 prints for the exhibition, and eventually 250 photographs were displayed along with 11 negatives. At that time many of his prints were still for sale, and he sold 97 prints from the exhibit at $25 per print. Later that year, Weston was asked by Dr. George L. Waters of Kodak to produce 8 × 10 Kodachrome transparencies for their advertising campaign. Weston had never worked in color before, primarily because he had no means of developing or printing the more complicated color process. He accepted their offer in no small part because they offered him $250 per image, the highest amount he would be paid for any single work in his lifetime. He eventually sold seven color works to Kodak of landscapes and scenery at Point Lobos and nearby Monterey harbor.
In 1947 as his Parkinson's disease progressed, Weston began looking for an assistant. Serendipitously, an eager young photographic enthusiast, Dody Weston Thompson, contacted him in search of employment.
Weston mentioned he had just that morning written a letter to Ansel Adams, looking for someone seeking to learn photography in exchange for carrying his bulky large-format camera and to provide a much needed automobile. There was a swift meeting of creative minds. For the remainder of 1947 through the beginning of 1948, Dody commuted from San Francisco on weekends to learn from Weston the basics of photography. In early 1948, Dody moved into "Bodie House," the guest cottage at Edward's Wildcat Hill compound, as his full-time assistant.
By late 1948 he was no longer physically able to use his large view camera. That year he took his last photographs, at Point Lobos. His final negative was an image he called, "Rocks and Pebbles, 1948". Although diminished in his capacity, Weston never stopped being a photographer. He worked with his sons and Dody to catalog his images and especially to oversee the publication and printing of his work. In 1950 there was a major retrospective of his work at the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris, and in 1952 he published a Fiftieth Anniversary portfolio, with images printed by Brett.
During this time he worked with Cole, Brett, and Dody Thompson (Brett's wife by 1952), to select and have them print a master set of what he considered his best work. They spent many long hours together in the darkroom, and by 1956 they had produced what Weston called "The Project Prints", eight sets of 8" × 10" prints from 830 of his negatives. The only complete set today is housed at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Later that same year the Smithsonian Institution displayed nearly 100 of these prints at a major exhibit, "The World of Edward Weston", paying tribute to his accomplishments in American photography.
Weston died at his home on Wildcat Hill on New Year's Day, 1958. His sons scattered his ashes into the Pacific Ocean at an area then known as Pebbly Beach on Point Lobos. Due to Weston's significant influence in the area, the beach was later renamed Weston Beach. He had $300 in his bank account at the time of his death.
Equipment and techniques
Cameras and lenses
During his lifetime Weston worked with several cameras. He began as a more serious photographer in 1902 when he purchased a 5 × 7 camera. When he moved to Tropico, now part of Glendale, and opened his studio in 1911, he acquired an enormous 11 x 14 Graf Variable studio portrait camera. Roi Partridge, Imogen Cunningham's husband, later made an etching of Weston in his studio, dwarfed by the giant camera in front of him. After he began taking more portraits of children, he bought a 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ Graflex in 1912 to better capture their quickly changing expressions.
When he went to Mexico in 1924 he took an 8 × 10 Seneca folding-bed view camera with several lenses, including a Graf Variable and a Wollensak Verito. While in Mexico he purchased a used Rapid Rectilinear lens which was his primary lens for many years. The lens, now in the George Eastman House, did not have a manufacturer's name. He also took to Mexico a 3¼ × 4¼ Graflex with a ƒ/4.5 Tessar lens, which he used for portraits.
In 1933 he purchased a 4 × 5 R. B. Auto-Graflex] and used it thereafter for all portraits. He continued to use the Seneca view camera for all other work.
In 1939 he listed the following items as his standard equipment:
8 x 10 Century Universal
Triple convertible Turner Reich, 12", 21", 28"
K2, G, A filters
12 film holders
Paul Ries Tripod
He continued to use this equipment throughout his life.
Film
Prior to 1921 Weston used an orthochromatic sheet film, but when panchromatic film became widely available in 1921 he switched to it for all of his work. According to his son Cole, after Agfa Isopan film came out in the 1930s Weston used it for his black-and-white images for the rest of his life. This film was rated at about ISO 25, but the developing technique Weston used reduced the effective rating to about ISO 12.
The 8 × 10 cameras he preferred were large and heavy, and due to the weight and the cost of the film he never carried more than twelve sheet film holders with him. At the end of each day, he had to go into a darkroom, unload the film holders and load them with new film. This was especially challenging when he was traveling since he had to find a darkened room somewhere or else set up a makeshift darkroom made from heavy canvas.
In spite of the bulky size of the view camera, Weston boasted he could "set up the tripod, fasten the camera securely to it, attach the lens to the camera, open the shutter, study the image on the ground glass, focus it, close the shutter, insert the plate holder, cock the shutter, set it to the appropriate aperture and speed, remove the slide from the plate holder, make the exposure, replace the slide, and remove the plate holder in two minutes and twenty seconds."
The smaller Graflex cameras he used had the advantage of using film magazines that held either 12 or 18 sheets of film. Weston preferred these cameras when taking portraits because he could respond more quickly to the sitter. He reported that with his Graflex he once made three dozen negatives of Tina Modotti within 20 minutes.In 1946 a representative from Kodak asked Weston to try out their new Kodachrome film, and over the next two years he made at least 60 8 x 10 color images using this film." They were some of the last photographs he took, since by late 1948 he was no longer able to operate a camera due to the effects of his Parkinson's disease.
Exposures
During the first 20 years of his photography Weston determined all of his exposure settings by estimation based on his previous experiences and the relatively narrow tolerances of the film at that time. He said, "I dislike to figure out time, and find my exposures more accurate when only "felt"." In the late 1930s he acquired a Weston exposure meter and continued to use it as an aid to determine exposures throughout his career. Photo historian Nancy Newhall wrote that "Young photographers are confused and amazed when they behold him measuring with his meter every value in the sphere where he intends to work, from the sky to the ground under his feet. He is "feeling the light" and checking his own observations. After which he puts the meter away and does what he thinks. Often he adds up everything ‒ filters, extension, film, speed, and so on ‒ and doubles the computation." Weston, Newhall noted, believed in "massive exposure", which he then compensated for by hand-processing the film in a weak developer solution and individually inspecting each negative as it continued to develop to get the right balance of highlights and shadows.
The low ISO rating of the sheet film Weston used necessitated very long exposures when using his view camera, ranging from 1 to 3 seconds for outdoor landscape exposures to as long as 4½ hours for still lifes such as peppers or shells. When he used one of the Graflex cameras the exposure times were much shorter (usually less than ¼ second), and he was sometimes able to work without a tripod.
Darkroom
Weston always made contact prints, meaning that the print was exactly the same size as the negative. This was essential for the platinum printing that he preferred early in his career, since at that time the platinum papers required ultra-violet light to activate. Weston did not have an artificial ultra-violet light source, so he had to place the contact print directly in sunlight to expose it. This limited him to printing only on sunny days.
When he wanted a print that was larger than the original negative size, he used an enlarger to create a larger inter-positive, then contact printed it to a new negative. The new larger negative was then used to make a print of that size. This process was very labor-intensive; he once wrote in his Daybooks "I am utterly exhausted tonight after a whole day in the darkroom, making eight contact negatives from the enlarged positives."
In 1924 Weston wrote this about his darkroom process, "I have returned, after several years use of Metol-Hydroquinine open-tank" developer to a three-solution Pyro developer, and I develop one at a time in a tray instead of a dozen in a tank." Each sheet of film was viewed under either a green or an orange safelight in his darkroom, allowing him to control the individual development of a negative. He continued to use this technique for the rest of his life.
Weston was known to extensively use dodging and burning to achieve the look he wanted in his prints.
Paper
Early in his career Weston printed on several kinds of paper, including Velox, Apex, Convira, Defender Velour Black and Haloid. When he went to Mexico he learned how to use platinum and palladium paper, made by Willis & Clement and imported from England. After his return to California, he abandoned platinum and palladium printing due to the scarcity and increasing price of the paper. Eventually he was able to get most of the same qualities he preferred with Kodak's Azo glossy silver gelatin paper developed in Amidol. He continued to use this paper almost exclusively until he stopped printing.
Writings
Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957. He hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children.
In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died.
Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure."
In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers.
Quotations
"Form follows function." Who said this I don't know, but the writer spoke well.
I am not a technician and have no interest in technique for its own sake. If my technique is adequate to present my seeing then I need nothing more.
I see no reason for recording the obvious.
If there is symbolism in my work, it can only be the seeing of parts ‒ fragments ‒ as universal symbols. All basic forms are so closely related as to be visually equivalent.
My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea.
My work-purpose, my theme, can most nearly be stated as the recognition, recording and presentation of the interdependence, the relativity, of all things ‒ the universality of basic form.
The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?
This then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock.
What then is the end toward which I work? To present the significance of facts, so that they are transformed from things seen to things known.
When money enters in ‒ then, for a price, I become a liar ‒ and a good one I can be whether with pencil or subtle lighting or viewpoint. I hate it all, but so do I support not only my family, but my own work.
Legacy
As of 2013, two of Weston's photographs feature among the most expensive photographs ever sold. The Nude, 1925 taken in 1925 was bought by the gallerist Peter MacGill for $1.6 million in 2008. Nautilus of 1927 was sold for $1.1 million in 2010, also to MacGill.
Major exhibitions
1970, the Rencontres d'Arles festival (France) presented an exhibition "Hommage à Edward Weston" and an evening screening of the film The Photographer (1948) by Willard Van Dyke.
November 25, 1986 – March 29, 1987 Edward Weston in Los Angeles at Huntington Library
1986 Edward Weston: Color Photography at Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
May 13 – August 27, 1989 Edward Weston in New Mexico at Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe
Edward Weston : the Last Years in Carmel at The Art Institute of Chicago, June 2 – September 16, 2001, and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mar. 1 – July 9, 2002.
List of photographs
The artistic career of Weston spanned more than forty years, from roughly 1915 to 1956. A prolific photographer, he produced more than 1,000 black-and-white photographs and some 50 color images. This list is an incomplete selection of Weston's better-known photographs.
Notes
References
Sources
Abbott, Brett. Edward Weston: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005.
Alinder, Mary Street. Group f.64: Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and the Community of Artists Who Revolutionized American Photography. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2014.
Bunnell, Peter C. Edward Weston on Photography. Salt Lake City: P. Smith Books, 1983.
Bunnell, Peter C., David Featherston et al. EW 100: Centennial Essays in Honor of Edward Weston. Carmel, Calif. : Friends of Photography, 1986.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston in Mexico, 1923–1926. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983.
Conger, Amy (1992). Edward Weston – Photographs From the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1992.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston: The Form of The Nude. NY: Phaidon, 2006.
Edward Weston : Color Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1986.
Enyeart, James. Edward Weston's California landscapes. Boston : Little, Brown, 1984.
Foley, Kathy Kelsey. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister. Dayton: Dayton Art Institute, 1978.
Heyman, There Thau. Seeing Straight: The f.64 Revolution in Photography. Oakland: Oakland Art Museum, 1992.
Higgins, Gary. Truth, Myth and Erasure: Tina Modotti and Edward Weston. Tempe, Ariz. : School of Art, Arizona State University, 1991.
Hochberg, Judith and Michael P. Mattis. Edward Weston: Life Work. Photographs from the Collection of Judith G. Hochberg and Michael P. Mattis. Revere, Pa.: Lodima Press, c2003.
Hooks, Margaret. Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary. London: Pandora, 1993.
Lowe, Sarah M. Tina Modotti and Edward Weston the Mexico Years. London: Merrell, 2004.
Maddow, Ben. Edward Weston: Fifty Years; The Definitive Volume of His Photographic Work. Millerton, N.Y., Aperture, 1973. ,
Maggia, Filippo. Edward Weston. New York: Skira, 2013.
Mora, Gilles (ed.). Edward Weston: Forms of Passion. NY: Abrams, 1995.
Morgan, Susan. Portraits / Edward Weston. NY: Aperture, 1995.
Newhall, Beaumont (1984). Edward Weston Omnibus: A Critical Anthology. Salt Lake City : Peregrine Smith Books, 1984.
Newhall, Beaumont . Supreme Instants: The Photography of Edward Weston. Boston : Little, Brown, 1986.
Newhall, Nancy (ed.). Edward Weston; The Flame of Recognition: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY: Aperture, 1971.
Pitts, Terence. Edward Weston 1886–1958. Köln: Taschen, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E., Karen Quinn and Leslie Furth. Edward Weston : Photography and Modernism. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E. Weston's Westons : Portraits and Nudes. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1989.
Travis, David. Edward Weston, The Last Years in Carmel. Chicago: Art Institute, 2001.
Warren, Beth Gates. Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011.
Warren, Beth Gates. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs. NY: Sotheby's, 2008.
Warren, Beth Gates (2001). Margrethe Mather & Edward Weston: A Passionate Collaboration. NY: Norton, 2001.
Watts, Jennifer A. (ed.). Edward Weston : A Legacy. London: Merrell, 2003.
Weston, Edward (1964). The Daybooks of Edward Weston. Edited by Nancy Nehall. NY: Horizon Press, 1961–1964. 2 vols.
Weston, Edward. My Camera on Point Lobos; 30 Photographs and Excerpts from E. W.’s Daybook. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.
Weston, Paulette. Laughing Eyes: a Book of Letters Between Edward and Cole Weston 1923–1946. Carmel: Carmel Publishing Co., 1999.
Wilson, Charis. Edward Weston Nudes: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY : Aperture, 1977.
Wilson, Charis. Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
Woods, John. Dune: Edward & Brett Weston. Kalispell, MT: Wild Horse Island Press, 2003.
External links
edward-weston.com
Edward Weston Collection at the Center for Creative Photography
Ben Maddow "Edward Weston Lecture" The Baltimore Museum of Art: Baltimore, Maryland, 1976. Retrieved June 26, 2012
The Eloquent Nude: The Love and Legacy of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson Documentary concerning Edward Weston, his muse Charis Wilson and photographer Ansel Adams.
Encyclopædia Britannica
Landscape photographers
American portrait photographers
1886 births
1958 deaths
History of platinum printing
Photographers from California
Artists from Chicago
People from Highland Park, Illinois
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Neurological disease deaths in California
20th-century American photographers
Fine art photographers
Olympic archers of the United States
American male archers
Archers at the 1904 Summer Olympics
| true |
[
"The memory confusion protocol is a technique used by social psychologists to discover whether subjects are categorizing individuals into groups and, if so, what characteristics they are using to do so – without the knowledge of the subjects, in order to reduce the risk that subjects will try to conceal their reasons. The technique has three main steps:\nSubjects are shown photographs of the individuals and are asked to form impressions of them.\nThe subjects then see a set of sentences, each of which is paired with a photograph of the individual who said it.\nSubjects are not forewarned of the final step, a surprise recall task: the sentences are presented in random order, and the subjects must attribute each to the correct individual.\n\nThe subjects' mistakes in the recall task reveal how they categorize the individuals: the subjects are more likely to misattribute A's statement to B if they grouped A and B as members of the same category than if they considered them members of different categories.\n\nReferences\n\nSocial psychology",
"What Is Literature? (), also published as Literature and Existentialism,) is an essay by French philosopher and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre, published by Gallimard in 1948. Initially published in freestanding essays across French literary journals Les Temps modernes, Situations I and Situations II, essays \"What is Writing?\" and \"Why Write?\" were translated into English and published by the Paris-based literary journal Transition 1948. The English translation by Bernard Frechtman was published in 1950.\n\nSummary\nSartre attempts to devise an understanding of the effect literature has on those who are subjected to it. In the foreword Sartre addresses his critics who condemn him for supposing literature can be political rather than relegated to purely art. Using the term \"committed writing\" in relation to the writer who is politically active, Sartre begins his query into the art of writing. \nThe book is divided into four chapters:\n\n What is Writing?\n Why Write?\n For Whom Does One Write?\n Situation of the Writer in 1947\n\nSartre makes a significant distinction between prose and poetry; arguing that prose is committed writing, and that only poetry fits into his critics' conception of literature as an object (such as a painting or a sculpture). Sartre maintains that the prose writer utilizes language with deliberation, and in keeping with his early existentialist philosophy that man is ultimately free, Sartre argues that committed writing communicates the ideal of a free society.\n\nWhat is writing?\nSartre distinguishes the art of writing prose from other forms of art such as poetry, painting, or a musical composition. In the latter group, the viewer subjects the piece of art to the viewer's own interpretation, and the work becomes an object. Meanwhile, prose remains attached to the social, political and historical contexts of the writer, and prose becomes a signifier rather than an object.\n\nSartre describes the poet as \"outside of language.\" The poet refuses to utilize language, and instead manipulates and disassociates words from the structure of language in an expression to change his internal economy of the world. \n\nContrarily, prose is utilitarian. The speaker interpolates, persuades, insinuates a particular aim. The prose writer recognizes the loaded nature of words, and deliberately works within the framework of language with resolute will. Sartre rails against aesthetic purism, saying that style determines the value of prose, but beauty is not its main intent. Sartre proclaims, \"our great writers wanted to destroy, to edify, to demonstrate.\"\nSartre stresses that the underlying purpose of prose is to communicate meaning, despite the fallibility of its cause over time, because great prose is directly linked to the writer's external economy. Sartre considers it a mistake to divorce literature from the author, and accuses his critics of only appreciating literature after its authors are dead; thus supposedly removed from history, their work can be consumed without being considered \"committed\", or inherently political or philosophical.\n\nWhy write?\nSartre believes that prose communicates ideas, and is an appeal by the individual to feel essential from the world. The prose writer reveals or discloses his experience of the world to others. This contrasts with the poet, who performs acts of perceiving rather than disclosing. The art of writing is deeply linked to freedom and thus ventures into the fields of politics and democracy. The poet frees himself by disassociation, and the prose writer fulfills a duty to utilize language for the end of a conceived free society.\n\nReferences\n\n1948 non-fiction books\nBooks by Jean-Paul Sartre\nEssays in literary theory\nEssays about literature\nFrench non-fiction books\nPhilosophy essays"
] |
[
"Edward Weston",
"Writings",
"What was his most famous photograph?",
"I don't know.",
"How long did each photo take to produce?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition.",
"What were the main subjects of his writing?",
"Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization."
] |
C_7efe68873f1f4b09adc565dfd928bf98_0
|
Oh, so his various photography techniques?
| 5 |
What are Edward Weston's various photography techniques?
|
Edward Weston
|
Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957, and he hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children. In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died. Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure." In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers. CANNOTANSWER
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by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work.
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Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still-lifes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies. It is said that he developed a "quintessentially American, and especially Californian, approach to modern photography" because of his focus on the people and places of the American West. In 1937 Weston was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, and over the next two years he produced nearly 1,400 negatives using his 8 × 10 view camera. Some of his most famous
photographs were taken of the trees and rocks at Point Lobos, California, near where he lived for many years.
Weston was born in Chicago and moved to California when he was 21. He knew he wanted to be a photographer from an early age, and initially his work was typical of the soft focus pictorialism that was popular at the time. Within a few years, however he abandoned that style and went on to be one of the foremost champions of highly detailed photographic images.
In 1947 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and he soon stopped photographing. He spent the remaining ten years of his life overseeing the printing of more than 1,000 of his most famous images.
Life and work
1886–1906: Early life
Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois, the second child and only son of Edward Burbank Weston, an obstetrician, and Alice Jeanette Brett, a Shakespearean actress. His mother died when he was five years old and he was raised mostly by his sister Mary, whom he called "May" or "Maisie". She was nine years older than he, and they developed a very close bond that was one of the few steady relationships in Weston's life.
His father remarried when he was nine, but neither Weston nor his sister got along with their new stepmother and stepbrother. After May was married and left their home in 1897, Weston's father devoted most of his time to his new wife and her son. Weston was left on his own much of the time; he stopped going to school and withdrew into his own room in their large home.
As a present for his 16th birthday Weston's father gave him his first camera, a Kodak Bull's-Eye No. 2, which was a simple box camera. He took it on vacation in the Midwest, and by the time he returned home his interest in photography was enough to lead him to purchase a used 5 × 7 inch view camera. He began photographing in Chicago parks and a farm owned by his aunt, and developed his own film and prints. Later he would remember that even at that early age his work showed strong artistic merit. He said, "I feel that my earliest work of 1903 ‒ though immature ‒ is related more closely, both with technique and composition, to my latest work than are several of my photographs dating from 1913 to 1920, a period in which I was trying to be artistic."
In 1904 May and her family moved to California, leaving Weston further isolated in Chicago. He earned a living by taking a job at a local department store, but he continued to spend most of his free time taking photos, Within two years he felt confident enough of his photography that he submitted his work to the magazine Camera and Darkroom, and in the April 1906 issue they published a full-page reproduction of his picture Spring, Chicago. This is the first known publication of any of his photographs.
In September 1904, Weston took part in the men's double American round archery event at the 1904 Summer Olympics with his father also taking part in the same event.
1906–23: Becoming a photographer
At his sister's urging Weston left Chicago in the spring of 1906 and moved near May's home in Tropico, California (now a neighborhood in Glendale). He decided to stay there and pursue a career in photography, but he soon realized he needed more professional training. A year later he moved to Effingham, Illinois, to enroll in the Illinois College of Photography. They taught a nine-month course, but Weston finished all of the class work in six months. The school refused to give him a diploma unless he paid for the full nine months; Weston refused and instead moved back to California in the spring of 1908.
He briefly worked at the photography studio of George Steckel in Los Angeles, as a negative retoucher. Within a few months he moved to the more established studio of Louis Mojonier. For the next several years he learned the techniques and business of operating a photography studio under Mojonier's direction.
Within days of his visit to Tropico, Weston was introduced to his sister's best friend, Flora May Chandler. She was a graduate of the Normal School, later to become UCLA. She assumed the position of a grade-school teacher in Tropico.
She was seven years older than Weston and a distant relative of Harry Chandler, who at that time was described as the head of "the single most powerful family in Southern California". This fact did not go unnoticed by Weston and his biographers.
On January 30, 1909, Weston and Chandler married in a simple ceremony. The first of their four sons, Edward Chandler Weston (1910–1993), known as Chandler, was born on April 26, 1910.
Named Edward Chandler, after Weston and his wife, he later became an excellent photographer on his own. He clearly learned much by being an assistant to his father in the bungalow studio. In 1923 he bid farewell to his mother and sibling brothers and sailed off to Mexico with his father and his then-muse, Tina Modotti. He gave up any aspirations in pursuing photography as a career after his adventures in Mexico. The lifestyle of fame and its fortune affected him greatly. His later photographs, as a hobbyist, albeit rare, certainly reflect an innate talent for the form.
In 1910 Weston opened his own business, called "The Little Studio", in Tropico. His sister later asked him why he opened his studio in Tropico rather than in the nearby metropolis of Los Angeles, and he replied "Sis, I'm going to make my name so famous that it won't matter where I live."
For the next three years he worked, alone and sometimes with the assistance of family members in his studio. Even at that early stage of his career he was highly particular about his work; in an interview at that time he said "[photographic] plates are nothing to me unless I get what I want. I have used thirty of them at a sitting if I did not secure the effect to suit me."
His critical eye paid off for him and he quickly gained more recognition for his work. He won prizes in national competitions, published several more photographs and wrote articles for magazines such as Photo-Era and American Photography, championing the pictorial style.
On December 16, 1911, Weston's second son, Theodore Brett Weston (1911–1993), was born. He became a long-time artistic collaborator with his father and an important photographer on his own.
Sometime in the fall of 1913, Los Angeles photographer, Margrethe Mather visited Weston's studio because of his growing reputation, and within a few months they developed an intense relationship. Weston was a quiet Midwestern transplant to California, and Mather was a part of the growing bohemian cultural scene in Los Angeles. She was very outgoing and artistic in a flamboyant way, and her permissive sexual morals were far different from the conservative Weston at the time – Mather had been a prostitute and was bisexual with a preference for women. Mather presented a stark contrast to Weston's home life; his wife Flora was described as a "homely, rigid Puritan, and an utterly conventional woman, with whom he had little in common since he abhorred conventions" ‒ and he found Mather's uninhibited lifestyle irresistible and her photographic vision intriguing.
He asked Mather to be his studio assistant, and for the next decade they worked closely together, making individual and jointly signed portraits of writers Carl Sandburg and Max Eastman. A joint exhibition of their work in 2001 revealed that during this period Weston emulated Mather's style and, later, her choice of subjects. On her own Mather photographed "fans, hands, eggs, melons, waves, bathroom fixtures, seashells and birds wings, all subjects that Weston would also explore." A decade later he described her as "the first important person in my life, and perhaps even now, though personal contact has gone, the most important."
In early 1915 Weston began keeping detailed journals he later came to call his "Daybooks". For the next two decades he recorded his thoughts about his work, observations about photography, and his interactions with friends, lovers and family. On December 6, 1916, a third son, Lawrence Neil Weston, was born. He also followed in the footsteps of his father and became a well-known photographer. It was during this period that Weston first met photographer Johan Hagemeyer, whom Weston mentored and lent his studio to from time to time. Later, Hagemeyer would return the favor by letting Weston use his studio in Carmel after he returned from Mexico. For the next several years Weston continued to earn a living by taking portraits in his small studio which he called "the shack".
Meanwhile, Flora was spending all of her time caring for their children. Their fourth son, Cole Weston (1919–2003), was born on January 30, 1919, and afterward she rarely had time to leave their home.
Over the summer of 1920 Weston met two people who were part of the growing Los Angeles cultural scene: Roubaix de l'Abrie Richey, known as "Robo" and a woman he called his wife, Tina Modotti. Modotti, who was then known only as a stage and film actress, was never married to Robo, but they pretended to be for the sake of his family. Weston and Modotti were immediately attracted to each other, and they soon became lovers. Richey knew of Modotti's affair, but he continued to be friends with Weston and later invited him to come to Mexico and share his studio.
The following year Weston agreed to allow Mather to become an equal partner in his studio. For several months they took portraits that they signed with both of their names. This was the only time in his long career that Weston shared credit with another photographer.
Sometime in 1920 he began photographing nude models for the first time. His first models were his wife Flora and their children, but soon thereafter he took at least three nude studies of Mather. He followed these with several more photographs of nude models, the first of dozens of figure studies he would make of friends and lovers over the next twenty years.
Until now Weston had kept his relationships with other women a secret from his wife, but as he began to photograph more nudes Flora became suspicious about what went on with him and his models. Chandler recalled that his mother regularly sent him on "errands" to his father's studio and asked him to tell her who was there and what they were doing.
One of the first who agreed to model nude for Weston was Modotti. She became his primary model for the next several years.
In 1922 he visited his sister May, who had moved to Middletown, Ohio. While there he made five or six photographs of the tall smoke stacks at the nearby Armco steel mill. These images signaled a change in Weston's photographic style, a transition from the soft-focus pictorialism of the past to a new, cleaner-edge style. He immediately recognized the change and later recorded it in his notes: "The Middletown visit was something to remember...most of all in importance was my photographing of 'Armco'...That day I made great photographs, even Stieglitz thought they were important!"
At that time New York City was the cultural center for photography as an art form in America, and Alfred Stieglitz was the most influential figure in photography. Weston badly wanted to go to New York to meet with him, but he did not have enough money to make the trip. His brother-in-law gave him enough money to continue on from Middletown to New York City, and he spent most of October and early November there. While there he met artist Charles Sheeler and photographers Clarence H. White, Gertrude Kasebier, as well as Stieglitz. Weston wrote that Stieglitz told him, "Your work and attitude reassures me. You have shown me at least several prints which have given me a great deal of joy. And I can seldom say that of photographs."
Soon after Weston returned from New York, Robo moved to Mexico and set up a studio there to create batiks. Within a short while he had arranged for a joint exhibition of his work and of photographs by Weston, Mather and a few others. In early 1923 Modotti left by train to be with Robo in Mexico, but he contracted smallpox and died shortly before she arrived. Modotti was grief-stricken, but within a few weeks she felt well enough that she decided to stay and carry out the exhibition that Robo had planned. The show was a success, and due in no small part to his nude studies of Modotti, it firmly established Weston's artistic reputation in Mexico.
After the show closed Modotti returned to California, and Weston and she made plans to return to Mexico together. He wanted to spend a couple of months there photographing and promoting his work, and, conveniently, he could travel under the pretense of Modotti being his assistant and translator.
The week before he left for Mexico, Weston briefly reunited with Mather and took several nudes of her lying in the sand at Redondo Beach. These images were very different from his previous nude studies – sharply focused and showing her entire body in relation to the natural setting. They have been called the artistic prototypes for his most famous nudes, those of Charis Wilson which he would take more than a decade later.
1923–27: Mexico
On July 30, 1923, Weston, his son Chandler, and Modotti left on a steamer for the extended trip to Mexico. His wife, Flora, and their other three sons waved goodbye to them at the dock. It's unknown what Flora understood or thought about the relationship between Weston and Modotti, but she is reported to have called out at the dock, "Tina, take good care of my boys."
They arrived in Mexico City on August 11 and rented a large hacienda outside of the city. Within a month he had arranged for an exhibition of his work at the Aztec Land Gallery, and on October 17 the show opened to glowing press reviews. He was particularly proud of a review by Marius de Zayas that said "Photography is beginning to be photography, for until now it has only been art."
The different culture and scenery in Mexico forced Weston to look at things in new ways. He became more responsive to what was in front of him, and he turned his camera on everyday objects like toys, doorways and bathroom fixtures. He also made several intimate nudes and portraits of Modotti. He wrote in his Daybooks:
The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself...I feel definite in the belief that the approach to photography is through realism.
Weston continued to photograph the people and things around him, and his reputation in Mexico increased the longer he stayed. He had a second exhibition at the Aztec Land Gallery in 1924, and he had a steady stream of local socialites asking him to take their portraits. At the same time, Weston began to miss his other sons back in the U.S. As with many of his actions, though, it was a woman who motivated him most. He had recently corresponded with a woman he had known for several years named Miriam Lerner, and as her letters became more passionate he longed to see her again.
He and Chandler returned to San Francisco at the end of 1924, and the next month he set up a studio with Johan Hagemeyer. Weston seemed to be struggling with his past and his future during this period. He burned all of his pre-Mexico journals, as though trying to erase the past, and started a new series of nudes with Lerner and with his son Neil. He wrote that these images were "the start of a new period in my approach and attitude towards photography."
His new relationship with Lerner did not last long, and in August 1925 he returned to Mexico, this time with his son Brett. Modotti had arranged a joint show of their photographs, and it opened the week he returned. He received new critical acclaim and six of his prints were purchased for the State Museum. For the next several months he concentrated once again on photographing folk art, toys and local scenes. One of his strongest images of this period is of three black clay pots that art historian Rene d'Harnoncourt described as "the beginning of a new art."
In May 1926 Weston signed a contract with writer Anita Brenner for $1,000 to make photographs for a book she was writing about Mexican folk art. In June he, Modotti and Brett started traveling around the country in search of lesser known native arts and crafts. His contract required him to give Brenner three finished prints from 400 8x10 negatives, and it took him until November of that year to complete the work. During their travels, Brett received a crash course in photography from his father, and he made more than two dozen prints which his father judged to be of exceptional quality.
By the time they returned from their trip, Weston and Modotti's relationship had crumbled, and within less than two weeks he and Brett returned to California. He never traveled to Mexico again.
1927–35: Glendale to Carmel
Weston initially returned to his old studio in Glendale (previously called Tropico). He hastily arranged a dual exhibition at University of California of the photographs that he and Brett had made the year before. The father showed 100 prints and the son showed 20. Brett was only 15 years old at the time.
In February he started a new series of nudes, this time of dancer Bertha Wardell. One of this series, of her kneeling body cut off at the shoulders, is one of Weston's most well-known figure studies. At this same time he met Canadian painter Henrietta Shore, whom he asked to comment on the photos of Wardell. He was surprised by her honest critique: "I wish you would not do so many nudes – you are getting used to them, the subject no longer amazes you ‒ most of these are just nudes."
He asked to look at her work and was intrigued by her large paintings of sea shells. He borrowed several shells from her, thinking he might find some inspiration for a new still life series. Over the next few weeks he explored many different kinds of shell and background combinations – in his log of photographs taken for 1927 he listed fourteen negatives of shells. One of these, simply called Nautilus, 1927" (sometimes called Shell, 1927), became one of his most famous images. Modotti called the image "mystical and erotic," and when she showed it to Rene d'Harnoncourt he said he felt "weak at the knees." Weston is known to have made at least twenty-eight prints of this image, more than he had made of any other shell image.
In September of that year Weston had a major exhibition at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. At the opening of the show he met fellow photographer Willard Van Dyke, who later introduced Weston to Ansel Adams.
In May 1928, Weston and Brett made a brief but important trip to the Mojave Desert. It was there that he first explored and photographed landscapes as an art form. He found the stark rock forms and empty spaces to be a visual revelation, and over a long weekend he took twenty-seven photographs. In his journal he declared "these negatives are the most important I have ever done."
Later that year he and Brett moved to San Francisco, where they lived and worked in a small studio owned by Hagemeyer. He made portraits to earn an income, but he longed to get away by himself and get back to his art. In early 1929 he moved to Hagemeyer's cottage in Carmel, and it was there that he finally found the solitude and the inspiration that he was seeking. He placed a sign in studio window that said, "Edward Weston, photographer, Unretouched Portraits, Prints for Collectors."
He started making regular trips to nearby Point Lobos, where he would continue to photograph until the end of his career. It was there that he learned to fine-tune his photographic vision to match the visual space of his view camera, and the images he took there, of kelp, rocks and wind-blown trees, are among his finest. Looking at his work from this period, one biographer wrote:
"Weston arranged his compositions so that things happened on the edges; lines almost cross or meet and circular lines just touch the edges tangentially; his compositions were now created exclusively for a space with the proportions of eight by ten. There is no extraneous space nor is there too little."
In early April 1929, Weston met photographer Sonya Noskowiak at a party, and by the end of the month she was living with him. As with many of his other relationships, she became his model, muse, pupil and assistant. They would continue to live together for five years.
Intrigued by the many kinds and shapes of kelp he found on the beaches near Carmel, in 1930 Weston began taking close-ups of vegetables and fruits. He made a variety of photographs of cabbage, kale, onions, bananas, and finally, his most iconic image, peppers. In August of that year Noskowiak brought him several green peppers, and over a four-day period he shot at least thirty different negatives. Of these, Pepper No. 30, is among the all-time masterpieces of photography.
Weston had a series of important one-man exhibitions in 1930–31. The first was at Alma Reed's Delphic Studio Gallery in New York, followed closely by a mounting of the same show at the Denny Watrous Gallery in Carmel. Both received rave reviews, including a two-page article in the New York Times Magazine. These were followed by shows at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and the Galerie Jean Naert in Paris.
Although he was succeeding professionally his personal life was very complex. For most of their marriage, Flora was able to take care of their children because of an inheritance from her parents. However, the Wall Street crash of 1929 had wiped out most of her savings, and Weston felt increased pressure to help provide more for her and his sons. He described this time as "the most trying economic period of my life."
In 1932, The Art of Edward Weston, the first book devoted exclusively to Weston's work, was published. It was edited by Merle Armitage and dedicated to Alice Rohrer, an admirer and patron of Weston whose $500 donation helped pay for the book to be published.
During the same time a small group of like-minded photographers in the San Francisco area, led by Van Dyke and Ansel Adams, began informally meeting to discuss their common interest and aesthetics. Inspired by Weston's show at the De Young Museum the previous year, they approached the museum with the idea of mounting a group exhibition of their work. They named themselves Group f/64, and in November 1932, an exhibition of 80 of their prints opened at the museum. The show was a critical success.
In 1933 Weston bought a 4 × 5 Graflex camera, which was much smaller and lighter than the large view camera he had used for many years. He began taking close-up nudes of Noskowiak and other models. The smaller camera allowed him to interact more with his models, while at the same time the nudes he took during this period began to resemble some of the contorted root and vegetables he had taken the year before.
In early 1934, "a new and important chapter opened" in Weston's life when he met Charis Wilson at a concert. Even more than with his previous lovers, Weston was immediately captivated by her beauty and her personality. He wrote: "A new love came into my life, a most beautiful one, one which will, I believe, stand the test of time." On April 22 he photographed her nude for the first time, and they entered into an intense relationship. He was still living with Noskowiak at that time, but within two weeks he asked her to move out, declaring that for him other women were "as inevitable as the tides".
Perhaps because of the intensity of his new relationship, he stopped writing in his Daybooks at this same time. Six months later he wrote one final entry, looking back from April 22:
After eight months we are closer together than ever. Perhaps C. will be remembered as the great love of my life. Already I have achieved certain heights reached with no other love.
1935–45: Guggenheim grant to Wildcat Hill
In January 1935 Weston was facing increasing financial difficulties. He closed his studio in Carmel and moved to Santa Monica Canyon, California, where he opened a new studio with Brett. He implored Wilson to come and live with him, and in August 1935 she finally agreed. While she had an intense interest in his work, Wilson was the first woman Weston had lived with since Flora who had no interest in becoming a photographer. This allowed Weston to concentrate on her as his muse and model, and in turn Wilson devoted her time to promoting Weston's art as his assistant and quasi-agent.
Almost immediately he began taking a new series of nudes with Wilson as the model. One of the first photographs he took of her, on the balcony of their home, became one of his most published images (Nude (Charis, Santa Monica)). Soon after they took the first of several trips to Oceano Dunes. It was there that Weston made some of his most daring and intimate photographs of any of his models, capturing Wilson in completely uninhibited poses in the sand dunes. He exhibited only one or two of this series in his lifetime, thinking several of the others were "too erotic" for the general public.
Although his recent work had received critical acclaim, he was not earning enough income from his artistic images to provide a steady income. Rather than going back to relying solely on portraiture, he started the "Edward Weston Print of the Month Club", offering selections of his photos for a monthly $5 subscription. Each month subscribers would receive a new print from Weston, with a limited edition of 40 copies of each print. Although he created these prints with the same high standards that he did for his exhibition prints, it is thought that he never had more than eleven subscribers.
At the suggestion of Beaumont Newhall, Weston decided to apply for a Guggenheim Foundation grant (now known as a Guggenheim Fellowship). He wrote a two-sentence description about his work, assembled thirty-five of his favorite prints, and sent it in. Afterward Dorothea Lange and her husband suggested that the application was too brief to be seriously considered, and Weston resubmitted it with a four-page letter and work plan. He did not mention that Wilson had written the new application for him.
On March 22, 1937, Weston received notification that he had been awarded a Guggenheim grant, the first ever given to a photographer. The award was $2,000 for one year, a significant amount of money at that time. He was able to further capitalize on the award by arranging to provide the editor of AAA Westway Magazine with 8–10 photos per month for $50 during their travels, with Wilson getting an additional $15 monthly for photo captions and short narratives. They purchased a new car and set out on Weston's dream trip to go and photograph whatever he wanted. Over the next twelve months they made seventeen trips and covered 16,697 miles according to Wilson's detailed log. Weston made 1,260 negatives during the trip.
The freedom of this trip with the "love of his life", combined with all of his sons now reaching the age of adulthood, gave Weston the motivation to finally divorce his wife. They had been living apart for sixteen years.
Due to the success of the past year, Weston applied for and received a second year of Guggenheim support. Although he wanted to do some additional traveling, he intended to use most of the money to allow him to print his past year's work. He commissioned Neil to build a small home in the Carmel Highlands on property owned by Wilson's father. They named the place "Wildcat Hill" because of the many domestic cats that soon occupied the grounds.
Wilson set up a writing studio in what was intended to be a small garage behind the house, and she spent several months writing and editing stories from their travels.
In 1939, Seeing California with Edward Weston was published, with photographs by Weston and writing by Wilson. Finally relieved from the financial stresses of the past and inordinately happy with his work and his relationship, Weston married Wilson in a small ceremony on April 24.
Buoyed by the success of their first book, in 1940 they published California and the West. The first edition, featuring 96 of Weston's photos with text by Wilson, sold for $3.95. Over the summer, Weston taught photography at the first Ansel Adams Workshop at Yosemite National Park.
Just as the Guggenheim money was running out, Weston was invited to illustrate a new edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. He would receive $1,000 for photographs and $500 travel expenses. Weston insisted on having artistic control of the images he would take and insisted that he would not be taking literal illustrations of Whitman's text. On May 28 he and Wilson began a trip that would cover 20,000 miles through 24 states; he took between 700 and 800 8x10 negatives as well as dozens of Graflex portraits.
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the United States entered World War II. Weston was near the end of the Whitman trip, and he was deeply affected by the outbreak of the war. He wrote: "When the war broke out we scurried home. Charis did not want to scurry. I did."
He spent the first few months of 1942 organizing and printing the negatives from the Whitman trip. Of the hundreds of images he took, forty-nine were selected for publication.
Due to the war, Point Lobos was closed to the public for several years. Weston continued to work on images centered on Wildcat Hill, including shots of the many cats that lived there. Weston treated them with the same serious intent that he applied to all of his other subjects, and Charis assembled the results into their most unusual publication, The Cats of Wildcat Hill, which was finally published in 1947.
The year 1945 marked the beginning of significant changes for Weston. He began to experience the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a debilitating ailment that gradually stole his strength and his ability to photograph. He withdrew from Wilson, who at the same time began to become more involved in local politics and the Carmel cultural scene. A strength that originally brought them together – her lack of interest in becoming a photographer herself – eventually led to their break-up. She wrote, "My flight from Edward was also partly an escape from photography, which had taken up so much room in my life for so many years."
While working on a major retrospective exhibition for the Museum of Modern Art, he and Wilson separated. Weston returned to Glendale since the land for their cabin at Wildcat Hill still belonged to Wilson's father. Within a few months she moved out and arranged to sell the property to him.
1946–58: Final years
In February 1946, Weston's major retrospective opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He and Beaumont Newhall selected 313 prints for the exhibition, and eventually 250 photographs were displayed along with 11 negatives. At that time many of his prints were still for sale, and he sold 97 prints from the exhibit at $25 per print. Later that year, Weston was asked by Dr. George L. Waters of Kodak to produce 8 × 10 Kodachrome transparencies for their advertising campaign. Weston had never worked in color before, primarily because he had no means of developing or printing the more complicated color process. He accepted their offer in no small part because they offered him $250 per image, the highest amount he would be paid for any single work in his lifetime. He eventually sold seven color works to Kodak of landscapes and scenery at Point Lobos and nearby Monterey harbor.
In 1947 as his Parkinson's disease progressed, Weston began looking for an assistant. Serendipitously, an eager young photographic enthusiast, Dody Weston Thompson, contacted him in search of employment.
Weston mentioned he had just that morning written a letter to Ansel Adams, looking for someone seeking to learn photography in exchange for carrying his bulky large-format camera and to provide a much needed automobile. There was a swift meeting of creative minds. For the remainder of 1947 through the beginning of 1948, Dody commuted from San Francisco on weekends to learn from Weston the basics of photography. In early 1948, Dody moved into "Bodie House," the guest cottage at Edward's Wildcat Hill compound, as his full-time assistant.
By late 1948 he was no longer physically able to use his large view camera. That year he took his last photographs, at Point Lobos. His final negative was an image he called, "Rocks and Pebbles, 1948". Although diminished in his capacity, Weston never stopped being a photographer. He worked with his sons and Dody to catalog his images and especially to oversee the publication and printing of his work. In 1950 there was a major retrospective of his work at the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris, and in 1952 he published a Fiftieth Anniversary portfolio, with images printed by Brett.
During this time he worked with Cole, Brett, and Dody Thompson (Brett's wife by 1952), to select and have them print a master set of what he considered his best work. They spent many long hours together in the darkroom, and by 1956 they had produced what Weston called "The Project Prints", eight sets of 8" × 10" prints from 830 of his negatives. The only complete set today is housed at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Later that same year the Smithsonian Institution displayed nearly 100 of these prints at a major exhibit, "The World of Edward Weston", paying tribute to his accomplishments in American photography.
Weston died at his home on Wildcat Hill on New Year's Day, 1958. His sons scattered his ashes into the Pacific Ocean at an area then known as Pebbly Beach on Point Lobos. Due to Weston's significant influence in the area, the beach was later renamed Weston Beach. He had $300 in his bank account at the time of his death.
Equipment and techniques
Cameras and lenses
During his lifetime Weston worked with several cameras. He began as a more serious photographer in 1902 when he purchased a 5 × 7 camera. When he moved to Tropico, now part of Glendale, and opened his studio in 1911, he acquired an enormous 11 x 14 Graf Variable studio portrait camera. Roi Partridge, Imogen Cunningham's husband, later made an etching of Weston in his studio, dwarfed by the giant camera in front of him. After he began taking more portraits of children, he bought a 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ Graflex in 1912 to better capture their quickly changing expressions.
When he went to Mexico in 1924 he took an 8 × 10 Seneca folding-bed view camera with several lenses, including a Graf Variable and a Wollensak Verito. While in Mexico he purchased a used Rapid Rectilinear lens which was his primary lens for many years. The lens, now in the George Eastman House, did not have a manufacturer's name. He also took to Mexico a 3¼ × 4¼ Graflex with a ƒ/4.5 Tessar lens, which he used for portraits.
In 1933 he purchased a 4 × 5 R. B. Auto-Graflex] and used it thereafter for all portraits. He continued to use the Seneca view camera for all other work.
In 1939 he listed the following items as his standard equipment:
8 x 10 Century Universal
Triple convertible Turner Reich, 12", 21", 28"
K2, G, A filters
12 film holders
Paul Ries Tripod
He continued to use this equipment throughout his life.
Film
Prior to 1921 Weston used an orthochromatic sheet film, but when panchromatic film became widely available in 1921 he switched to it for all of his work. According to his son Cole, after Agfa Isopan film came out in the 1930s Weston used it for his black-and-white images for the rest of his life. This film was rated at about ISO 25, but the developing technique Weston used reduced the effective rating to about ISO 12.
The 8 × 10 cameras he preferred were large and heavy, and due to the weight and the cost of the film he never carried more than twelve sheet film holders with him. At the end of each day, he had to go into a darkroom, unload the film holders and load them with new film. This was especially challenging when he was traveling since he had to find a darkened room somewhere or else set up a makeshift darkroom made from heavy canvas.
In spite of the bulky size of the view camera, Weston boasted he could "set up the tripod, fasten the camera securely to it, attach the lens to the camera, open the shutter, study the image on the ground glass, focus it, close the shutter, insert the plate holder, cock the shutter, set it to the appropriate aperture and speed, remove the slide from the plate holder, make the exposure, replace the slide, and remove the plate holder in two minutes and twenty seconds."
The smaller Graflex cameras he used had the advantage of using film magazines that held either 12 or 18 sheets of film. Weston preferred these cameras when taking portraits because he could respond more quickly to the sitter. He reported that with his Graflex he once made three dozen negatives of Tina Modotti within 20 minutes.In 1946 a representative from Kodak asked Weston to try out their new Kodachrome film, and over the next two years he made at least 60 8 x 10 color images using this film." They were some of the last photographs he took, since by late 1948 he was no longer able to operate a camera due to the effects of his Parkinson's disease.
Exposures
During the first 20 years of his photography Weston determined all of his exposure settings by estimation based on his previous experiences and the relatively narrow tolerances of the film at that time. He said, "I dislike to figure out time, and find my exposures more accurate when only "felt"." In the late 1930s he acquired a Weston exposure meter and continued to use it as an aid to determine exposures throughout his career. Photo historian Nancy Newhall wrote that "Young photographers are confused and amazed when they behold him measuring with his meter every value in the sphere where he intends to work, from the sky to the ground under his feet. He is "feeling the light" and checking his own observations. After which he puts the meter away and does what he thinks. Often he adds up everything ‒ filters, extension, film, speed, and so on ‒ and doubles the computation." Weston, Newhall noted, believed in "massive exposure", which he then compensated for by hand-processing the film in a weak developer solution and individually inspecting each negative as it continued to develop to get the right balance of highlights and shadows.
The low ISO rating of the sheet film Weston used necessitated very long exposures when using his view camera, ranging from 1 to 3 seconds for outdoor landscape exposures to as long as 4½ hours for still lifes such as peppers or shells. When he used one of the Graflex cameras the exposure times were much shorter (usually less than ¼ second), and he was sometimes able to work without a tripod.
Darkroom
Weston always made contact prints, meaning that the print was exactly the same size as the negative. This was essential for the platinum printing that he preferred early in his career, since at that time the platinum papers required ultra-violet light to activate. Weston did not have an artificial ultra-violet light source, so he had to place the contact print directly in sunlight to expose it. This limited him to printing only on sunny days.
When he wanted a print that was larger than the original negative size, he used an enlarger to create a larger inter-positive, then contact printed it to a new negative. The new larger negative was then used to make a print of that size. This process was very labor-intensive; he once wrote in his Daybooks "I am utterly exhausted tonight after a whole day in the darkroom, making eight contact negatives from the enlarged positives."
In 1924 Weston wrote this about his darkroom process, "I have returned, after several years use of Metol-Hydroquinine open-tank" developer to a three-solution Pyro developer, and I develop one at a time in a tray instead of a dozen in a tank." Each sheet of film was viewed under either a green or an orange safelight in his darkroom, allowing him to control the individual development of a negative. He continued to use this technique for the rest of his life.
Weston was known to extensively use dodging and burning to achieve the look he wanted in his prints.
Paper
Early in his career Weston printed on several kinds of paper, including Velox, Apex, Convira, Defender Velour Black and Haloid. When he went to Mexico he learned how to use platinum and palladium paper, made by Willis & Clement and imported from England. After his return to California, he abandoned platinum and palladium printing due to the scarcity and increasing price of the paper. Eventually he was able to get most of the same qualities he preferred with Kodak's Azo glossy silver gelatin paper developed in Amidol. He continued to use this paper almost exclusively until he stopped printing.
Writings
Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957. He hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children.
In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died.
Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure."
In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers.
Quotations
"Form follows function." Who said this I don't know, but the writer spoke well.
I am not a technician and have no interest in technique for its own sake. If my technique is adequate to present my seeing then I need nothing more.
I see no reason for recording the obvious.
If there is symbolism in my work, it can only be the seeing of parts ‒ fragments ‒ as universal symbols. All basic forms are so closely related as to be visually equivalent.
My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea.
My work-purpose, my theme, can most nearly be stated as the recognition, recording and presentation of the interdependence, the relativity, of all things ‒ the universality of basic form.
The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?
This then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock.
What then is the end toward which I work? To present the significance of facts, so that they are transformed from things seen to things known.
When money enters in ‒ then, for a price, I become a liar ‒ and a good one I can be whether with pencil or subtle lighting or viewpoint. I hate it all, but so do I support not only my family, but my own work.
Legacy
As of 2013, two of Weston's photographs feature among the most expensive photographs ever sold. The Nude, 1925 taken in 1925 was bought by the gallerist Peter MacGill for $1.6 million in 2008. Nautilus of 1927 was sold for $1.1 million in 2010, also to MacGill.
Major exhibitions
1970, the Rencontres d'Arles festival (France) presented an exhibition "Hommage à Edward Weston" and an evening screening of the film The Photographer (1948) by Willard Van Dyke.
November 25, 1986 – March 29, 1987 Edward Weston in Los Angeles at Huntington Library
1986 Edward Weston: Color Photography at Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
May 13 – August 27, 1989 Edward Weston in New Mexico at Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe
Edward Weston : the Last Years in Carmel at The Art Institute of Chicago, June 2 – September 16, 2001, and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mar. 1 – July 9, 2002.
List of photographs
The artistic career of Weston spanned more than forty years, from roughly 1915 to 1956. A prolific photographer, he produced more than 1,000 black-and-white photographs and some 50 color images. This list is an incomplete selection of Weston's better-known photographs.
Notes
References
Sources
Abbott, Brett. Edward Weston: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005.
Alinder, Mary Street. Group f.64: Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and the Community of Artists Who Revolutionized American Photography. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2014.
Bunnell, Peter C. Edward Weston on Photography. Salt Lake City: P. Smith Books, 1983.
Bunnell, Peter C., David Featherston et al. EW 100: Centennial Essays in Honor of Edward Weston. Carmel, Calif. : Friends of Photography, 1986.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston in Mexico, 1923–1926. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983.
Conger, Amy (1992). Edward Weston – Photographs From the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1992.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston: The Form of The Nude. NY: Phaidon, 2006.
Edward Weston : Color Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1986.
Enyeart, James. Edward Weston's California landscapes. Boston : Little, Brown, 1984.
Foley, Kathy Kelsey. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister. Dayton: Dayton Art Institute, 1978.
Heyman, There Thau. Seeing Straight: The f.64 Revolution in Photography. Oakland: Oakland Art Museum, 1992.
Higgins, Gary. Truth, Myth and Erasure: Tina Modotti and Edward Weston. Tempe, Ariz. : School of Art, Arizona State University, 1991.
Hochberg, Judith and Michael P. Mattis. Edward Weston: Life Work. Photographs from the Collection of Judith G. Hochberg and Michael P. Mattis. Revere, Pa.: Lodima Press, c2003.
Hooks, Margaret. Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary. London: Pandora, 1993.
Lowe, Sarah M. Tina Modotti and Edward Weston the Mexico Years. London: Merrell, 2004.
Maddow, Ben. Edward Weston: Fifty Years; The Definitive Volume of His Photographic Work. Millerton, N.Y., Aperture, 1973. ,
Maggia, Filippo. Edward Weston. New York: Skira, 2013.
Mora, Gilles (ed.). Edward Weston: Forms of Passion. NY: Abrams, 1995.
Morgan, Susan. Portraits / Edward Weston. NY: Aperture, 1995.
Newhall, Beaumont (1984). Edward Weston Omnibus: A Critical Anthology. Salt Lake City : Peregrine Smith Books, 1984.
Newhall, Beaumont . Supreme Instants: The Photography of Edward Weston. Boston : Little, Brown, 1986.
Newhall, Nancy (ed.). Edward Weston; The Flame of Recognition: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY: Aperture, 1971.
Pitts, Terence. Edward Weston 1886–1958. Köln: Taschen, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E., Karen Quinn and Leslie Furth. Edward Weston : Photography and Modernism. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E. Weston's Westons : Portraits and Nudes. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1989.
Travis, David. Edward Weston, The Last Years in Carmel. Chicago: Art Institute, 2001.
Warren, Beth Gates. Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011.
Warren, Beth Gates. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs. NY: Sotheby's, 2008.
Warren, Beth Gates (2001). Margrethe Mather & Edward Weston: A Passionate Collaboration. NY: Norton, 2001.
Watts, Jennifer A. (ed.). Edward Weston : A Legacy. London: Merrell, 2003.
Weston, Edward (1964). The Daybooks of Edward Weston. Edited by Nancy Nehall. NY: Horizon Press, 1961–1964. 2 vols.
Weston, Edward. My Camera on Point Lobos; 30 Photographs and Excerpts from E. W.’s Daybook. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.
Weston, Paulette. Laughing Eyes: a Book of Letters Between Edward and Cole Weston 1923–1946. Carmel: Carmel Publishing Co., 1999.
Wilson, Charis. Edward Weston Nudes: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY : Aperture, 1977.
Wilson, Charis. Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
Woods, John. Dune: Edward & Brett Weston. Kalispell, MT: Wild Horse Island Press, 2003.
External links
edward-weston.com
Edward Weston Collection at the Center for Creative Photography
Ben Maddow "Edward Weston Lecture" The Baltimore Museum of Art: Baltimore, Maryland, 1976. Retrieved June 26, 2012
The Eloquent Nude: The Love and Legacy of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson Documentary concerning Edward Weston, his muse Charis Wilson and photographer Ansel Adams.
Encyclopædia Britannica
Landscape photographers
American portrait photographers
1886 births
1958 deaths
History of platinum printing
Photographers from California
Artists from Chicago
People from Highland Park, Illinois
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Neurological disease deaths in California
20th-century American photographers
Fine art photographers
Olympic archers of the United States
American male archers
Archers at the 1904 Summer Olympics
| true |
[
"Photographic composition techniques are used to set up the elements of a picture. These are the techniques which resembles the way we humans normally see a view\n\nSome of the main techniques that are:\n Simplicity (photography)\n Symmetrical balance\n Asymmetrical balance\n Radial balance\n Rule of thirds\n Leading lines\n Golden Ratio\n Framing (photography)\nCentered composition\nDiagonal triangles\nRule of odds\nRule of space\n\nThe composition techniques in photography are mere guidelines to help beginners capture eye-catching images. These provide a great starting point until an individual is able to out grow them in capturing images through more advance techniques.\n\nSee also\nComposition (visual arts)\n\nReferences\n\nOCCSB–issued documents\nFacilitator's Guide\n24 Composition Techniques In Photography To Improve Your Photos\n\nComposition techniques, List of photographic\nLists of photography topics\nComposition in visual art",
"Vladimír Jindřich Bufka (16 July 1887, Olomouc-Pavlovičky – 23 May 1916, Prague) was a Czech photographer and popularizer of photography as well as an important exponent of pictorialism in Czech photography during the early 20th century. Bufka's creative works span a wide range; he practiced landscape photography, architectural photography, photojournalism, still life photography, portrait photography, astrophotography and photomicrography. He was familiar with various photography techniques of the time including gum bichromate, platinum print, bromoil process and autochrome. He also gave lectures and seminars on photography, contributed to various specialized magazines and published a number of books. He died of leukemia at the age of 28.\n\nBiography \n\nVladimír Jindřich Bufka was born to the family of a bank officer. Vladimír's half-brother was Karel Absolon and maternal grandfather was Jindřich Wankel – both renowned archaeologists. After graduating from high school, he studied chemistry at the Czech Technical University in Prague. Initially practicing photography as an amateur, he was a member of the Český klub fotografů amatérů (Czech Club of Amateur Photographers). His first photographs were published in 1908 in the illustrated magazine Český svět (\"Czech World\").\n\nBufka popularized the autochrome technique, writing several essays on the topic, most importantly O fotografování v barvách pomocí desky autochromové (\"On Color Photography with the Help of the Autochrome Plate\"), published in 1910. The same year, Bufka published another book: Stručný návod k nejdůležitějším pracím s deskami fotografickými a vyvolávacími papíry (\"A Brief Guide to the Most Important Operations with Photographic Plates and with Photographic Paper\"). Bufka studied photography techniques in Lyon, France, in the company of the Lumière brothers. In 1909, his lecture on autochrome in Prague is considered to be one of the first attempts to introduce the theory of photography to Bohemia.\n\nFrom 1910 to 1911, Bufka worked in the Jan Langhans atelier in Prague and extended his knowledge of photography at Hermann C. Kosel's studio in Vienna. In 1911, Bufka opened his own studio in Prague which gradually achieved a popularity comparable with that of the renowned atelier of František Drtikol. In his later years, Bufka travelled to Warsaw and Saint Petersburg with the goal of documenting local art collections. In 1914/1915, he participated in a large photography exhibition held in Prague's Rudolfinum.\n\nAfter his death, his studio was managed by his wife Marie Bufková until 1928. Photographs taken there carried the stamp \"Ateliér V. J. Bufka\" even during the 1920s.\n\nWork \n\nBufka applied his deep knowledge of photographic techniques to his works and regularly explored the complex technical procedures of photography. He attempted to take photos in the evening, in the rain, or in back light. His works are the first of their kind in the Central European context. He found inspiration in various art styles and genres, such as Impressionism, Postimpressionism, Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Decadence, Cubism, Futurism and Art Deco.\n\nExhibitions \n Jubilejní výstava obchodní a živnostenské komory, Prague (1908)\n Výstava Českého klubu fotografů amatérů, Lucerna Prague (1911) \n Česká fotografická moderna, Uměleko průmyslové muzeum, Prague (1989) \n Photographie der Moderne in Prag 1900–1925, Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz (1991) \n Moravská galerie Brno (2010–2011)\n\nBibliography\n\nBooks \n Bufka, Vladimír Jindřich: O fotografování v barvách pomocí desky autochromové (On Color Photography with the Help of Autochrome Plate). E. Weinfurter, Prague 1910\n Bufka, Vladimír Jindřich: Stručný návod k nejdůležitějším pracím s deskami fotografickými a vyvolávacími papíry (A Brief Guide to the Most Important Operations with Photographic Plates and with Photographic Paper). E. Weinfurter, Prague 1910\n Bufka, Vladimír Jindřich: Katechismus fotografie (Catechism of Photography). Hejda a Tuček, Prague 1913\n\nArticles \n \"Internacionální kongres fotografický v Bruselu\" (International Photo Congress in Brussels). Fot. věstník 1910, pp. 145–146\n \"Od úpatí Matternu a Monte Rosy\" (From the Foot of Monte Rosa and Mattern). Světozor, 1910, No 8, pp. 179–180\n \"Modní fotografie stylová\" (Fashion Photography Style). Český svět VII, No 31, 14 April 1911\n \"O vývoji moderní fotografie\" (On Development of Modern Photography). Veraikon 1912, pp. 67–69\n \"Nejnovější výzkumy ve fotografii\" (Recent Studies in Photography). Fot. věstník XXIII, 1912, pp. 161–163, 177–179\n \"Moderní fotografie odvětvím uměleckého průmyslu grafického\" (Modern Photography as a Part of the Graphic Arts Industry). Dílo 1913, pp. 73–75\n \"Za světy hvězdné říše\" (To the Worlds of Star Empire). Světozor, No 5, 20 March 1914\n \"Praha\" (Prague). Klub Za starou Prahu, Prague 1924 (1925, in French)\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nLiterature \n\n \n\nCzech photographers\n1887 births\n1916 deaths\nCzech Technical University in Prague alumni\nDeaths from leukemia"
] |
[
"Edward Weston",
"Writings",
"What was his most famous photograph?",
"I don't know.",
"How long did each photo take to produce?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition.",
"What were the main subjects of his writing?",
"Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization.",
"Oh, so his various photography techniques?",
"by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work."
] |
C_7efe68873f1f4b09adc565dfd928bf98_0
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Was he more interested in the subject of the photo or the techniques of taking the photos?
| 6 |
Was Edward Weston more interested in the subject of the photo or the techniques of taking the photos?
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Edward Weston
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Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957, and he hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children. In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died. Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure." In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers. CANNOTANSWER
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When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers.
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Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still-lifes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies. It is said that he developed a "quintessentially American, and especially Californian, approach to modern photography" because of his focus on the people and places of the American West. In 1937 Weston was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, and over the next two years he produced nearly 1,400 negatives using his 8 × 10 view camera. Some of his most famous
photographs were taken of the trees and rocks at Point Lobos, California, near where he lived for many years.
Weston was born in Chicago and moved to California when he was 21. He knew he wanted to be a photographer from an early age, and initially his work was typical of the soft focus pictorialism that was popular at the time. Within a few years, however he abandoned that style and went on to be one of the foremost champions of highly detailed photographic images.
In 1947 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and he soon stopped photographing. He spent the remaining ten years of his life overseeing the printing of more than 1,000 of his most famous images.
Life and work
1886–1906: Early life
Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois, the second child and only son of Edward Burbank Weston, an obstetrician, and Alice Jeanette Brett, a Shakespearean actress. His mother died when he was five years old and he was raised mostly by his sister Mary, whom he called "May" or "Maisie". She was nine years older than he, and they developed a very close bond that was one of the few steady relationships in Weston's life.
His father remarried when he was nine, but neither Weston nor his sister got along with their new stepmother and stepbrother. After May was married and left their home in 1897, Weston's father devoted most of his time to his new wife and her son. Weston was left on his own much of the time; he stopped going to school and withdrew into his own room in their large home.
As a present for his 16th birthday Weston's father gave him his first camera, a Kodak Bull's-Eye No. 2, which was a simple box camera. He took it on vacation in the Midwest, and by the time he returned home his interest in photography was enough to lead him to purchase a used 5 × 7 inch view camera. He began photographing in Chicago parks and a farm owned by his aunt, and developed his own film and prints. Later he would remember that even at that early age his work showed strong artistic merit. He said, "I feel that my earliest work of 1903 ‒ though immature ‒ is related more closely, both with technique and composition, to my latest work than are several of my photographs dating from 1913 to 1920, a period in which I was trying to be artistic."
In 1904 May and her family moved to California, leaving Weston further isolated in Chicago. He earned a living by taking a job at a local department store, but he continued to spend most of his free time taking photos, Within two years he felt confident enough of his photography that he submitted his work to the magazine Camera and Darkroom, and in the April 1906 issue they published a full-page reproduction of his picture Spring, Chicago. This is the first known publication of any of his photographs.
In September 1904, Weston took part in the men's double American round archery event at the 1904 Summer Olympics with his father also taking part in the same event.
1906–23: Becoming a photographer
At his sister's urging Weston left Chicago in the spring of 1906 and moved near May's home in Tropico, California (now a neighborhood in Glendale). He decided to stay there and pursue a career in photography, but he soon realized he needed more professional training. A year later he moved to Effingham, Illinois, to enroll in the Illinois College of Photography. They taught a nine-month course, but Weston finished all of the class work in six months. The school refused to give him a diploma unless he paid for the full nine months; Weston refused and instead moved back to California in the spring of 1908.
He briefly worked at the photography studio of George Steckel in Los Angeles, as a negative retoucher. Within a few months he moved to the more established studio of Louis Mojonier. For the next several years he learned the techniques and business of operating a photography studio under Mojonier's direction.
Within days of his visit to Tropico, Weston was introduced to his sister's best friend, Flora May Chandler. She was a graduate of the Normal School, later to become UCLA. She assumed the position of a grade-school teacher in Tropico.
She was seven years older than Weston and a distant relative of Harry Chandler, who at that time was described as the head of "the single most powerful family in Southern California". This fact did not go unnoticed by Weston and his biographers.
On January 30, 1909, Weston and Chandler married in a simple ceremony. The first of their four sons, Edward Chandler Weston (1910–1993), known as Chandler, was born on April 26, 1910.
Named Edward Chandler, after Weston and his wife, he later became an excellent photographer on his own. He clearly learned much by being an assistant to his father in the bungalow studio. In 1923 he bid farewell to his mother and sibling brothers and sailed off to Mexico with his father and his then-muse, Tina Modotti. He gave up any aspirations in pursuing photography as a career after his adventures in Mexico. The lifestyle of fame and its fortune affected him greatly. His later photographs, as a hobbyist, albeit rare, certainly reflect an innate talent for the form.
In 1910 Weston opened his own business, called "The Little Studio", in Tropico. His sister later asked him why he opened his studio in Tropico rather than in the nearby metropolis of Los Angeles, and he replied "Sis, I'm going to make my name so famous that it won't matter where I live."
For the next three years he worked, alone and sometimes with the assistance of family members in his studio. Even at that early stage of his career he was highly particular about his work; in an interview at that time he said "[photographic] plates are nothing to me unless I get what I want. I have used thirty of them at a sitting if I did not secure the effect to suit me."
His critical eye paid off for him and he quickly gained more recognition for his work. He won prizes in national competitions, published several more photographs and wrote articles for magazines such as Photo-Era and American Photography, championing the pictorial style.
On December 16, 1911, Weston's second son, Theodore Brett Weston (1911–1993), was born. He became a long-time artistic collaborator with his father and an important photographer on his own.
Sometime in the fall of 1913, Los Angeles photographer, Margrethe Mather visited Weston's studio because of his growing reputation, and within a few months they developed an intense relationship. Weston was a quiet Midwestern transplant to California, and Mather was a part of the growing bohemian cultural scene in Los Angeles. She was very outgoing and artistic in a flamboyant way, and her permissive sexual morals were far different from the conservative Weston at the time – Mather had been a prostitute and was bisexual with a preference for women. Mather presented a stark contrast to Weston's home life; his wife Flora was described as a "homely, rigid Puritan, and an utterly conventional woman, with whom he had little in common since he abhorred conventions" ‒ and he found Mather's uninhibited lifestyle irresistible and her photographic vision intriguing.
He asked Mather to be his studio assistant, and for the next decade they worked closely together, making individual and jointly signed portraits of writers Carl Sandburg and Max Eastman. A joint exhibition of their work in 2001 revealed that during this period Weston emulated Mather's style and, later, her choice of subjects. On her own Mather photographed "fans, hands, eggs, melons, waves, bathroom fixtures, seashells and birds wings, all subjects that Weston would also explore." A decade later he described her as "the first important person in my life, and perhaps even now, though personal contact has gone, the most important."
In early 1915 Weston began keeping detailed journals he later came to call his "Daybooks". For the next two decades he recorded his thoughts about his work, observations about photography, and his interactions with friends, lovers and family. On December 6, 1916, a third son, Lawrence Neil Weston, was born. He also followed in the footsteps of his father and became a well-known photographer. It was during this period that Weston first met photographer Johan Hagemeyer, whom Weston mentored and lent his studio to from time to time. Later, Hagemeyer would return the favor by letting Weston use his studio in Carmel after he returned from Mexico. For the next several years Weston continued to earn a living by taking portraits in his small studio which he called "the shack".
Meanwhile, Flora was spending all of her time caring for their children. Their fourth son, Cole Weston (1919–2003), was born on January 30, 1919, and afterward she rarely had time to leave their home.
Over the summer of 1920 Weston met two people who were part of the growing Los Angeles cultural scene: Roubaix de l'Abrie Richey, known as "Robo" and a woman he called his wife, Tina Modotti. Modotti, who was then known only as a stage and film actress, was never married to Robo, but they pretended to be for the sake of his family. Weston and Modotti were immediately attracted to each other, and they soon became lovers. Richey knew of Modotti's affair, but he continued to be friends with Weston and later invited him to come to Mexico and share his studio.
The following year Weston agreed to allow Mather to become an equal partner in his studio. For several months they took portraits that they signed with both of their names. This was the only time in his long career that Weston shared credit with another photographer.
Sometime in 1920 he began photographing nude models for the first time. His first models were his wife Flora and their children, but soon thereafter he took at least three nude studies of Mather. He followed these with several more photographs of nude models, the first of dozens of figure studies he would make of friends and lovers over the next twenty years.
Until now Weston had kept his relationships with other women a secret from his wife, but as he began to photograph more nudes Flora became suspicious about what went on with him and his models. Chandler recalled that his mother regularly sent him on "errands" to his father's studio and asked him to tell her who was there and what they were doing.
One of the first who agreed to model nude for Weston was Modotti. She became his primary model for the next several years.
In 1922 he visited his sister May, who had moved to Middletown, Ohio. While there he made five or six photographs of the tall smoke stacks at the nearby Armco steel mill. These images signaled a change in Weston's photographic style, a transition from the soft-focus pictorialism of the past to a new, cleaner-edge style. He immediately recognized the change and later recorded it in his notes: "The Middletown visit was something to remember...most of all in importance was my photographing of 'Armco'...That day I made great photographs, even Stieglitz thought they were important!"
At that time New York City was the cultural center for photography as an art form in America, and Alfred Stieglitz was the most influential figure in photography. Weston badly wanted to go to New York to meet with him, but he did not have enough money to make the trip. His brother-in-law gave him enough money to continue on from Middletown to New York City, and he spent most of October and early November there. While there he met artist Charles Sheeler and photographers Clarence H. White, Gertrude Kasebier, as well as Stieglitz. Weston wrote that Stieglitz told him, "Your work and attitude reassures me. You have shown me at least several prints which have given me a great deal of joy. And I can seldom say that of photographs."
Soon after Weston returned from New York, Robo moved to Mexico and set up a studio there to create batiks. Within a short while he had arranged for a joint exhibition of his work and of photographs by Weston, Mather and a few others. In early 1923 Modotti left by train to be with Robo in Mexico, but he contracted smallpox and died shortly before she arrived. Modotti was grief-stricken, but within a few weeks she felt well enough that she decided to stay and carry out the exhibition that Robo had planned. The show was a success, and due in no small part to his nude studies of Modotti, it firmly established Weston's artistic reputation in Mexico.
After the show closed Modotti returned to California, and Weston and she made plans to return to Mexico together. He wanted to spend a couple of months there photographing and promoting his work, and, conveniently, he could travel under the pretense of Modotti being his assistant and translator.
The week before he left for Mexico, Weston briefly reunited with Mather and took several nudes of her lying in the sand at Redondo Beach. These images were very different from his previous nude studies – sharply focused and showing her entire body in relation to the natural setting. They have been called the artistic prototypes for his most famous nudes, those of Charis Wilson which he would take more than a decade later.
1923–27: Mexico
On July 30, 1923, Weston, his son Chandler, and Modotti left on a steamer for the extended trip to Mexico. His wife, Flora, and their other three sons waved goodbye to them at the dock. It's unknown what Flora understood or thought about the relationship between Weston and Modotti, but she is reported to have called out at the dock, "Tina, take good care of my boys."
They arrived in Mexico City on August 11 and rented a large hacienda outside of the city. Within a month he had arranged for an exhibition of his work at the Aztec Land Gallery, and on October 17 the show opened to glowing press reviews. He was particularly proud of a review by Marius de Zayas that said "Photography is beginning to be photography, for until now it has only been art."
The different culture and scenery in Mexico forced Weston to look at things in new ways. He became more responsive to what was in front of him, and he turned his camera on everyday objects like toys, doorways and bathroom fixtures. He also made several intimate nudes and portraits of Modotti. He wrote in his Daybooks:
The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself...I feel definite in the belief that the approach to photography is through realism.
Weston continued to photograph the people and things around him, and his reputation in Mexico increased the longer he stayed. He had a second exhibition at the Aztec Land Gallery in 1924, and he had a steady stream of local socialites asking him to take their portraits. At the same time, Weston began to miss his other sons back in the U.S. As with many of his actions, though, it was a woman who motivated him most. He had recently corresponded with a woman he had known for several years named Miriam Lerner, and as her letters became more passionate he longed to see her again.
He and Chandler returned to San Francisco at the end of 1924, and the next month he set up a studio with Johan Hagemeyer. Weston seemed to be struggling with his past and his future during this period. He burned all of his pre-Mexico journals, as though trying to erase the past, and started a new series of nudes with Lerner and with his son Neil. He wrote that these images were "the start of a new period in my approach and attitude towards photography."
His new relationship with Lerner did not last long, and in August 1925 he returned to Mexico, this time with his son Brett. Modotti had arranged a joint show of their photographs, and it opened the week he returned. He received new critical acclaim and six of his prints were purchased for the State Museum. For the next several months he concentrated once again on photographing folk art, toys and local scenes. One of his strongest images of this period is of three black clay pots that art historian Rene d'Harnoncourt described as "the beginning of a new art."
In May 1926 Weston signed a contract with writer Anita Brenner for $1,000 to make photographs for a book she was writing about Mexican folk art. In June he, Modotti and Brett started traveling around the country in search of lesser known native arts and crafts. His contract required him to give Brenner three finished prints from 400 8x10 negatives, and it took him until November of that year to complete the work. During their travels, Brett received a crash course in photography from his father, and he made more than two dozen prints which his father judged to be of exceptional quality.
By the time they returned from their trip, Weston and Modotti's relationship had crumbled, and within less than two weeks he and Brett returned to California. He never traveled to Mexico again.
1927–35: Glendale to Carmel
Weston initially returned to his old studio in Glendale (previously called Tropico). He hastily arranged a dual exhibition at University of California of the photographs that he and Brett had made the year before. The father showed 100 prints and the son showed 20. Brett was only 15 years old at the time.
In February he started a new series of nudes, this time of dancer Bertha Wardell. One of this series, of her kneeling body cut off at the shoulders, is one of Weston's most well-known figure studies. At this same time he met Canadian painter Henrietta Shore, whom he asked to comment on the photos of Wardell. He was surprised by her honest critique: "I wish you would not do so many nudes – you are getting used to them, the subject no longer amazes you ‒ most of these are just nudes."
He asked to look at her work and was intrigued by her large paintings of sea shells. He borrowed several shells from her, thinking he might find some inspiration for a new still life series. Over the next few weeks he explored many different kinds of shell and background combinations – in his log of photographs taken for 1927 he listed fourteen negatives of shells. One of these, simply called Nautilus, 1927" (sometimes called Shell, 1927), became one of his most famous images. Modotti called the image "mystical and erotic," and when she showed it to Rene d'Harnoncourt he said he felt "weak at the knees." Weston is known to have made at least twenty-eight prints of this image, more than he had made of any other shell image.
In September of that year Weston had a major exhibition at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. At the opening of the show he met fellow photographer Willard Van Dyke, who later introduced Weston to Ansel Adams.
In May 1928, Weston and Brett made a brief but important trip to the Mojave Desert. It was there that he first explored and photographed landscapes as an art form. He found the stark rock forms and empty spaces to be a visual revelation, and over a long weekend he took twenty-seven photographs. In his journal he declared "these negatives are the most important I have ever done."
Later that year he and Brett moved to San Francisco, where they lived and worked in a small studio owned by Hagemeyer. He made portraits to earn an income, but he longed to get away by himself and get back to his art. In early 1929 he moved to Hagemeyer's cottage in Carmel, and it was there that he finally found the solitude and the inspiration that he was seeking. He placed a sign in studio window that said, "Edward Weston, photographer, Unretouched Portraits, Prints for Collectors."
He started making regular trips to nearby Point Lobos, where he would continue to photograph until the end of his career. It was there that he learned to fine-tune his photographic vision to match the visual space of his view camera, and the images he took there, of kelp, rocks and wind-blown trees, are among his finest. Looking at his work from this period, one biographer wrote:
"Weston arranged his compositions so that things happened on the edges; lines almost cross or meet and circular lines just touch the edges tangentially; his compositions were now created exclusively for a space with the proportions of eight by ten. There is no extraneous space nor is there too little."
In early April 1929, Weston met photographer Sonya Noskowiak at a party, and by the end of the month she was living with him. As with many of his other relationships, she became his model, muse, pupil and assistant. They would continue to live together for five years.
Intrigued by the many kinds and shapes of kelp he found on the beaches near Carmel, in 1930 Weston began taking close-ups of vegetables and fruits. He made a variety of photographs of cabbage, kale, onions, bananas, and finally, his most iconic image, peppers. In August of that year Noskowiak brought him several green peppers, and over a four-day period he shot at least thirty different negatives. Of these, Pepper No. 30, is among the all-time masterpieces of photography.
Weston had a series of important one-man exhibitions in 1930–31. The first was at Alma Reed's Delphic Studio Gallery in New York, followed closely by a mounting of the same show at the Denny Watrous Gallery in Carmel. Both received rave reviews, including a two-page article in the New York Times Magazine. These were followed by shows at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and the Galerie Jean Naert in Paris.
Although he was succeeding professionally his personal life was very complex. For most of their marriage, Flora was able to take care of their children because of an inheritance from her parents. However, the Wall Street crash of 1929 had wiped out most of her savings, and Weston felt increased pressure to help provide more for her and his sons. He described this time as "the most trying economic period of my life."
In 1932, The Art of Edward Weston, the first book devoted exclusively to Weston's work, was published. It was edited by Merle Armitage and dedicated to Alice Rohrer, an admirer and patron of Weston whose $500 donation helped pay for the book to be published.
During the same time a small group of like-minded photographers in the San Francisco area, led by Van Dyke and Ansel Adams, began informally meeting to discuss their common interest and aesthetics. Inspired by Weston's show at the De Young Museum the previous year, they approached the museum with the idea of mounting a group exhibition of their work. They named themselves Group f/64, and in November 1932, an exhibition of 80 of their prints opened at the museum. The show was a critical success.
In 1933 Weston bought a 4 × 5 Graflex camera, which was much smaller and lighter than the large view camera he had used for many years. He began taking close-up nudes of Noskowiak and other models. The smaller camera allowed him to interact more with his models, while at the same time the nudes he took during this period began to resemble some of the contorted root and vegetables he had taken the year before.
In early 1934, "a new and important chapter opened" in Weston's life when he met Charis Wilson at a concert. Even more than with his previous lovers, Weston was immediately captivated by her beauty and her personality. He wrote: "A new love came into my life, a most beautiful one, one which will, I believe, stand the test of time." On April 22 he photographed her nude for the first time, and they entered into an intense relationship. He was still living with Noskowiak at that time, but within two weeks he asked her to move out, declaring that for him other women were "as inevitable as the tides".
Perhaps because of the intensity of his new relationship, he stopped writing in his Daybooks at this same time. Six months later he wrote one final entry, looking back from April 22:
After eight months we are closer together than ever. Perhaps C. will be remembered as the great love of my life. Already I have achieved certain heights reached with no other love.
1935–45: Guggenheim grant to Wildcat Hill
In January 1935 Weston was facing increasing financial difficulties. He closed his studio in Carmel and moved to Santa Monica Canyon, California, where he opened a new studio with Brett. He implored Wilson to come and live with him, and in August 1935 she finally agreed. While she had an intense interest in his work, Wilson was the first woman Weston had lived with since Flora who had no interest in becoming a photographer. This allowed Weston to concentrate on her as his muse and model, and in turn Wilson devoted her time to promoting Weston's art as his assistant and quasi-agent.
Almost immediately he began taking a new series of nudes with Wilson as the model. One of the first photographs he took of her, on the balcony of their home, became one of his most published images (Nude (Charis, Santa Monica)). Soon after they took the first of several trips to Oceano Dunes. It was there that Weston made some of his most daring and intimate photographs of any of his models, capturing Wilson in completely uninhibited poses in the sand dunes. He exhibited only one or two of this series in his lifetime, thinking several of the others were "too erotic" for the general public.
Although his recent work had received critical acclaim, he was not earning enough income from his artistic images to provide a steady income. Rather than going back to relying solely on portraiture, he started the "Edward Weston Print of the Month Club", offering selections of his photos for a monthly $5 subscription. Each month subscribers would receive a new print from Weston, with a limited edition of 40 copies of each print. Although he created these prints with the same high standards that he did for his exhibition prints, it is thought that he never had more than eleven subscribers.
At the suggestion of Beaumont Newhall, Weston decided to apply for a Guggenheim Foundation grant (now known as a Guggenheim Fellowship). He wrote a two-sentence description about his work, assembled thirty-five of his favorite prints, and sent it in. Afterward Dorothea Lange and her husband suggested that the application was too brief to be seriously considered, and Weston resubmitted it with a four-page letter and work plan. He did not mention that Wilson had written the new application for him.
On March 22, 1937, Weston received notification that he had been awarded a Guggenheim grant, the first ever given to a photographer. The award was $2,000 for one year, a significant amount of money at that time. He was able to further capitalize on the award by arranging to provide the editor of AAA Westway Magazine with 8–10 photos per month for $50 during their travels, with Wilson getting an additional $15 monthly for photo captions and short narratives. They purchased a new car and set out on Weston's dream trip to go and photograph whatever he wanted. Over the next twelve months they made seventeen trips and covered 16,697 miles according to Wilson's detailed log. Weston made 1,260 negatives during the trip.
The freedom of this trip with the "love of his life", combined with all of his sons now reaching the age of adulthood, gave Weston the motivation to finally divorce his wife. They had been living apart for sixteen years.
Due to the success of the past year, Weston applied for and received a second year of Guggenheim support. Although he wanted to do some additional traveling, he intended to use most of the money to allow him to print his past year's work. He commissioned Neil to build a small home in the Carmel Highlands on property owned by Wilson's father. They named the place "Wildcat Hill" because of the many domestic cats that soon occupied the grounds.
Wilson set up a writing studio in what was intended to be a small garage behind the house, and she spent several months writing and editing stories from their travels.
In 1939, Seeing California with Edward Weston was published, with photographs by Weston and writing by Wilson. Finally relieved from the financial stresses of the past and inordinately happy with his work and his relationship, Weston married Wilson in a small ceremony on April 24.
Buoyed by the success of their first book, in 1940 they published California and the West. The first edition, featuring 96 of Weston's photos with text by Wilson, sold for $3.95. Over the summer, Weston taught photography at the first Ansel Adams Workshop at Yosemite National Park.
Just as the Guggenheim money was running out, Weston was invited to illustrate a new edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. He would receive $1,000 for photographs and $500 travel expenses. Weston insisted on having artistic control of the images he would take and insisted that he would not be taking literal illustrations of Whitman's text. On May 28 he and Wilson began a trip that would cover 20,000 miles through 24 states; he took between 700 and 800 8x10 negatives as well as dozens of Graflex portraits.
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the United States entered World War II. Weston was near the end of the Whitman trip, and he was deeply affected by the outbreak of the war. He wrote: "When the war broke out we scurried home. Charis did not want to scurry. I did."
He spent the first few months of 1942 organizing and printing the negatives from the Whitman trip. Of the hundreds of images he took, forty-nine were selected for publication.
Due to the war, Point Lobos was closed to the public for several years. Weston continued to work on images centered on Wildcat Hill, including shots of the many cats that lived there. Weston treated them with the same serious intent that he applied to all of his other subjects, and Charis assembled the results into their most unusual publication, The Cats of Wildcat Hill, which was finally published in 1947.
The year 1945 marked the beginning of significant changes for Weston. He began to experience the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a debilitating ailment that gradually stole his strength and his ability to photograph. He withdrew from Wilson, who at the same time began to become more involved in local politics and the Carmel cultural scene. A strength that originally brought them together – her lack of interest in becoming a photographer herself – eventually led to their break-up. She wrote, "My flight from Edward was also partly an escape from photography, which had taken up so much room in my life for so many years."
While working on a major retrospective exhibition for the Museum of Modern Art, he and Wilson separated. Weston returned to Glendale since the land for their cabin at Wildcat Hill still belonged to Wilson's father. Within a few months she moved out and arranged to sell the property to him.
1946–58: Final years
In February 1946, Weston's major retrospective opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He and Beaumont Newhall selected 313 prints for the exhibition, and eventually 250 photographs were displayed along with 11 negatives. At that time many of his prints were still for sale, and he sold 97 prints from the exhibit at $25 per print. Later that year, Weston was asked by Dr. George L. Waters of Kodak to produce 8 × 10 Kodachrome transparencies for their advertising campaign. Weston had never worked in color before, primarily because he had no means of developing or printing the more complicated color process. He accepted their offer in no small part because they offered him $250 per image, the highest amount he would be paid for any single work in his lifetime. He eventually sold seven color works to Kodak of landscapes and scenery at Point Lobos and nearby Monterey harbor.
In 1947 as his Parkinson's disease progressed, Weston began looking for an assistant. Serendipitously, an eager young photographic enthusiast, Dody Weston Thompson, contacted him in search of employment.
Weston mentioned he had just that morning written a letter to Ansel Adams, looking for someone seeking to learn photography in exchange for carrying his bulky large-format camera and to provide a much needed automobile. There was a swift meeting of creative minds. For the remainder of 1947 through the beginning of 1948, Dody commuted from San Francisco on weekends to learn from Weston the basics of photography. In early 1948, Dody moved into "Bodie House," the guest cottage at Edward's Wildcat Hill compound, as his full-time assistant.
By late 1948 he was no longer physically able to use his large view camera. That year he took his last photographs, at Point Lobos. His final negative was an image he called, "Rocks and Pebbles, 1948". Although diminished in his capacity, Weston never stopped being a photographer. He worked with his sons and Dody to catalog his images and especially to oversee the publication and printing of his work. In 1950 there was a major retrospective of his work at the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris, and in 1952 he published a Fiftieth Anniversary portfolio, with images printed by Brett.
During this time he worked with Cole, Brett, and Dody Thompson (Brett's wife by 1952), to select and have them print a master set of what he considered his best work. They spent many long hours together in the darkroom, and by 1956 they had produced what Weston called "The Project Prints", eight sets of 8" × 10" prints from 830 of his negatives. The only complete set today is housed at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Later that same year the Smithsonian Institution displayed nearly 100 of these prints at a major exhibit, "The World of Edward Weston", paying tribute to his accomplishments in American photography.
Weston died at his home on Wildcat Hill on New Year's Day, 1958. His sons scattered his ashes into the Pacific Ocean at an area then known as Pebbly Beach on Point Lobos. Due to Weston's significant influence in the area, the beach was later renamed Weston Beach. He had $300 in his bank account at the time of his death.
Equipment and techniques
Cameras and lenses
During his lifetime Weston worked with several cameras. He began as a more serious photographer in 1902 when he purchased a 5 × 7 camera. When he moved to Tropico, now part of Glendale, and opened his studio in 1911, he acquired an enormous 11 x 14 Graf Variable studio portrait camera. Roi Partridge, Imogen Cunningham's husband, later made an etching of Weston in his studio, dwarfed by the giant camera in front of him. After he began taking more portraits of children, he bought a 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ Graflex in 1912 to better capture their quickly changing expressions.
When he went to Mexico in 1924 he took an 8 × 10 Seneca folding-bed view camera with several lenses, including a Graf Variable and a Wollensak Verito. While in Mexico he purchased a used Rapid Rectilinear lens which was his primary lens for many years. The lens, now in the George Eastman House, did not have a manufacturer's name. He also took to Mexico a 3¼ × 4¼ Graflex with a ƒ/4.5 Tessar lens, which he used for portraits.
In 1933 he purchased a 4 × 5 R. B. Auto-Graflex] and used it thereafter for all portraits. He continued to use the Seneca view camera for all other work.
In 1939 he listed the following items as his standard equipment:
8 x 10 Century Universal
Triple convertible Turner Reich, 12", 21", 28"
K2, G, A filters
12 film holders
Paul Ries Tripod
He continued to use this equipment throughout his life.
Film
Prior to 1921 Weston used an orthochromatic sheet film, but when panchromatic film became widely available in 1921 he switched to it for all of his work. According to his son Cole, after Agfa Isopan film came out in the 1930s Weston used it for his black-and-white images for the rest of his life. This film was rated at about ISO 25, but the developing technique Weston used reduced the effective rating to about ISO 12.
The 8 × 10 cameras he preferred were large and heavy, and due to the weight and the cost of the film he never carried more than twelve sheet film holders with him. At the end of each day, he had to go into a darkroom, unload the film holders and load them with new film. This was especially challenging when he was traveling since he had to find a darkened room somewhere or else set up a makeshift darkroom made from heavy canvas.
In spite of the bulky size of the view camera, Weston boasted he could "set up the tripod, fasten the camera securely to it, attach the lens to the camera, open the shutter, study the image on the ground glass, focus it, close the shutter, insert the plate holder, cock the shutter, set it to the appropriate aperture and speed, remove the slide from the plate holder, make the exposure, replace the slide, and remove the plate holder in two minutes and twenty seconds."
The smaller Graflex cameras he used had the advantage of using film magazines that held either 12 or 18 sheets of film. Weston preferred these cameras when taking portraits because he could respond more quickly to the sitter. He reported that with his Graflex he once made three dozen negatives of Tina Modotti within 20 minutes.In 1946 a representative from Kodak asked Weston to try out their new Kodachrome film, and over the next two years he made at least 60 8 x 10 color images using this film." They were some of the last photographs he took, since by late 1948 he was no longer able to operate a camera due to the effects of his Parkinson's disease.
Exposures
During the first 20 years of his photography Weston determined all of his exposure settings by estimation based on his previous experiences and the relatively narrow tolerances of the film at that time. He said, "I dislike to figure out time, and find my exposures more accurate when only "felt"." In the late 1930s he acquired a Weston exposure meter and continued to use it as an aid to determine exposures throughout his career. Photo historian Nancy Newhall wrote that "Young photographers are confused and amazed when they behold him measuring with his meter every value in the sphere where he intends to work, from the sky to the ground under his feet. He is "feeling the light" and checking his own observations. After which he puts the meter away and does what he thinks. Often he adds up everything ‒ filters, extension, film, speed, and so on ‒ and doubles the computation." Weston, Newhall noted, believed in "massive exposure", which he then compensated for by hand-processing the film in a weak developer solution and individually inspecting each negative as it continued to develop to get the right balance of highlights and shadows.
The low ISO rating of the sheet film Weston used necessitated very long exposures when using his view camera, ranging from 1 to 3 seconds for outdoor landscape exposures to as long as 4½ hours for still lifes such as peppers or shells. When he used one of the Graflex cameras the exposure times were much shorter (usually less than ¼ second), and he was sometimes able to work without a tripod.
Darkroom
Weston always made contact prints, meaning that the print was exactly the same size as the negative. This was essential for the platinum printing that he preferred early in his career, since at that time the platinum papers required ultra-violet light to activate. Weston did not have an artificial ultra-violet light source, so he had to place the contact print directly in sunlight to expose it. This limited him to printing only on sunny days.
When he wanted a print that was larger than the original negative size, he used an enlarger to create a larger inter-positive, then contact printed it to a new negative. The new larger negative was then used to make a print of that size. This process was very labor-intensive; he once wrote in his Daybooks "I am utterly exhausted tonight after a whole day in the darkroom, making eight contact negatives from the enlarged positives."
In 1924 Weston wrote this about his darkroom process, "I have returned, after several years use of Metol-Hydroquinine open-tank" developer to a three-solution Pyro developer, and I develop one at a time in a tray instead of a dozen in a tank." Each sheet of film was viewed under either a green or an orange safelight in his darkroom, allowing him to control the individual development of a negative. He continued to use this technique for the rest of his life.
Weston was known to extensively use dodging and burning to achieve the look he wanted in his prints.
Paper
Early in his career Weston printed on several kinds of paper, including Velox, Apex, Convira, Defender Velour Black and Haloid. When he went to Mexico he learned how to use platinum and palladium paper, made by Willis & Clement and imported from England. After his return to California, he abandoned platinum and palladium printing due to the scarcity and increasing price of the paper. Eventually he was able to get most of the same qualities he preferred with Kodak's Azo glossy silver gelatin paper developed in Amidol. He continued to use this paper almost exclusively until he stopped printing.
Writings
Weston was a prolific writer. His Daybooks were published in two volumes totaling more than 500 pages in the first edition. This does not include the years of the journal he kept between 1915 and 1923; for reasons he never made clear he destroyed those before leaving for Mexico. He also wrote dozens of articles and commentaries, beginning in 1906 and ending in 1957. He hand-wrote or typed at least 5,000 letters to colleagues, friends, lovers, his wives and his children.
In addition, Weston kept very thorough notes on the technical and business aspects of his work. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which now houses most of Weston's archives, reports that it houses 75 linear feet of pages from his Daybooks, correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, and other personal documents in his possession when he died.
Among Weston's most important early writings are those that provide insights into his development of the concept of previsualization. He first spoke and wrote about the concept in 1922, at least a decade before Ansel Adams began utilizing the term, and he continued to expand upon this idea both in writing and in his teachings. Historian Beaumont Newhall noted the significance of Weston's innovation in his book The History of Photography, saying "The most important part of Edward Weston's approach was his insistence that the photographer should previsualize the final print before making the exposure."
In his Daybooks he provided an unusually detailed record of his evolution as an artist. Although he initially denied that his images reflect his own interpretations of the subject matter, by 1932 his writings revealed that he had come to accept the importance of artistic impression in his work. When combined with his photographs, his writings provide an extraordinarily vivid series of insights into his development as an artist and his impact of future generations of photographers.
Quotations
"Form follows function." Who said this I don't know, but the writer spoke well.
I am not a technician and have no interest in technique for its own sake. If my technique is adequate to present my seeing then I need nothing more.
I see no reason for recording the obvious.
If there is symbolism in my work, it can only be the seeing of parts ‒ fragments ‒ as universal symbols. All basic forms are so closely related as to be visually equivalent.
My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea.
My work-purpose, my theme, can most nearly be stated as the recognition, recording and presentation of the interdependence, the relativity, of all things ‒ the universality of basic form.
The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?
This then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock.
What then is the end toward which I work? To present the significance of facts, so that they are transformed from things seen to things known.
When money enters in ‒ then, for a price, I become a liar ‒ and a good one I can be whether with pencil or subtle lighting or viewpoint. I hate it all, but so do I support not only my family, but my own work.
Legacy
As of 2013, two of Weston's photographs feature among the most expensive photographs ever sold. The Nude, 1925 taken in 1925 was bought by the gallerist Peter MacGill for $1.6 million in 2008. Nautilus of 1927 was sold for $1.1 million in 2010, also to MacGill.
Major exhibitions
1970, the Rencontres d'Arles festival (France) presented an exhibition "Hommage à Edward Weston" and an evening screening of the film The Photographer (1948) by Willard Van Dyke.
November 25, 1986 – March 29, 1987 Edward Weston in Los Angeles at Huntington Library
1986 Edward Weston: Color Photography at Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
May 13 – August 27, 1989 Edward Weston in New Mexico at Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe
Edward Weston : the Last Years in Carmel at The Art Institute of Chicago, June 2 – September 16, 2001, and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mar. 1 – July 9, 2002.
List of photographs
The artistic career of Weston spanned more than forty years, from roughly 1915 to 1956. A prolific photographer, he produced more than 1,000 black-and-white photographs and some 50 color images. This list is an incomplete selection of Weston's better-known photographs.
Notes
References
Sources
Abbott, Brett. Edward Weston: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005.
Alinder, Mary Street. Group f.64: Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and the Community of Artists Who Revolutionized American Photography. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2014.
Bunnell, Peter C. Edward Weston on Photography. Salt Lake City: P. Smith Books, 1983.
Bunnell, Peter C., David Featherston et al. EW 100: Centennial Essays in Honor of Edward Weston. Carmel, Calif. : Friends of Photography, 1986.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston in Mexico, 1923–1926. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983.
Conger, Amy (1992). Edward Weston – Photographs From the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1992.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston: The Form of The Nude. NY: Phaidon, 2006.
Edward Weston : Color Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1986.
Enyeart, James. Edward Weston's California landscapes. Boston : Little, Brown, 1984.
Foley, Kathy Kelsey. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister. Dayton: Dayton Art Institute, 1978.
Heyman, There Thau. Seeing Straight: The f.64 Revolution in Photography. Oakland: Oakland Art Museum, 1992.
Higgins, Gary. Truth, Myth and Erasure: Tina Modotti and Edward Weston. Tempe, Ariz. : School of Art, Arizona State University, 1991.
Hochberg, Judith and Michael P. Mattis. Edward Weston: Life Work. Photographs from the Collection of Judith G. Hochberg and Michael P. Mattis. Revere, Pa.: Lodima Press, c2003.
Hooks, Margaret. Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary. London: Pandora, 1993.
Lowe, Sarah M. Tina Modotti and Edward Weston the Mexico Years. London: Merrell, 2004.
Maddow, Ben. Edward Weston: Fifty Years; The Definitive Volume of His Photographic Work. Millerton, N.Y., Aperture, 1973. ,
Maggia, Filippo. Edward Weston. New York: Skira, 2013.
Mora, Gilles (ed.). Edward Weston: Forms of Passion. NY: Abrams, 1995.
Morgan, Susan. Portraits / Edward Weston. NY: Aperture, 1995.
Newhall, Beaumont (1984). Edward Weston Omnibus: A Critical Anthology. Salt Lake City : Peregrine Smith Books, 1984.
Newhall, Beaumont . Supreme Instants: The Photography of Edward Weston. Boston : Little, Brown, 1986.
Newhall, Nancy (ed.). Edward Weston; The Flame of Recognition: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY: Aperture, 1971.
Pitts, Terence. Edward Weston 1886–1958. Köln: Taschen, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E., Karen Quinn and Leslie Furth. Edward Weston : Photography and Modernism. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1999.
Stebins, Theodore E. Weston's Westons : Portraits and Nudes. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1989.
Travis, David. Edward Weston, The Last Years in Carmel. Chicago: Art Institute, 2001.
Warren, Beth Gates. Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011.
Warren, Beth Gates. Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs. NY: Sotheby's, 2008.
Warren, Beth Gates (2001). Margrethe Mather & Edward Weston: A Passionate Collaboration. NY: Norton, 2001.
Watts, Jennifer A. (ed.). Edward Weston : A Legacy. London: Merrell, 2003.
Weston, Edward (1964). The Daybooks of Edward Weston. Edited by Nancy Nehall. NY: Horizon Press, 1961–1964. 2 vols.
Weston, Edward. My Camera on Point Lobos; 30 Photographs and Excerpts from E. W.’s Daybook. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.
Weston, Paulette. Laughing Eyes: a Book of Letters Between Edward and Cole Weston 1923–1946. Carmel: Carmel Publishing Co., 1999.
Wilson, Charis. Edward Weston Nudes: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters. NY : Aperture, 1977.
Wilson, Charis. Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
Woods, John. Dune: Edward & Brett Weston. Kalispell, MT: Wild Horse Island Press, 2003.
External links
edward-weston.com
Edward Weston Collection at the Center for Creative Photography
Ben Maddow "Edward Weston Lecture" The Baltimore Museum of Art: Baltimore, Maryland, 1976. Retrieved June 26, 2012
The Eloquent Nude: The Love and Legacy of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson Documentary concerning Edward Weston, his muse Charis Wilson and photographer Ansel Adams.
Encyclopædia Britannica
Landscape photographers
American portrait photographers
1886 births
1958 deaths
History of platinum printing
Photographers from California
Artists from Chicago
People from Highland Park, Illinois
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Neurological disease deaths in California
20th-century American photographers
Fine art photographers
Olympic archers of the United States
American male archers
Archers at the 1904 Summer Olympics
| true |
[
"Orton imagery, also called an Orton slide sandwich or the Orton Effect, is a photography technique which blends two completely different photos of the same scene, resulting in a distinctive mix of high and low detail areas within the same photo. It was originated by photographer Michael Orton in the mid 1980s.\n\nHistory\nThe original technique invented by Michael Orton was to overlay two or more images of an identical scene with very different exposures on slide film. One image is sharply focused and the others are very out of focus. Orton has also experimented with similar techniques, substituting one of the images in the composition for one of a different subject, such as a texture layer, or combining a multi-colored image and a monotone one.\n\nExample\n\nLegacy\nThe technique can be replicated using photo editing software and a number now include a plug-in to achieve it automatically.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Orton Effect with Gimp.\nOrton Effect with Adobe Photoshop\n\nPhotographic techniques",
"A builder's photo, also called an official photo, is a specific type of photograph that is typically made by rail transport rolling stock manufacturers to show a vehicle that has been newly built or rebuilt. The builder's photo is meant to show an overview of the basic exterior form of a unit of rolling stock. Photographs made by railfans that show similar features to builder's photos are sometimes informally referred to as roster shots. Builder's photos were also made by some automobile manufacturers to show a representative sample of new models they produced.\n\nPrints of builder's photos were also often made for executives of the manufacturers and railroad companies to hang in their offices. Builder's photos were also reproduced as post cards as well as reprinted in advertisements to promote the railroad companies or manufacturers depicted therein. In the United Kingdom, steam locomotives were often temporarily painted in photographic grey color schemes so they would photograph well in black and white images. Some details in darker-colored areas of the subject were also sometimes painted in a high-contrast bright color to ensure that they would be visible in the photograph. Historians and preservationists use builder's photos as official references to show the equipment as-built.\n\nBuilder's photos are commonly shot from an angle that shows one end, often the designated front end, and a full side of the car or locomotive. The rolling stock is normally positioned on a section of track with no other rolling stock coupled to it for the photograph. Sometimes the photograph was further processed to reduce the contrast of or even entirely remove the background to further highlight the rolling stock that was photographed.\n\nReferences \n\nRail technologies\nPhotographic techniques\nRail transport photography"
] |
[
"St. Vincent (musician)",
"St. Vincent and Marry Me (2007)"
] |
C_b29a3ed7ae5b46f6a76deaceed1c5b4b_1
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is st. vincent an album
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Is St. Vincent and Marry Me an album?
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St. Vincent (musician)
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In 2006, Clark began recording a studio album, under the stage name St. Vincent. In an interview on The Colbert Report, she said that she "took [her] moniker from a Nick Cave song", which refers to the hospital in which Dylan Thomas died. The reference is to the line "And Dylan Thomas died drunk in / St. Vincent's hospital" from Cave's song "There She Goes my Beautiful World" from the album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. The name is also a reference to her great-grandmother, whose middle name was St. Vincent. Clark released her debut album, Marry Me on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records. Named after a line from the television show Arrested Development, the album features appearances from drummer Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-man?, The Polyphonic Spree), Mike Garson (David Bowie's longtime pianist), and horn player Louis Schwadron (The Polyphonic Spree). The album was well received by critics, with Clark being compared to the likes of Kate Bush and David Bowie. Clark was lauded for the album's musical arrangements as well as themes and style; in their review of the album, The AV Club noted: "There's a point where too much happiness turns into madness, and St. Vincent's multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark knows this place well". Pitchfork said "at every turn Marry Me takes the more challenging route of twisting already twisted structures and unusual instrumentation to make them sound perfectly natural and, most importantly, easy to listen to as she overdubs her thrillingly sui generis vision into vibrant life." The songs featured on Marry Me were largely written when Clark was eighteen and nineteen years old, and, according to Clark, "represented a more idealized version of what life was or what love was or anything in the eyes of someone who hadn't really experienced anything." The album featured its one single, "Paris Is Burning", as well as a music video for "Jesus Saves, I Spend". In 2008, Clark was nominated for three PLUG Independent Music Awards: New Artist of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, and Music Video of the Year. On March 6, 2008, she won the PLUG Female Artist of the Year award. CANNOTANSWER
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In 2006, Clark began recording a studio album, under the stage name St. Vincent.
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Anne Erin "Annie" Clark (born September 28, 1982), known professionally as St. Vincent, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, actress and producer. Her music is noted for its complex arrangements, utilizing a wide array of instruments. St. Vincent is the recipient of various accolades, including two Grammy Awards.
Raised in Dallas, Texas, St. Vincent began her music career as a member of the Polyphonic Spree. She was also a member of Sufjan Stevens's touring band before forming her own band in 2006. Her debut solo album, Marry Me, was released in 2007, followed by Actor (2009) and Strange Mercy (2011). In 2012, St. Vincent released Love This Giant, an album made in collaboration with David Byrne. Her fourth studio album, St. Vincent (2014), received widespread acclaim from contemporary critics. Her fifth album, Masseduction (2017), was released to further acclaim. St. Vincent's sixth album, Daddy's Home, was released in 2021.
Besides music, St. Vincent has written and directed a segment in the 2017 anthology horror film XX. She also co-wrote and starred in the psychological thriller film The Nowhere Inn (2020).
Life and career
1982–2002: Early life
Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 28, 1982. Her mother is a social worker and administrator for a nonprofit organization, and her stepfather works in corporate tax administration. Her parents divorced when she was three, and when she was seven she moved with her mother and two older sisters to Dallas, Texas. She has said that a 23andMe DNA test revealed her ancestry to be 80% Irish and 20% Ashkenazi Jewish. She was raised Catholic and Unitarian Universalist. She has four brothers and four sisters from her parents' blended families.
As a child, Clark was fond of Ritchie Valens and the movie La Bamba. When she was five, her mother gave her a red plastic guitar from a Target store for Christmas. She began playing her first real guitar at age 12 and worked some of her teenage years as a roadie for her aunt and uncle, the guitar-vocal jazz duo Tuck & Patti. In 2001, she graduated from Lake Highlands High School, where she participated in theater and the school's jazz band, and was a classmate of actor Mark Salling.
She attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, studying with Professor Lauren Passarelli. She left after three years, feeling that art institutions such as Berklee were sometimes focused more on the aesthetics of art than the product. In retrospect, she said, "I think that with music school and art school, or school in any form, there has to be some system of grading and measurement. The things they can teach you are quantifiable. While all that is good and has its place, at some point you have to learn all you can and then forget everything that you learned in order to actually start making music."
2003–2007: Career beginnings and Marry Me
In 2003, Clark released an EP with fellow Berklee students entitled Ratsliveonnoevilstar. She also worked with Heavy Rotation Records, where "she revealed a much more private and intimate rendering of 'Count' for Dorm Sessions Vol. 1" and studied with Professor of Guitar Lauren Passarelli. Shortly after leaving Berklee, she returned home to Texas, where she joined the Polyphonic Spree just before they embarked on a European tour. In 2004, she joined Glenn Branca's 100-guitar orchestra for the Queens performance, and was also briefly in a noise-rock band called the Skull Fuckers. Clark left the Polyphonic Spree and joined Sufjan Stevens' touring band in 2006. During this period she recorded and released an EP entitled Paris is Burning.
In 2006, she began recording a studio album under the stage name St. Vincent. In an interview on The Colbert Report, she said that she "took [her] moniker from a line in a Nick Cave song" that referred to the hospital where Dylan Thomas died: "And Dylan Thomas died drunk in / St. Vincent's hospital" (from Cave's song "There She Goes my Beautiful World", from the album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus). The name is also a reference to her great-grandmother, whose middle name was St. Vincent.
Clark released her debut album, Marry Me, on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records. Named after a line from the television show Arrested Development, it features appearances from drummer Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-man?, the Polyphonic Spree), Mike Garson (David Bowie's longtime pianist), and horn player Louis Schwadron (the Polyphonic Spree).
The album was well received by critics, who compared Clark to the likes of Kate Bush and David Bowie, and lauded the album for its arrangements, themes and style. In their review, The AV Club said: "There's a point where too much happiness turns into madness, and St. Vincent's multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark knows this place well". Pitchfork said, "At every turn Marry Me takes the more challenging route of twisting already twisted structures and unusual instrumentation to make them sound perfectly natural and, most importantly, easy to listen to as she overdubs her thrillingly sui generis vision into vibrant life."
The songs on Marry Me were written largely when Clark was 18 and 19 years old, and, she says, "represented a more idealized version of what life was or what love was or anything in the eyes of someone who hadn't really experienced anything." The album yielded one single, "Paris Is Burning", and a music video was produced for "Jesus Saves, I Spend".
2008–2010: Actor and soundtracks
In 2008, Clark was nominated for three PLUG Independent Music Awards: New Artist of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, and Music Video of the Year. On March 6, 2008, she won the PLUG Female Artist of the Year award.
In 2008, after returning to New York from a lengthy tour, Clark began working on her second album. Her inspiration reportedly came from several films, including Disney movies: "Well, the truth is that I had come back from a pretty long — you know, about a year-and-a-half of touring, and so my brain was sort of all circuit boards that were a little bit fried", Clark said. "So I started watching films as sort of a way to get back into being human. And then it started to just really inform the entire record."
Clark, who did not have a studio at the time, began writing the album in her apartment on her computer using GarageBand and MIDI, because she had gotten noise complaints from neighbors. The songs were inspired largely by scenes from various children's films. Clark said she imagined soundtracks for certain scenes in films when writing the music and lyrics, including scenes in Snow White (1937) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Her second album, Actor, was released by 4AD Records on May 5, 2009. It was also well received and gained more commercial attention than its predecessor. Spin gave the album eight out of ten stars, noting its "[juxtaposition of] the cruel and the kind, and here, the baroque arrangements are even more complex and her voice even prettier, with both only underlining the dark currents running through her songs". Entertainment Weekly said the album "plays up the contrasts, [with Clark] letting her church-choir voice linger on lyrics that hint darkly at themes of violence, sex, and general chaos", and branded it "a uniquely potent cocktail of sounds and moods".
Actor charted well for an independent release, peaking at No. 9 on Billboards Independent Albums Chart, No. 5 on the Tastemaker Albums Chart, and No. 90 on the Billboard 200. Although it spawned no singles (except in the UK, where "Actor Out Of Work" was issued as a 7" vinyl single), music videos for "Marrow" and "Actor Out of Work" were released, and aired on several music channels. A promotional music video for "Laughing With a Mouth of Blood", featuring Portlandias Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein (then of ThunderAnt), was also filmed.
Two soundtracks for The Twilight Saga have featured Clark's songs. "Roslyn", in collaboration with Bon Iver, appeared on the 2009 soundtrack of New Moon; and "The Antidote" was written for and appeared on 2012's Breaking Dawn – Part 2.
In November 2010, Clark appeared with American rappers Kid Cudi and Cage on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. They performed "Maniac" from Cudi's Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager, which prominently samples "The Strangers", the opening song on Actor.
2011–2012: Strange Mercy and collaborations
Clark spent much of her time in Seattle writing her third album, Strange Mercy, in October 2010. In an interview with Julie Klausner for Spin Magazine, she recalled: "[Death Cab for Cutie drummer] Jason McGerr had an office that was closing. He offered me the space for a month, for all of October. I was alone. I stayed at the Ace Hotel downtown, in one of the rooms with a shared bathroom. I would just get up in the morning and caffeinate, and run, and go to the studio for 12 hours, come back, eat dinner alone with a book, have a glass of wine, and go to bed. And do it all over again."
On January 12, 2011, Clark announced via Twitter that she was working on Strange Mercy, a follow-up to Actor.
In early March 2011, producer John Congleton, who also worked with Clark on Actor, said that he and Clark were nearly a third of the way through recording it.
On July 4, Clark stated via Twitter that if enough followers tweeted the hashtag "#strangemercy", she would release a track from the album. On July 22, after the threshold was met, she released "Surgeon" for download and streaming on her official website.
In 2011, Clark composed "Proven Badlands", an instrumental piece based on "The Sequel" from her sophomore release Actor, for ensemble Music's album Beautiful Mechanical.
In August 2011, Clark was interviewed and featured on the cover of SPIN magazine. On August 24, 2011, a music video was released for the song "Cruel", and on September 5, the entire album was put up for streaming on NPR Music. On August 25, 2011, she debuted Strange Mercy in the Temple of Dendur room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, introducing Toko Yasuda (ex-Enon), Matt Johnson, and Daniel Mintseris as members of her live band. The album was released September 13, 2011.
Strange Mercy received widespread acclaim from music critics. It achieved an overall rating of 8.1/10 at AnyDecentMusic? based on 36 reviews. It was St. Vincent's highest-charting album yet, peaking at No. 19 on the US Billboard 200. Clark stated, "I don't think it's the best record I'll ever make, but I think it's a good record." She began touring the US and Europe in support of the record in the fall of 2011 and continued a worldwide tour throughout 2012.
In 2012, Clark was featured on Andrew Bird's album Break It Yourself singing on "Lusitania". On June 14, 2012, "Who", the first single from her collaboration with David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, was released. The single came from their album Love This Giant, which was released September 11, 2012.Love This Giant by David Byrne & St. Vincent, September 7, 2012 . Retrieved September 1, 2010.
On September 18, 2012, Clark participated in the "30 Songs / 30 Days" campaign to support Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's best-selling book. Clark also provided guest vocals for the song "What's the Use of Won'drin'" on the album Who Killed Amanda Palmer from Amanda Palmer, formerly of The Dresden Dolls.
2013–2015: St. Vincent
On May 28, 2013, David Byrne and St. Vincent released Brass Tactics, which includes a previously unreleased Love This Giant bonus track, two remixes, and two live tracks.
In November 2013, Clark received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Performing Arts, and signed to Loma Vista Recordings. The new label released "Birth in Reverse" the following month, the first single from Clark's fourth album, St. Vincent, The second single, "Digital Witness", was released in January 2014, and the album was released the next month to critical acclaim. A number of publications, including The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, NME, Gigwise, and MusicOMH, ranked it as the No. 1 album of 2014, while Time put it at No. 2 and Rolling Stone ranked it No. 4. Clark received her first Grammy, as St Vincent won "Best Alternative Music Album" in February 2015.
On April 10, 2014, Clark fronted Nirvana, performing lead vocals on "Lithium" at the 29th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. She also provided vocals on the Swans' album To Be Kind.
On August 12 and 13, 2014, Clark filled in for Fred Armisen, who was away filming the fifth season of Portlandia, as band leader for The 8G Band on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Clark toured the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia throughout 2014, ending the year as the supporting act for The Black Keys. She extended her Digital Witness tour into the summer of 2015 and performed alongside the Pixies and Beck at Boston Calling in May 2015.
A demo of "Teenage Talk", a track she had previously recorded but that was not included on her eponymous album, premiered on the HBO series Girls on March 10, 2015. The song was released as a single on April 6.
On May 17, 2015, Clark performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for the inaugural Soluna: International Music & Arts Festival.
2016–2019: Masseduction
On April 12, 2016, it was announced that Clark would make her film directorial debut helming one of the segments of the all-female-directed horror anthology film XX.
In June 2017, St. Vincent released "New York", the lead single from her fifth album. The Fear the Future tour was announced in June 2017, with dates in November and December; the tour schedule was subsequently extended with performances through July 2018. Masseduction, Clark's fifth studio album, was released in October 2017 through Loma Vista Recordings. It was met with "universal acclaim" with an average score of 88 on Metacritic. In the United States, Masseduction debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, becoming St. Vincent's first album to peak in the top ten of the chart, selling 29,000 units in its first week.
Clark was Record Store Day's ambassador for 2017, making her its first female ambassador. In 2018, St. Vincent performed at Coachella. One of her performances, "Slow Disco", inspired the release of a new rendition of the track titled "Fast Slow Disco" in June. She released MassEducation, an acoustic rendition of her previous album. The album was given an 80 on Metacritic and praised by Entertainment Weekly for her versatile lyrics and strong vocals. That same year, St. Vincent collaborated with the American rock band Sleater-Kinney to produce their ninth studio album, The Center Won't Hold, which was released the following year.
In 2019, St. Vincent performed at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, where she joined Dua Lipa for a medley of her own "Masseduction," the late Aretha Franklin's "Respect," and Dua Lipa's Calvin Harris collaboration "One Kiss." The same night, "Masseduction" was awarded the Grammy for Best Rock Song. That summer, St. Vincent was credited as a co-writer on "Cruel Summer" with Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff for Swift's seventh studio album Lover (2019). In December, she released Masseduction Rewired, a collection of remixes curated by Russian techno DJ Nina Kraviz.
2020–present: Daddy's Home
In 2020, St. Vincent was credited as a guitarist on "Texas Man" and a co-writer on "Young Man" with the Chicks, Antonoff, and Justin Tranter for the Chicks' eighth studio album Gaslighter. In August 2020, St. Vincent collaborated with Japanese musician Yoshiki to release a classical arrangement of "New York". In October 2020, St. Vincent's online instruction class on Creativity and Songwriting was added to the MasterClass series. In late 2020, St. Vincent was featured on the track "Chalk Tablet Towers" from the first season of the Song Machine project by Gorillaz.
On December 15, 2020, St. Vincent announced she would be releasing her seventh studio album in 2021. On February 25, 2021, street posters revealed the Daddy's Home album would be released on May 14, 2021.
The album's first single "Pay Your Way in Pain" was released March 4, 2021, along with a music video. In a profile with The Forty-Five in March 2021, St. Vincent revealed the theme of Daddy's Home was her father's release from prison:"People have grown up. I would rather be the one to tell my story," she says. "My father’s release from prison is a great starting point, right?"
The album's second single "The Melting of the Sun" was released April 1, 2021, alongside a lyric video. Two days later St. Vincent was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, performing both "Pay Your Way in Pain" and "The Melting of the Sun".
St. Vincent starred in the 2020 psychological thriller film The Nowhere Inn, featuring a script written by her and Carrie Brownstein, about a fictional attempt to make a documentary on St. Vincent's musical career. She contributed a cover of the Metallica song "Sad But True" to the charity tribute album The Metallica Blacklist, released in September 2021.
Musical style and influences
Possessing a mezzo-soprano voice, Clark's music has been noted for its wide array of instruments and complex arrangements, as well as its polysemous lyrics, which have been described as teetering between "happiness and madness". In response, Clark has said, "I like when things come out of nowhere and blindside you a little bit. I think any person who gets panic attacks or has an anxiety disorder can understand how things can all of a sudden turn very quickly. I think I'm sublimating that into the music." In addition to guitar, Clark also plays bass, piano, organ, and theremin. Her music also often features violins, cellos, flutes, trumpets, clarinets, and other instruments. Her musical style has been characterised as rock, pop, art rock and indie rock, incorporating a wide range of influences including experimental rock, chamber rock, electropop, soft rock, and cabaret jazz.
Clark mentioned that singers such as David Bowie and Kate Bush had inspired her, as had Jimi Hendrix and Siouxsie and the Banshees. She said in a 2015 lecture she listens to a Bowie track every day, and that "It's No Game (Part One)" was her favorite. Talking Heads, Patti Smith and Pink Floyd are also influences, as well as guitarists Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew (both from King Crimson), Marc Ribot and Adam Jones from Tool.
Clark has cited author Lorrie Moore as an inspiration for her eponymous album.
Equipment
In March 2016, Ernie Ball announced that Clark had designed a signature Music Man guitar. Unique to the guitar was the design, which Welsh singer Cate Le Bon claimed in The Guardian as being made for women's bodies and providing pleasing aesthetic form in support of the guitar's function. However, Clark has since stated that the guitar being specifically for women was not a consideration during the design process. In 2017, four additional colors were added to the guitar line. A second signature was released in 2018 featuring two Humbuckers in place of the three mini-Humbuckers on the original. Notable users of the guitar include Jack White, who used the three pickup version during every performance of his Boarding House Reach tour in 2018.
Personal life
Clark resides in New York City. A 2014 Village Voice profile describes her as a private person. David Byrne, with whom she collaborated and toured, said of her: "Despite having toured with her for almost a year, I don't think I know her much better, at least not on a personal level... Mystery is not a bad thing for a beautiful, talented young woman (or man) to embrace. And she does it without seeming to be standoffish or distant."
When asked during a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone whether she identified as gay or straight, Clark responded: "I don't think about those words. I believe in gender fluidity and sexual fluidity. I don't really identify as anything. I think you can fall in love with anybody. I don't have anything to hide but I'd rather the emphasis be on music."
Later that year, in an interview with the UK's Sunday Times, she elaborated: "I'm not one for gender or sexual absolutism in the main; I fully support and engage in the spectrum."
Clark was in a relationship with actress/fashion model Cara Delevingne from late 2014 until mid-2016.
In May 2010 Clark's father was convicted of one count of conspiracy, seven counts of wire fraud, five counts of securities fraud, and one count of money laundering. The album Daddy's Home was in part inspired by her father's eventual release.
DiscographySolo Marry Me (2007)
Actor (2009)
Strange Mercy (2011)
St. Vincent (2014)
Masseduction (2017)
Daddy's Home (2021)Collaboration Love This Giant (with David Byrne) (2012)
Live bandCurrent members - The Down and Out Downtown Band Justin Meldal-Johnsen - bass guitar, keyboards, vocals, music director (2021–present)
Jason Falkner - guitar, vocals (2021–present)
Mark Guiliana - drums (2021–present)
Rachel Eckroth - keyboards (2021–present)
Stevvi Alexander - vocals (2021–present)
Nayanna Holley - vocals (2021–present)
Danielle Withers - vocals (2021–present)Past members'''
Toko Yasuda – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards (2011–2012, 2014–2015, 2018–2019)
Daniel Mintseris – keyboards, sequencing (2011–2015, 2018–2019)
Matt Johnson – drums (2011–2012, 2014–2015, 2018–2019)
Daniel Hart – violin, guitar, vocals (2007–2010)
William Flynn – bass guitar, clarinet, vocals (2007–2010)
Anthony LaMarca – drums, sampler (2009–2010)
Evan Smith – saxophone, clarinet, flute, keyboards, vocals (2009–2010)
Tours
Marry Me Tour (2007–08)
Actor Tour (2009–10)
Strange Mercy Tour (2011–12)
Love This Giant Tour (2012–13)
Digital Witness Tour (2014–15)
Fear the Future Tour (2017–18)
I Am a Lot Like You! Tour (2018–19)
Daddy's Home Tour (2021–22)
Awards and nominations
See also
LGBT culture in New York City
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
Further reading
External links
Annie Clark Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America''
1982 births
4AD artists
American women singer-songwriters
American indie rock musicians
American multi-instrumentalists
American people of Irish descent
American people of Jewish descent
American mezzo-sopranos
American Unitarian Universalists
Art rock musicians
Berklee College of Music alumni
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Guitarists from Oklahoma
Guitarists from Texas
LGBT people from Oklahoma
LGBT people from Texas
Living people
Musicians from Dallas
Musicians from Tulsa, Oklahoma
The Polyphonic Spree members
Republic Records artists
Singer-songwriters from Oklahoma
Singer-songwriters from Texas
Unitarian Universalists
American women in electronic music
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
LGBT singers from the United States
LGBT songwriters
21st-century American singers
| false |
[
"St. Vincent is the eponymous fourth studio album by American musician St. Vincent. It was released on February 24, 2014, in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United States, through Loma Vista Recordings and Republic Records. Produced by John Congleton, it features collaborations with Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings drummer Homer Steinweiss and Midlake drummer McKenzie Smith. The tracks were arranged and demoed by Annie Clark in Austin, Texas and recorded at the Elmwood studio in Dallas.\n\nCritically acclaimed on its release, the album won a 2015 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, making St. Vincent only the second female solo artist to win the award since its inception in 1991, when it was awarded to Sinéad O'Connor. It peaked at number 12 in the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart at number 21, selling nearly 30,000 copies in its first week.\n\nBackground\n\nRelease \nSt. Vincent was announced on December 9, 2013, and \"Birth in Reverse\" was released for free download. A second single, \"Digital Witness\", was released on January 6, 2014. An additional release of \"Digital Witness\", featuring \"Del Rio\" as a B-side, was released in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2014.\n\nA music video directed by Chino Moya was released on January 31, 2014 for \"Digital Witness\". On February 5, Clark debuted \"Prince Johnny\" on the radio show KCRW: Morning Becomes Eclectic. On February 9, Clark debuted songs at fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg's runway show for New York's Fashion Week. A music video directed by Willo Perron was released on December 16, 2014 for \"Birth In Reverse\".\n\nSt. Vincent entered the US Billboard 200 albums chart at number 12 and the UK Albums Chart at number 21, becoming St. Vincent's highest charting album in both countries. The album sold nearly 30,000 copies in its first week.\n\nA deluxe edition was released on February 9, 2015 in the U.K. with the album being available only for digital download in the U.S. on February 10. It featured the previously unreleased \"Bad Believer\"; \"Del Rio,\" a B-side from the \"Digital Witness\" single and a bonus track on the Japanese edition of St. Vincent; \"Digital Witness\" (DARKSIDE Remix), previously released as a single; and \"Pietà\" and \"Sparrow\", originally released together on a limited edition 10\" pink vinyl on November 28, 2014 for Record Store Day.\n\nMusic \nClark described St. Vincent as \"a party record you could play at a funeral.\" The opening \"Rattlesnake\" is about an experience Clark had when walking in the desert, which she described as a \"commune with nature\". However, the opening line \"I followed the power lines back from the road\", suggests that Clark is separating herself from her dependency on artificial or digital power.\n\nOther songs have more personal connections. \"I Prefer Your Love\", the sixth track, is about Clark's mother, who was briefly ill. The closing \"Severed Crossed Fingers\" takes inspiration from a line from one of American novelist Lorrie Moore's short stories. The sentence from which the title is taken – \"He thinks of severed, crossed fingers found perfectly survived in the wreckage of a local plane crash last year\", – is used by Clark to demonstrate the human heart's ability to have hope, even when none is present. Clark said of the song, \"That one's all me\" in an interview with Studio 360. Later, in an interview with Pitchfork, Clark explained \"I sang that in one fucking take, cried my eyes out, and the song was done\".\n\nClark said she felt St. Vincent was \"more confident. I'm extending a hand; I want to connect with people. Strange Mercy, which is a record I'm proud of, [was] definitely a very accurate record of my life at a certain time, but it was more about self-laceration, all the sort of internal struggle. St. Vincent is very extroverted.\"\n\nCritical reception \n\nThe album has received widespread critical acclaim. On the review aggregate site Metacritic, it scored an average score of 89 out of 100, based on 40 independent reviews, indicating \"universal acclaim\". AnyDecentMusic? collated reviews giving the album an average score of 8.6 based upon 40 reviews. This score makes the record part of AnyDecentMusic?'s All-Time Top 10 albums. Writing for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis awarded the album a perfect five stars, calling it \"an embarrassment of fantastic songs\" and \"a straightforward triumph\".\n\nAt Rolling Stone, Jon Dolan awarded the album four stars out of five, hailing it as \"her tightest, tensest, best set of songs to date, with wry, twisty beats pushing her lovably ornery melodies toward grueling revelations\" and noting that \"the playful way these songs contort makes pain feel like a party.\" Alex Denny of The Fly rated the album four-and-a-half stars out of five, describing it as \"her most ebullient, ambitiously styled music to date\". NME, The Guardian, musicOMH, Entertainment Weekly, and Slant Magazine named it the best album of 2014.\n\nAccolades \n\nSt. Vincent won Best Alternative Music Album at the 57th Grammy Awards in 2015.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \n\nMusicians\n Annie Clark – vocals, guitar\n Daniel Mintseris – synthesizer , piano , harpsichord \n Bobby Sparks – Minimoog \n Homer Steinweiss – drums \n McKenzie Smith – drums \n Adam Pickrell – Minimoog , keyboards \n Ralph Carney – horns \n\nProduction\n John Congleton – production, recording, mixing\n Greg Calbi – mastering\n\nDesign\n Willo Perron – creative direction\n Brian Roettinger – design\n Renata Raksha – photography\n\nCharts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n \n\n2014 albums\nArt rock albums by American artists\nAlbums produced by John Congleton\nGrammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album\nNoise pop albums\nRepublic Records albums\nSt. Vincent (musician) albums",
"Mark Vincent (born 4 September 1993 in Caringbah, New South Wales) is an Australian tenor. Vincent won the third season of Australia's Got Talent in 2009 and signed with Sony Music Australia immediately after. As of 2018, Vincent has released seven studio albums and one \"best of\".\n\nHistory\nIn February 2009, Vincent appeared on the third season of Australia's Got Talent singing \"Nessun Dorma\". On 22 April 2009, Vincent was declared the winner and immediately signed with Sony Music Australia. Vincent released his debut studio album, My Dream – Mio Visione in July 2009. The album peaked at number 2 on the ARIA Charts and was certified platinum. In 2010, Vincent released Compass which peaked at number 5 and The Great Tenor Songbook which peaked at number 18.\n\nIn 2011, Vincent released his fourth album, Songs from the Heart which peaked at number 10. In 2013, Vincent released The Quartet Sessions, followed by Best So Far in April 2014. In 2014, Vincent made his music theatre debut in the highly acclaimed Australian production of Dirty Dancing, which played 130 shows around the country.\n\nVincent's sixth studio album was a collaborative released with Marina Prior in 2016. The album debuted at number 5. Vincent and Prior toured the album. Vincent performed at Carols in the Domain in Sydney for the eighth consecutive year on 18 December 2016.[6]\n\nIn April 2017, Vincent released his seventh studio album, A Tribute to Mario Lanza. In May 2017, Vincent played the role of Freddy in the Australia production of My Fair Lady.\n\nIn December 2018, it was announced Vincent was among the ten acts who would be participating in Eurovision – Australia Decides in an attempt to represent Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv with the song \"This Is Not the End\". He performed the song in February 2019 and finished seventh out of ten acts.\n\nPersonal life \nHis main inspiration is his late grandfather, Bruno, who raised him in Sydney and taught him how to sing.\n\nVincent has said that he would like to follow in the footsteps of his idol Anthony Warlow. He has also stated that he admired opera singers Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti.\n\nVincent attended school at De La Salle College Caringbah and De La Salle College, Cronulla. He hopes to study at the Milan Conservatory, the leading musical institution in Italy where Giacomo Puccini studied.\n\nVincent is married and is a committed supporter of the charity Save Our Sons, which fights Duchenne muscular dystrophy.\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1993 births\n21st-century Australian singers\n21st-century Australian male singers\nAustralian Institute of Music alumni\nAustralian people of Italian descent\nAustralian tenors\nGot Talent winners\nLiving people\nOpera crossover singers\nPeople educated at De La Salle College, Cronulla\nPeople from the Sutherland Shire\nPeople from Sydney\nSony Music Australia artists"
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"St. Vincent (musician)",
"St. Vincent and Marry Me (2007)",
"is st. vincent an album",
"In 2006, Clark began recording a studio album, under the stage name St. Vincent."
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what about marry me
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What about St. Vincent and Marry Me (2007)?
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St. Vincent (musician)
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In 2006, Clark began recording a studio album, under the stage name St. Vincent. In an interview on The Colbert Report, she said that she "took [her] moniker from a Nick Cave song", which refers to the hospital in which Dylan Thomas died. The reference is to the line "And Dylan Thomas died drunk in / St. Vincent's hospital" from Cave's song "There She Goes my Beautiful World" from the album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. The name is also a reference to her great-grandmother, whose middle name was St. Vincent. Clark released her debut album, Marry Me on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records. Named after a line from the television show Arrested Development, the album features appearances from drummer Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-man?, The Polyphonic Spree), Mike Garson (David Bowie's longtime pianist), and horn player Louis Schwadron (The Polyphonic Spree). The album was well received by critics, with Clark being compared to the likes of Kate Bush and David Bowie. Clark was lauded for the album's musical arrangements as well as themes and style; in their review of the album, The AV Club noted: "There's a point where too much happiness turns into madness, and St. Vincent's multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark knows this place well". Pitchfork said "at every turn Marry Me takes the more challenging route of twisting already twisted structures and unusual instrumentation to make them sound perfectly natural and, most importantly, easy to listen to as she overdubs her thrillingly sui generis vision into vibrant life." The songs featured on Marry Me were largely written when Clark was eighteen and nineteen years old, and, according to Clark, "represented a more idealized version of what life was or what love was or anything in the eyes of someone who hadn't really experienced anything." The album featured its one single, "Paris Is Burning", as well as a music video for "Jesus Saves, I Spend". In 2008, Clark was nominated for three PLUG Independent Music Awards: New Artist of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, and Music Video of the Year. On March 6, 2008, she won the PLUG Female Artist of the Year award. CANNOTANSWER
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Clark released her debut album, Marry Me on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records.
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Anne Erin "Annie" Clark (born September 28, 1982), known professionally as St. Vincent, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, actress and producer. Her music is noted for its complex arrangements, utilizing a wide array of instruments. St. Vincent is the recipient of various accolades, including two Grammy Awards.
Raised in Dallas, Texas, St. Vincent began her music career as a member of the Polyphonic Spree. She was also a member of Sufjan Stevens's touring band before forming her own band in 2006. Her debut solo album, Marry Me, was released in 2007, followed by Actor (2009) and Strange Mercy (2011). In 2012, St. Vincent released Love This Giant, an album made in collaboration with David Byrne. Her fourth studio album, St. Vincent (2014), received widespread acclaim from contemporary critics. Her fifth album, Masseduction (2017), was released to further acclaim. St. Vincent's sixth album, Daddy's Home, was released in 2021.
Besides music, St. Vincent has written and directed a segment in the 2017 anthology horror film XX. She also co-wrote and starred in the psychological thriller film The Nowhere Inn (2020).
Life and career
1982–2002: Early life
Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 28, 1982. Her mother is a social worker and administrator for a nonprofit organization, and her stepfather works in corporate tax administration. Her parents divorced when she was three, and when she was seven she moved with her mother and two older sisters to Dallas, Texas. She has said that a 23andMe DNA test revealed her ancestry to be 80% Irish and 20% Ashkenazi Jewish. She was raised Catholic and Unitarian Universalist. She has four brothers and four sisters from her parents' blended families.
As a child, Clark was fond of Ritchie Valens and the movie La Bamba. When she was five, her mother gave her a red plastic guitar from a Target store for Christmas. She began playing her first real guitar at age 12 and worked some of her teenage years as a roadie for her aunt and uncle, the guitar-vocal jazz duo Tuck & Patti. In 2001, she graduated from Lake Highlands High School, where she participated in theater and the school's jazz band, and was a classmate of actor Mark Salling.
She attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, studying with Professor Lauren Passarelli. She left after three years, feeling that art institutions such as Berklee were sometimes focused more on the aesthetics of art than the product. In retrospect, she said, "I think that with music school and art school, or school in any form, there has to be some system of grading and measurement. The things they can teach you are quantifiable. While all that is good and has its place, at some point you have to learn all you can and then forget everything that you learned in order to actually start making music."
2003–2007: Career beginnings and Marry Me
In 2003, Clark released an EP with fellow Berklee students entitled Ratsliveonnoevilstar. She also worked with Heavy Rotation Records, where "she revealed a much more private and intimate rendering of 'Count' for Dorm Sessions Vol. 1" and studied with Professor of Guitar Lauren Passarelli. Shortly after leaving Berklee, she returned home to Texas, where she joined the Polyphonic Spree just before they embarked on a European tour. In 2004, she joined Glenn Branca's 100-guitar orchestra for the Queens performance, and was also briefly in a noise-rock band called the Skull Fuckers. Clark left the Polyphonic Spree and joined Sufjan Stevens' touring band in 2006. During this period she recorded and released an EP entitled Paris is Burning.
In 2006, she began recording a studio album under the stage name St. Vincent. In an interview on The Colbert Report, she said that she "took [her] moniker from a line in a Nick Cave song" that referred to the hospital where Dylan Thomas died: "And Dylan Thomas died drunk in / St. Vincent's hospital" (from Cave's song "There She Goes my Beautiful World", from the album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus). The name is also a reference to her great-grandmother, whose middle name was St. Vincent.
Clark released her debut album, Marry Me, on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records. Named after a line from the television show Arrested Development, it features appearances from drummer Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-man?, the Polyphonic Spree), Mike Garson (David Bowie's longtime pianist), and horn player Louis Schwadron (the Polyphonic Spree).
The album was well received by critics, who compared Clark to the likes of Kate Bush and David Bowie, and lauded the album for its arrangements, themes and style. In their review, The AV Club said: "There's a point where too much happiness turns into madness, and St. Vincent's multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark knows this place well". Pitchfork said, "At every turn Marry Me takes the more challenging route of twisting already twisted structures and unusual instrumentation to make them sound perfectly natural and, most importantly, easy to listen to as she overdubs her thrillingly sui generis vision into vibrant life."
The songs on Marry Me were written largely when Clark was 18 and 19 years old, and, she says, "represented a more idealized version of what life was or what love was or anything in the eyes of someone who hadn't really experienced anything." The album yielded one single, "Paris Is Burning", and a music video was produced for "Jesus Saves, I Spend".
2008–2010: Actor and soundtracks
In 2008, Clark was nominated for three PLUG Independent Music Awards: New Artist of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, and Music Video of the Year. On March 6, 2008, she won the PLUG Female Artist of the Year award.
In 2008, after returning to New York from a lengthy tour, Clark began working on her second album. Her inspiration reportedly came from several films, including Disney movies: "Well, the truth is that I had come back from a pretty long — you know, about a year-and-a-half of touring, and so my brain was sort of all circuit boards that were a little bit fried", Clark said. "So I started watching films as sort of a way to get back into being human. And then it started to just really inform the entire record."
Clark, who did not have a studio at the time, began writing the album in her apartment on her computer using GarageBand and MIDI, because she had gotten noise complaints from neighbors. The songs were inspired largely by scenes from various children's films. Clark said she imagined soundtracks for certain scenes in films when writing the music and lyrics, including scenes in Snow White (1937) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Her second album, Actor, was released by 4AD Records on May 5, 2009. It was also well received and gained more commercial attention than its predecessor. Spin gave the album eight out of ten stars, noting its "[juxtaposition of] the cruel and the kind, and here, the baroque arrangements are even more complex and her voice even prettier, with both only underlining the dark currents running through her songs". Entertainment Weekly said the album "plays up the contrasts, [with Clark] letting her church-choir voice linger on lyrics that hint darkly at themes of violence, sex, and general chaos", and branded it "a uniquely potent cocktail of sounds and moods".
Actor charted well for an independent release, peaking at No. 9 on Billboards Independent Albums Chart, No. 5 on the Tastemaker Albums Chart, and No. 90 on the Billboard 200. Although it spawned no singles (except in the UK, where "Actor Out Of Work" was issued as a 7" vinyl single), music videos for "Marrow" and "Actor Out of Work" were released, and aired on several music channels. A promotional music video for "Laughing With a Mouth of Blood", featuring Portlandias Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein (then of ThunderAnt), was also filmed.
Two soundtracks for The Twilight Saga have featured Clark's songs. "Roslyn", in collaboration with Bon Iver, appeared on the 2009 soundtrack of New Moon; and "The Antidote" was written for and appeared on 2012's Breaking Dawn – Part 2.
In November 2010, Clark appeared with American rappers Kid Cudi and Cage on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. They performed "Maniac" from Cudi's Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager, which prominently samples "The Strangers", the opening song on Actor.
2011–2012: Strange Mercy and collaborations
Clark spent much of her time in Seattle writing her third album, Strange Mercy, in October 2010. In an interview with Julie Klausner for Spin Magazine, she recalled: "[Death Cab for Cutie drummer] Jason McGerr had an office that was closing. He offered me the space for a month, for all of October. I was alone. I stayed at the Ace Hotel downtown, in one of the rooms with a shared bathroom. I would just get up in the morning and caffeinate, and run, and go to the studio for 12 hours, come back, eat dinner alone with a book, have a glass of wine, and go to bed. And do it all over again."
On January 12, 2011, Clark announced via Twitter that she was working on Strange Mercy, a follow-up to Actor.
In early March 2011, producer John Congleton, who also worked with Clark on Actor, said that he and Clark were nearly a third of the way through recording it.
On July 4, Clark stated via Twitter that if enough followers tweeted the hashtag "#strangemercy", she would release a track from the album. On July 22, after the threshold was met, she released "Surgeon" for download and streaming on her official website.
In 2011, Clark composed "Proven Badlands", an instrumental piece based on "The Sequel" from her sophomore release Actor, for ensemble Music's album Beautiful Mechanical.
In August 2011, Clark was interviewed and featured on the cover of SPIN magazine. On August 24, 2011, a music video was released for the song "Cruel", and on September 5, the entire album was put up for streaming on NPR Music. On August 25, 2011, she debuted Strange Mercy in the Temple of Dendur room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, introducing Toko Yasuda (ex-Enon), Matt Johnson, and Daniel Mintseris as members of her live band. The album was released September 13, 2011.
Strange Mercy received widespread acclaim from music critics. It achieved an overall rating of 8.1/10 at AnyDecentMusic? based on 36 reviews. It was St. Vincent's highest-charting album yet, peaking at No. 19 on the US Billboard 200. Clark stated, "I don't think it's the best record I'll ever make, but I think it's a good record." She began touring the US and Europe in support of the record in the fall of 2011 and continued a worldwide tour throughout 2012.
In 2012, Clark was featured on Andrew Bird's album Break It Yourself singing on "Lusitania". On June 14, 2012, "Who", the first single from her collaboration with David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, was released. The single came from their album Love This Giant, which was released September 11, 2012.Love This Giant by David Byrne & St. Vincent, September 7, 2012 . Retrieved September 1, 2010.
On September 18, 2012, Clark participated in the "30 Songs / 30 Days" campaign to support Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's best-selling book. Clark also provided guest vocals for the song "What's the Use of Won'drin'" on the album Who Killed Amanda Palmer from Amanda Palmer, formerly of The Dresden Dolls.
2013–2015: St. Vincent
On May 28, 2013, David Byrne and St. Vincent released Brass Tactics, which includes a previously unreleased Love This Giant bonus track, two remixes, and two live tracks.
In November 2013, Clark received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Performing Arts, and signed to Loma Vista Recordings. The new label released "Birth in Reverse" the following month, the first single from Clark's fourth album, St. Vincent, The second single, "Digital Witness", was released in January 2014, and the album was released the next month to critical acclaim. A number of publications, including The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, NME, Gigwise, and MusicOMH, ranked it as the No. 1 album of 2014, while Time put it at No. 2 and Rolling Stone ranked it No. 4. Clark received her first Grammy, as St Vincent won "Best Alternative Music Album" in February 2015.
On April 10, 2014, Clark fronted Nirvana, performing lead vocals on "Lithium" at the 29th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. She also provided vocals on the Swans' album To Be Kind.
On August 12 and 13, 2014, Clark filled in for Fred Armisen, who was away filming the fifth season of Portlandia, as band leader for The 8G Band on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Clark toured the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia throughout 2014, ending the year as the supporting act for The Black Keys. She extended her Digital Witness tour into the summer of 2015 and performed alongside the Pixies and Beck at Boston Calling in May 2015.
A demo of "Teenage Talk", a track she had previously recorded but that was not included on her eponymous album, premiered on the HBO series Girls on March 10, 2015. The song was released as a single on April 6.
On May 17, 2015, Clark performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for the inaugural Soluna: International Music & Arts Festival.
2016–2019: Masseduction
On April 12, 2016, it was announced that Clark would make her film directorial debut helming one of the segments of the all-female-directed horror anthology film XX.
In June 2017, St. Vincent released "New York", the lead single from her fifth album. The Fear the Future tour was announced in June 2017, with dates in November and December; the tour schedule was subsequently extended with performances through July 2018. Masseduction, Clark's fifth studio album, was released in October 2017 through Loma Vista Recordings. It was met with "universal acclaim" with an average score of 88 on Metacritic. In the United States, Masseduction debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, becoming St. Vincent's first album to peak in the top ten of the chart, selling 29,000 units in its first week.
Clark was Record Store Day's ambassador for 2017, making her its first female ambassador. In 2018, St. Vincent performed at Coachella. One of her performances, "Slow Disco", inspired the release of a new rendition of the track titled "Fast Slow Disco" in June. She released MassEducation, an acoustic rendition of her previous album. The album was given an 80 on Metacritic and praised by Entertainment Weekly for her versatile lyrics and strong vocals. That same year, St. Vincent collaborated with the American rock band Sleater-Kinney to produce their ninth studio album, The Center Won't Hold, which was released the following year.
In 2019, St. Vincent performed at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, where she joined Dua Lipa for a medley of her own "Masseduction," the late Aretha Franklin's "Respect," and Dua Lipa's Calvin Harris collaboration "One Kiss." The same night, "Masseduction" was awarded the Grammy for Best Rock Song. That summer, St. Vincent was credited as a co-writer on "Cruel Summer" with Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff for Swift's seventh studio album Lover (2019). In December, she released Masseduction Rewired, a collection of remixes curated by Russian techno DJ Nina Kraviz.
2020–present: Daddy's Home
In 2020, St. Vincent was credited as a guitarist on "Texas Man" and a co-writer on "Young Man" with the Chicks, Antonoff, and Justin Tranter for the Chicks' eighth studio album Gaslighter. In August 2020, St. Vincent collaborated with Japanese musician Yoshiki to release a classical arrangement of "New York". In October 2020, St. Vincent's online instruction class on Creativity and Songwriting was added to the MasterClass series. In late 2020, St. Vincent was featured on the track "Chalk Tablet Towers" from the first season of the Song Machine project by Gorillaz.
On December 15, 2020, St. Vincent announced she would be releasing her seventh studio album in 2021. On February 25, 2021, street posters revealed the Daddy's Home album would be released on May 14, 2021.
The album's first single "Pay Your Way in Pain" was released March 4, 2021, along with a music video. In a profile with The Forty-Five in March 2021, St. Vincent revealed the theme of Daddy's Home was her father's release from prison:"People have grown up. I would rather be the one to tell my story," she says. "My father’s release from prison is a great starting point, right?"
The album's second single "The Melting of the Sun" was released April 1, 2021, alongside a lyric video. Two days later St. Vincent was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, performing both "Pay Your Way in Pain" and "The Melting of the Sun".
St. Vincent starred in the 2020 psychological thriller film The Nowhere Inn, featuring a script written by her and Carrie Brownstein, about a fictional attempt to make a documentary on St. Vincent's musical career. She contributed a cover of the Metallica song "Sad But True" to the charity tribute album The Metallica Blacklist, released in September 2021.
Musical style and influences
Possessing a mezzo-soprano voice, Clark's music has been noted for its wide array of instruments and complex arrangements, as well as its polysemous lyrics, which have been described as teetering between "happiness and madness". In response, Clark has said, "I like when things come out of nowhere and blindside you a little bit. I think any person who gets panic attacks or has an anxiety disorder can understand how things can all of a sudden turn very quickly. I think I'm sublimating that into the music." In addition to guitar, Clark also plays bass, piano, organ, and theremin. Her music also often features violins, cellos, flutes, trumpets, clarinets, and other instruments. Her musical style has been characterised as rock, pop, art rock and indie rock, incorporating a wide range of influences including experimental rock, chamber rock, electropop, soft rock, and cabaret jazz.
Clark mentioned that singers such as David Bowie and Kate Bush had inspired her, as had Jimi Hendrix and Siouxsie and the Banshees. She said in a 2015 lecture she listens to a Bowie track every day, and that "It's No Game (Part One)" was her favorite. Talking Heads, Patti Smith and Pink Floyd are also influences, as well as guitarists Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew (both from King Crimson), Marc Ribot and Adam Jones from Tool.
Clark has cited author Lorrie Moore as an inspiration for her eponymous album.
Equipment
In March 2016, Ernie Ball announced that Clark had designed a signature Music Man guitar. Unique to the guitar was the design, which Welsh singer Cate Le Bon claimed in The Guardian as being made for women's bodies and providing pleasing aesthetic form in support of the guitar's function. However, Clark has since stated that the guitar being specifically for women was not a consideration during the design process. In 2017, four additional colors were added to the guitar line. A second signature was released in 2018 featuring two Humbuckers in place of the three mini-Humbuckers on the original. Notable users of the guitar include Jack White, who used the three pickup version during every performance of his Boarding House Reach tour in 2018.
Personal life
Clark resides in New York City. A 2014 Village Voice profile describes her as a private person. David Byrne, with whom she collaborated and toured, said of her: "Despite having toured with her for almost a year, I don't think I know her much better, at least not on a personal level... Mystery is not a bad thing for a beautiful, talented young woman (or man) to embrace. And she does it without seeming to be standoffish or distant."
When asked during a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone whether she identified as gay or straight, Clark responded: "I don't think about those words. I believe in gender fluidity and sexual fluidity. I don't really identify as anything. I think you can fall in love with anybody. I don't have anything to hide but I'd rather the emphasis be on music."
Later that year, in an interview with the UK's Sunday Times, she elaborated: "I'm not one for gender or sexual absolutism in the main; I fully support and engage in the spectrum."
Clark was in a relationship with actress/fashion model Cara Delevingne from late 2014 until mid-2016.
In May 2010 Clark's father was convicted of one count of conspiracy, seven counts of wire fraud, five counts of securities fraud, and one count of money laundering. The album Daddy's Home was in part inspired by her father's eventual release.
DiscographySolo Marry Me (2007)
Actor (2009)
Strange Mercy (2011)
St. Vincent (2014)
Masseduction (2017)
Daddy's Home (2021)Collaboration Love This Giant (with David Byrne) (2012)
Live bandCurrent members - The Down and Out Downtown Band Justin Meldal-Johnsen - bass guitar, keyboards, vocals, music director (2021–present)
Jason Falkner - guitar, vocals (2021–present)
Mark Guiliana - drums (2021–present)
Rachel Eckroth - keyboards (2021–present)
Stevvi Alexander - vocals (2021–present)
Nayanna Holley - vocals (2021–present)
Danielle Withers - vocals (2021–present)Past members'''
Toko Yasuda – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards (2011–2012, 2014–2015, 2018–2019)
Daniel Mintseris – keyboards, sequencing (2011–2015, 2018–2019)
Matt Johnson – drums (2011–2012, 2014–2015, 2018–2019)
Daniel Hart – violin, guitar, vocals (2007–2010)
William Flynn – bass guitar, clarinet, vocals (2007–2010)
Anthony LaMarca – drums, sampler (2009–2010)
Evan Smith – saxophone, clarinet, flute, keyboards, vocals (2009–2010)
Tours
Marry Me Tour (2007–08)
Actor Tour (2009–10)
Strange Mercy Tour (2011–12)
Love This Giant Tour (2012–13)
Digital Witness Tour (2014–15)
Fear the Future Tour (2017–18)
I Am a Lot Like You! Tour (2018–19)
Daddy's Home Tour (2021–22)
Awards and nominations
See also
LGBT culture in New York City
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
Further reading
External links
Annie Clark Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America''
1982 births
4AD artists
American women singer-songwriters
American indie rock musicians
American multi-instrumentalists
American people of Irish descent
American people of Jewish descent
American mezzo-sopranos
American Unitarian Universalists
Art rock musicians
Berklee College of Music alumni
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Guitarists from Oklahoma
Guitarists from Texas
LGBT people from Oklahoma
LGBT people from Texas
Living people
Musicians from Dallas
Musicians from Tulsa, Oklahoma
The Polyphonic Spree members
Republic Records artists
Singer-songwriters from Oklahoma
Singer-songwriters from Texas
Unitarian Universalists
American women in electronic music
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
LGBT singers from the United States
LGBT songwriters
21st-century American singers
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[
"Marry Me may refer to:\n\nFilm and television\nMarry Me (1925 film), a 1925 American comedy silent film\nMarry Me (1932 film), a 1932 British film\nMarry Me! (1949 film), a 1949 British film\nMarry Me (2022 film), a 2022 American romantic comedy film\nMarry Me (miniseries), a television miniseries starring Lucy Liu\nMarry Me (American TV series), an American television series\n\nMusic \nMarry Me (album), a 2007 album by St. Vincent\n\"Marry Me\" (Train song), 2010\n\"Marry Me\" (Jason Derulo song), 2013\n\"Marry Me\" (Krista Siegfrids song), 2013\n\"Marry Me\" (Thomas Rhett song), 2017\n\"Marry Me\", a song by Neil Diamond with Buffy Lawson from Tennessee Moon, 1996\n\"Marry Me\", a song by Drive-By Truckers from Decoration Day\n\"Marry Me\", a song by Yemi Alade from Mama Africa\n \"Marry Me\", by Betty Who from Betty\n\nOther uses\nMarry Me (novel), a novel by John Updike\nMarry Me (short story collection), a short story collection by Dan Rhodes\nMarry Me (webcomic), a webcomic by Bobby Crosby\n\nSee also\n\"Come Marry Me\", a song by Miss Platnum (feat. Peter Fox) from Chefa\nMarry Me a Little (disambiguation)\nMarriage proposal, an event where one person asks for the other's hand in marriage\nWill You Marry Me? (disambiguation)",
"\"Don't Marry Her\" is a song by English pop rock group the Beautiful South and the opening track on their fifth studio album, Blue Is the Colour (1996). Vocalist Jacqui Abbott begs a man to run away with her from the woman he is going to marry and attempts to sway him by describing what she thinks married life with the other woman will be like, painting an uninviting picture. Released on 2 December 1996, the single peaked at number eight on the UK Singles Chart and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry.\n\nBackground\nThe song's lyrics were substantially altered for the release as a single – changing from \"Don't marry her, fuck me\" to \"Don't marry her, have me\", and with \"sweaty bollocks\" becoming \"Sandra Bullocks\". The song spent 10 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number eight, and also charted within the lower reaches of several European charts. The single version appears on the best of album Solid Bronze: Great Hits, while Soup features the original album version.\n\nCritical reception\nA reviewer from Music Week rated the song three out of five, writing, \"Some strong guitar riffs appear in this country-tinged follow up to their huge radio hit Rotterdam, but Jacqueline Abbot's vocal will be too saccharine for some ears.\"\n\nTrack listings\n\nUK CD1\n \"Don't Marry Her\"\n \"God Bless the Child\"\n \"Without Her\"\n\nUK CD2\n \"Don't Marry Her\"\n \"Dream a Little Dream\"\n \"Les yeux ouverts\"\n\nUK cassette single\n \"Don't Marry Her\"\n \"Dream a Little Dream\"\n \"God Bless the Child\"\n\nUS 7-inch jukebox single\nA. \"Don't Marry Her\" (clean version) – 3:22\nB. \"Mirror\" – 4:05\n\nCharts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\n1996 singles\n1996 songs\nThe Beautiful South songs\nGo! Discs singles\nSongs about infidelity\nSongs about marriage\nSongs about divorce\nSongs written by David Rotheray\nSongs written by Paul Heaton"
] |
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"St. Vincent and Marry Me (2007)",
"is st. vincent an album",
"In 2006, Clark began recording a studio album, under the stage name St. Vincent.",
"what about marry me",
"Clark released her debut album, Marry Me on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records."
] |
C_b29a3ed7ae5b46f6a76deaceed1c5b4b_1
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Besides Clark debut album, are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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St. Vincent (musician)
|
In 2006, Clark began recording a studio album, under the stage name St. Vincent. In an interview on The Colbert Report, she said that she "took [her] moniker from a Nick Cave song", which refers to the hospital in which Dylan Thomas died. The reference is to the line "And Dylan Thomas died drunk in / St. Vincent's hospital" from Cave's song "There She Goes my Beautiful World" from the album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. The name is also a reference to her great-grandmother, whose middle name was St. Vincent. Clark released her debut album, Marry Me on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records. Named after a line from the television show Arrested Development, the album features appearances from drummer Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-man?, The Polyphonic Spree), Mike Garson (David Bowie's longtime pianist), and horn player Louis Schwadron (The Polyphonic Spree). The album was well received by critics, with Clark being compared to the likes of Kate Bush and David Bowie. Clark was lauded for the album's musical arrangements as well as themes and style; in their review of the album, The AV Club noted: "There's a point where too much happiness turns into madness, and St. Vincent's multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark knows this place well". Pitchfork said "at every turn Marry Me takes the more challenging route of twisting already twisted structures and unusual instrumentation to make them sound perfectly natural and, most importantly, easy to listen to as she overdubs her thrillingly sui generis vision into vibrant life." The songs featured on Marry Me were largely written when Clark was eighteen and nineteen years old, and, according to Clark, "represented a more idealized version of what life was or what love was or anything in the eyes of someone who hadn't really experienced anything." The album featured its one single, "Paris Is Burning", as well as a music video for "Jesus Saves, I Spend". In 2008, Clark was nominated for three PLUG Independent Music Awards: New Artist of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, and Music Video of the Year. On March 6, 2008, she won the PLUG Female Artist of the Year award. CANNOTANSWER
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The album was well received by critics, with Clark being compared to the likes of Kate Bush and David Bowie.
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Anne Erin "Annie" Clark (born September 28, 1982), known professionally as St. Vincent, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, actress and producer. Her music is noted for its complex arrangements, utilizing a wide array of instruments. St. Vincent is the recipient of various accolades, including two Grammy Awards.
Raised in Dallas, Texas, St. Vincent began her music career as a member of the Polyphonic Spree. She was also a member of Sufjan Stevens's touring band before forming her own band in 2006. Her debut solo album, Marry Me, was released in 2007, followed by Actor (2009) and Strange Mercy (2011). In 2012, St. Vincent released Love This Giant, an album made in collaboration with David Byrne. Her fourth studio album, St. Vincent (2014), received widespread acclaim from contemporary critics. Her fifth album, Masseduction (2017), was released to further acclaim. St. Vincent's sixth album, Daddy's Home, was released in 2021.
Besides music, St. Vincent has written and directed a segment in the 2017 anthology horror film XX. She also co-wrote and starred in the psychological thriller film The Nowhere Inn (2020).
Life and career
1982–2002: Early life
Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 28, 1982. Her mother is a social worker and administrator for a nonprofit organization, and her stepfather works in corporate tax administration. Her parents divorced when she was three, and when she was seven she moved with her mother and two older sisters to Dallas, Texas. She has said that a 23andMe DNA test revealed her ancestry to be 80% Irish and 20% Ashkenazi Jewish. She was raised Catholic and Unitarian Universalist. She has four brothers and four sisters from her parents' blended families.
As a child, Clark was fond of Ritchie Valens and the movie La Bamba. When she was five, her mother gave her a red plastic guitar from a Target store for Christmas. She began playing her first real guitar at age 12 and worked some of her teenage years as a roadie for her aunt and uncle, the guitar-vocal jazz duo Tuck & Patti. In 2001, she graduated from Lake Highlands High School, where she participated in theater and the school's jazz band, and was a classmate of actor Mark Salling.
She attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, studying with Professor Lauren Passarelli. She left after three years, feeling that art institutions such as Berklee were sometimes focused more on the aesthetics of art than the product. In retrospect, she said, "I think that with music school and art school, or school in any form, there has to be some system of grading and measurement. The things they can teach you are quantifiable. While all that is good and has its place, at some point you have to learn all you can and then forget everything that you learned in order to actually start making music."
2003–2007: Career beginnings and Marry Me
In 2003, Clark released an EP with fellow Berklee students entitled Ratsliveonnoevilstar. She also worked with Heavy Rotation Records, where "she revealed a much more private and intimate rendering of 'Count' for Dorm Sessions Vol. 1" and studied with Professor of Guitar Lauren Passarelli. Shortly after leaving Berklee, she returned home to Texas, where she joined the Polyphonic Spree just before they embarked on a European tour. In 2004, she joined Glenn Branca's 100-guitar orchestra for the Queens performance, and was also briefly in a noise-rock band called the Skull Fuckers. Clark left the Polyphonic Spree and joined Sufjan Stevens' touring band in 2006. During this period she recorded and released an EP entitled Paris is Burning.
In 2006, she began recording a studio album under the stage name St. Vincent. In an interview on The Colbert Report, she said that she "took [her] moniker from a line in a Nick Cave song" that referred to the hospital where Dylan Thomas died: "And Dylan Thomas died drunk in / St. Vincent's hospital" (from Cave's song "There She Goes my Beautiful World", from the album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus). The name is also a reference to her great-grandmother, whose middle name was St. Vincent.
Clark released her debut album, Marry Me, on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records. Named after a line from the television show Arrested Development, it features appearances from drummer Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-man?, the Polyphonic Spree), Mike Garson (David Bowie's longtime pianist), and horn player Louis Schwadron (the Polyphonic Spree).
The album was well received by critics, who compared Clark to the likes of Kate Bush and David Bowie, and lauded the album for its arrangements, themes and style. In their review, The AV Club said: "There's a point where too much happiness turns into madness, and St. Vincent's multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark knows this place well". Pitchfork said, "At every turn Marry Me takes the more challenging route of twisting already twisted structures and unusual instrumentation to make them sound perfectly natural and, most importantly, easy to listen to as she overdubs her thrillingly sui generis vision into vibrant life."
The songs on Marry Me were written largely when Clark was 18 and 19 years old, and, she says, "represented a more idealized version of what life was or what love was or anything in the eyes of someone who hadn't really experienced anything." The album yielded one single, "Paris Is Burning", and a music video was produced for "Jesus Saves, I Spend".
2008–2010: Actor and soundtracks
In 2008, Clark was nominated for three PLUG Independent Music Awards: New Artist of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, and Music Video of the Year. On March 6, 2008, she won the PLUG Female Artist of the Year award.
In 2008, after returning to New York from a lengthy tour, Clark began working on her second album. Her inspiration reportedly came from several films, including Disney movies: "Well, the truth is that I had come back from a pretty long — you know, about a year-and-a-half of touring, and so my brain was sort of all circuit boards that were a little bit fried", Clark said. "So I started watching films as sort of a way to get back into being human. And then it started to just really inform the entire record."
Clark, who did not have a studio at the time, began writing the album in her apartment on her computer using GarageBand and MIDI, because she had gotten noise complaints from neighbors. The songs were inspired largely by scenes from various children's films. Clark said she imagined soundtracks for certain scenes in films when writing the music and lyrics, including scenes in Snow White (1937) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Her second album, Actor, was released by 4AD Records on May 5, 2009. It was also well received and gained more commercial attention than its predecessor. Spin gave the album eight out of ten stars, noting its "[juxtaposition of] the cruel and the kind, and here, the baroque arrangements are even more complex and her voice even prettier, with both only underlining the dark currents running through her songs". Entertainment Weekly said the album "plays up the contrasts, [with Clark] letting her church-choir voice linger on lyrics that hint darkly at themes of violence, sex, and general chaos", and branded it "a uniquely potent cocktail of sounds and moods".
Actor charted well for an independent release, peaking at No. 9 on Billboards Independent Albums Chart, No. 5 on the Tastemaker Albums Chart, and No. 90 on the Billboard 200. Although it spawned no singles (except in the UK, where "Actor Out Of Work" was issued as a 7" vinyl single), music videos for "Marrow" and "Actor Out of Work" were released, and aired on several music channels. A promotional music video for "Laughing With a Mouth of Blood", featuring Portlandias Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein (then of ThunderAnt), was also filmed.
Two soundtracks for The Twilight Saga have featured Clark's songs. "Roslyn", in collaboration with Bon Iver, appeared on the 2009 soundtrack of New Moon; and "The Antidote" was written for and appeared on 2012's Breaking Dawn – Part 2.
In November 2010, Clark appeared with American rappers Kid Cudi and Cage on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. They performed "Maniac" from Cudi's Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager, which prominently samples "The Strangers", the opening song on Actor.
2011–2012: Strange Mercy and collaborations
Clark spent much of her time in Seattle writing her third album, Strange Mercy, in October 2010. In an interview with Julie Klausner for Spin Magazine, she recalled: "[Death Cab for Cutie drummer] Jason McGerr had an office that was closing. He offered me the space for a month, for all of October. I was alone. I stayed at the Ace Hotel downtown, in one of the rooms with a shared bathroom. I would just get up in the morning and caffeinate, and run, and go to the studio for 12 hours, come back, eat dinner alone with a book, have a glass of wine, and go to bed. And do it all over again."
On January 12, 2011, Clark announced via Twitter that she was working on Strange Mercy, a follow-up to Actor.
In early March 2011, producer John Congleton, who also worked with Clark on Actor, said that he and Clark were nearly a third of the way through recording it.
On July 4, Clark stated via Twitter that if enough followers tweeted the hashtag "#strangemercy", she would release a track from the album. On July 22, after the threshold was met, she released "Surgeon" for download and streaming on her official website.
In 2011, Clark composed "Proven Badlands", an instrumental piece based on "The Sequel" from her sophomore release Actor, for ensemble Music's album Beautiful Mechanical.
In August 2011, Clark was interviewed and featured on the cover of SPIN magazine. On August 24, 2011, a music video was released for the song "Cruel", and on September 5, the entire album was put up for streaming on NPR Music. On August 25, 2011, she debuted Strange Mercy in the Temple of Dendur room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, introducing Toko Yasuda (ex-Enon), Matt Johnson, and Daniel Mintseris as members of her live band. The album was released September 13, 2011.
Strange Mercy received widespread acclaim from music critics. It achieved an overall rating of 8.1/10 at AnyDecentMusic? based on 36 reviews. It was St. Vincent's highest-charting album yet, peaking at No. 19 on the US Billboard 200. Clark stated, "I don't think it's the best record I'll ever make, but I think it's a good record." She began touring the US and Europe in support of the record in the fall of 2011 and continued a worldwide tour throughout 2012.
In 2012, Clark was featured on Andrew Bird's album Break It Yourself singing on "Lusitania". On June 14, 2012, "Who", the first single from her collaboration with David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, was released. The single came from their album Love This Giant, which was released September 11, 2012.Love This Giant by David Byrne & St. Vincent, September 7, 2012 . Retrieved September 1, 2010.
On September 18, 2012, Clark participated in the "30 Songs / 30 Days" campaign to support Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's best-selling book. Clark also provided guest vocals for the song "What's the Use of Won'drin'" on the album Who Killed Amanda Palmer from Amanda Palmer, formerly of The Dresden Dolls.
2013–2015: St. Vincent
On May 28, 2013, David Byrne and St. Vincent released Brass Tactics, which includes a previously unreleased Love This Giant bonus track, two remixes, and two live tracks.
In November 2013, Clark received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Performing Arts, and signed to Loma Vista Recordings. The new label released "Birth in Reverse" the following month, the first single from Clark's fourth album, St. Vincent, The second single, "Digital Witness", was released in January 2014, and the album was released the next month to critical acclaim. A number of publications, including The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, NME, Gigwise, and MusicOMH, ranked it as the No. 1 album of 2014, while Time put it at No. 2 and Rolling Stone ranked it No. 4. Clark received her first Grammy, as St Vincent won "Best Alternative Music Album" in February 2015.
On April 10, 2014, Clark fronted Nirvana, performing lead vocals on "Lithium" at the 29th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. She also provided vocals on the Swans' album To Be Kind.
On August 12 and 13, 2014, Clark filled in for Fred Armisen, who was away filming the fifth season of Portlandia, as band leader for The 8G Band on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Clark toured the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia throughout 2014, ending the year as the supporting act for The Black Keys. She extended her Digital Witness tour into the summer of 2015 and performed alongside the Pixies and Beck at Boston Calling in May 2015.
A demo of "Teenage Talk", a track she had previously recorded but that was not included on her eponymous album, premiered on the HBO series Girls on March 10, 2015. The song was released as a single on April 6.
On May 17, 2015, Clark performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for the inaugural Soluna: International Music & Arts Festival.
2016–2019: Masseduction
On April 12, 2016, it was announced that Clark would make her film directorial debut helming one of the segments of the all-female-directed horror anthology film XX.
In June 2017, St. Vincent released "New York", the lead single from her fifth album. The Fear the Future tour was announced in June 2017, with dates in November and December; the tour schedule was subsequently extended with performances through July 2018. Masseduction, Clark's fifth studio album, was released in October 2017 through Loma Vista Recordings. It was met with "universal acclaim" with an average score of 88 on Metacritic. In the United States, Masseduction debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, becoming St. Vincent's first album to peak in the top ten of the chart, selling 29,000 units in its first week.
Clark was Record Store Day's ambassador for 2017, making her its first female ambassador. In 2018, St. Vincent performed at Coachella. One of her performances, "Slow Disco", inspired the release of a new rendition of the track titled "Fast Slow Disco" in June. She released MassEducation, an acoustic rendition of her previous album. The album was given an 80 on Metacritic and praised by Entertainment Weekly for her versatile lyrics and strong vocals. That same year, St. Vincent collaborated with the American rock band Sleater-Kinney to produce their ninth studio album, The Center Won't Hold, which was released the following year.
In 2019, St. Vincent performed at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, where she joined Dua Lipa for a medley of her own "Masseduction," the late Aretha Franklin's "Respect," and Dua Lipa's Calvin Harris collaboration "One Kiss." The same night, "Masseduction" was awarded the Grammy for Best Rock Song. That summer, St. Vincent was credited as a co-writer on "Cruel Summer" with Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff for Swift's seventh studio album Lover (2019). In December, she released Masseduction Rewired, a collection of remixes curated by Russian techno DJ Nina Kraviz.
2020–present: Daddy's Home
In 2020, St. Vincent was credited as a guitarist on "Texas Man" and a co-writer on "Young Man" with the Chicks, Antonoff, and Justin Tranter for the Chicks' eighth studio album Gaslighter. In August 2020, St. Vincent collaborated with Japanese musician Yoshiki to release a classical arrangement of "New York". In October 2020, St. Vincent's online instruction class on Creativity and Songwriting was added to the MasterClass series. In late 2020, St. Vincent was featured on the track "Chalk Tablet Towers" from the first season of the Song Machine project by Gorillaz.
On December 15, 2020, St. Vincent announced she would be releasing her seventh studio album in 2021. On February 25, 2021, street posters revealed the Daddy's Home album would be released on May 14, 2021.
The album's first single "Pay Your Way in Pain" was released March 4, 2021, along with a music video. In a profile with The Forty-Five in March 2021, St. Vincent revealed the theme of Daddy's Home was her father's release from prison:"People have grown up. I would rather be the one to tell my story," she says. "My father’s release from prison is a great starting point, right?"
The album's second single "The Melting of the Sun" was released April 1, 2021, alongside a lyric video. Two days later St. Vincent was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, performing both "Pay Your Way in Pain" and "The Melting of the Sun".
St. Vincent starred in the 2020 psychological thriller film The Nowhere Inn, featuring a script written by her and Carrie Brownstein, about a fictional attempt to make a documentary on St. Vincent's musical career. She contributed a cover of the Metallica song "Sad But True" to the charity tribute album The Metallica Blacklist, released in September 2021.
Musical style and influences
Possessing a mezzo-soprano voice, Clark's music has been noted for its wide array of instruments and complex arrangements, as well as its polysemous lyrics, which have been described as teetering between "happiness and madness". In response, Clark has said, "I like when things come out of nowhere and blindside you a little bit. I think any person who gets panic attacks or has an anxiety disorder can understand how things can all of a sudden turn very quickly. I think I'm sublimating that into the music." In addition to guitar, Clark also plays bass, piano, organ, and theremin. Her music also often features violins, cellos, flutes, trumpets, clarinets, and other instruments. Her musical style has been characterised as rock, pop, art rock and indie rock, incorporating a wide range of influences including experimental rock, chamber rock, electropop, soft rock, and cabaret jazz.
Clark mentioned that singers such as David Bowie and Kate Bush had inspired her, as had Jimi Hendrix and Siouxsie and the Banshees. She said in a 2015 lecture she listens to a Bowie track every day, and that "It's No Game (Part One)" was her favorite. Talking Heads, Patti Smith and Pink Floyd are also influences, as well as guitarists Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew (both from King Crimson), Marc Ribot and Adam Jones from Tool.
Clark has cited author Lorrie Moore as an inspiration for her eponymous album.
Equipment
In March 2016, Ernie Ball announced that Clark had designed a signature Music Man guitar. Unique to the guitar was the design, which Welsh singer Cate Le Bon claimed in The Guardian as being made for women's bodies and providing pleasing aesthetic form in support of the guitar's function. However, Clark has since stated that the guitar being specifically for women was not a consideration during the design process. In 2017, four additional colors were added to the guitar line. A second signature was released in 2018 featuring two Humbuckers in place of the three mini-Humbuckers on the original. Notable users of the guitar include Jack White, who used the three pickup version during every performance of his Boarding House Reach tour in 2018.
Personal life
Clark resides in New York City. A 2014 Village Voice profile describes her as a private person. David Byrne, with whom she collaborated and toured, said of her: "Despite having toured with her for almost a year, I don't think I know her much better, at least not on a personal level... Mystery is not a bad thing for a beautiful, talented young woman (or man) to embrace. And she does it without seeming to be standoffish or distant."
When asked during a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone whether she identified as gay or straight, Clark responded: "I don't think about those words. I believe in gender fluidity and sexual fluidity. I don't really identify as anything. I think you can fall in love with anybody. I don't have anything to hide but I'd rather the emphasis be on music."
Later that year, in an interview with the UK's Sunday Times, she elaborated: "I'm not one for gender or sexual absolutism in the main; I fully support and engage in the spectrum."
Clark was in a relationship with actress/fashion model Cara Delevingne from late 2014 until mid-2016.
In May 2010 Clark's father was convicted of one count of conspiracy, seven counts of wire fraud, five counts of securities fraud, and one count of money laundering. The album Daddy's Home was in part inspired by her father's eventual release.
DiscographySolo Marry Me (2007)
Actor (2009)
Strange Mercy (2011)
St. Vincent (2014)
Masseduction (2017)
Daddy's Home (2021)Collaboration Love This Giant (with David Byrne) (2012)
Live bandCurrent members - The Down and Out Downtown Band Justin Meldal-Johnsen - bass guitar, keyboards, vocals, music director (2021–present)
Jason Falkner - guitar, vocals (2021–present)
Mark Guiliana - drums (2021–present)
Rachel Eckroth - keyboards (2021–present)
Stevvi Alexander - vocals (2021–present)
Nayanna Holley - vocals (2021–present)
Danielle Withers - vocals (2021–present)Past members'''
Toko Yasuda – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards (2011–2012, 2014–2015, 2018–2019)
Daniel Mintseris – keyboards, sequencing (2011–2015, 2018–2019)
Matt Johnson – drums (2011–2012, 2014–2015, 2018–2019)
Daniel Hart – violin, guitar, vocals (2007–2010)
William Flynn – bass guitar, clarinet, vocals (2007–2010)
Anthony LaMarca – drums, sampler (2009–2010)
Evan Smith – saxophone, clarinet, flute, keyboards, vocals (2009–2010)
Tours
Marry Me Tour (2007–08)
Actor Tour (2009–10)
Strange Mercy Tour (2011–12)
Love This Giant Tour (2012–13)
Digital Witness Tour (2014–15)
Fear the Future Tour (2017–18)
I Am a Lot Like You! Tour (2018–19)
Daddy's Home Tour (2021–22)
Awards and nominations
See also
LGBT culture in New York City
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
Further reading
External links
Annie Clark Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America''
1982 births
4AD artists
American women singer-songwriters
American indie rock musicians
American multi-instrumentalists
American people of Irish descent
American people of Jewish descent
American mezzo-sopranos
American Unitarian Universalists
Art rock musicians
Berklee College of Music alumni
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Guitarists from Oklahoma
Guitarists from Texas
LGBT people from Oklahoma
LGBT people from Texas
Living people
Musicians from Dallas
Musicians from Tulsa, Oklahoma
The Polyphonic Spree members
Republic Records artists
Singer-songwriters from Oklahoma
Singer-songwriters from Texas
Unitarian Universalists
American women in electronic music
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
LGBT singers from the United States
LGBT songwriters
21st-century American singers
| 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"
] |
[
"St. Vincent (musician)",
"St. Vincent and Marry Me (2007)",
"is st. vincent an album",
"In 2006, Clark began recording a studio album, under the stage name St. Vincent.",
"what about marry me",
"Clark released her debut album, Marry Me on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The album was well received by critics, with Clark being compared to the likes of Kate Bush and David Bowie."
] |
C_b29a3ed7ae5b46f6a76deaceed1c5b4b_1
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when was it released
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When was Clark debut album released?
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St. Vincent (musician)
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In 2006, Clark began recording a studio album, under the stage name St. Vincent. In an interview on The Colbert Report, she said that she "took [her] moniker from a Nick Cave song", which refers to the hospital in which Dylan Thomas died. The reference is to the line "And Dylan Thomas died drunk in / St. Vincent's hospital" from Cave's song "There She Goes my Beautiful World" from the album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. The name is also a reference to her great-grandmother, whose middle name was St. Vincent. Clark released her debut album, Marry Me on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records. Named after a line from the television show Arrested Development, the album features appearances from drummer Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-man?, The Polyphonic Spree), Mike Garson (David Bowie's longtime pianist), and horn player Louis Schwadron (The Polyphonic Spree). The album was well received by critics, with Clark being compared to the likes of Kate Bush and David Bowie. Clark was lauded for the album's musical arrangements as well as themes and style; in their review of the album, The AV Club noted: "There's a point where too much happiness turns into madness, and St. Vincent's multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark knows this place well". Pitchfork said "at every turn Marry Me takes the more challenging route of twisting already twisted structures and unusual instrumentation to make them sound perfectly natural and, most importantly, easy to listen to as she overdubs her thrillingly sui generis vision into vibrant life." The songs featured on Marry Me were largely written when Clark was eighteen and nineteen years old, and, according to Clark, "represented a more idealized version of what life was or what love was or anything in the eyes of someone who hadn't really experienced anything." The album featured its one single, "Paris Is Burning", as well as a music video for "Jesus Saves, I Spend". In 2008, Clark was nominated for three PLUG Independent Music Awards: New Artist of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, and Music Video of the Year. On March 6, 2008, she won the PLUG Female Artist of the Year award. CANNOTANSWER
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Clark released her debut album, Marry Me on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records.
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Anne Erin "Annie" Clark (born September 28, 1982), known professionally as St. Vincent, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, actress and producer. Her music is noted for its complex arrangements, utilizing a wide array of instruments. St. Vincent is the recipient of various accolades, including two Grammy Awards.
Raised in Dallas, Texas, St. Vincent began her music career as a member of the Polyphonic Spree. She was also a member of Sufjan Stevens's touring band before forming her own band in 2006. Her debut solo album, Marry Me, was released in 2007, followed by Actor (2009) and Strange Mercy (2011). In 2012, St. Vincent released Love This Giant, an album made in collaboration with David Byrne. Her fourth studio album, St. Vincent (2014), received widespread acclaim from contemporary critics. Her fifth album, Masseduction (2017), was released to further acclaim. St. Vincent's sixth album, Daddy's Home, was released in 2021.
Besides music, St. Vincent has written and directed a segment in the 2017 anthology horror film XX. She also co-wrote and starred in the psychological thriller film The Nowhere Inn (2020).
Life and career
1982–2002: Early life
Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 28, 1982. Her mother is a social worker and administrator for a nonprofit organization, and her stepfather works in corporate tax administration. Her parents divorced when she was three, and when she was seven she moved with her mother and two older sisters to Dallas, Texas. She has said that a 23andMe DNA test revealed her ancestry to be 80% Irish and 20% Ashkenazi Jewish. She was raised Catholic and Unitarian Universalist. She has four brothers and four sisters from her parents' blended families.
As a child, Clark was fond of Ritchie Valens and the movie La Bamba. When she was five, her mother gave her a red plastic guitar from a Target store for Christmas. She began playing her first real guitar at age 12 and worked some of her teenage years as a roadie for her aunt and uncle, the guitar-vocal jazz duo Tuck & Patti. In 2001, she graduated from Lake Highlands High School, where she participated in theater and the school's jazz band, and was a classmate of actor Mark Salling.
She attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, studying with Professor Lauren Passarelli. She left after three years, feeling that art institutions such as Berklee were sometimes focused more on the aesthetics of art than the product. In retrospect, she said, "I think that with music school and art school, or school in any form, there has to be some system of grading and measurement. The things they can teach you are quantifiable. While all that is good and has its place, at some point you have to learn all you can and then forget everything that you learned in order to actually start making music."
2003–2007: Career beginnings and Marry Me
In 2003, Clark released an EP with fellow Berklee students entitled Ratsliveonnoevilstar. She also worked with Heavy Rotation Records, where "she revealed a much more private and intimate rendering of 'Count' for Dorm Sessions Vol. 1" and studied with Professor of Guitar Lauren Passarelli. Shortly after leaving Berklee, she returned home to Texas, where she joined the Polyphonic Spree just before they embarked on a European tour. In 2004, she joined Glenn Branca's 100-guitar orchestra for the Queens performance, and was also briefly in a noise-rock band called the Skull Fuckers. Clark left the Polyphonic Spree and joined Sufjan Stevens' touring band in 2006. During this period she recorded and released an EP entitled Paris is Burning.
In 2006, she began recording a studio album under the stage name St. Vincent. In an interview on The Colbert Report, she said that she "took [her] moniker from a line in a Nick Cave song" that referred to the hospital where Dylan Thomas died: "And Dylan Thomas died drunk in / St. Vincent's hospital" (from Cave's song "There She Goes my Beautiful World", from the album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus). The name is also a reference to her great-grandmother, whose middle name was St. Vincent.
Clark released her debut album, Marry Me, on July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records. Named after a line from the television show Arrested Development, it features appearances from drummer Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-man?, the Polyphonic Spree), Mike Garson (David Bowie's longtime pianist), and horn player Louis Schwadron (the Polyphonic Spree).
The album was well received by critics, who compared Clark to the likes of Kate Bush and David Bowie, and lauded the album for its arrangements, themes and style. In their review, The AV Club said: "There's a point where too much happiness turns into madness, and St. Vincent's multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark knows this place well". Pitchfork said, "At every turn Marry Me takes the more challenging route of twisting already twisted structures and unusual instrumentation to make them sound perfectly natural and, most importantly, easy to listen to as she overdubs her thrillingly sui generis vision into vibrant life."
The songs on Marry Me were written largely when Clark was 18 and 19 years old, and, she says, "represented a more idealized version of what life was or what love was or anything in the eyes of someone who hadn't really experienced anything." The album yielded one single, "Paris Is Burning", and a music video was produced for "Jesus Saves, I Spend".
2008–2010: Actor and soundtracks
In 2008, Clark was nominated for three PLUG Independent Music Awards: New Artist of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, and Music Video of the Year. On March 6, 2008, she won the PLUG Female Artist of the Year award.
In 2008, after returning to New York from a lengthy tour, Clark began working on her second album. Her inspiration reportedly came from several films, including Disney movies: "Well, the truth is that I had come back from a pretty long — you know, about a year-and-a-half of touring, and so my brain was sort of all circuit boards that were a little bit fried", Clark said. "So I started watching films as sort of a way to get back into being human. And then it started to just really inform the entire record."
Clark, who did not have a studio at the time, began writing the album in her apartment on her computer using GarageBand and MIDI, because she had gotten noise complaints from neighbors. The songs were inspired largely by scenes from various children's films. Clark said she imagined soundtracks for certain scenes in films when writing the music and lyrics, including scenes in Snow White (1937) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Her second album, Actor, was released by 4AD Records on May 5, 2009. It was also well received and gained more commercial attention than its predecessor. Spin gave the album eight out of ten stars, noting its "[juxtaposition of] the cruel and the kind, and here, the baroque arrangements are even more complex and her voice even prettier, with both only underlining the dark currents running through her songs". Entertainment Weekly said the album "plays up the contrasts, [with Clark] letting her church-choir voice linger on lyrics that hint darkly at themes of violence, sex, and general chaos", and branded it "a uniquely potent cocktail of sounds and moods".
Actor charted well for an independent release, peaking at No. 9 on Billboards Independent Albums Chart, No. 5 on the Tastemaker Albums Chart, and No. 90 on the Billboard 200. Although it spawned no singles (except in the UK, where "Actor Out Of Work" was issued as a 7" vinyl single), music videos for "Marrow" and "Actor Out of Work" were released, and aired on several music channels. A promotional music video for "Laughing With a Mouth of Blood", featuring Portlandias Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein (then of ThunderAnt), was also filmed.
Two soundtracks for The Twilight Saga have featured Clark's songs. "Roslyn", in collaboration with Bon Iver, appeared on the 2009 soundtrack of New Moon; and "The Antidote" was written for and appeared on 2012's Breaking Dawn – Part 2.
In November 2010, Clark appeared with American rappers Kid Cudi and Cage on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. They performed "Maniac" from Cudi's Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager, which prominently samples "The Strangers", the opening song on Actor.
2011–2012: Strange Mercy and collaborations
Clark spent much of her time in Seattle writing her third album, Strange Mercy, in October 2010. In an interview with Julie Klausner for Spin Magazine, she recalled: "[Death Cab for Cutie drummer] Jason McGerr had an office that was closing. He offered me the space for a month, for all of October. I was alone. I stayed at the Ace Hotel downtown, in one of the rooms with a shared bathroom. I would just get up in the morning and caffeinate, and run, and go to the studio for 12 hours, come back, eat dinner alone with a book, have a glass of wine, and go to bed. And do it all over again."
On January 12, 2011, Clark announced via Twitter that she was working on Strange Mercy, a follow-up to Actor.
In early March 2011, producer John Congleton, who also worked with Clark on Actor, said that he and Clark were nearly a third of the way through recording it.
On July 4, Clark stated via Twitter that if enough followers tweeted the hashtag "#strangemercy", she would release a track from the album. On July 22, after the threshold was met, she released "Surgeon" for download and streaming on her official website.
In 2011, Clark composed "Proven Badlands", an instrumental piece based on "The Sequel" from her sophomore release Actor, for ensemble Music's album Beautiful Mechanical.
In August 2011, Clark was interviewed and featured on the cover of SPIN magazine. On August 24, 2011, a music video was released for the song "Cruel", and on September 5, the entire album was put up for streaming on NPR Music. On August 25, 2011, she debuted Strange Mercy in the Temple of Dendur room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, introducing Toko Yasuda (ex-Enon), Matt Johnson, and Daniel Mintseris as members of her live band. The album was released September 13, 2011.
Strange Mercy received widespread acclaim from music critics. It achieved an overall rating of 8.1/10 at AnyDecentMusic? based on 36 reviews. It was St. Vincent's highest-charting album yet, peaking at No. 19 on the US Billboard 200. Clark stated, "I don't think it's the best record I'll ever make, but I think it's a good record." She began touring the US and Europe in support of the record in the fall of 2011 and continued a worldwide tour throughout 2012.
In 2012, Clark was featured on Andrew Bird's album Break It Yourself singing on "Lusitania". On June 14, 2012, "Who", the first single from her collaboration with David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, was released. The single came from their album Love This Giant, which was released September 11, 2012.Love This Giant by David Byrne & St. Vincent, September 7, 2012 . Retrieved September 1, 2010.
On September 18, 2012, Clark participated in the "30 Songs / 30 Days" campaign to support Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's best-selling book. Clark also provided guest vocals for the song "What's the Use of Won'drin'" on the album Who Killed Amanda Palmer from Amanda Palmer, formerly of The Dresden Dolls.
2013–2015: St. Vincent
On May 28, 2013, David Byrne and St. Vincent released Brass Tactics, which includes a previously unreleased Love This Giant bonus track, two remixes, and two live tracks.
In November 2013, Clark received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Performing Arts, and signed to Loma Vista Recordings. The new label released "Birth in Reverse" the following month, the first single from Clark's fourth album, St. Vincent, The second single, "Digital Witness", was released in January 2014, and the album was released the next month to critical acclaim. A number of publications, including The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, NME, Gigwise, and MusicOMH, ranked it as the No. 1 album of 2014, while Time put it at No. 2 and Rolling Stone ranked it No. 4. Clark received her first Grammy, as St Vincent won "Best Alternative Music Album" in February 2015.
On April 10, 2014, Clark fronted Nirvana, performing lead vocals on "Lithium" at the 29th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. She also provided vocals on the Swans' album To Be Kind.
On August 12 and 13, 2014, Clark filled in for Fred Armisen, who was away filming the fifth season of Portlandia, as band leader for The 8G Band on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Clark toured the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia throughout 2014, ending the year as the supporting act for The Black Keys. She extended her Digital Witness tour into the summer of 2015 and performed alongside the Pixies and Beck at Boston Calling in May 2015.
A demo of "Teenage Talk", a track she had previously recorded but that was not included on her eponymous album, premiered on the HBO series Girls on March 10, 2015. The song was released as a single on April 6.
On May 17, 2015, Clark performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for the inaugural Soluna: International Music & Arts Festival.
2016–2019: Masseduction
On April 12, 2016, it was announced that Clark would make her film directorial debut helming one of the segments of the all-female-directed horror anthology film XX.
In June 2017, St. Vincent released "New York", the lead single from her fifth album. The Fear the Future tour was announced in June 2017, with dates in November and December; the tour schedule was subsequently extended with performances through July 2018. Masseduction, Clark's fifth studio album, was released in October 2017 through Loma Vista Recordings. It was met with "universal acclaim" with an average score of 88 on Metacritic. In the United States, Masseduction debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, becoming St. Vincent's first album to peak in the top ten of the chart, selling 29,000 units in its first week.
Clark was Record Store Day's ambassador for 2017, making her its first female ambassador. In 2018, St. Vincent performed at Coachella. One of her performances, "Slow Disco", inspired the release of a new rendition of the track titled "Fast Slow Disco" in June. She released MassEducation, an acoustic rendition of her previous album. The album was given an 80 on Metacritic and praised by Entertainment Weekly for her versatile lyrics and strong vocals. That same year, St. Vincent collaborated with the American rock band Sleater-Kinney to produce their ninth studio album, The Center Won't Hold, which was released the following year.
In 2019, St. Vincent performed at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, where she joined Dua Lipa for a medley of her own "Masseduction," the late Aretha Franklin's "Respect," and Dua Lipa's Calvin Harris collaboration "One Kiss." The same night, "Masseduction" was awarded the Grammy for Best Rock Song. That summer, St. Vincent was credited as a co-writer on "Cruel Summer" with Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff for Swift's seventh studio album Lover (2019). In December, she released Masseduction Rewired, a collection of remixes curated by Russian techno DJ Nina Kraviz.
2020–present: Daddy's Home
In 2020, St. Vincent was credited as a guitarist on "Texas Man" and a co-writer on "Young Man" with the Chicks, Antonoff, and Justin Tranter for the Chicks' eighth studio album Gaslighter. In August 2020, St. Vincent collaborated with Japanese musician Yoshiki to release a classical arrangement of "New York". In October 2020, St. Vincent's online instruction class on Creativity and Songwriting was added to the MasterClass series. In late 2020, St. Vincent was featured on the track "Chalk Tablet Towers" from the first season of the Song Machine project by Gorillaz.
On December 15, 2020, St. Vincent announced she would be releasing her seventh studio album in 2021. On February 25, 2021, street posters revealed the Daddy's Home album would be released on May 14, 2021.
The album's first single "Pay Your Way in Pain" was released March 4, 2021, along with a music video. In a profile with The Forty-Five in March 2021, St. Vincent revealed the theme of Daddy's Home was her father's release from prison:"People have grown up. I would rather be the one to tell my story," she says. "My father’s release from prison is a great starting point, right?"
The album's second single "The Melting of the Sun" was released April 1, 2021, alongside a lyric video. Two days later St. Vincent was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, performing both "Pay Your Way in Pain" and "The Melting of the Sun".
St. Vincent starred in the 2020 psychological thriller film The Nowhere Inn, featuring a script written by her and Carrie Brownstein, about a fictional attempt to make a documentary on St. Vincent's musical career. She contributed a cover of the Metallica song "Sad But True" to the charity tribute album The Metallica Blacklist, released in September 2021.
Musical style and influences
Possessing a mezzo-soprano voice, Clark's music has been noted for its wide array of instruments and complex arrangements, as well as its polysemous lyrics, which have been described as teetering between "happiness and madness". In response, Clark has said, "I like when things come out of nowhere and blindside you a little bit. I think any person who gets panic attacks or has an anxiety disorder can understand how things can all of a sudden turn very quickly. I think I'm sublimating that into the music." In addition to guitar, Clark also plays bass, piano, organ, and theremin. Her music also often features violins, cellos, flutes, trumpets, clarinets, and other instruments. Her musical style has been characterised as rock, pop, art rock and indie rock, incorporating a wide range of influences including experimental rock, chamber rock, electropop, soft rock, and cabaret jazz.
Clark mentioned that singers such as David Bowie and Kate Bush had inspired her, as had Jimi Hendrix and Siouxsie and the Banshees. She said in a 2015 lecture she listens to a Bowie track every day, and that "It's No Game (Part One)" was her favorite. Talking Heads, Patti Smith and Pink Floyd are also influences, as well as guitarists Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew (both from King Crimson), Marc Ribot and Adam Jones from Tool.
Clark has cited author Lorrie Moore as an inspiration for her eponymous album.
Equipment
In March 2016, Ernie Ball announced that Clark had designed a signature Music Man guitar. Unique to the guitar was the design, which Welsh singer Cate Le Bon claimed in The Guardian as being made for women's bodies and providing pleasing aesthetic form in support of the guitar's function. However, Clark has since stated that the guitar being specifically for women was not a consideration during the design process. In 2017, four additional colors were added to the guitar line. A second signature was released in 2018 featuring two Humbuckers in place of the three mini-Humbuckers on the original. Notable users of the guitar include Jack White, who used the three pickup version during every performance of his Boarding House Reach tour in 2018.
Personal life
Clark resides in New York City. A 2014 Village Voice profile describes her as a private person. David Byrne, with whom she collaborated and toured, said of her: "Despite having toured with her for almost a year, I don't think I know her much better, at least not on a personal level... Mystery is not a bad thing for a beautiful, talented young woman (or man) to embrace. And she does it without seeming to be standoffish or distant."
When asked during a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone whether she identified as gay or straight, Clark responded: "I don't think about those words. I believe in gender fluidity and sexual fluidity. I don't really identify as anything. I think you can fall in love with anybody. I don't have anything to hide but I'd rather the emphasis be on music."
Later that year, in an interview with the UK's Sunday Times, she elaborated: "I'm not one for gender or sexual absolutism in the main; I fully support and engage in the spectrum."
Clark was in a relationship with actress/fashion model Cara Delevingne from late 2014 until mid-2016.
In May 2010 Clark's father was convicted of one count of conspiracy, seven counts of wire fraud, five counts of securities fraud, and one count of money laundering. The album Daddy's Home was in part inspired by her father's eventual release.
DiscographySolo Marry Me (2007)
Actor (2009)
Strange Mercy (2011)
St. Vincent (2014)
Masseduction (2017)
Daddy's Home (2021)Collaboration Love This Giant (with David Byrne) (2012)
Live bandCurrent members - The Down and Out Downtown Band Justin Meldal-Johnsen - bass guitar, keyboards, vocals, music director (2021–present)
Jason Falkner - guitar, vocals (2021–present)
Mark Guiliana - drums (2021–present)
Rachel Eckroth - keyboards (2021–present)
Stevvi Alexander - vocals (2021–present)
Nayanna Holley - vocals (2021–present)
Danielle Withers - vocals (2021–present)Past members'''
Toko Yasuda – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards (2011–2012, 2014–2015, 2018–2019)
Daniel Mintseris – keyboards, sequencing (2011–2015, 2018–2019)
Matt Johnson – drums (2011–2012, 2014–2015, 2018–2019)
Daniel Hart – violin, guitar, vocals (2007–2010)
William Flynn – bass guitar, clarinet, vocals (2007–2010)
Anthony LaMarca – drums, sampler (2009–2010)
Evan Smith – saxophone, clarinet, flute, keyboards, vocals (2009–2010)
Tours
Marry Me Tour (2007–08)
Actor Tour (2009–10)
Strange Mercy Tour (2011–12)
Love This Giant Tour (2012–13)
Digital Witness Tour (2014–15)
Fear the Future Tour (2017–18)
I Am a Lot Like You! Tour (2018–19)
Daddy's Home Tour (2021–22)
Awards and nominations
See also
LGBT culture in New York City
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
Further reading
External links
Annie Clark Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America''
1982 births
4AD artists
American women singer-songwriters
American indie rock musicians
American multi-instrumentalists
American people of Irish descent
American people of Jewish descent
American mezzo-sopranos
American Unitarian Universalists
Art rock musicians
Berklee College of Music alumni
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Guitarists from Oklahoma
Guitarists from Texas
LGBT people from Oklahoma
LGBT people from Texas
Living people
Musicians from Dallas
Musicians from Tulsa, Oklahoma
The Polyphonic Spree members
Republic Records artists
Singer-songwriters from Oklahoma
Singer-songwriters from Texas
Unitarian Universalists
American women in electronic music
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
LGBT singers from the United States
LGBT songwriters
21st-century American singers
| false |
[
"When the Bough Breaks is the second solo album from Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward. It was originally released on April 27, 1997, on Cleopatra Records.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Hate\" – 5:00\n\"Children Killing Children\" – 3:51\n\"Growth\" – 5:45\n\"When I was a Child\" – 4:54\n\"Please Help Mommy (She's a Junkie)\" – 6:40\n\"Shine\" – 5:06\n\"Step Lightly (On the Grass)\" – 5:59\n\"Love & Innocence\" – 1:00\n\"Animals\" – 6:32\n\"Nighthawks Stars & Pines\" – 6:45\n\"Try Life\" – 5:35\n\"When the Bough Breaks\" – 9:45\n\nCD Cleopatra CL9981 (US 1997)\n\nMusicians\n\nBill Ward - vocals, lyrics, musical arrangements\nKeith Lynch - guitars\nPaul Ill - bass, double bass, synthesizer, tape loops\nRonnie Ciago - drums\n\nCover art and reprint issues\n\nAs originally released, this album featured cover art that had two roses on it. After it was released, Bill Ward (as with Ward One, his first solo album) stated on his website that the released cover art was not the correct one that was intended to be released. Additionally, the liner notes for the original printing had lyrics that were so small, most people needed a magnifying glass to read them. This was eventually corrected in 2000 when the version of the album with Bill on the cover from the 70's was released. The album was later on released in a special digipak style of case, but this was later said to be released prematurely, and was withdrawn.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nWhen the Bough Breaks at Bill Ward's site\nWhen the Bough Breaks at Black Sabbath Online\n\nBill Ward (musician) albums\nBlack Sabbath\n1997 albums\nCleopatra Records albums",
"Joseph Jin Dechen (; June 19, 1919 – November 21, 2002) was a Chinese Catholic priest and Bishop Emeritus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nanyang.\n\nBiography\nHe was ordained a priest in 1944. In 1958, he was arrested for the first time and sentenced to life in prison. This sentence was settled and he was released in 1973. In December 1981, when he was Bishop Emeritus in Roman Catholic Diocese of Nanyang, he was again arrested, charged with resistance to abortion and birth control, and was sentenced to 15 years of prison and five years of subsequent loss of political rights on July 27, 1982. He was detained in the Third Province Prison in Yu County (now Yuzhou), near Zhengzhou in Henan, and was pardoned and released in May 1992 and ordered to stay in his village Jinjiajiang, near Nanyang. He was out of weakness when he was released from prison.\n\nReferences\n\n1919 births\n2002 deaths\n20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in China"
] |
[
"William Henry Dietz",
"Contested heritage"
] |
C_f5d500d8481d4ee48d68893a2ce70b48_0
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What about Dietz's heritage was contested?
| 1 |
What about William Henry Dietz's heritage was contested?
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William Henry Dietz
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Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war. Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his true identity. She died six days after his indictment. Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was an Indian, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Indian son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest". CANNOTANSWER
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Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian.
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William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University (1922–1923), University of Wyoming (1924–1926), Haskell Institute—now known as Haskell Indian Nations University (1929–1932), and Albright College (1937–1942). From 1933 to 1934, Dietz served as the head coach for the National Football League's Boston Redskins, where he tallied a mark of 11–11–2. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012.
Early life
According to census records and to his birth certificate, he was born William Henry Dietz, or "Willie," on August 17, 1884, in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, at 16 West Humbird Street. His father William Wallace Dietz, settled in the area in 1871 and was elected county sheriff in 1877. His father married Leanna Ginder in November 1879.
"Willie" attended Oklahoma's Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, where he may have feigned some kind of Indian identity for the first time according to researcher Linda Waggoner. She wrote, "Naturally, visitors to the St. Louis World's Fair exhibit, including Dietz's future wife, Winnebago artist Angel De Cora (1871–1919), thought Dietz was a Chilocco student." Waggoner traced Dietz' heritage in several articles in Indian Country Today Media Network and at a 2013 symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Contested heritage
Dietz's heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as a Native American. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war.
Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was a Native American, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Native American son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest".
Dietz's true heritage remains controversial. Although he is recognized as an "Indian athlete" by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly known as the Washington Redskins), Indian Country Today Media Network ran a series of articles in 2004 exposing Dietz as a white man masquerading as a Native American. In 1988, the National Congress of American Indians attempted to meet and discuss the issue with the team's former owner, Jack Kent Cooke, but Cooke refused a meeting.
Playing career
Dietz played at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with teammate Jim Thorpe, under famed coach Pop Warner.
Coaching career
In 1921, Dietz took a coaching position with Purdue University in Indiana. After Angel De Cora died in 1919, he married Doris O. Pottlitzer, a middle-aged local journalist, on January 29, 1922. The week previous to their marriage, Purdue officials fired him for illegal recruiting. In spring 1933, George Preston Marshall, owner of the Boston Braves, hired Dietz to replace Coach Lud Wray. In 1937, the team moved to Washington, D.C.
For the rest of his life, Dietz continued to promote himself as Lone Star Dietz, the son of W. W. and Julia One Star of Pine Ridge. He took on his last coaching job in 1937 for Albright College in Pennsylvania; in 1964, still married to Doris, Dietz died in Reading, Pennsylvania. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lafayette College with in an exhibit curated by Francis Quirk. He and Doris were so poor that former teammates purchased his headstone. It reads: "William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz
born in South Dakota."
George Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the Boston Braves, sought to rename the franchise in 1933 after leaving the stadium the team had shared with the baseball team of the same name. Marshall was said to have named the Redskins in honor of Dietz, who claimed to be of the Sioux Nation, by analogy with the Red Sox who shared the team's new home, Fenway Park. A 1933 news article quotes Marshall as saying he named the team because of real Indians on the team. However, Marshall is only talking about why he specifically chose Redskins. Dietz was hired before the name change and is cited in many articles and by Marshall as being a reason he kept the Native American theme when changing the team name.
Recognition
Dietz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
Nickname
Dietz named himself "Lone Star" after James One Star, the alleged nephew of an Oglala Buffalo Bill Performer sometime after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. "Lone Star" and "One Star" are the same name in Oglala.
Personal life
Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his identity. She died six days after his indictment. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lehigh University with sculptors Joseph Brown and Jose deRivera in a 1955 exhibit curated by Francis Quirk.
Head coaching record
College football
NFL
College baseball
References
Further reading
Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz (2006) , hardback; , softcover (2006)
Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs (2008) softcover devotes a chapter to Lone Star Dietz
At last, Lone Star in the Hall of Fame (May 22, 2012 by Cougfan.com)
External links
1884 births
1964 deaths
Albright Lions football coaches
Carlisle Indians football coaches
Carlisle Indians football players
Haskell Indian Nations Fighting Indians football coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs baseball coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football coaches
Ole Miss Rebels football coaches
Purdue Boilermakers football coaches
Washington State Cougars football coaches
Wyoming Cowboys football coaches
Boston Redskins head coaches
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
People from Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Players of American football from Wisconsin
American football tackles
| false |
[
"William Henry \"Lone Star\" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University (1922–1923), University of Wyoming (1924–1926), Haskell Institute—now known as Haskell Indian Nations University (1929–1932), and Albright College (1937–1942). From 1933 to 1934, Dietz served as the head coach for the National Football League's Boston Redskins, where he tallied a mark of 11–11–2. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012.\n\nEarly life\nAccording to census records and to his birth certificate, he was born William Henry Dietz, or \"Willie,\" on August 17, 1884, in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, at 16 West Humbird Street. His father William Wallace Dietz, settled in the area in 1871 and was elected county sheriff in 1877. His father married Leanna Ginder in November 1879.\n\n\"Willie\" attended Oklahoma's Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, where he may have feigned some kind of Indian identity for the first time according to researcher Linda Waggoner. She wrote, \"Naturally, visitors to the St. Louis World's Fair exhibit, including Dietz's future wife, Winnebago artist Angel De Cora (1871–1919), thought Dietz was a Chilocco student.\" Waggoner traced Dietz' heritage in several articles in Indian Country Today Media Network and at a 2013 symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian.\n\nContested heritage\nDietz's heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as a Native American. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he registered for the draft as a \"Non-Citizen Indian\" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war.\n\nDietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz \"believed\" he was a Native American, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Native American son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded \"no contest\".\n\nDietz's true heritage remains controversial. Although he is recognized as an \"Indian athlete\" by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly known as the Washington Redskins), Indian Country Today Media Network ran a series of articles in 2004 exposing Dietz as a white man masquerading as a Native American. In 1988, the National Congress of American Indians attempted to meet and discuss the issue with the team's former owner, Jack Kent Cooke, but Cooke refused a meeting.\n\nPlaying career\nDietz played at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with teammate Jim Thorpe, under famed coach Pop Warner.\n\nCoaching career\nIn 1921, Dietz took a coaching position with Purdue University in Indiana. After Angel De Cora died in 1919, he married Doris O. Pottlitzer, a middle-aged local journalist, on January 29, 1922. The week previous to their marriage, Purdue officials fired him for illegal recruiting. In spring 1933, George Preston Marshall, owner of the Boston Braves, hired Dietz to replace Coach Lud Wray. In 1937, the team moved to Washington, D.C.\n\nFor the rest of his life, Dietz continued to promote himself as Lone Star Dietz, the son of W. W. and Julia One Star of Pine Ridge. He took on his last coaching job in 1937 for Albright College in Pennsylvania; in 1964, still married to Doris, Dietz died in Reading, Pennsylvania. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lafayette College with in an exhibit curated by Francis Quirk. He and Doris were so poor that former teammates purchased his headstone. It reads: \"William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz\nborn in South Dakota.\"\n\nGeorge Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the Boston Braves, sought to rename the franchise in 1933 after leaving the stadium the team had shared with the baseball team of the same name. Marshall was said to have named the Redskins in honor of Dietz, who claimed to be of the Sioux Nation, by analogy with the Red Sox who shared the team's new home, Fenway Park. A 1933 news article quotes Marshall as saying he named the team because of real Indians on the team. However, Marshall is only talking about why he specifically chose Redskins. Dietz was hired before the name change and is cited in many articles and by Marshall as being a reason he kept the Native American theme when changing the team name.\n\nRecognition\nDietz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.\n\nNickname\n\nDietz named himself \"Lone Star\" after James One Star, the alleged nephew of an Oglala Buffalo Bill Performer sometime after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. \"Lone Star\" and \"One Star\" are the same name in Oglala.\n\nPersonal life\nDietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his identity. She died six days after his indictment. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lehigh University with sculptors Joseph Brown and Jose deRivera in a 1955 exhibit curated by Francis Quirk.\n\nHead coaching record\n\nCollege football\n\nNFL\n\nCollege baseball\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\nKeep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz (2006) , hardback; , softcover (2006) \nDoctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs (2008) softcover devotes a chapter to Lone Star Dietz\nAt last, Lone Star in the Hall of Fame (May 22, 2012 by Cougfan.com)\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\n1884 births\n1964 deaths\nAlbright Lions football coaches\nCarlisle Indians football coaches\nCarlisle Indians football players\nHaskell Indian Nations Fighting Indians football coaches\nLouisiana Tech Bulldogs baseball coaches\nLouisiana Tech Bulldogs football coaches\nOle Miss Rebels football coaches\nPurdue Boilermakers football coaches\nWashington State Cougars football coaches\nWyoming Cowboys football coaches\nBoston Redskins head coaches\nCollege Football Hall of Fame inductees\nPeople from Rice Lake, Wisconsin\nPlayers of American football from Wisconsin\nAmerican football tackles",
"Danny Phillip Dietz Jr. (January 26, 1980 – June 28, 2005) was a Navy SEAL who was awarded the U.S. Navy's second highest decoration, the Navy Cross, along with the Purple Heart, for his actions during the War in Afghanistan.\n\nEarly life and education\nDietz was born on January 26, 1980, in Aurora, Colorado to parents Cindy and Daniel P. Dietz Sr. He also had Apache ancestry. He graduated from Heritage High School in Littleton in 1999.\n\nCareer\n\nDietz joined the Navy on August 31, 1999, and following his graduation from basic training at the Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois, he finished Gunner's Mate \"A\" School also at Great Lakes. From that point on, he enrolled in Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training (BUD/S) and graduated with Class 232 in 2001. Dietz proceeded to the Basic Airborne Course at Fort Benning in Georgia, after which he completed SEAL Qualification Training and SEAL Delivery Vehicle Training.\nShortly after checking in at SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 2 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on November 8, 2001, he was appointed to Task Unit Bravo as the optional SDV pilot and the ordnance and engineering department head. In April 2005, Dietz was deployed with his Special Reconnaissance component to Afghanistan to help Naval Special Warfare Squadron TEN in the indictment of the Global War on Terrorism.\n\nOperation Red Wings\n\nOperation Red Wings was a counter-insurgency operation by the United States Armed Forces to kill or capture Ahmad Shah, (code name Ben Sharmak), a known terrorist and head of the militia, \"Mountain Tigers\". The operation was carried out, on 27 June 2005, by Navy SEAL Team TEN; the four-man team was made up of 2nd Class Matthew G. Axelson and 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell supporting the role of snipers while 2nd Class Danny P. Dietz and team leader Navy Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy were spotters.\n\nThe mission was compromised after goat herders stumbled upon the SEALs and reported them to the Taliban after the SEALs let them go free. An intense firefight ensued after the SEALs were ambushed by Taliban insurgents who outnumbered them one to twenty-five. Murphy went into an open clearing to get reception and call for support, he managed to reach the base, giving them the SEALs location as well as the number of enemies. Exposed to enemy fire, he was shot in the back while making the call, it was this act that awarded Murphy the Medal Of Honor posthumously. Murphy then returned to his team to continue the battle. Low on ammunitions, Murphy, Axelson and Danny Dietz were killed while Luttrell was knocked unconscious by an RPG.\n\nThe support dispatched was a team of eight Navy SEALs and eight 160th SOAR Army Night Stalkers. However, all sixteen special forces soldiers aboard the helicopter perished, when the CH-47 Chinook was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade that ignited the fuel tanks just as the soldiers were about to fast rope. Among the dead aboard the helicopter were Lieutenant Commander Erik S. Kristensen, the highest-ranking officer to die in the operation, and Kip A. Jacoby, the youngest soldier to die in the operation, at the age of 21.\n\nSEAL Marcus Luttrell was the sole survivor of SEAL Team TEN, aided by an Afghan villager who sheltered him, he was rescued by green berets six days later. Danny Dietz, Matthew Axelson and Michael Murphy were declared killed in action after their bodies were recovered on 4 July.\n\nDeath\nDietz was mortally wounded after taking the brunt of the initial attack and the fall. This led him to lose his ability to walk and as a result, Luttrell carried him on their way down the mountain, as Dietz fired back. This rigorous activity was repeated several times until Luttrell accidentally swung him into a bullet, when Luttrell was about to fall. The bullet penetrated the back of his head and instantly killed him, Dietz's dead weight came as a surprise to Luttrell and as a result, he fell down the edge of the mountain with Dietz's body and was severely injured.\n\nDietz's body was found by a group of U.S. Air Force pararescuemen during a search and rescue operation, on 4 July 2005, and returned to the United States. Dietz was buried with full military honors at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.\n\nPersonal life\nDietz has a brother Eric and a sister Tiffany.\n\nDietz was known to show appreciation towards the outdoors and he enjoyed fishing and rock climbing. He had a black belt in Taekwondo from the Korean Academy of Taekwondo.\n\nAwards and decorations\n\nNavy Cross\n\nOn September 13, 2006, Dietz was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross by Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter.\n\nCitation\n\nFor extraordinary heroism in actions against the enemy while serving in a four-man Special Reconnaissance element with SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team ONE, Naval Special Warfare Task unit, Afghanistan from 27 to 28 June 2005. Petty Officer Dietz demonstrated extraordinary heroism in the face of grave danger in the vicinity of Asadabad, Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Operating in the middle of an enemy-controlled area, in extremely rugged terrain, his Special Reconnaissance element was tasked with locating a high-level Anti-Coalition Militia leader, in support of a follow-on direct action mission to disrupt enemy activity. On 28 June 2005, the element was spotted by Anti-Coalition Militia sympathizers, who immediately revealed their position to the militia fighters. As a result, the element directly encountered the enemy. Demonstrating exceptional resolve and fully understanding the gravity of the situation and his responsibility to his teammates, Petty Officer Dietz fought valiantly against the numerically superior and positionally advantaged enemy force. Remaining behind in a hailstorm of enemy fire, Petty Officer Dietz was wounded by enemy fire. Despite his injuries, he bravely fought on, valiantly defending his teammates and himself in a harrowing gunfight, until he was mortally wounded. By his undaunted courage in the face of heavy enemy fire, and absolute devotion to his teammates, Petty Officer Dietz will long be remembered for the role he played in the Global War on Terrorism. Petty Officer Dietz' courageous and selfless heroism, exceptional professional skill, and utmost devotion to duty reflected great credit upon him and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for the cause of freedom.\n\nLegacy\n \nOn July 4, 2007, the town of Littleton, Colorado erected a bronze lifesize statue of Dietz holding his rifle in a 'parade-rest' position on one knee. It contained the same statement on the Navy Cross citation.\n\nOn August 18, 2009, the span of South Santa Fe Drive between Interstate 25 and Colorado State Highway 470 was named Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Highway in his honour.\n\nStarting in 2010, the Danny Dietz Memorial Day Classic is a fundraiser / rodeo event held the weekend of Memorial Day at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds in Rosenberg, Texas.\n\nFor the 2013 film Lone Survivor, which covered the events of Operation Red Wings, Dietz was portrayed by actor Emile Hirsch.\n\nSee also\n\nList of people from Littleton, Colorado\n\nFurther reading\n\nReferences\n\n1980 births\n2005 deaths\nUnited States Navy SEALs personnel\nRecipients of the Navy Cross (United States)\nPeople from Aurora, Colorado\nMilitary personnel from Colorado\nAmerican military personnel killed in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)\nUnited States Navy personnel of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)\nBurials at Fort Logan National Cemetery\nUnited States Navy sailors"
] |
[
"William Henry Dietz",
"Contested heritage",
"What about Dietz's heritage was contested?",
"Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian."
] |
C_f5d500d8481d4ee48d68893a2ce70b48_0
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Was he living on an Indian reservation or had he before?
| 2 |
Was William Henry Dietz living on an Indian reservation or had he before?
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William Henry Dietz
|
Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war. Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his true identity. She died six days after his indictment. Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was an Indian, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Indian son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest". CANNOTANSWER
|
In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment.
|
William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University (1922–1923), University of Wyoming (1924–1926), Haskell Institute—now known as Haskell Indian Nations University (1929–1932), and Albright College (1937–1942). From 1933 to 1934, Dietz served as the head coach for the National Football League's Boston Redskins, where he tallied a mark of 11–11–2. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012.
Early life
According to census records and to his birth certificate, he was born William Henry Dietz, or "Willie," on August 17, 1884, in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, at 16 West Humbird Street. His father William Wallace Dietz, settled in the area in 1871 and was elected county sheriff in 1877. His father married Leanna Ginder in November 1879.
"Willie" attended Oklahoma's Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, where he may have feigned some kind of Indian identity for the first time according to researcher Linda Waggoner. She wrote, "Naturally, visitors to the St. Louis World's Fair exhibit, including Dietz's future wife, Winnebago artist Angel De Cora (1871–1919), thought Dietz was a Chilocco student." Waggoner traced Dietz' heritage in several articles in Indian Country Today Media Network and at a 2013 symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Contested heritage
Dietz's heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as a Native American. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war.
Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was a Native American, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Native American son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest".
Dietz's true heritage remains controversial. Although he is recognized as an "Indian athlete" by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly known as the Washington Redskins), Indian Country Today Media Network ran a series of articles in 2004 exposing Dietz as a white man masquerading as a Native American. In 1988, the National Congress of American Indians attempted to meet and discuss the issue with the team's former owner, Jack Kent Cooke, but Cooke refused a meeting.
Playing career
Dietz played at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with teammate Jim Thorpe, under famed coach Pop Warner.
Coaching career
In 1921, Dietz took a coaching position with Purdue University in Indiana. After Angel De Cora died in 1919, he married Doris O. Pottlitzer, a middle-aged local journalist, on January 29, 1922. The week previous to their marriage, Purdue officials fired him for illegal recruiting. In spring 1933, George Preston Marshall, owner of the Boston Braves, hired Dietz to replace Coach Lud Wray. In 1937, the team moved to Washington, D.C.
For the rest of his life, Dietz continued to promote himself as Lone Star Dietz, the son of W. W. and Julia One Star of Pine Ridge. He took on his last coaching job in 1937 for Albright College in Pennsylvania; in 1964, still married to Doris, Dietz died in Reading, Pennsylvania. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lafayette College with in an exhibit curated by Francis Quirk. He and Doris were so poor that former teammates purchased his headstone. It reads: "William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz
born in South Dakota."
George Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the Boston Braves, sought to rename the franchise in 1933 after leaving the stadium the team had shared with the baseball team of the same name. Marshall was said to have named the Redskins in honor of Dietz, who claimed to be of the Sioux Nation, by analogy with the Red Sox who shared the team's new home, Fenway Park. A 1933 news article quotes Marshall as saying he named the team because of real Indians on the team. However, Marshall is only talking about why he specifically chose Redskins. Dietz was hired before the name change and is cited in many articles and by Marshall as being a reason he kept the Native American theme when changing the team name.
Recognition
Dietz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
Nickname
Dietz named himself "Lone Star" after James One Star, the alleged nephew of an Oglala Buffalo Bill Performer sometime after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. "Lone Star" and "One Star" are the same name in Oglala.
Personal life
Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his identity. She died six days after his indictment. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lehigh University with sculptors Joseph Brown and Jose deRivera in a 1955 exhibit curated by Francis Quirk.
Head coaching record
College football
NFL
College baseball
References
Further reading
Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz (2006) , hardback; , softcover (2006)
Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs (2008) softcover devotes a chapter to Lone Star Dietz
At last, Lone Star in the Hall of Fame (May 22, 2012 by Cougfan.com)
External links
1884 births
1964 deaths
Albright Lions football coaches
Carlisle Indians football coaches
Carlisle Indians football players
Haskell Indian Nations Fighting Indians football coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs baseball coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football coaches
Ole Miss Rebels football coaches
Purdue Boilermakers football coaches
Washington State Cougars football coaches
Wyoming Cowboys football coaches
Boston Redskins head coaches
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
People from Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Players of American football from Wisconsin
American football tackles
| false |
[
"The Poospatuck Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Unkechaugi band in the community of Mastic, Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is one of two Native American reservations in Suffolk County, the other being the Shinnecock Reservation. The population was 436 at the 2020 census.\n\nThe Unkechaugi are descendants of the Quiripi-speaking Native Americans, who occupied much of southern New England and central Long Island at the time of European encounter in the colonial era. Historically they spoke an Algonquian language. They have retained a community; the reservation is the smallest in New York State. The current 55 acre reservation was originally set aside for the Unkechaugs as a 175-acre plot by William \"Tangier\" Smith after he purchased large tracts of land from Unkechaug John Mayhew in 1691. It is located in Mastic on the north side of Poospatuck Creek, on the east side of Poospatuck Lane, and south of Eleanor Avenue. Poospatuck is situated in the southeast corner of Suffolk County's present-day Town of Brookhaven; and is the township's sole Indian reservation. It is about 70 miles or 1½ hours east of New York City.\n\nThe reservation and its people are recognized as Native American by the state of New York but it has not received federal recognition from the US Bureau of Indian Affairs. This means that it does not control sovereign territory and may not conduct Indian gaming on its land.\n\nGeography\nAccording to the United States Census Bureau, the Indian reservation has a land area of , and a water area of . The reservation reports the size of the reservation is actually .\n\nDemographics\n\nAs of the census of 2000, there were 271 people, 93 households, and 67 families residing in the Indian reservation. The population density was 3,040.9/mi2 (1,162.6/km2). There were 100 housing units at an average density of 1,122.1 inhabitants/mi2 (429.0 inhabitants/km2). The racial makeup of the Indian reservation was 1.48% White, 12.92% African American, 79.34% Native American (mostly Unkechaug people), no Asians, no Pacific Islanders, 0.74% from other races, and 5.54% from two or more races. 4.80% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.\n\nThere were 93 households, out of which 47.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 29.0% were married couples living together, 32.3% had a woman whose husband does not live with her, and 26.9% were non-families. 24.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 2.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.91 and the average family size was 3.51.\n\nIn the Indian reservation the population was spread out, with 36.5% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 17.3% from 45 to 64, and 5.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 27 years. For every 100 females, there were 78.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.2 males.\n\nThe median income for a household in the Indian reservation was $13,125, and the median income for a family was $17,500. Males had a median income of $47,500 versus $20,250 for females. The per capita income for the Indian reservation was $8,127. 36.6% of the population and 36.8% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 46.6% were under the age of 18 and 25.0% were 65 or older.\n\nReferences\n\nPoospatuck (state) Reservation, New York United States Census Bureau\n\nAmerican Indian reservations in New York (state)\nBrookhaven, New York\nGeography of Suffolk County, New York\nEastern Algonquian peoples\nNative American tribes in New York (state)",
"Seymour v. Superintendent of Wash. State Penitentiary, 368 U.S. 351 (1962), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States that the state of Washington did not have jurisdiction to try an Indian (Native American) for a crime committed within the boundaries of the Colville Indian Reservation, even if the crime was committed on land now owned by a non-Indian.\n\nBackground\n\nHistory\nPaul Seymour was an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, a group of twelve Indian tribes that are based at the Colville Indian Reservation. The reservation is located in the western part of Oregon and the eastern part of Washington. The reservation was established by the executive order of President Ulysses S. Grant on 2 July 1872. In 1892, Congress opened up part of the reservation to white settlement. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson, with Congressional authorization, opened up more reservation land for settlement.\n\nLower courts\nSeymour was charged with burglary in Okanogan County, Washington and pleaded guilty to attempted burglary. He was sentenced to years in the state penitentiary. While incarcerated, he filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Washington Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court denied the petition on the grounds that the offense did not take place in \"Indian country\". Indian country is defined in federal law as including all land within an Indian reservation, and within Indian country, only the Federal government has jurisdiction over crimes committed by Indians. The court reasoned that the Congressional action that had opened the Colville Indian Reservation to settlement had reduced or diminished the size of the reservation and since the crime was committed outside of the diminished reservation, it was not in Indian country. The court denied the writ. Seymour then appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the appeal and granted a writ of certiorari.\n\nOpinion of the court\n\nArguments\nGlen A. Wilkinson argued the case for Seymour. Washington Assistant Attorney General Stephen C. Way argued the case for the state of Washington. At the request of the court United States Solicitor General J. Lee Rankin filed a memorandum with the court.\n\nUnanimous opinion\nJustice Hugo Black announced the opinion of a unanimous court. Black looked to the statutes that affected the Colville Indian Reservation and noted that the 1892 act expressly reserved the southern half for use of the tribes under control of the federal government. The 1916 presidential proclamation merely set forth the procedure for settlement, and neither the proclamation nor the enabling act had any language terminating the reservation. Black further noted that a 1956 statute recognized the continued existence of the reservation, and a 1953 statute explained how the state could obtain jurisdiction once certain conditions were met. Black observed that those conditions had not yet been met. The statutes opening up the reservation to settlement merely allowed non-Indians to move onto the reservation and did not end reservation status.\n\nBlack stated that \"Since the burglary with which petitioner was charged occurred on property plainly located within the limits of that reservation, the courts of Washington had no jurisdiction to try him for that offense.\" The case was reversed and remanded to the Washington Supreme Court.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1962 in American law\nUnited States Supreme Court cases\nUnited States Supreme Court cases of the Warren Court"
] |
[
"William Henry Dietz",
"Contested heritage",
"What about Dietz's heritage was contested?",
"Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian.",
"Was he living on an Indian reservation or had he before?",
"In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a \"Non-Citizen Indian\" with an allotment."
] |
C_f5d500d8481d4ee48d68893a2ce70b48_0
|
Who was Dietz impersonating when the FBI investigated him?
| 3 |
Who was William Henry Dietz impersonating when the FBI investigated William Henry Dietz?
|
William Henry Dietz
|
Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war. Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his true identity. She died six days after his indictment. Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was an Indian, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Indian son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest". CANNOTANSWER
|
had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba
|
William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University (1922–1923), University of Wyoming (1924–1926), Haskell Institute—now known as Haskell Indian Nations University (1929–1932), and Albright College (1937–1942). From 1933 to 1934, Dietz served as the head coach for the National Football League's Boston Redskins, where he tallied a mark of 11–11–2. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012.
Early life
According to census records and to his birth certificate, he was born William Henry Dietz, or "Willie," on August 17, 1884, in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, at 16 West Humbird Street. His father William Wallace Dietz, settled in the area in 1871 and was elected county sheriff in 1877. His father married Leanna Ginder in November 1879.
"Willie" attended Oklahoma's Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, where he may have feigned some kind of Indian identity for the first time according to researcher Linda Waggoner. She wrote, "Naturally, visitors to the St. Louis World's Fair exhibit, including Dietz's future wife, Winnebago artist Angel De Cora (1871–1919), thought Dietz was a Chilocco student." Waggoner traced Dietz' heritage in several articles in Indian Country Today Media Network and at a 2013 symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Contested heritage
Dietz's heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as a Native American. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war.
Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was a Native American, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Native American son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest".
Dietz's true heritage remains controversial. Although he is recognized as an "Indian athlete" by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly known as the Washington Redskins), Indian Country Today Media Network ran a series of articles in 2004 exposing Dietz as a white man masquerading as a Native American. In 1988, the National Congress of American Indians attempted to meet and discuss the issue with the team's former owner, Jack Kent Cooke, but Cooke refused a meeting.
Playing career
Dietz played at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with teammate Jim Thorpe, under famed coach Pop Warner.
Coaching career
In 1921, Dietz took a coaching position with Purdue University in Indiana. After Angel De Cora died in 1919, he married Doris O. Pottlitzer, a middle-aged local journalist, on January 29, 1922. The week previous to their marriage, Purdue officials fired him for illegal recruiting. In spring 1933, George Preston Marshall, owner of the Boston Braves, hired Dietz to replace Coach Lud Wray. In 1937, the team moved to Washington, D.C.
For the rest of his life, Dietz continued to promote himself as Lone Star Dietz, the son of W. W. and Julia One Star of Pine Ridge. He took on his last coaching job in 1937 for Albright College in Pennsylvania; in 1964, still married to Doris, Dietz died in Reading, Pennsylvania. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lafayette College with in an exhibit curated by Francis Quirk. He and Doris were so poor that former teammates purchased his headstone. It reads: "William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz
born in South Dakota."
George Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the Boston Braves, sought to rename the franchise in 1933 after leaving the stadium the team had shared with the baseball team of the same name. Marshall was said to have named the Redskins in honor of Dietz, who claimed to be of the Sioux Nation, by analogy with the Red Sox who shared the team's new home, Fenway Park. A 1933 news article quotes Marshall as saying he named the team because of real Indians on the team. However, Marshall is only talking about why he specifically chose Redskins. Dietz was hired before the name change and is cited in many articles and by Marshall as being a reason he kept the Native American theme when changing the team name.
Recognition
Dietz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
Nickname
Dietz named himself "Lone Star" after James One Star, the alleged nephew of an Oglala Buffalo Bill Performer sometime after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. "Lone Star" and "One Star" are the same name in Oglala.
Personal life
Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his identity. She died six days after his indictment. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lehigh University with sculptors Joseph Brown and Jose deRivera in a 1955 exhibit curated by Francis Quirk.
Head coaching record
College football
NFL
College baseball
References
Further reading
Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz (2006) , hardback; , softcover (2006)
Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs (2008) softcover devotes a chapter to Lone Star Dietz
At last, Lone Star in the Hall of Fame (May 22, 2012 by Cougfan.com)
External links
1884 births
1964 deaths
Albright Lions football coaches
Carlisle Indians football coaches
Carlisle Indians football players
Haskell Indian Nations Fighting Indians football coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs baseball coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football coaches
Ole Miss Rebels football coaches
Purdue Boilermakers football coaches
Washington State Cougars football coaches
Wyoming Cowboys football coaches
Boston Redskins head coaches
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
People from Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Players of American football from Wisconsin
American football tackles
| true |
[
"Dead On: Relentless II is a 1992 thriller film directed by Michael Schroeder. The tagline for the movie was: The first killer was unpredictable. This one is unstoppable. The movie was filmed in Los Angeles, California. It is the second installment in the Relentless series.\n\nPlot\nL.A. Detective Sam Dietz (Leo Rossi), struggling to emotionally survive his previous big case (from in the first Relentless film) is unwillingly paired with a shady FBI agent Kyle Valsone (Ray Sharkey), during a case tracking another serial killer (Miles O'Keefe), who kills seemingly at random. But every time Dietz gets a lead, Valsone gets in the way and somewhat throws off the investigation. Suspecting more than meets the eye, Dietz goes around the law to learn the identity of the killer and find out what Valsone is hiding and his connection to the killer. Meanwhile, Dietz's wife Carol (Meg Foster) now estranged from him due to his long hours, tries to deal with her current situation and their uncertain future.\n\nCast\n Ray Sharkey as Kyle Valsone\n Leo Rossi as Sam Dietz\n Meg Foster as Carol Dietz\n Marc Poppel as Paul Taglia\n Dale Dye as Captain Rivers\n Miles O'Keeffe as Gregor\n Allan Rich as Grazinsky\n Cylk Cozart as detective at precinct\n Art Kimbro as Henry\n Sven-Ole Thorsen as Mechanic (Patrick Vergano)\n Dawn Mangrum as reporter\n Leilani Jones as Belinda Belos\n Frank Rossi as cop at Mechanic's apartment\n Mindy Seeger as Francine\n Barbara Anne Klein as the realtor\n Perry Lang as Ralph Boshi\n\nOther films in the series \n Relentless (1989)\n Relentless 3 (1993)\n Relentless IV: Ashes to Ashes (1994)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\n1992 films\n1992 crime thriller films\nAmerican films\nAmerican crime thriller films\nAmerican sequel films\nCineTel Films films",
"Danny Phillip Dietz Jr. (January 26, 1980 – June 28, 2005) was a Navy SEAL who was awarded the U.S. Navy's second highest decoration, the Navy Cross, along with the Purple Heart, for his actions during the War in Afghanistan.\n\nEarly life and education\nDietz was born on January 26, 1980, in Aurora, Colorado to parents Cindy and Daniel P. Dietz Sr. He also had Apache ancestry. He graduated from Heritage High School in Littleton in 1999.\n\nCareer\n\nDietz joined the Navy on August 31, 1999, and following his graduation from basic training at the Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois, he finished Gunner's Mate \"A\" School also at Great Lakes. From that point on, he enrolled in Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training (BUD/S) and graduated with Class 232 in 2001. Dietz proceeded to the Basic Airborne Course at Fort Benning in Georgia, after which he completed SEAL Qualification Training and SEAL Delivery Vehicle Training.\nShortly after checking in at SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 2 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on November 8, 2001, he was appointed to Task Unit Bravo as the optional SDV pilot and the ordnance and engineering department head. In April 2005, Dietz was deployed with his Special Reconnaissance component to Afghanistan to help Naval Special Warfare Squadron TEN in the indictment of the Global War on Terrorism.\n\nOperation Red Wings\n\nOperation Red Wings was a counter-insurgency operation by the United States Armed Forces to kill or capture Ahmad Shah, (code name Ben Sharmak), a known terrorist and head of the militia, \"Mountain Tigers\". The operation was carried out, on 27 June 2005, by Navy SEAL Team TEN; the four-man team was made up of 2nd Class Matthew G. Axelson and 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell supporting the role of snipers while 2nd Class Danny P. Dietz and team leader Navy Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy were spotters.\n\nThe mission was compromised after goat herders stumbled upon the SEALs and reported them to the Taliban after the SEALs let them go free. An intense firefight ensued after the SEALs were ambushed by Taliban insurgents who outnumbered them one to twenty-five. Murphy went into an open clearing to get reception and call for support, he managed to reach the base, giving them the SEALs location as well as the number of enemies. Exposed to enemy fire, he was shot in the back while making the call, it was this act that awarded Murphy the Medal Of Honor posthumously. Murphy then returned to his team to continue the battle. Low on ammunitions, Murphy, Axelson and Danny Dietz were killed while Luttrell was knocked unconscious by an RPG.\n\nThe support dispatched was a team of eight Navy SEALs and eight 160th SOAR Army Night Stalkers. However, all sixteen special forces soldiers aboard the helicopter perished, when the CH-47 Chinook was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade that ignited the fuel tanks just as the soldiers were about to fast rope. Among the dead aboard the helicopter were Lieutenant Commander Erik S. Kristensen, the highest-ranking officer to die in the operation, and Kip A. Jacoby, the youngest soldier to die in the operation, at the age of 21.\n\nSEAL Marcus Luttrell was the sole survivor of SEAL Team TEN, aided by an Afghan villager who sheltered him, he was rescued by green berets six days later. Danny Dietz, Matthew Axelson and Michael Murphy were declared killed in action after their bodies were recovered on 4 July.\n\nDeath\nDietz was mortally wounded after taking the brunt of the initial attack and the fall. This led him to lose his ability to walk and as a result, Luttrell carried him on their way down the mountain, as Dietz fired back. This rigorous activity was repeated several times until Luttrell accidentally swung him into a bullet, when Luttrell was about to fall. The bullet penetrated the back of his head and instantly killed him, Dietz's dead weight came as a surprise to Luttrell and as a result, he fell down the edge of the mountain with Dietz's body and was severely injured.\n\nDietz's body was found by a group of U.S. Air Force pararescuemen during a search and rescue operation, on 4 July 2005, and returned to the United States. Dietz was buried with full military honors at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.\n\nPersonal life\nDietz has a brother Eric and a sister Tiffany.\n\nDietz was known to show appreciation towards the outdoors and he enjoyed fishing and rock climbing. He had a black belt in Taekwondo from the Korean Academy of Taekwondo.\n\nAwards and decorations\n\nNavy Cross\n\nOn September 13, 2006, Dietz was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross by Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter.\n\nCitation\n\nFor extraordinary heroism in actions against the enemy while serving in a four-man Special Reconnaissance element with SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team ONE, Naval Special Warfare Task unit, Afghanistan from 27 to 28 June 2005. Petty Officer Dietz demonstrated extraordinary heroism in the face of grave danger in the vicinity of Asadabad, Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Operating in the middle of an enemy-controlled area, in extremely rugged terrain, his Special Reconnaissance element was tasked with locating a high-level Anti-Coalition Militia leader, in support of a follow-on direct action mission to disrupt enemy activity. On 28 June 2005, the element was spotted by Anti-Coalition Militia sympathizers, who immediately revealed their position to the militia fighters. As a result, the element directly encountered the enemy. Demonstrating exceptional resolve and fully understanding the gravity of the situation and his responsibility to his teammates, Petty Officer Dietz fought valiantly against the numerically superior and positionally advantaged enemy force. Remaining behind in a hailstorm of enemy fire, Petty Officer Dietz was wounded by enemy fire. Despite his injuries, he bravely fought on, valiantly defending his teammates and himself in a harrowing gunfight, until he was mortally wounded. By his undaunted courage in the face of heavy enemy fire, and absolute devotion to his teammates, Petty Officer Dietz will long be remembered for the role he played in the Global War on Terrorism. Petty Officer Dietz' courageous and selfless heroism, exceptional professional skill, and utmost devotion to duty reflected great credit upon him and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for the cause of freedom.\n\nLegacy\n \nOn July 4, 2007, the town of Littleton, Colorado erected a bronze lifesize statue of Dietz holding his rifle in a 'parade-rest' position on one knee. It contained the same statement on the Navy Cross citation.\n\nOn August 18, 2009, the span of South Santa Fe Drive between Interstate 25 and Colorado State Highway 470 was named Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Highway in his honour.\n\nStarting in 2010, the Danny Dietz Memorial Day Classic is a fundraiser / rodeo event held the weekend of Memorial Day at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds in Rosenberg, Texas.\n\nFor the 2013 film Lone Survivor, which covered the events of Operation Red Wings, Dietz was portrayed by actor Emile Hirsch.\n\nSee also\n\nList of people from Littleton, Colorado\n\nFurther reading\n\nReferences\n\n1980 births\n2005 deaths\nUnited States Navy SEALs personnel\nRecipients of the Navy Cross (United States)\nPeople from Aurora, Colorado\nMilitary personnel from Colorado\nAmerican military personnel killed in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)\nUnited States Navy personnel of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)\nBurials at Fort Logan National Cemetery\nUnited States Navy sailors"
] |
[
"William Henry Dietz",
"Contested heritage",
"What about Dietz's heritage was contested?",
"Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian.",
"Was he living on an Indian reservation or had he before?",
"In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a \"Non-Citizen Indian\" with an allotment.",
"Who was Dietz impersonating when the FBI investigated him?",
"had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba"
] |
C_f5d500d8481d4ee48d68893a2ce70b48_0
|
Did Dietz do any jail time for the fraud?
| 4 |
Did William Henry Dietz do any jail time for the fraud?
|
William Henry Dietz
|
Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war. Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his true identity. She died six days after his indictment. Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was an Indian, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Indian son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest". CANNOTANSWER
|
his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days
|
William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University (1922–1923), University of Wyoming (1924–1926), Haskell Institute—now known as Haskell Indian Nations University (1929–1932), and Albright College (1937–1942). From 1933 to 1934, Dietz served as the head coach for the National Football League's Boston Redskins, where he tallied a mark of 11–11–2. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012.
Early life
According to census records and to his birth certificate, he was born William Henry Dietz, or "Willie," on August 17, 1884, in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, at 16 West Humbird Street. His father William Wallace Dietz, settled in the area in 1871 and was elected county sheriff in 1877. His father married Leanna Ginder in November 1879.
"Willie" attended Oklahoma's Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, where he may have feigned some kind of Indian identity for the first time according to researcher Linda Waggoner. She wrote, "Naturally, visitors to the St. Louis World's Fair exhibit, including Dietz's future wife, Winnebago artist Angel De Cora (1871–1919), thought Dietz was a Chilocco student." Waggoner traced Dietz' heritage in several articles in Indian Country Today Media Network and at a 2013 symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Contested heritage
Dietz's heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as a Native American. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war.
Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was a Native American, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Native American son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest".
Dietz's true heritage remains controversial. Although he is recognized as an "Indian athlete" by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly known as the Washington Redskins), Indian Country Today Media Network ran a series of articles in 2004 exposing Dietz as a white man masquerading as a Native American. In 1988, the National Congress of American Indians attempted to meet and discuss the issue with the team's former owner, Jack Kent Cooke, but Cooke refused a meeting.
Playing career
Dietz played at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with teammate Jim Thorpe, under famed coach Pop Warner.
Coaching career
In 1921, Dietz took a coaching position with Purdue University in Indiana. After Angel De Cora died in 1919, he married Doris O. Pottlitzer, a middle-aged local journalist, on January 29, 1922. The week previous to their marriage, Purdue officials fired him for illegal recruiting. In spring 1933, George Preston Marshall, owner of the Boston Braves, hired Dietz to replace Coach Lud Wray. In 1937, the team moved to Washington, D.C.
For the rest of his life, Dietz continued to promote himself as Lone Star Dietz, the son of W. W. and Julia One Star of Pine Ridge. He took on his last coaching job in 1937 for Albright College in Pennsylvania; in 1964, still married to Doris, Dietz died in Reading, Pennsylvania. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lafayette College with in an exhibit curated by Francis Quirk. He and Doris were so poor that former teammates purchased his headstone. It reads: "William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz
born in South Dakota."
George Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the Boston Braves, sought to rename the franchise in 1933 after leaving the stadium the team had shared with the baseball team of the same name. Marshall was said to have named the Redskins in honor of Dietz, who claimed to be of the Sioux Nation, by analogy with the Red Sox who shared the team's new home, Fenway Park. A 1933 news article quotes Marshall as saying he named the team because of real Indians on the team. However, Marshall is only talking about why he specifically chose Redskins. Dietz was hired before the name change and is cited in many articles and by Marshall as being a reason he kept the Native American theme when changing the team name.
Recognition
Dietz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
Nickname
Dietz named himself "Lone Star" after James One Star, the alleged nephew of an Oglala Buffalo Bill Performer sometime after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. "Lone Star" and "One Star" are the same name in Oglala.
Personal life
Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his identity. She died six days after his indictment. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lehigh University with sculptors Joseph Brown and Jose deRivera in a 1955 exhibit curated by Francis Quirk.
Head coaching record
College football
NFL
College baseball
References
Further reading
Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz (2006) , hardback; , softcover (2006)
Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs (2008) softcover devotes a chapter to Lone Star Dietz
At last, Lone Star in the Hall of Fame (May 22, 2012 by Cougfan.com)
External links
1884 births
1964 deaths
Albright Lions football coaches
Carlisle Indians football coaches
Carlisle Indians football players
Haskell Indian Nations Fighting Indians football coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs baseball coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football coaches
Ole Miss Rebels football coaches
Purdue Boilermakers football coaches
Washington State Cougars football coaches
Wyoming Cowboys football coaches
Boston Redskins head coaches
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
People from Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Players of American football from Wisconsin
American football tackles
| true |
[
"A long firm fraud (also known as a consumer credit fraud) is a crime that uses a trading company set up for fraudulent purposes; the basic operation is to run the company as an apparently legitimate business by buying goods and paying suppliers promptly to secure a good credit record. Once they are sufficiently well-established, the perpetrators purchase the next round of goods on credit, then decamp with the goods and profits from previous sales. The goods can then be sold elsewhere. The procedure needs a certain amount of money to set up, often the proceeds from another crime or a previous long firm. Sometimes an individual who does time in jail for assisting the fraud is paid for the time served. Long firm frauds have become significantly less common in recent years since it is no longer possible to operate for any length of time without leaving a significant paper trail.\n\nReferences\n\nConfidence tricks\nFraud",
"Dietz v. Bouldin, 579 U.S. ___ (2016), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a federal district court may rescind a discharge order and recall jurors for further service in the same case.\n\nBackground \nHillary Bouldin's vehicle collided with Rocky Dietz's in 2009 in Bozeman, Montana, and Dietz sued Bouldin for damages. Bouldin removed the case to a federal district court. During the trial, Bouldin admitted that he was negligent, and was willing to cover Dietz's medical expenses ($10,136). The point of contention was whether Dietz was entitled for more compensation. During the course of deliberation, the jury sent the judge a note whether the damages have been paid or is covered by someone else; after consulting with the lawyers in both sides, the judge informed the jury that the answer to that question does not matter. The jury ruled in favour of Dietz but awarded $0 in damages. The judge thanked and discharged the jury. However, minutes later, the judge realized that it is impossible for the damages to be $0 while Dietz won – the jury returned an invalid verdict. The judge instructed the clerk of the court to re-empanel the jury. All except for one jurors have been in the hallway; the one juror only went back to a hotel to pick up his hotel receipt; no one discussed the case with any outsider. The judge collectively questioned the jury, was satisfied with the response, and gave out clarifying instructions. The re-empaneled jury returned a verdict in favour of Dietz, with $15,000 in damages. Dietz's counsel objected to re-empanelling and pushed for a new trial. The judge objected, saying that he did not want all the resources that the court spent wasted as a result of a new trial. Dietz appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit arguing that a judge does not have the authority to re-empanel the already-discharged jury. The Ninth Circuit ruled in favour of Bouldin. Dietz appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States and the Court granted certiorari.\n\nOpinion of the Court \nAssociate Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored the majority opinion affirming the Ninth Circuit's judgment. The court ruled 6-2 that a judge may recall an already-discharged jury, but has limited authority to do so. They also ruled that this power should be used with caution. The Court noted that since in the era of smartphones and the internet it is not uncommon for people to instinctively check their phones. Thus it is possible for a discharged juror to develop potential prejudice while communicating about the case with someone else via text messages, or quickly Googling about the case to obtain more information about the case. Finally, the Court ruled that in this particular case, the trial judge did not abuse his authority.\n\nDissent \nJustice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, dissented. In his dissent, Thomas argued that the common law rule preventing an already-discharged jury to be re-empaneled should control the case. After surveying the history of jury's sequestration, Thomas argued that while the jury is no longer strictly sequestrated, such bright-line rule guarantees that jury will not be biased in any way and ensures that every trial is decided in a fair manner.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n SCOTUSblog coverage\n\nUnited States Supreme Court cases\nUnited States Supreme Court cases of the Roberts Court\n2016 in United States case law\nUnited States jury case law\nBozeman, Montana"
] |
[
"William Henry Dietz",
"Contested heritage",
"What about Dietz's heritage was contested?",
"Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian.",
"Was he living on an Indian reservation or had he before?",
"In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a \"Non-Citizen Indian\" with an allotment.",
"Who was Dietz impersonating when the FBI investigated him?",
"had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba",
"Did Dietz do any jail time for the fraud?",
"his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days"
] |
C_f5d500d8481d4ee48d68893a2ce70b48_0
|
Did he have any other Indian brothers and sisters from the mother that testifed for him?
| 5 |
Besides his mother's testimony,Did William Henry Dietz have any other Indian brothers and sisters from the mother that testifed for William Henry Dietz?
|
William Henry Dietz
|
Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war. Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his true identity. She died six days after his indictment. Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was an Indian, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Indian son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest". CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
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William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University (1922–1923), University of Wyoming (1924–1926), Haskell Institute—now known as Haskell Indian Nations University (1929–1932), and Albright College (1937–1942). From 1933 to 1934, Dietz served as the head coach for the National Football League's Boston Redskins, where he tallied a mark of 11–11–2. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012.
Early life
According to census records and to his birth certificate, he was born William Henry Dietz, or "Willie," on August 17, 1884, in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, at 16 West Humbird Street. His father William Wallace Dietz, settled in the area in 1871 and was elected county sheriff in 1877. His father married Leanna Ginder in November 1879.
"Willie" attended Oklahoma's Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, where he may have feigned some kind of Indian identity for the first time according to researcher Linda Waggoner. She wrote, "Naturally, visitors to the St. Louis World's Fair exhibit, including Dietz's future wife, Winnebago artist Angel De Cora (1871–1919), thought Dietz was a Chilocco student." Waggoner traced Dietz' heritage in several articles in Indian Country Today Media Network and at a 2013 symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Contested heritage
Dietz's heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as a Native American. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war.
Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was a Native American, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Native American son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest".
Dietz's true heritage remains controversial. Although he is recognized as an "Indian athlete" by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly known as the Washington Redskins), Indian Country Today Media Network ran a series of articles in 2004 exposing Dietz as a white man masquerading as a Native American. In 1988, the National Congress of American Indians attempted to meet and discuss the issue with the team's former owner, Jack Kent Cooke, but Cooke refused a meeting.
Playing career
Dietz played at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with teammate Jim Thorpe, under famed coach Pop Warner.
Coaching career
In 1921, Dietz took a coaching position with Purdue University in Indiana. After Angel De Cora died in 1919, he married Doris O. Pottlitzer, a middle-aged local journalist, on January 29, 1922. The week previous to their marriage, Purdue officials fired him for illegal recruiting. In spring 1933, George Preston Marshall, owner of the Boston Braves, hired Dietz to replace Coach Lud Wray. In 1937, the team moved to Washington, D.C.
For the rest of his life, Dietz continued to promote himself as Lone Star Dietz, the son of W. W. and Julia One Star of Pine Ridge. He took on his last coaching job in 1937 for Albright College in Pennsylvania; in 1964, still married to Doris, Dietz died in Reading, Pennsylvania. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lafayette College with in an exhibit curated by Francis Quirk. He and Doris were so poor that former teammates purchased his headstone. It reads: "William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz
born in South Dakota."
George Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the Boston Braves, sought to rename the franchise in 1933 after leaving the stadium the team had shared with the baseball team of the same name. Marshall was said to have named the Redskins in honor of Dietz, who claimed to be of the Sioux Nation, by analogy with the Red Sox who shared the team's new home, Fenway Park. A 1933 news article quotes Marshall as saying he named the team because of real Indians on the team. However, Marshall is only talking about why he specifically chose Redskins. Dietz was hired before the name change and is cited in many articles and by Marshall as being a reason he kept the Native American theme when changing the team name.
Recognition
Dietz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
Nickname
Dietz named himself "Lone Star" after James One Star, the alleged nephew of an Oglala Buffalo Bill Performer sometime after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. "Lone Star" and "One Star" are the same name in Oglala.
Personal life
Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his identity. She died six days after his indictment. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lehigh University with sculptors Joseph Brown and Jose deRivera in a 1955 exhibit curated by Francis Quirk.
Head coaching record
College football
NFL
College baseball
References
Further reading
Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz (2006) , hardback; , softcover (2006)
Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs (2008) softcover devotes a chapter to Lone Star Dietz
At last, Lone Star in the Hall of Fame (May 22, 2012 by Cougfan.com)
External links
1884 births
1964 deaths
Albright Lions football coaches
Carlisle Indians football coaches
Carlisle Indians football players
Haskell Indian Nations Fighting Indians football coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs baseball coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football coaches
Ole Miss Rebels football coaches
Purdue Boilermakers football coaches
Washington State Cougars football coaches
Wyoming Cowboys football coaches
Boston Redskins head coaches
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
People from Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Players of American football from Wisconsin
American football tackles
| false |
[
"Aleem Khan (born 1956) is an Indian social activist fighting to eradicate Dowry from the Indian subcontinent hailing from Hyderabad in the Indian state of Telangana. He is also known for his Urdu poetry which he frequently recites at Mushairas. He is the founder of Socio-Reform-Society and the author of numerous books on dowry written in Urdu and English.\n\nEarly life\nMohammed Aleemullah Khan alias Aleem Khan Falaki was born in Hyderabad, India in 1956 to Mohammad Khaleelullah Khan who was also a scholar and often cites him as his inspiration. He graduated from Osmania University, Hyderabad and did MA, M.Phil and completed his PhD from Maulana Azad National Urdu University on the topic \"Marginalization of woman in Muslim society\". He also has a diploma in marriage counseling from Leicester, UK. He ran his own company in Jeddah , Saudi Arabia for more than 3 decades and has now dedicated his full-time to Social-Work.\n\nAnti-dowry campaign\nAleem Khan calls the anti-dowry campaign as the Jihad of this era. According to him, dowry is the root of all evils, and people can get rid of hundreds of other social evils and poverty over time if they give up the dowry system.\n\nHe says in the Muslim families \"This evil did not exist so much until 2–3 decades ago. It started with the NRIs who went to Gulf mostly in 70s and 80s. Every father of the girl started to search for a well set son-in-law. The competition started and the rich people set the models of huge dowries and dinners. As a result, every boy became greedy which compelled everyone to offer maximum dowry for his daughter or sister by hook or by crook. If the burden of the dowry for the daughters or sisters is removed from the heads of the fathers and brothers, 50% of our men will be free to dedicate themselves for good social, religious or other services. If you see these evils which are increasing day by day like lie, bribery, prostitution etc are for the sake of accumulating money for the dowry. It is a social blackmail. The parents of the daughters are always under pressure due to the fear that the groom, his mother and sisters will continue to raise fingers on their daughters all their life.\"\n\nSocio-Reforms Society\nSocio-Reforms-Society was formed in 1992 with the sole purpose to eradicate Dowry. The organization has expanded to recruit a number of other social workers as members. They often give Lectures, Talks in various colleges of the India on the flagitiousness of dowry, with the aim of targeting the youth, along with conducting meetings with various Lawmakers and religious clerics.\n\nBibliography\nMajor books authored:\n Mard bhi bikte hain....jahez ke liye (Men too are sold for dowry)\n Life insurance and Muslims\n Ek koshish aur......\n Baat hai zamane ki (Urdu humour)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nUrdu-language poets from India\nWriters from Hyderabad, India\n1956 births\nLiving people\n20th-century Indian poets",
"Mamani kaPhahlo was a Queen of the Mpondomise in her own right from the 1750s, following after her father King Phahlo. She is also known as Mbingwa. As the eldest among 3 daughters of the Great Wife of King Phahlo, she successfully challenged her half-brothers from the smaller houses for the throne upon the death of her father. Although, she married Ntsibatha, a Mpondo Princess, she passed on without issue. She was succeeded by one of her brothers, Sontlo, who she installed in her position despite challenges from some royal family members\n\nEarly life and family\nMamani (sometimes called Mbingwa) was born to the King of the Mpondomise, Phahlo, and a Xesibe Princess whose name is sadly not known. Mamani's mother was the Great Wife. To her mother, she was the eldest of 3 daughters and did not have any brothers. Her father had sons with his other wives. Her birth and death dates are unknown.\n\nOne of Mamani's sisters, Thandela, married the Xhosa King Phalo and was the mother of Gcaleka. Gcaleka later became the King of the Xhosas. Not much is known about the other sister.\n\nAscending to the throne and reign\nIn the 1750s Mamani's father, Phahlo, passed on. Traditionally her father was meant to be succeeded by a child of the Great Wife. However, custom dictated that the heir needed to be a male heir. If the Great Wife did not have male children, like Mamani's mother, then a male heir would be searched for among the children of the other wives, starting with the wife married to the king for the longest (i.e. most senior wife) followed by the junior wives (according their seniority), until a son is found. If a son is not found then one of the king's brothers (preference given to the oldest brother and his male-descendants, then moving down to the youngest brother) would assume the position. \n\nHowever the Great Wife of Phahlo did not have any male children. Defy tradition and custom, as the eldest of the 3 daughters of Phahlo's Great Wife, Mamani ascended the throne upon the death of her father. This event triggered the saying among historians who write about the Mpondomise \"the woman who became a king\". \n\nWhen dissenters rose against her, she killed them. She mounted armies against those who challenged her authority too. Her reign was felt throughout the lands of the Mpondomise (from uMthatha to Umzimkhulu. She was a strong monarch.\n\nMarriage and issue \nDespite being a woman herself, Mamani married a Princess from the Mpondo kingdom, the daughter of King Nyawuza called Ntsibatha. Instead of consummating the marriage herself, she asked her dearest brother, Sontlo, to do it. Sontlo was the son of Mamani's maternal aunt and Mamani's father, Phahlo.\n\nSuccessor\nGradually she began to hand over monarchal duties to Sontlo, while, she actively influenced the successful transition of power to him. Thus, Sontlo became her successor while she was alive and continued to reign upon her death.\n\nReferences\n\nLegendary rulers\nLegendary progenitors\nAfrican queens"
] |
[
"William Henry Dietz",
"Contested heritage",
"What about Dietz's heritage was contested?",
"Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian.",
"Was he living on an Indian reservation or had he before?",
"In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a \"Non-Citizen Indian\" with an allotment.",
"Who was Dietz impersonating when the FBI investigated him?",
"had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba",
"Did Dietz do any jail time for the fraud?",
"his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days",
"Did he have any other Indian brothers and sisters from the mother that testifed for him?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_f5d500d8481d4ee48d68893a2ce70b48_0
|
Where was the trial for his fraud held?
| 6 |
Where was the trial for William Henry Dietz fraud held?
|
William Henry Dietz
|
Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war. Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his true identity. She died six days after his indictment. Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was an Indian, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Indian son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest". CANNOTANSWER
|
Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense.
|
William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University (1922–1923), University of Wyoming (1924–1926), Haskell Institute—now known as Haskell Indian Nations University (1929–1932), and Albright College (1937–1942). From 1933 to 1934, Dietz served as the head coach for the National Football League's Boston Redskins, where he tallied a mark of 11–11–2. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012.
Early life
According to census records and to his birth certificate, he was born William Henry Dietz, or "Willie," on August 17, 1884, in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, at 16 West Humbird Street. His father William Wallace Dietz, settled in the area in 1871 and was elected county sheriff in 1877. His father married Leanna Ginder in November 1879.
"Willie" attended Oklahoma's Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, where he may have feigned some kind of Indian identity for the first time according to researcher Linda Waggoner. She wrote, "Naturally, visitors to the St. Louis World's Fair exhibit, including Dietz's future wife, Winnebago artist Angel De Cora (1871–1919), thought Dietz was a Chilocco student." Waggoner traced Dietz' heritage in several articles in Indian Country Today Media Network and at a 2013 symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Contested heritage
Dietz's heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as a Native American. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war.
Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was a Native American, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Native American son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest".
Dietz's true heritage remains controversial. Although he is recognized as an "Indian athlete" by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly known as the Washington Redskins), Indian Country Today Media Network ran a series of articles in 2004 exposing Dietz as a white man masquerading as a Native American. In 1988, the National Congress of American Indians attempted to meet and discuss the issue with the team's former owner, Jack Kent Cooke, but Cooke refused a meeting.
Playing career
Dietz played at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with teammate Jim Thorpe, under famed coach Pop Warner.
Coaching career
In 1921, Dietz took a coaching position with Purdue University in Indiana. After Angel De Cora died in 1919, he married Doris O. Pottlitzer, a middle-aged local journalist, on January 29, 1922. The week previous to their marriage, Purdue officials fired him for illegal recruiting. In spring 1933, George Preston Marshall, owner of the Boston Braves, hired Dietz to replace Coach Lud Wray. In 1937, the team moved to Washington, D.C.
For the rest of his life, Dietz continued to promote himself as Lone Star Dietz, the son of W. W. and Julia One Star of Pine Ridge. He took on his last coaching job in 1937 for Albright College in Pennsylvania; in 1964, still married to Doris, Dietz died in Reading, Pennsylvania. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lafayette College with in an exhibit curated by Francis Quirk. He and Doris were so poor that former teammates purchased his headstone. It reads: "William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz
born in South Dakota."
George Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the Boston Braves, sought to rename the franchise in 1933 after leaving the stadium the team had shared with the baseball team of the same name. Marshall was said to have named the Redskins in honor of Dietz, who claimed to be of the Sioux Nation, by analogy with the Red Sox who shared the team's new home, Fenway Park. A 1933 news article quotes Marshall as saying he named the team because of real Indians on the team. However, Marshall is only talking about why he specifically chose Redskins. Dietz was hired before the name change and is cited in many articles and by Marshall as being a reason he kept the Native American theme when changing the team name.
Recognition
Dietz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
Nickname
Dietz named himself "Lone Star" after James One Star, the alleged nephew of an Oglala Buffalo Bill Performer sometime after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. "Lone Star" and "One Star" are the same name in Oglala.
Personal life
Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his identity. She died six days after his indictment. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lehigh University with sculptors Joseph Brown and Jose deRivera in a 1955 exhibit curated by Francis Quirk.
Head coaching record
College football
NFL
College baseball
References
Further reading
Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz (2006) , hardback; , softcover (2006)
Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs (2008) softcover devotes a chapter to Lone Star Dietz
At last, Lone Star in the Hall of Fame (May 22, 2012 by Cougfan.com)
External links
1884 births
1964 deaths
Albright Lions football coaches
Carlisle Indians football coaches
Carlisle Indians football players
Haskell Indian Nations Fighting Indians football coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs baseball coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football coaches
Ole Miss Rebels football coaches
Purdue Boilermakers football coaches
Washington State Cougars football coaches
Wyoming Cowboys football coaches
Boston Redskins head coaches
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
People from Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Players of American football from Wisconsin
American football tackles
| true |
[
"Intrinsic fraud is an intentionally false representation that goes to the heart of what a given lawsuit is about, in other words, whether fraud was used to procure the transaction. (If the transaction was fraudulent, it probably does not have the legal status of a contract.) Intrinsic fraud is distinguished from extrinsic fraud (a/k/a collateral fraud) which is a deceptive means of keeping a person from discovering and/or enforcing legal rights. It is possible to have both intrinsic and extrinsic frauds.\n\nThe U.S. Supreme Court defined and distinguished intrinsic from extrinsic fraud in its unanimous 1878 United States v. Throckmorton decision, written by Justice Samuel Freeman Miller. It described intrinsic fraud as \"any matter which was actually presented and considered in the judgment assailed\", declining to grant equitable relief to the federal government over an allegation that a settler's land claim in Mexican-ruled California had been secured two decades earlier after California became a U.S. territory through falsified documents and perjured affidavits. Even though the issue had not been raised at the original trial, the Court held that the government had had ample opportunity to exercise due diligence and investigate the evidence.\n\nDuring a trial, perjury, forgery, and bribery of a witness constitute frauds that might have been relieved by the court. Such actions will usually lead to a mistrial being declared and after any penalties for the involved parties a new trial will take place on the same matter.\n\nTwo types of intrinsic fraud in contract law are fraud in the inducement and fraud in the factum.\n\nFraud in the factum is a legal defense, and occurs where A signs a contract, but either does not realize that it is a contract or does not understand the nature of the contract, because of some false information that B gave to A. For example, if John tells his mother that he is taking a college course on handwriting analysis, and for his homework, he needs her to read and sign a pretend deed. If Mom signs the deed believing what he told her, and John tries to enforce the deed, Mom can plead \"fraud in the factum.\"\n\nFraud in the inducement is an equitable defense, and occurs when A signs a contract, knowing that it is a contract and (at least having a rough idea) what the contract is about, but the reason A signed the contract was because of some false information that B gave to A. For example, if John tells his mother to sign a deed giving him her property, Mom refuses at first, then John explains that the deed will be kept in a safe deposit box until she dies. If Mom signs the deed because of this statement from John, and John tries to enforce the deed prior to Mom's death, Mom can plead \"fraud in the inducement.\"\n\nSee also\nExtrinsic fraud\nFraud\nPer minas\nScienter\n Intrinsic Fraud reference\n\nReferences \n\nContract law\nFraud",
"Rajkissore Dutt (alternate spelling: Raj Kishore Dutt) (fl. 19th century) was a 19th-century Indian businessman, who is most notable for perpetrating a major fraud against the Bank of Bengal, which is one of the predecessors of the State Bank of India.\n\nBiography\n\nEarly life\n\nHe was born and raised in Kolkata. He was known for being a devout Hindu and he regularly worshipped the Hindu goddess Kali.\n\nCareer \n\nHe established a bank in Kolkata, known as Indian Bank. The bank circulated its own banknotes and achieved significant success.\n\nFraud against the Bank of Bengal \n\nIn 1826, he colluded with his son-in-law Dwarkey Nath Mitter to forge Company's Paper or Government Securities. The documents were forged and passed off as genuine to the public. These documents enabled him to avail a loan of Rupees three and a half lakhs from the Bank of Bengal, a predecessor of the State Bank of India.\n\nDiscovery and Trial \n\nHowever, his misdeeds were soon discovered and he was tried, convicted and sentenced to transportation in the penal colonies of the East India Company, where he lived out the rest of his life.\n\nIn 1829, Mr. J. A. Dorin was the treasury secretary of the Bank of Bengal. When the documents forged by Rajkissore Dutt were presented before him for verification, he perceived some peculiarity in its printing. He forwarded the documents to the head office of the Treasury. At the Treasury, the documents were examined by Henry Prinsep, the financial secretary to the Company government. Henry Prinsep concluded that his own signatures had been forged by Rajkissore Dutt, and thus the fraud came to light.\n\nThe trial thus commenced and the final judgement was given on 30 June 1834 by the Court of Directors of the East India Company.\n\nImpact on the Bank \n\nThe fraud had a major impact on the Bank of Bengal, which is a predecessor of the State Bank of India. The amount of the fraud was later written off towards the profit and loss account. The fraud perpetrated by Rajkissore Dutt wiped out a major part of the bank's profit for the year. The fraud also impacted the dividends paid out by the bank till the year 1834.\n\nMedia Coverage \n\nThe fraud and the court case associated with it was regularly reported and written about in the Calcutta Magazine and Monthly Register as well as The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and Its Dependencies.\n\nSee also\n\n Nagarwala case\n\nReferences\n\nIndian businesspeople\n19th-century Indian businesspeople\nIndian fraudsters\nIndian company founders\nBusinesspeople from Kolkata"
] |
[
"William Henry Dietz",
"Contested heritage",
"What about Dietz's heritage was contested?",
"Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian.",
"Was he living on an Indian reservation or had he before?",
"In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a \"Non-Citizen Indian\" with an allotment.",
"Who was Dietz impersonating when the FBI investigated him?",
"had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba",
"Did Dietz do any jail time for the fraud?",
"his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days",
"Did he have any other Indian brothers and sisters from the mother that testifed for him?",
"I don't know.",
"Where was the trial for his fraud held?",
"Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense."
] |
C_f5d500d8481d4ee48d68893a2ce70b48_0
|
Was Dietz married to anyone else during this time?
| 7 |
Was William Henry Dietz married to anyone else other than no person mentioned, during his contested heritage?
|
William Henry Dietz
|
Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war. Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his true identity. She died six days after his indictment. Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was an Indian, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Indian son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest". CANNOTANSWER
|
Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment.
|
William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University (1922–1923), University of Wyoming (1924–1926), Haskell Institute—now known as Haskell Indian Nations University (1929–1932), and Albright College (1937–1942). From 1933 to 1934, Dietz served as the head coach for the National Football League's Boston Redskins, where he tallied a mark of 11–11–2. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012.
Early life
According to census records and to his birth certificate, he was born William Henry Dietz, or "Willie," on August 17, 1884, in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, at 16 West Humbird Street. His father William Wallace Dietz, settled in the area in 1871 and was elected county sheriff in 1877. His father married Leanna Ginder in November 1879.
"Willie" attended Oklahoma's Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, where he may have feigned some kind of Indian identity for the first time according to researcher Linda Waggoner. She wrote, "Naturally, visitors to the St. Louis World's Fair exhibit, including Dietz's future wife, Winnebago artist Angel De Cora (1871–1919), thought Dietz was a Chilocco student." Waggoner traced Dietz' heritage in several articles in Indian Country Today Media Network and at a 2013 symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Contested heritage
Dietz's heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as a Native American. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war.
Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was a Native American, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Native American son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest".
Dietz's true heritage remains controversial. Although he is recognized as an "Indian athlete" by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly known as the Washington Redskins), Indian Country Today Media Network ran a series of articles in 2004 exposing Dietz as a white man masquerading as a Native American. In 1988, the National Congress of American Indians attempted to meet and discuss the issue with the team's former owner, Jack Kent Cooke, but Cooke refused a meeting.
Playing career
Dietz played at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with teammate Jim Thorpe, under famed coach Pop Warner.
Coaching career
In 1921, Dietz took a coaching position with Purdue University in Indiana. After Angel De Cora died in 1919, he married Doris O. Pottlitzer, a middle-aged local journalist, on January 29, 1922. The week previous to their marriage, Purdue officials fired him for illegal recruiting. In spring 1933, George Preston Marshall, owner of the Boston Braves, hired Dietz to replace Coach Lud Wray. In 1937, the team moved to Washington, D.C.
For the rest of his life, Dietz continued to promote himself as Lone Star Dietz, the son of W. W. and Julia One Star of Pine Ridge. He took on his last coaching job in 1937 for Albright College in Pennsylvania; in 1964, still married to Doris, Dietz died in Reading, Pennsylvania. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lafayette College with in an exhibit curated by Francis Quirk. He and Doris were so poor that former teammates purchased his headstone. It reads: "William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz
born in South Dakota."
George Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the Boston Braves, sought to rename the franchise in 1933 after leaving the stadium the team had shared with the baseball team of the same name. Marshall was said to have named the Redskins in honor of Dietz, who claimed to be of the Sioux Nation, by analogy with the Red Sox who shared the team's new home, Fenway Park. A 1933 news article quotes Marshall as saying he named the team because of real Indians on the team. However, Marshall is only talking about why he specifically chose Redskins. Dietz was hired before the name change and is cited in many articles and by Marshall as being a reason he kept the Native American theme when changing the team name.
Recognition
Dietz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
Nickname
Dietz named himself "Lone Star" after James One Star, the alleged nephew of an Oglala Buffalo Bill Performer sometime after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. "Lone Star" and "One Star" are the same name in Oglala.
Personal life
Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his identity. She died six days after his indictment. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lehigh University with sculptors Joseph Brown and Jose deRivera in a 1955 exhibit curated by Francis Quirk.
Head coaching record
College football
NFL
College baseball
References
Further reading
Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz (2006) , hardback; , softcover (2006)
Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs (2008) softcover devotes a chapter to Lone Star Dietz
At last, Lone Star in the Hall of Fame (May 22, 2012 by Cougfan.com)
External links
1884 births
1964 deaths
Albright Lions football coaches
Carlisle Indians football coaches
Carlisle Indians football players
Haskell Indian Nations Fighting Indians football coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs baseball coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football coaches
Ole Miss Rebels football coaches
Purdue Boilermakers football coaches
Washington State Cougars football coaches
Wyoming Cowboys football coaches
Boston Redskins head coaches
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
People from Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Players of American football from Wisconsin
American football tackles
| true |
[
"Dietz v. Bouldin, 579 U.S. ___ (2016), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a federal district court may rescind a discharge order and recall jurors for further service in the same case.\n\nBackground \nHillary Bouldin's vehicle collided with Rocky Dietz's in 2009 in Bozeman, Montana, and Dietz sued Bouldin for damages. Bouldin removed the case to a federal district court. During the trial, Bouldin admitted that he was negligent, and was willing to cover Dietz's medical expenses ($10,136). The point of contention was whether Dietz was entitled for more compensation. During the course of deliberation, the jury sent the judge a note whether the damages have been paid or is covered by someone else; after consulting with the lawyers in both sides, the judge informed the jury that the answer to that question does not matter. The jury ruled in favour of Dietz but awarded $0 in damages. The judge thanked and discharged the jury. However, minutes later, the judge realized that it is impossible for the damages to be $0 while Dietz won – the jury returned an invalid verdict. The judge instructed the clerk of the court to re-empanel the jury. All except for one jurors have been in the hallway; the one juror only went back to a hotel to pick up his hotel receipt; no one discussed the case with any outsider. The judge collectively questioned the jury, was satisfied with the response, and gave out clarifying instructions. The re-empaneled jury returned a verdict in favour of Dietz, with $15,000 in damages. Dietz's counsel objected to re-empanelling and pushed for a new trial. The judge objected, saying that he did not want all the resources that the court spent wasted as a result of a new trial. Dietz appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit arguing that a judge does not have the authority to re-empanel the already-discharged jury. The Ninth Circuit ruled in favour of Bouldin. Dietz appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States and the Court granted certiorari.\n\nOpinion of the Court \nAssociate Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored the majority opinion affirming the Ninth Circuit's judgment. The court ruled 6-2 that a judge may recall an already-discharged jury, but has limited authority to do so. They also ruled that this power should be used with caution. The Court noted that since in the era of smartphones and the internet it is not uncommon for people to instinctively check their phones. Thus it is possible for a discharged juror to develop potential prejudice while communicating about the case with someone else via text messages, or quickly Googling about the case to obtain more information about the case. Finally, the Court ruled that in this particular case, the trial judge did not abuse his authority.\n\nDissent \nJustice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, dissented. In his dissent, Thomas argued that the common law rule preventing an already-discharged jury to be re-empaneled should control the case. After surveying the history of jury's sequestration, Thomas argued that while the jury is no longer strictly sequestrated, such bright-line rule guarantees that jury will not be biased in any way and ensures that every trial is decided in a fair manner.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n SCOTUSblog coverage\n\nUnited States Supreme Court cases\nUnited States Supreme Court cases of the Roberts Court\n2016 in United States case law\nUnited States jury case law\nBozeman, Montana",
"Hermann Ernest Georg Dietz, generally called Hermann Dietz, (1861-1944) was a German physician, a member of the Bromberg city council, a senator of the Republic of Poland and a prominent social activist in the first half of the 20th century in Bromberg/Bydgoszcz.\n\nBiography\n\nPrussian Period\nThe Dietz ancestors were German colonists who established in the city after the First Partition of Poland in 1772. The family branch in Bydgoszcz relates also to Heinrich Dietz (1840-1901), a Prussian rentier, member of the Bromberg city council, member of the Prussian parliament and a prominent philanthropist.\n\nHermann was born on November 13, 1861 in Poznań. He was the son of Hermann Theodor Dietz, a restaurateur in Bromberg at 12 Schloss Straße (today's Grodzka Street). After graduating from medical studies in the 1890s, he opened a private medical practice at 17 Linden straße (today's Lipowa street) and at the same time started working in a railway outpatient clinic. Within ten years, Dietz made himself known as one of the best medicine specialists in town.\n\nHermann married Sophie Welle, the widow of a wealthy mill owner. Thanks to her money, he could achieved financial independence and was quickly considered one of the richest citizens of Bromberg. As such, in 1904, he was able to buy an automobile for his private use, a real novelty in the city at the time. While he gave up his tiring activity at the clinic for railwaymen, he moved his private practice downtown at 88-90 Gdańska Street and set up as well a small sanatorium in the suburban village of Rynkowo (now a district of Bydgoszcz).\n\nAt the time of the German Empire (1871-1918), Dietz was very active in politics. He was a city councilor and vice-chairman of the City Council. After World War I, he became involved in activities to keep Bydgoszcz within German territory: he was then one of the most energetic activists in the city. However, Hermann had never shown any anti-Polish behaviour and never attacked verbally (let alone physically) the Polish minority of Bromberg/Bydgoszcz.\n\nInterwar period\nThough the signature of the Treaty of Versailles endorsed the return of Bydgoszcz to the re-born Polish nation, Hermann Dietz decided to stay in the city. On January 19, 1920, he sided with Hugo Wolff, the German mayor, to take part in the ceremony handing over the municipal authority to Jan Maciaszek, the new city magistrate appointed by the Polish government.\n\nAlthough the transfer of power went smoothly, the atmosphere in the city was tense. In this situation, the new city council, afraid of riots, took the decision to preventively isolate some of the most active German leaders. Hence, the 60-year-old doctor Hermann Dietz wound up in Poznań citadel, jailed for three months.\n\nAt his return, Dietz resumed his political activity in German minority organizations, defending its rights: he was being considered anew one of the leaders of the German citizens in Bydgoszcz. During the interwar period, he also gained a great respect among Poles, distinguishing himself by a favorable attitude towards them, whenever the tensions arose, with conflicts and disputes between both nationalities being a daily business. Hermann opposed at court another German, Maksymilian Neumann. The latter, living at Kosciuszko street, addressed sick Poles in his tenement whom the doctor visited as \"[...] dogs to (let) die\". After having been reported by neighbourgs, the case against H. Dietz was judged in the spring of 1939: Neumann was sentenced to six months in prison.\n\nWorld War II\nDuring the Bydgoszcz Bloody Sunday episode which started on September 3, 1939, Dietz hid in the basement of his own tenement house. Discovered by Polish soldiers looking for saboteurs, he was protected from arrest thanks to the intervention of a Polish coachman who vouched for him: the 78-year-old man was left alone.\n\nA few days later the situation changed and the Germans started shooting the Poles, but Dietz intervened in their defence. He even had his neighbours, family of the industrialist Stanisław Rolbieski, murdered by the Nazi forces. Although he was regularly vocal in his critics upon Nazism, he was nevertheless received in 1941 by the German city authorities for a ceremony celebrating his 80th birthday. He died three years later, on February 21, 1944, and was buried in the Evangelical cemetery then located at Jagiellońska street: in 1945, the cemetery was closed and transferred to the Lutheran cemetery in Zaświat Street.\n\nIn 2018, the Evangelical parish renovated most of the tombstones, including Hermann Dietz's.\n\nAmong his children, Herma Dietz (born in 1919) married Walter Sontheimer, a school headmaster. Their son, Prof. Dr. Günther-Dietz Sontheimer (1934-1992), was a scholar in indology.\n\nSocial activities\nDuring World War I, Hermann Dietz together with Elimar Schendell and other doctors organized nursing courses at the \"Auguste-Viktoria-Heim\" (today's Kuyavia Pomerania Cultural Centre at 6 Kościelecki Square), where young infants were coming not only from Bromberg city but also from other regions. Around 130 patients were cared for each year and the institution had set up there a clinic for young mothers.\n\nAfter his return from arrest in 1920, Dr. Dietz kept on working in his private practice at 123 Gdańska street. He also operated two shelters for the poors, the first at 54-57a Dworcowa Street and the second in Szwederowo district, at 5 Dąbrowskiego street. With such actions, he gained a good reputation among Poles: he helped the poor, healed them for free and often provided medicines. He was particularly well known among the new displaced citizens coming from the Eastern Borderlands.\n\nEven during the WWII years and despite his age (over 80), Hermann Dietz continued to help Poles in the way he used to do, something really uncommon in these perilious years. He took care of the sick until his last breath, traveling to his patients in a black carriage with a shed.\n\nSee also \n\n Bydgoszcz\n Hermann's Dietz house\n Heinrich Dietz\n List of Polish people\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n \n \n\nMembers of Bydgoszcz City Council\nPeople from Bydgoszcz\n1861 births\n1944 deaths"
] |
[
"William Henry Dietz",
"Contested heritage",
"What about Dietz's heritage was contested?",
"Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian.",
"Was he living on an Indian reservation or had he before?",
"In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a \"Non-Citizen Indian\" with an allotment.",
"Who was Dietz impersonating when the FBI investigated him?",
"had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba",
"Did Dietz do any jail time for the fraud?",
"his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days",
"Did he have any other Indian brothers and sisters from the mother that testifed for him?",
"I don't know.",
"Where was the trial for his fraud held?",
"Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense.",
"Was Dietz married to anyone else during this time?",
"Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment."
] |
C_f5d500d8481d4ee48d68893a2ce70b48_0
|
What tribe was he claiming to be a member of?
| 8 |
What tribe was William Henry Dietz claiming to be a member of?
|
William Henry Dietz
|
Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war. Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his true identity. She died six days after his indictment. Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was an Indian, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Indian son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest". CANNOTANSWER
|
Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
|
William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University (1922–1923), University of Wyoming (1924–1926), Haskell Institute—now known as Haskell Indian Nations University (1929–1932), and Albright College (1937–1942). From 1933 to 1934, Dietz served as the head coach for the National Football League's Boston Redskins, where he tallied a mark of 11–11–2. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012.
Early life
According to census records and to his birth certificate, he was born William Henry Dietz, or "Willie," on August 17, 1884, in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, at 16 West Humbird Street. His father William Wallace Dietz, settled in the area in 1871 and was elected county sheriff in 1877. His father married Leanna Ginder in November 1879.
"Willie" attended Oklahoma's Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, where he may have feigned some kind of Indian identity for the first time according to researcher Linda Waggoner. She wrote, "Naturally, visitors to the St. Louis World's Fair exhibit, including Dietz's future wife, Winnebago artist Angel De Cora (1871–1919), thought Dietz was a Chilocco student." Waggoner traced Dietz' heritage in several articles in Indian Country Today Media Network and at a 2013 symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Contested heritage
Dietz's heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as a Native American. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war.
Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was a Native American, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Native American son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest".
Dietz's true heritage remains controversial. Although he is recognized as an "Indian athlete" by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly known as the Washington Redskins), Indian Country Today Media Network ran a series of articles in 2004 exposing Dietz as a white man masquerading as a Native American. In 1988, the National Congress of American Indians attempted to meet and discuss the issue with the team's former owner, Jack Kent Cooke, but Cooke refused a meeting.
Playing career
Dietz played at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with teammate Jim Thorpe, under famed coach Pop Warner.
Coaching career
In 1921, Dietz took a coaching position with Purdue University in Indiana. After Angel De Cora died in 1919, he married Doris O. Pottlitzer, a middle-aged local journalist, on January 29, 1922. The week previous to their marriage, Purdue officials fired him for illegal recruiting. In spring 1933, George Preston Marshall, owner of the Boston Braves, hired Dietz to replace Coach Lud Wray. In 1937, the team moved to Washington, D.C.
For the rest of his life, Dietz continued to promote himself as Lone Star Dietz, the son of W. W. and Julia One Star of Pine Ridge. He took on his last coaching job in 1937 for Albright College in Pennsylvania; in 1964, still married to Doris, Dietz died in Reading, Pennsylvania. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lafayette College with in an exhibit curated by Francis Quirk. He and Doris were so poor that former teammates purchased his headstone. It reads: "William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz
born in South Dakota."
George Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the Boston Braves, sought to rename the franchise in 1933 after leaving the stadium the team had shared with the baseball team of the same name. Marshall was said to have named the Redskins in honor of Dietz, who claimed to be of the Sioux Nation, by analogy with the Red Sox who shared the team's new home, Fenway Park. A 1933 news article quotes Marshall as saying he named the team because of real Indians on the team. However, Marshall is only talking about why he specifically chose Redskins. Dietz was hired before the name change and is cited in many articles and by Marshall as being a reason he kept the Native American theme when changing the team name.
Recognition
Dietz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
Nickname
Dietz named himself "Lone Star" after James One Star, the alleged nephew of an Oglala Buffalo Bill Performer sometime after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. "Lone Star" and "One Star" are the same name in Oglala.
Personal life
Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his identity. She died six days after his indictment. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lehigh University with sculptors Joseph Brown and Jose deRivera in a 1955 exhibit curated by Francis Quirk.
Head coaching record
College football
NFL
College baseball
References
Further reading
Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz (2006) , hardback; , softcover (2006)
Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs (2008) softcover devotes a chapter to Lone Star Dietz
At last, Lone Star in the Hall of Fame (May 22, 2012 by Cougfan.com)
External links
1884 births
1964 deaths
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"Toplana is a region of Northern Albania whose territory is synonymous with a minor historic Albanian tribe of the same name. It is part of the Malësia region. Toplana is also used as a surname, for people claiming ancestry from it.\n\nDuring the late Ottoman period, the tribe of Toplana was exclusively Catholic and it was a famous Albanian tribe. Toplana possessed a reputation among other Albanian tribes of being the wildest Catholic tribe due to the high number of fatalities caused by blood feuding. In the survey of death statistics between 1894-1904 the violent death rate was 42.3%. \n\nGeographically, Toplana is a small region situated in the Malësia e Madhe District, near Fierzë, north of Pukë. It borders on the traditional tribal regions of Dushmani to the south, Shkreli to its west, Mërturi to its north and Berisha to the east.\n\nThe parish church of Toplana was built in 1696, on the mountainside by the river Drin. In 1672 the village of Toplana and its surroundings were indicated to have five churches, which were \"without vestments or furnishings\".\n\nReferences\n\nTribes of Albania\nMalësia",
"Lucas v. United States, 163 U.S. 612 (1896), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that whether a Negro freedman was a member of the Choctaw Nation was a question of fact for the jury, and his non-Indian status may not be presumed.\n\nBackground\n\nThe Choctaw Nation was one of the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory (now the eastern part of Oklahoma), and under their treaty with the United States, were allowed to have its own court system to try Indian on Indian crime. When the crime was Choctaw on Choctaw, the tribal courts would handle the trial, but if it involved a non-tribal member, the case was handled by the federal court in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Tribal members included freedmen, African-Americans who had been slaves and who had been adopted by the tribe after the Civil War.\n\nIn 1894, Eli Lucas, a member of the Choctaw Nation, was indicted in the Circuit Court for the Western District of Arkansas for the murder of Levy Kemp, an African-American. In 1895, Lucas was tried in Judge Isaac Parker's court, where witnesses said that Lucas had followed Kemp after a ball game and killed him. The defense claimed that Lucas was not truthful when he had boasted that he had killed Kemp, but that some other, unknown person had committed the murder. Lucas was convicted of murder, and sentenced to hang.\n\nLucas's attorneys filed an appeal, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.\n\nSupreme Court\n\nJustice George Shiras, Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court. Although the Court agreed that Kemp was not a Choctaw Freedman and therefore not a member of the tribe, it held that Judge Parker had erred. The trial court should not have presumed that Kemp was not a member of the tribe, the government should have been required to prove that element in order to establish jurisdiction. Shiras noted that §§ 2145-2146, Revised Statutes, stated that the federal courts did not have jurisdiction over Indian on Indian crime where the tribe had a tribal court. He also held that allowing John LeFlore testify as to what Kemp had told him was hearsay and inadmissible. The Court ordered that Lucas be retried, and reversed his conviction. Lucas was then released to the Choctaw Nation for trial.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nUnited States Supreme Court cases\nChoctaw people\nIndian Territory\nUnited States Supreme Court cases of the Fuller Court"
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"Scarlett Johansson",
"Early roles (1996-2002)"
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C_345ae8aa778e455cabe6b9c1978a57fd_1
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What was one of Johanssons early roles?
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What was one of Scarlett Johanssons early roles?
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Scarlett Johansson
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Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role. After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a talented trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth". Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from PCS that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected. CANNOTANSWER
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Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo
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Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Her films have grossed over billion worldwide, making Johansson the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time. She has received various accolades, including a Tony Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
Johansson aspired to be an actress from an early age and first appeared on stage in an Off-Broadway play as a child actor. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994), and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing a troubled teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) and a seductress in psychological thriller Match Point (2005). The latter was her first collaboration with Woody Allen, who later directed her in Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Johansson's other works of this period include The Prestige (2006) and the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) and Break Up (2009), both of which charted on the Billboard 200.
In 2010, Johansson debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress, and began portraying Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man 2. She reprised the role in eight films, most recently in her solo feature Black Widow (2021), gaining global recognition for her performances. During this period, Johansson starred in the science fiction films Her (2013), Under the Skin (2013) and Lucy (2014). She received two simultaneous Academy Award nominations—Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress—for the respective roles of an actress going through a divorce in the drama Marriage Story (2019) and a single mother in Nazi Germany in the satire Jojo Rabbit (2019).
Labeled a sex symbol, Johansson has been referred to as one of the world's most attractive women by various media outlets. She is a prominent brand endorser and supports several charitable causes. Divorced from actor Ryan Reynolds and businessman Romain Dauriac, Johansson has been married to comedian Colin Jost since 2020. She has two children, one with Dauriac and another with Jost.
Early life
Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark. Her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter, and film director, whose own father was Swedish. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a New Yorker, has worked as a producer; she comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Poland and Russia, originally surnamed Schlamberg, and Johansson describes herself as Jewish. She has an older sister, Vanessa, also an actress; an older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter. She also has an older half-brother, Christian, from her father's first marriage. Johansson holds dual American and Danish citizenship. She discovered that her maternal great-grandfather's family died during the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto on a 2017 episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots.
Johansson attended PS 41, an elementary school in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Her parents divorced when she was thirteen. She was particularly close to her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Sloan, a bookkeeper and schoolteacher; they often spent time together and Johansson considered Dorothy her best friend. Interested in a career in the spotlight from an early age, Johansson often put on song-and-dance routines for her family. She was particularly fond of musical theater and jazz hands. She took lessons in tap dance, and states that her parents were supportive of her career choice. She has described her childhood as very ordinary.
As a child, Johansson practiced acting by staring in the mirror until she made herself cry, wanting to be Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. At age seven, she was devastated when a talent agent signed one of her brothers instead of her, but she later decided to become an actress anyway. She enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and began auditioning for commercials, but soon lost interest: "I didn't want to promote Wonder Bread." She shifted her focus to film and theater, making her first stage appearance in the Off-Broadway play Sophistry with Ethan Hawke, in which she had two lines. Around this time, she began studying at Professional Children's School (PCS), a private educational institution for aspiring child actors in Manhattan.
Acting career
Early work and breakthrough (1994–2002)
At age nine, Johansson made her film debut as John Ritter's daughter in the fantasy comedy North (1994). She says that when she was on the film set, she knew intuitively what to do. She later played minor roles such as the daughter of Sean Connery's and Kate Capshaw's characters in the mystery thriller Just Cause (1995), and an art student in If Lucy Fell (1996). Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role.
After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth".
Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of the same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from Professional Children's School that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected.
Transition to adult roles (2003–2004)
Johansson transitioned from teen to adult roles with two films in 2003: the romantic comedy-drama Lost in Translation and the drama Girl with a Pearl Earring. In the former, directed by Sofia Coppola, she plays Charlotte, a listless and lonely young wife, opposite Bill Murray. Coppola had first noticed Johansson in Manny & Lo, and compared her to a young Lauren Bacall; Coppola based the film's story on the relationship between Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946). Johansson found the experience of working with a female director different because of Coppola's ability to empathize with her. Made on a budget of $4million, the film grossed $119million at the box office and received critical acclaim. Roger Ebert was pleased with the film and described the lead actors' performances as "wonderful", and Entertainment Weekly wrote of Johansson's "embracing, restful serenity". The New York Times praised Johansson, aged 17 at the time of filming, for playing an older character.
In Peter Webber's Girl with a Pearl Earring, which is based on the novel of the same name by Tracy Chevalier, Johansson played Griet, a young 17th-century servant in the household of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (played by Colin Firth). Webber interviewed 150 actors before casting Johansson. Johansson found the character moving, but did not read the novel, as she thought it was better to approach the story with a fresh start. Girl with a Pearl Earring received positive reviews and was profitable. In his review for The New Yorker, Anthony Lane thought that her presence kept the film "alive", writing, "She is often wordless and close to plain onscreen, but wait for the ardor with which she can summon a closeup and bloom under its gaze; this is her film, not Vermeer's, all the way." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly noted her "nearly silent performance", remarking, "The interplay on her face of fear, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is intensely dramatic." She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for both films in 2003, winning the former for Lost in Translation.
In Varietys opinion, Johansson's roles in Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring established her as among the most versatile actresses of her generation. Johansson had five releases in 2004, three of which—the teen heist film The Perfect Score, the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long, and the drama A Good Woman—were critical and commercial failures. Co-starring with John Travolta, Johansson played a discontented teenager in A Love Song for Bobby Long, which is based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. David Rooney of Variety wrote that Johansson's and Travolta's performances rescued the film. Johansson earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama nomination for the film.
In her fourth release in 2004, the live-action animated comedy The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Johansson voiced Princess Mindy, the daughter of King Neptune. She agreed to the project because of her love of cartoons, particularly The Ren & Stimpy Show. The film was her most commercially successful release that year. She would then reprise her role as Mindy in the video game adaptation of the film. She followed it with In Good Company, a comedy-drama in which she complicates the life of her father when she dates his much younger boss. Reviews of the film were generally positive, describing it as "witty and charming". Roger Ebert was impressed with Johansson's portrayal, writing that she "continues to employ the gravitational pull of quiet fascination".
Collaborations with Woody Allen (2005–2009)
Johansson played Nola, an aspiring actress who begins an affair with a married man (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in Woody Allen's drama Match Point in 2005. After replacing Kate Winslet with Johansson for the role, Allen changed the character's nationality from British to American. An admirer of Allen's films, Johansson liked the idea of working with him, but felt nervous her first day on the set. The New York Times was impressed with the performances of Johansson and Rhys Meyers, and Mick LaSalle, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, stated that Johansson "is a powerhouse from the word go", with a performance that "borders on astonishing". The film, a box office success, earned Johansson nominations for the Golden Globe and the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, Johansson underwent a tonsillectomy, after which she starred with Ewan McGregor in Michael Bay's science fiction film The Island, in dual roles as Sarah Jordan and her clone, Jordan Two Delta. Johansson found her filming schedule exhausting: she had to shoot for 14 hours a day, and she hit her head and injured herself. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $163million against a $126million budget.
Two of Johansson's films in 2006 explored the world of stage magicians, both opposite Hugh Jackman. Allen cast her opposite Jackman and himself in the film Scoop (2006), in which she played a journalism student. The film was a modest worldwide box office success, but polarized critics. Ebert was critical of the film, but found Johansson "lovely as always", and Mick LaSalle noted the freshness she brought to her part. She also appeared in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, a film noir shot in Los Angeles and Bulgaria. Johansson later said she was a fan of DePalma and had wanted to work with him on the film, but thought that she was unsuitable for the part. Anne Billson of The Daily Telegraph likewise found her miscast. However, CNN said that she "takes to the pulpy period atmosphere as if it were oxygen".
Also in 2006, Johansson starred in the short film When the Deal Goes Down to accompany Bob Dylan's song "When the Deal Goes Down..." from the album Modern Times. Johansson had a supporting role of assistant and lover of Jackman's character, an aristocratic magician, in Christopher Nolan's mystery thriller The Prestige (2006). Nolan thought Johansson possessed "ambiguity" and "a shielded quality". She was fascinated with Nolan's directing methods and liked working with him. The film was a critical and box office success, recommended by the Los Angeles Times as "an adult, provocative piece of work". Some critics were skeptical of her performance: Billson again judged her miscast, and Dan Jolin of Empire criticized her English accent.
Johansson's sole release of 2007 was the critically panned comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries alongside Chris Evans and Laura Linney, in which she played a college graduate working as a nanny. Reviews of her performance were mixed; Variety wrote, "[She] essays an engaging heroine", and The New Yorker criticized her for looking "merely confused" while "trying to give the material a plausible emotional center". In 2008, Johansson starred, with Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, in The Other Boleyn Girl, which also earned mixed reviews. Promoting the film, Johansson and Portman appeared on the cover of W, discussing with the magazine the public's reception of them. In Rolling Stone, Pete Travers criticized the film for "[moving] in frustrating herks and jerks", but thought that the duo were the only positive aspect of the production. Variety credited the cast as "almost flawless ... at the top of its game", citing "Johansson's quieter Mary ... as the [film's] emotional center".
In her third collaboration with Woody Allen, the romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), which was filmed in Spain, Johansson plays one of the love interests of Javier Bardem's character alongside Penélope Cruz. The film was one of Allen's most profitable and received favorable reviews. A reviewer in Variety described Johansson as "open and malleable" compared to the other actors. She also played the femme fatale Silken Floss in The Spirit, based on the newspaper comic strip of the same name by Will Eisner. It received poor reviews from critics, who deemed it melodramatic, unoriginal, and sexist. Johansson's only role in 2009 was as Anna Marks, a yoga instructor, in the ensemble comedy-drama He's Just Not That into You (2009). The film was released to tepid reviews, but was a box office success.
Marvel Cinematic Universe and worldwide recognition (2010–2013)
Aspiring to appear on Broadway since childhood, Johansson made her debut in a 2010 revival of Arthur Miller's drama A View from the Bridge. Set in the 1950s in an Italian-American neighborhood in New York, it tells the tragic tale of Eddie (Liev Schreiber), who has an inappropriate love for his wife's orphaned niece, Catherine (Johansson). After initial reservations about playing a teenage character, Johansson was convinced by a friend to take on the part. Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote Johansson "melts into her character so thoroughly that her nimbus of celebrity disappears". Varietys David Rooney was impressed with the play and Johansson in particular, describing her as the chief performer. She won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. Some critics and Broadway actors criticized the award committee's decision to reward the work of mainstream Hollywood actors, including Johansson. In response, she said that she understood the frustration, but had worked hard for her accomplishments.
Johansson played Black Widow in Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (2010), a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Before she secured the role, she dyed her hair red to convince Favreau that she was right for the part, and undertook stunt and strength training to prepare for the role. Johansson said the character resonated with her, and she admired the superhero's human traits. The film earned $623.9million against its $200million budget, and received generally positive reviews from critics, although reviewers criticized how her character was written. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph and Matt Goldberg thought that she had little to do but look attractive. In 2011, Johansson played the role of Kelly, a zookeeper in the family film We Bought a Zoo alongside Matt Damon. The film got mainly favorable reviews, and Anne Billson praised Johansson for bringing depth to a rather uninteresting character. Johansson earned a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress: Drama nomination for her performance.
Johansson learned some Russian from a former teacher on the phone for her role as Black Widow in The Avengers (2012), another entry from the MCU. The film received mainly positive reviews and broke many box office records, becoming the third highest-grossing film both in the United States and worldwide. For her performance, she was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards and three People's Choice Awards. Later that year, Johansson portrayed actress Janet Leigh in Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock, a behind-the-scenes drama about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho. Roger Ebert wrote that Johansson did not look much like Leigh, but conveyed her spunk, intelligence, and sense of humor.
In January 2013, Johansson starred in a Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Rob Ashford. Set in the Mississippi Delta, it examines the relationships within the family of Big Daddy (Ciarán Hinds), primarily between his son Brick (Benjamin Walker) and Maggie (Johansson). Her performance received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weeklys Thom Geier wrote Johansson "brings a fierce fighting spirit" to her part, but Joe Dziemianowicz from Daily News called her performance "alarmingly one-note". The 2013 Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, Don Jon. In this romantic comedy-drama, she played the pornography-addicted title character's girlfriend. Gordon-Levitt wrote the role for Johansson, who had previously admired his acting work. The film received positive reviews and Johansson's performance was highlighted by critics. Claudia Puig of USA Today considered it to be one of her best performances.
In 2013, Johansson voiced the character Samantha, a self-aware computer operating system, in Spike Jonze's film Her, replacing Samantha Morton in the role. The film premiered at the 8th Rome International Film Festival, where Johansson won Best Actress; she was also nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. Johansson was intimidated by the role's complexity, and found her recording sessions for the role challenging but liberating. Peter Travers believed Johansson's voice in the film was "sweet, sexy, caring, manipulative, scary [and] award-worthy". Times Richard Corliss called her performance "seductive and winning", and Her was rated as one of the best films of 2013.
She also won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 40th Saturn Awards in 2014 for her performance. Johansson was cast in Jonathan Glazer's science fiction film Under the Skin (2013) as an extraterrestrial creature disguised as a human femme fatale who preys on men in Scotland. The project, an adaptation of Michel Faber's novel of the same name, took nine years to complete. For the role, she learned to drive a van and speak in an English accent. Johansson improvised conversations with non-professional actors on the street, who did not know they were being filmed. It was released to generally positive reviews, with particular praise for Johansson. Erin Whitney, writing for The Huffington Post, considered it to be her finest performance to that point, and noted that it was her first fully nude role. Author Maureen Foster wrote, "How much depth, breadth, and range Johansson mines from her character's very limited allowance of emotional response is a testament to her acting prowess that is, as the film goes on, increasingly stunning." It earned Johansson a BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film nomination.
Blockbuster films and critical acclaim (2014–2020)
Continuing her work in the MCU, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). In the film, she joins forces with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D., while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier. Johansson and Evans wrote their own dialogue for several scenes they had together. Johansson was attracted to her character's way of doing her job, employing her feminine wiles and not her physical appeal. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $714million worldwide. Critic Odie Henderson saw "a genuine emotional shorthand at work, especially from Johansson, who is excellent here". The role earned her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Johansson played a supporting role in the film Chef (2014), alongside Robert Downey, Jr., Sofía Vergara, and director Jon Favreau. It grossed over $45million at the box office and was well received by critics. The Chicago Sun-Times writer Richard Roeper found the film "funny, quirky and insightful, with a bounty of interesting supporting characters". In Luc Besson's science fiction action film Lucy (2014), Johansson starred as the title character, who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream. Besson discussed the role with several actresses, and cast Johansson based on her strong reaction to the script and her discipline. Critics generally praised the film's themes, visuals, and Johansson's performance; some found the plot nonsensical. IGN's Jim Vejvoda attributed the film's success to her acting and Besson's style. The film grossed $458million on a budget of $40million to become the 18th highest-grossing film of 2014.
In 2015 and 2016, Johansson again played Black Widow in the MCU films Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. During filming of the former, a mixture of close-ups, concealing costumes, stunt doubles and visual effects were used to hide her pregnancy. Both films earned more than $1.1billion, ranking among the highest-grossing films of all time. For Civil War, Johansson earned her second nomination for Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie and her fourth for Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. Earlier in 2016, Johansson had featured in the Coen brothers' well-received comedy film Hail, Caesar! about a "fixer" working in the classical Hollywood cinema, trying to discover what happened to a cast member who vanished during the filming of a biblical epic; Johansson plays an actress who becomes pregnant while her film is in production. She also voiced Kaa in Jon Favreau's live-action adaptation of Disney's The Jungle Book, and Ash in the animated musical comedy film Sing (both 2016). That year she also narrated an audiobook of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Johansson played Motoko Kusanagi in Rupert Sanders's 2017 film adaptation of the Ghost in the Shell franchise. The film was praised for its visual style, acting, and cinematography, but was the subject of controversy for whitewashing the cast, particularly Johansson's character, a cyborg who was meant to hold the memories of a Japanese woman. Responding to the backlash, the actress asserted she would never play a non-white character, but wanted to take the rare opportunity to star in a female-led franchise. Ghost in the Shell grossed $169.8million worldwide against a production budget of $110million. In March 2017, Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live for the fifth time, making her the 17th person, and the fourth woman, to enter the NBC sketch comedy's prestigious Five-Timers Club. Johansson's next 2017 film was the comedy Rough Night, where she played Jess Thayer, one of the five friends—alongside Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz—whose bachelorette party goes wrong after a male stripper dies. The film had a mixed critical reception and moderate box office returns. In 2018, Johansson voiced show dog Nutmeg in Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated film Isle of Dogs, released in March, and reprised her MCU role as Black Widow in Avengers: Infinity War, which followed the next month. Johansson was due to star in Rub & Tug, a biographical film in which she would have played Dante "Tex" Gill, a transgender man who operated a massage parlor and prostitution ring in the 1970s and 1980s. She dropped out of the project following backlash to the casting of a cisgender woman to play a transgender man.
In 2019, Johansson once again reprised her role as Black Widow in Avengers: Endgame, which is the highest-grossing film of all time. She next starred in Noah Baumbach's Netflix film Marriage Story, in which Adam Driver and she played a warring couple who file for divorce. Johansson found a connection with her character, as she was amid her own divorce proceedings at the time. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian commended her "brilliantly textured" performance in it. She also took on the supporting role of a young boy's mother who shelters a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany in Taika Waititi's satire Jojo Rabbit. Waititi modeled the character on his own mother, and cast Johansson to provide her a rare opportunity to perform comedy. The film received polarizing reviews, but Stephanie Zacharek labeled her the "lustrous soul of the movie". Johansson received her first two Academy Award nominations, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for her performances in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit, respectively, becoming the eleventh performer to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year. She also received two BAFTA nominations for these films, and a Golden Globe nomination for the former.
Black Widow and lawsuit (2021–present)
After a one-year screen absence, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in her own solo prequel film in 2021, on which she also served as an executive producer. Also starring Florence Pugh, the film is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, and sees Johansson's character on the run and forced to confront her past. Director Cate Shortland, who wanted to make a standalone film on her character, watched Johansson's previous appearances as Black Widow to prepare. Johansson felt proud of the film and that her work playing the role was now complete. She saw this as an opportunity to show her character's ability to be on her own and make choices for herself while facing difficult times, and noted that her vulnerability distinguished her from other Avengers. Critics were generally favorable in their reviews of the film, mainly praising Johansson and Pugh's performances. In a review published in The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney thought the film was "a stellar vehicle" for Johansson. Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood found the actress "again a great presence in the role, showing expert action and acting chops throughout". For the film, Johansson won The Female Movie Star of 2021 at the 47th People's Choice Awards.
In July 2021, Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney claiming that the simultaneous release of Black Widow on their streaming service Disney+ breached a clause in her contract that the film receive exclusive theatrical release. She alleged that the release on Disney+ exempted her from receiving additional bonus from box-office profits, to which she was entitled. In response, Disney said her lawsuit showed an indifference to the "horrific and prolonged" effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also stated that Johansson already received $20million for the film and that the Disney+ Premier Access release would only earn her additional compensation. The Hollywood Reporter described Disney's response as "aggressive". Accusing Disney of intentionally violating their contract with Johansson, Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Bryan Lourd criticized the company for falsely portraying Johansson as insensitive to the effects of the pandemic, which he considered a "direct attack on her character". Lourd further stated that the company including her salary in their public statement was to try to "weaponize her success as an artist and businesswoman". Later that September, both parties announced that they had resolved their dispute, with the terms of the settlement remaining undisclosed.
Music career
In 2006, Johansson sang the track "Summertime" for Unexpected DreamsSongs From the Stars, a non-profit collection of songs recorded by Hollywood actors. She performed with the Jesus and Mary Chain for a Coachella reunion show in Indio, California, in April 2007. The following year, Johansson appeared as the leading lady in Justin Timberlake's music video, for "What Goes Around... Comes Around", which was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.
In May 2008, Johansson released her debut album Anywhere I Lay My Head, which consists of one original song and ten cover versions of Tom Waits songs, and features David Bowie and members from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Celebration. Reviews of the album were mixed. Spin was not particularly impressed with Johansson's singing. Some critics found it to be "surprisingly alluring", "a bravely eccentric selection", and "a brilliant album" with "ghostly magic". NME named the album the "23rd best album of 2008", and it peaked at number126 on the Billboard 200. Johansson started listening to Waits when she was 11 or 12 years old, and said of him, "His melodies are so beautiful, his voice is so distinct and I had my own way of doing Tom Waits songs."
In September 2009, Johansson and singer-songwriter Pete Yorn released a collaborative album, Break Up, inspired by Serge Gainsbourg's duets with Brigitte Bardot. The album reached number 41 in the US. In 2010, Steel Train released Terrible Thrills Vol.1, which includes their favorite female artists singing songs from their self-titled album. Johansson is the first artist on the album, singing "Bullet". Johansson sang "One Whole Hour" for the 2011 soundtrack of the documentary film Wretches & Jabberers (2010). and in 2012 sang on a J.Ralph track entitled "Before My Time" for the end credits of the climate documentary Chasing Ice (2012)
In February 2015, Johansson formed a band called the Singles with Este Haim from HAIM, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan. The group's first single was called "Candy". Johansson was issued a cease and desist order from the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based rock band the Singles, demanding she stop using their name. In 2016, she performed "Trust in Me" for The Jungle Book soundtrack and "Set It All Free" and "I Don't Wanna" for Sing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. In 2018, Johansson collaborated with Pete Yorn again for an EP titled Apart, released June 1.
Public image
Johansson has been called "ScarJo" by the media and fans, and dislikes being called this, finding it lazy, flippant and insulting. She has no social media profiles, saying she does not see the need "to continuously share details of [her] everyday life."
Johansson is described as a sex symbol by the media. The Sydney Morning Herald describes her as "the embodiment of male fantasy". During the filming of Match Point, director Woody Allen remarked upon her attractiveness, calling her "beautiful" and "sexually overwhelming". In 2014, The New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane wrote that "she is evidently, and profitably, aware of her sultriness, and of how much, down to the last inch, it contributes to the contours of her reputation." Johansson has expressed displeasure at being sexualized, and maintains that a preoccupation with one's attractiveness does not last. She lost the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), because the film's director David Fincher found her "too sexy" for the part.
Johansson ranks highly in several beauty listings. Maxim included her in their Hot 100 list from 2006 to 2014. She has been named "Sexiest Woman Alive" twice by Esquire (2006 and 2013), and has been included in similar listings by Playboy (2007), Men's Health (2011), and FHM (since 2005). She was named GQs Babe of the Year in 2010. Madame Tussauds New York museum unveiled a wax statue of her in 2015.
Johansson was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2004. In 2006, she appeared on Forbes Celebrity 100 list, and again in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2012. In 2021, she appeared on the Time 100, Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Johansson was included on Forbes annual list of the world's highest-paid actresses from 2014 to 2016, with respective earnings of $17million, $35.5million and $25million. She would later top the list in 2018 and 2019, with earnings of $40.5million and $56million, respectively. She was the highest-grossing actor of 2016, with a total of $1.2billion. As a result, IndieWire credited her for taking on risky roles. , her films have grossed over billion in North America and over billion worldwide, making Johansson the third-highest-grossing box-office star of all time both domestically and worldwide as well as the highest-grossing actress of all time in North America.
Johansson has appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, L'Oréal, and Louis Vuitton, and has represented the Spanish brand Mango since 2009. She was the first Hollywood celebrity to represent a champagne producer, appearing in advertisements for Moët & Chandon. In January 2014, the Israeli company SodaStream, which makes home-carbonation products, hired Johansson as its first global brand ambassador, a relationship that commenced with a television commercial during Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. This created some controversy, as SodaStream at that time operated a plant in Israeli-occupied territory in the West Bank.
Personal life
While attending PCS, Johansson dated classmate Jack Antonoff from 2001 to 2002. She dated her Black Dahlia co-star Josh Hartnett for about two years until the end of 2006. Hartnett said they broke up because their busy schedules kept them apart. Johansson began dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007. They became engaged in May 2008, married in September 2008 on Vancouver Island, separated in December 2010 and divorced in July 2011.
In November 2012, Johansson began dating Frenchman Romain Dauriac, the owner of an advertising agency. They became engaged the following September. The pair divided their time between New York City and Paris. She gave birth to their daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac, in 2014. Johansson and Dauriac married that October in Philipsburg, Montana. They separated in mid-2016 and divorced in September 2017. Johansson began dating Saturday Night Live co-head writer and Weekend Update co-host Colin Jost in May 2017. In May 2019, the two were engaged. They married in October 2020, at their New York home. She gave birth to their son, Cosmo, in August 2021. Johansson resides in New York and Los Angeles.
In September 2011, nude photographs of Johansson hacked from her cell phone were leaked online. She said the pictures had been sent to her then-husband, Ryan Reynolds, three years before the incident. Following an FBI investigation, the hacker was arrested, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In 2014, Johansson won a lawsuit against French publisher JC Lattès over defamatory statements about her relationships in the novel The First Thing We Look At by Grégoire Delacourt. She was awarded $3,400; she had claimed $68,000.
Johansson has criticized the media for promoting an image that causes unhealthy diets and eating disorders among women. In an essay she wrote for The Huffington Post, she encouraged people to maintain a healthy body. She posed nude on the March 2006 cover of Vanity Fair alongside actress Keira Knightley and fully clothed fashion designer Tom Ford, who jumped in last minute on the day of the shoot to replace Rachel McAdams after she walked out. The photograph sparked controversy, as some believed it demonstrated that women are forced to flaunt their sexuality more often than men.
Other ventures
Philanthropy
Johansson has supported various charitable organizations, including Aid Still Required, Cancer Research UK, Stand Up To Cancer, Too Many Women (which works against breast cancer), and USA Harvest, which provides food for people in need. In 2005, Johansson became a global ambassador for the aid and development agency Oxfam. In 2007, she took part in the anti-poverty campaign ONE, which was organized by U2's lead singer Bono. In March 2008, a UK-based bidder paid £20,000 on an eBay auction to benefit Oxfam, winning a hair and makeup treatment, a pair of tickets, and a chauffeured trip to accompany her on a 20-minute date to the world premiere of He's Just Not That into You.
In January 2014, Johansson resigned from her Oxfam position after criticism of her promotion of SodaStream, whose main factory was based in Mishor Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank; Oxfam opposes all trade with such Israeli settlements. Oxfam stated that it was thankful for her contributions in raising funds to fight poverty. Together with her Avengers costars, Johansson raised $500,000 for the victims of Hurricane Maria.
In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. Johansson took part in the Women's March in Los Angeles in January 2018, where she spoke on topics such as abuses of power, sharing her own experience. She received backlash for calling out fellow actor James Franco on allegations of sexual misconduct as in the past she had defended working with Woody Allen amid an accusation by his daughter Dylan Farrow.
Johansson has given support to Operation Warrior Wellness, a division of the David Lynch Foundation that helps veterans learn Transcendental Meditation. Her grand-uncle, Phillip Schlamberg, was the last American pilot to have been killed during WWII. He had gone on a bombing mission with Jerry Yellin, who went on to become co-founder of Operation Warrior Wellness.
Politics
Johansson was registered as an independent, at least through 2008, and campaigned for Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 United States presidential election. When George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, she said she was disappointed.
In January 2008, her campaign for Democratic candidate Barack Obama included appearances in Iowa targeted at younger voters, an appearance at Cornell College, and a speaking engagement at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, on Super Tuesday, 2008. Johansson appeared in the music video for rapper will.i.am's song, "Yes We Can" (2008), directed by Jesse Dylan; the song was inspired by Obama's speech after the 2008 New Hampshire primary. In February 2012, Johansson and Anna Wintour hosted a fashion launch of pro-Obama clothing, bags, and accessories, the proceeds of which went to the President's re-election campaign. She addressed voters at the Democratic National Convention in September 2012, calling for Obama's re-election and for more engagement from young voters. She encouraged women to vote for Obama and condemned Mitt Romney for his opposition to Planned Parenthood.
Johansson publicly endorsed and supported Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's 2013 run for New York City Comptroller by hosting a series of fundraisers. To encourage people to vote in the 2016 presidential election, in which Johansson endorsed Hillary Clinton, she appeared in a commercial alongside her Marvel Cinematic Universe co-star Robert Downey Jr., and Joss Whedon. In 2017, she spoke at the Women's March on Washington, addressing Donald Trump's presidency and stating that she would support the president if he works for women's rights and stops withdrawing federal funding for Planned Parenthood. In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Johansson endorsed Elizabeth Warren, referring to Warren as "thoughtful and progressive but realistic".
In December 2020, three members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an Egyptian civil rights organization, were released from prison in Egypt, after Johansson had described their detention circumstances and demanded the trio's release.
Notes
See also
List of actors nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year
References
Further reading
External links
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
1984 births
Actresses from New York City
American child actresses
American film actresses
American people of Danish descent
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American people of Swedish descent
American stage actresses
American voice actresses
American women film producers
Atco Records artists
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
César Honorary Award recipients
Danish people of Polish-Jewish descent
Danish people of Russian-Jewish descent
Danish people of Swedish descent
Female models from New York (state)
Fraternal twin actresses
Jewish American actresses
Jewish singers
Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni
Living people
Method actors
People from Manhattan
Theatre World Award winners
Time 100
Tony Award winners
Twin people from the United States
| true |
[
"Allsvenskan 2000, part of the 2000 Swedish football season, was the 76th Allsvenskan season played. The first match was played 8 April 2000 and the last match was played 4 November 2000. Halmstads BK won the league ahead of runners-up Helsingborgs IF, while GAIS and Västra Frölunda IF were relegated.\n\nSummary\nA total number of five teams from Göteborg participated: IFK Göteborg, Örgryte IS, BK Häcken, GAIS and Västra Frölunda IF.\nFrom this season, only the team ending up at the 12th position was required to play relegation qualifying games, following the establishment of Superettan.\nWhen Halmstads BK won the Swedish Championship, they became the final team to be awarded the von Rosens pokal. From 2001 it was replaced by Lennart Johanssons Pokal.\n\nParticipating clubs\n\nLeague table\n\nRelegation play-offs\n\nResults\n\nAttendances\n\nTop scorers\n\nReferences \n\nPrint\n \n \n \n\nOnline\n \n \n\nAllsvenskan seasons\nSwed\nSwed\n1",
"Count Carl Clarence von Rosen (12 May 1867, Stockholm – 12 August 1955) was a Swedish athlete, military officer, and Crown Equerry to the King of Sweden. He became a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1900, and was credited for the re-introduction of Equestrian at the Summer Olympics after it was dropped at the 1904 Olympic Games. He competed in many sports, such as bandy (which he introduced to Sweden), ice hockey, football, lawn tennis and ice skating.\n\nIn 1900, he founded the sports newspaper Nordiskt Idrottslif which became the leading sports newspaper in Sweden during its existence.\n\nvon Rosen was the brother of Count Eric von Rosen. During the 1930s, Clarence and his brother played a leading role in the Swedish upper class Nazi-movement.\n\nvon Rosen was the first chairman of the Swedish Football Association. In honour of his name the champions of Swedish football were each year between 1904 and 2000 awarded the von Rosens pokal (English: von Rosen's cup). However, in 2000, after the rediscovery (it was news in the early 1920s) that von Rosen's wife's sister had married the later infamous Nazi leader Hermann Göring during his years in Sweden, the trophy was replaced by Lennart Johanssons Pokal, but without any allegations against the entire von Rosen family .\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Clarence von Rosen's genealogical connections\n\n1867 births\n1955 deaths\nMilitary personnel from Stockholm\nSwedish nobility\nSwedish people of American descent\nSwedish people of English descent\nChairmen of the Swedish Football Association"
] |
[
"Scarlett Johansson",
"Early roles (1996-2002)",
"What was one of Johanssons early roles?",
"Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo"
] |
C_345ae8aa778e455cabe6b9c1978a57fd_1
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was that a movie or tv series?
| 2 |
was "Manny & Lo" a movie or tv series?
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Scarlett Johansson
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Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role. After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a talented trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth". Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from PCS that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected. CANNOTANSWER
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film
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Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Her films have grossed over billion worldwide, making Johansson the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time. She has received various accolades, including a Tony Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
Johansson aspired to be an actress from an early age and first appeared on stage in an Off-Broadway play as a child actor. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994), and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing a troubled teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) and a seductress in psychological thriller Match Point (2005). The latter was her first collaboration with Woody Allen, who later directed her in Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Johansson's other works of this period include The Prestige (2006) and the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) and Break Up (2009), both of which charted on the Billboard 200.
In 2010, Johansson debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress, and began portraying Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man 2. She reprised the role in eight films, most recently in her solo feature Black Widow (2021), gaining global recognition for her performances. During this period, Johansson starred in the science fiction films Her (2013), Under the Skin (2013) and Lucy (2014). She received two simultaneous Academy Award nominations—Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress—for the respective roles of an actress going through a divorce in the drama Marriage Story (2019) and a single mother in Nazi Germany in the satire Jojo Rabbit (2019).
Labeled a sex symbol, Johansson has been referred to as one of the world's most attractive women by various media outlets. She is a prominent brand endorser and supports several charitable causes. Divorced from actor Ryan Reynolds and businessman Romain Dauriac, Johansson has been married to comedian Colin Jost since 2020. She has two children, one with Dauriac and another with Jost.
Early life
Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark. Her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter, and film director, whose own father was Swedish. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a New Yorker, has worked as a producer; she comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Poland and Russia, originally surnamed Schlamberg, and Johansson describes herself as Jewish. She has an older sister, Vanessa, also an actress; an older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter. She also has an older half-brother, Christian, from her father's first marriage. Johansson holds dual American and Danish citizenship. She discovered that her maternal great-grandfather's family died during the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto on a 2017 episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots.
Johansson attended PS 41, an elementary school in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Her parents divorced when she was thirteen. She was particularly close to her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Sloan, a bookkeeper and schoolteacher; they often spent time together and Johansson considered Dorothy her best friend. Interested in a career in the spotlight from an early age, Johansson often put on song-and-dance routines for her family. She was particularly fond of musical theater and jazz hands. She took lessons in tap dance, and states that her parents were supportive of her career choice. She has described her childhood as very ordinary.
As a child, Johansson practiced acting by staring in the mirror until she made herself cry, wanting to be Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. At age seven, she was devastated when a talent agent signed one of her brothers instead of her, but she later decided to become an actress anyway. She enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and began auditioning for commercials, but soon lost interest: "I didn't want to promote Wonder Bread." She shifted her focus to film and theater, making her first stage appearance in the Off-Broadway play Sophistry with Ethan Hawke, in which she had two lines. Around this time, she began studying at Professional Children's School (PCS), a private educational institution for aspiring child actors in Manhattan.
Acting career
Early work and breakthrough (1994–2002)
At age nine, Johansson made her film debut as John Ritter's daughter in the fantasy comedy North (1994). She says that when she was on the film set, she knew intuitively what to do. She later played minor roles such as the daughter of Sean Connery's and Kate Capshaw's characters in the mystery thriller Just Cause (1995), and an art student in If Lucy Fell (1996). Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role.
After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth".
Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of the same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from Professional Children's School that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected.
Transition to adult roles (2003–2004)
Johansson transitioned from teen to adult roles with two films in 2003: the romantic comedy-drama Lost in Translation and the drama Girl with a Pearl Earring. In the former, directed by Sofia Coppola, she plays Charlotte, a listless and lonely young wife, opposite Bill Murray. Coppola had first noticed Johansson in Manny & Lo, and compared her to a young Lauren Bacall; Coppola based the film's story on the relationship between Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946). Johansson found the experience of working with a female director different because of Coppola's ability to empathize with her. Made on a budget of $4million, the film grossed $119million at the box office and received critical acclaim. Roger Ebert was pleased with the film and described the lead actors' performances as "wonderful", and Entertainment Weekly wrote of Johansson's "embracing, restful serenity". The New York Times praised Johansson, aged 17 at the time of filming, for playing an older character.
In Peter Webber's Girl with a Pearl Earring, which is based on the novel of the same name by Tracy Chevalier, Johansson played Griet, a young 17th-century servant in the household of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (played by Colin Firth). Webber interviewed 150 actors before casting Johansson. Johansson found the character moving, but did not read the novel, as she thought it was better to approach the story with a fresh start. Girl with a Pearl Earring received positive reviews and was profitable. In his review for The New Yorker, Anthony Lane thought that her presence kept the film "alive", writing, "She is often wordless and close to plain onscreen, but wait for the ardor with which she can summon a closeup and bloom under its gaze; this is her film, not Vermeer's, all the way." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly noted her "nearly silent performance", remarking, "The interplay on her face of fear, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is intensely dramatic." She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for both films in 2003, winning the former for Lost in Translation.
In Varietys opinion, Johansson's roles in Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring established her as among the most versatile actresses of her generation. Johansson had five releases in 2004, three of which—the teen heist film The Perfect Score, the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long, and the drama A Good Woman—were critical and commercial failures. Co-starring with John Travolta, Johansson played a discontented teenager in A Love Song for Bobby Long, which is based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. David Rooney of Variety wrote that Johansson's and Travolta's performances rescued the film. Johansson earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama nomination for the film.
In her fourth release in 2004, the live-action animated comedy The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Johansson voiced Princess Mindy, the daughter of King Neptune. She agreed to the project because of her love of cartoons, particularly The Ren & Stimpy Show. The film was her most commercially successful release that year. She would then reprise her role as Mindy in the video game adaptation of the film. She followed it with In Good Company, a comedy-drama in which she complicates the life of her father when she dates his much younger boss. Reviews of the film were generally positive, describing it as "witty and charming". Roger Ebert was impressed with Johansson's portrayal, writing that she "continues to employ the gravitational pull of quiet fascination".
Collaborations with Woody Allen (2005–2009)
Johansson played Nola, an aspiring actress who begins an affair with a married man (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in Woody Allen's drama Match Point in 2005. After replacing Kate Winslet with Johansson for the role, Allen changed the character's nationality from British to American. An admirer of Allen's films, Johansson liked the idea of working with him, but felt nervous her first day on the set. The New York Times was impressed with the performances of Johansson and Rhys Meyers, and Mick LaSalle, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, stated that Johansson "is a powerhouse from the word go", with a performance that "borders on astonishing". The film, a box office success, earned Johansson nominations for the Golden Globe and the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, Johansson underwent a tonsillectomy, after which she starred with Ewan McGregor in Michael Bay's science fiction film The Island, in dual roles as Sarah Jordan and her clone, Jordan Two Delta. Johansson found her filming schedule exhausting: she had to shoot for 14 hours a day, and she hit her head and injured herself. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $163million against a $126million budget.
Two of Johansson's films in 2006 explored the world of stage magicians, both opposite Hugh Jackman. Allen cast her opposite Jackman and himself in the film Scoop (2006), in which she played a journalism student. The film was a modest worldwide box office success, but polarized critics. Ebert was critical of the film, but found Johansson "lovely as always", and Mick LaSalle noted the freshness she brought to her part. She also appeared in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, a film noir shot in Los Angeles and Bulgaria. Johansson later said she was a fan of DePalma and had wanted to work with him on the film, but thought that she was unsuitable for the part. Anne Billson of The Daily Telegraph likewise found her miscast. However, CNN said that she "takes to the pulpy period atmosphere as if it were oxygen".
Also in 2006, Johansson starred in the short film When the Deal Goes Down to accompany Bob Dylan's song "When the Deal Goes Down..." from the album Modern Times. Johansson had a supporting role of assistant and lover of Jackman's character, an aristocratic magician, in Christopher Nolan's mystery thriller The Prestige (2006). Nolan thought Johansson possessed "ambiguity" and "a shielded quality". She was fascinated with Nolan's directing methods and liked working with him. The film was a critical and box office success, recommended by the Los Angeles Times as "an adult, provocative piece of work". Some critics were skeptical of her performance: Billson again judged her miscast, and Dan Jolin of Empire criticized her English accent.
Johansson's sole release of 2007 was the critically panned comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries alongside Chris Evans and Laura Linney, in which she played a college graduate working as a nanny. Reviews of her performance were mixed; Variety wrote, "[She] essays an engaging heroine", and The New Yorker criticized her for looking "merely confused" while "trying to give the material a plausible emotional center". In 2008, Johansson starred, with Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, in The Other Boleyn Girl, which also earned mixed reviews. Promoting the film, Johansson and Portman appeared on the cover of W, discussing with the magazine the public's reception of them. In Rolling Stone, Pete Travers criticized the film for "[moving] in frustrating herks and jerks", but thought that the duo were the only positive aspect of the production. Variety credited the cast as "almost flawless ... at the top of its game", citing "Johansson's quieter Mary ... as the [film's] emotional center".
In her third collaboration with Woody Allen, the romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), which was filmed in Spain, Johansson plays one of the love interests of Javier Bardem's character alongside Penélope Cruz. The film was one of Allen's most profitable and received favorable reviews. A reviewer in Variety described Johansson as "open and malleable" compared to the other actors. She also played the femme fatale Silken Floss in The Spirit, based on the newspaper comic strip of the same name by Will Eisner. It received poor reviews from critics, who deemed it melodramatic, unoriginal, and sexist. Johansson's only role in 2009 was as Anna Marks, a yoga instructor, in the ensemble comedy-drama He's Just Not That into You (2009). The film was released to tepid reviews, but was a box office success.
Marvel Cinematic Universe and worldwide recognition (2010–2013)
Aspiring to appear on Broadway since childhood, Johansson made her debut in a 2010 revival of Arthur Miller's drama A View from the Bridge. Set in the 1950s in an Italian-American neighborhood in New York, it tells the tragic tale of Eddie (Liev Schreiber), who has an inappropriate love for his wife's orphaned niece, Catherine (Johansson). After initial reservations about playing a teenage character, Johansson was convinced by a friend to take on the part. Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote Johansson "melts into her character so thoroughly that her nimbus of celebrity disappears". Varietys David Rooney was impressed with the play and Johansson in particular, describing her as the chief performer. She won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. Some critics and Broadway actors criticized the award committee's decision to reward the work of mainstream Hollywood actors, including Johansson. In response, she said that she understood the frustration, but had worked hard for her accomplishments.
Johansson played Black Widow in Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (2010), a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Before she secured the role, she dyed her hair red to convince Favreau that she was right for the part, and undertook stunt and strength training to prepare for the role. Johansson said the character resonated with her, and she admired the superhero's human traits. The film earned $623.9million against its $200million budget, and received generally positive reviews from critics, although reviewers criticized how her character was written. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph and Matt Goldberg thought that she had little to do but look attractive. In 2011, Johansson played the role of Kelly, a zookeeper in the family film We Bought a Zoo alongside Matt Damon. The film got mainly favorable reviews, and Anne Billson praised Johansson for bringing depth to a rather uninteresting character. Johansson earned a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress: Drama nomination for her performance.
Johansson learned some Russian from a former teacher on the phone for her role as Black Widow in The Avengers (2012), another entry from the MCU. The film received mainly positive reviews and broke many box office records, becoming the third highest-grossing film both in the United States and worldwide. For her performance, she was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards and three People's Choice Awards. Later that year, Johansson portrayed actress Janet Leigh in Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock, a behind-the-scenes drama about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho. Roger Ebert wrote that Johansson did not look much like Leigh, but conveyed her spunk, intelligence, and sense of humor.
In January 2013, Johansson starred in a Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Rob Ashford. Set in the Mississippi Delta, it examines the relationships within the family of Big Daddy (Ciarán Hinds), primarily between his son Brick (Benjamin Walker) and Maggie (Johansson). Her performance received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weeklys Thom Geier wrote Johansson "brings a fierce fighting spirit" to her part, but Joe Dziemianowicz from Daily News called her performance "alarmingly one-note". The 2013 Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, Don Jon. In this romantic comedy-drama, she played the pornography-addicted title character's girlfriend. Gordon-Levitt wrote the role for Johansson, who had previously admired his acting work. The film received positive reviews and Johansson's performance was highlighted by critics. Claudia Puig of USA Today considered it to be one of her best performances.
In 2013, Johansson voiced the character Samantha, a self-aware computer operating system, in Spike Jonze's film Her, replacing Samantha Morton in the role. The film premiered at the 8th Rome International Film Festival, where Johansson won Best Actress; she was also nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. Johansson was intimidated by the role's complexity, and found her recording sessions for the role challenging but liberating. Peter Travers believed Johansson's voice in the film was "sweet, sexy, caring, manipulative, scary [and] award-worthy". Times Richard Corliss called her performance "seductive and winning", and Her was rated as one of the best films of 2013.
She also won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 40th Saturn Awards in 2014 for her performance. Johansson was cast in Jonathan Glazer's science fiction film Under the Skin (2013) as an extraterrestrial creature disguised as a human femme fatale who preys on men in Scotland. The project, an adaptation of Michel Faber's novel of the same name, took nine years to complete. For the role, she learned to drive a van and speak in an English accent. Johansson improvised conversations with non-professional actors on the street, who did not know they were being filmed. It was released to generally positive reviews, with particular praise for Johansson. Erin Whitney, writing for The Huffington Post, considered it to be her finest performance to that point, and noted that it was her first fully nude role. Author Maureen Foster wrote, "How much depth, breadth, and range Johansson mines from her character's very limited allowance of emotional response is a testament to her acting prowess that is, as the film goes on, increasingly stunning." It earned Johansson a BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film nomination.
Blockbuster films and critical acclaim (2014–2020)
Continuing her work in the MCU, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). In the film, she joins forces with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D., while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier. Johansson and Evans wrote their own dialogue for several scenes they had together. Johansson was attracted to her character's way of doing her job, employing her feminine wiles and not her physical appeal. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $714million worldwide. Critic Odie Henderson saw "a genuine emotional shorthand at work, especially from Johansson, who is excellent here". The role earned her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Johansson played a supporting role in the film Chef (2014), alongside Robert Downey, Jr., Sofía Vergara, and director Jon Favreau. It grossed over $45million at the box office and was well received by critics. The Chicago Sun-Times writer Richard Roeper found the film "funny, quirky and insightful, with a bounty of interesting supporting characters". In Luc Besson's science fiction action film Lucy (2014), Johansson starred as the title character, who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream. Besson discussed the role with several actresses, and cast Johansson based on her strong reaction to the script and her discipline. Critics generally praised the film's themes, visuals, and Johansson's performance; some found the plot nonsensical. IGN's Jim Vejvoda attributed the film's success to her acting and Besson's style. The film grossed $458million on a budget of $40million to become the 18th highest-grossing film of 2014.
In 2015 and 2016, Johansson again played Black Widow in the MCU films Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. During filming of the former, a mixture of close-ups, concealing costumes, stunt doubles and visual effects were used to hide her pregnancy. Both films earned more than $1.1billion, ranking among the highest-grossing films of all time. For Civil War, Johansson earned her second nomination for Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie and her fourth for Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. Earlier in 2016, Johansson had featured in the Coen brothers' well-received comedy film Hail, Caesar! about a "fixer" working in the classical Hollywood cinema, trying to discover what happened to a cast member who vanished during the filming of a biblical epic; Johansson plays an actress who becomes pregnant while her film is in production. She also voiced Kaa in Jon Favreau's live-action adaptation of Disney's The Jungle Book, and Ash in the animated musical comedy film Sing (both 2016). That year she also narrated an audiobook of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Johansson played Motoko Kusanagi in Rupert Sanders's 2017 film adaptation of the Ghost in the Shell franchise. The film was praised for its visual style, acting, and cinematography, but was the subject of controversy for whitewashing the cast, particularly Johansson's character, a cyborg who was meant to hold the memories of a Japanese woman. Responding to the backlash, the actress asserted she would never play a non-white character, but wanted to take the rare opportunity to star in a female-led franchise. Ghost in the Shell grossed $169.8million worldwide against a production budget of $110million. In March 2017, Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live for the fifth time, making her the 17th person, and the fourth woman, to enter the NBC sketch comedy's prestigious Five-Timers Club. Johansson's next 2017 film was the comedy Rough Night, where she played Jess Thayer, one of the five friends—alongside Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz—whose bachelorette party goes wrong after a male stripper dies. The film had a mixed critical reception and moderate box office returns. In 2018, Johansson voiced show dog Nutmeg in Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated film Isle of Dogs, released in March, and reprised her MCU role as Black Widow in Avengers: Infinity War, which followed the next month. Johansson was due to star in Rub & Tug, a biographical film in which she would have played Dante "Tex" Gill, a transgender man who operated a massage parlor and prostitution ring in the 1970s and 1980s. She dropped out of the project following backlash to the casting of a cisgender woman to play a transgender man.
In 2019, Johansson once again reprised her role as Black Widow in Avengers: Endgame, which is the highest-grossing film of all time. She next starred in Noah Baumbach's Netflix film Marriage Story, in which Adam Driver and she played a warring couple who file for divorce. Johansson found a connection with her character, as she was amid her own divorce proceedings at the time. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian commended her "brilliantly textured" performance in it. She also took on the supporting role of a young boy's mother who shelters a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany in Taika Waititi's satire Jojo Rabbit. Waititi modeled the character on his own mother, and cast Johansson to provide her a rare opportunity to perform comedy. The film received polarizing reviews, but Stephanie Zacharek labeled her the "lustrous soul of the movie". Johansson received her first two Academy Award nominations, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for her performances in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit, respectively, becoming the eleventh performer to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year. She also received two BAFTA nominations for these films, and a Golden Globe nomination for the former.
Black Widow and lawsuit (2021–present)
After a one-year screen absence, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in her own solo prequel film in 2021, on which she also served as an executive producer. Also starring Florence Pugh, the film is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, and sees Johansson's character on the run and forced to confront her past. Director Cate Shortland, who wanted to make a standalone film on her character, watched Johansson's previous appearances as Black Widow to prepare. Johansson felt proud of the film and that her work playing the role was now complete. She saw this as an opportunity to show her character's ability to be on her own and make choices for herself while facing difficult times, and noted that her vulnerability distinguished her from other Avengers. Critics were generally favorable in their reviews of the film, mainly praising Johansson and Pugh's performances. In a review published in The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney thought the film was "a stellar vehicle" for Johansson. Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood found the actress "again a great presence in the role, showing expert action and acting chops throughout". For the film, Johansson won The Female Movie Star of 2021 at the 47th People's Choice Awards.
In July 2021, Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney claiming that the simultaneous release of Black Widow on their streaming service Disney+ breached a clause in her contract that the film receive exclusive theatrical release. She alleged that the release on Disney+ exempted her from receiving additional bonus from box-office profits, to which she was entitled. In response, Disney said her lawsuit showed an indifference to the "horrific and prolonged" effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also stated that Johansson already received $20million for the film and that the Disney+ Premier Access release would only earn her additional compensation. The Hollywood Reporter described Disney's response as "aggressive". Accusing Disney of intentionally violating their contract with Johansson, Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Bryan Lourd criticized the company for falsely portraying Johansson as insensitive to the effects of the pandemic, which he considered a "direct attack on her character". Lourd further stated that the company including her salary in their public statement was to try to "weaponize her success as an artist and businesswoman". Later that September, both parties announced that they had resolved their dispute, with the terms of the settlement remaining undisclosed.
Music career
In 2006, Johansson sang the track "Summertime" for Unexpected DreamsSongs From the Stars, a non-profit collection of songs recorded by Hollywood actors. She performed with the Jesus and Mary Chain for a Coachella reunion show in Indio, California, in April 2007. The following year, Johansson appeared as the leading lady in Justin Timberlake's music video, for "What Goes Around... Comes Around", which was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.
In May 2008, Johansson released her debut album Anywhere I Lay My Head, which consists of one original song and ten cover versions of Tom Waits songs, and features David Bowie and members from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Celebration. Reviews of the album were mixed. Spin was not particularly impressed with Johansson's singing. Some critics found it to be "surprisingly alluring", "a bravely eccentric selection", and "a brilliant album" with "ghostly magic". NME named the album the "23rd best album of 2008", and it peaked at number126 on the Billboard 200. Johansson started listening to Waits when she was 11 or 12 years old, and said of him, "His melodies are so beautiful, his voice is so distinct and I had my own way of doing Tom Waits songs."
In September 2009, Johansson and singer-songwriter Pete Yorn released a collaborative album, Break Up, inspired by Serge Gainsbourg's duets with Brigitte Bardot. The album reached number 41 in the US. In 2010, Steel Train released Terrible Thrills Vol.1, which includes their favorite female artists singing songs from their self-titled album. Johansson is the first artist on the album, singing "Bullet". Johansson sang "One Whole Hour" for the 2011 soundtrack of the documentary film Wretches & Jabberers (2010). and in 2012 sang on a J.Ralph track entitled "Before My Time" for the end credits of the climate documentary Chasing Ice (2012)
In February 2015, Johansson formed a band called the Singles with Este Haim from HAIM, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan. The group's first single was called "Candy". Johansson was issued a cease and desist order from the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based rock band the Singles, demanding she stop using their name. In 2016, she performed "Trust in Me" for The Jungle Book soundtrack and "Set It All Free" and "I Don't Wanna" for Sing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. In 2018, Johansson collaborated with Pete Yorn again for an EP titled Apart, released June 1.
Public image
Johansson has been called "ScarJo" by the media and fans, and dislikes being called this, finding it lazy, flippant and insulting. She has no social media profiles, saying she does not see the need "to continuously share details of [her] everyday life."
Johansson is described as a sex symbol by the media. The Sydney Morning Herald describes her as "the embodiment of male fantasy". During the filming of Match Point, director Woody Allen remarked upon her attractiveness, calling her "beautiful" and "sexually overwhelming". In 2014, The New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane wrote that "she is evidently, and profitably, aware of her sultriness, and of how much, down to the last inch, it contributes to the contours of her reputation." Johansson has expressed displeasure at being sexualized, and maintains that a preoccupation with one's attractiveness does not last. She lost the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), because the film's director David Fincher found her "too sexy" for the part.
Johansson ranks highly in several beauty listings. Maxim included her in their Hot 100 list from 2006 to 2014. She has been named "Sexiest Woman Alive" twice by Esquire (2006 and 2013), and has been included in similar listings by Playboy (2007), Men's Health (2011), and FHM (since 2005). She was named GQs Babe of the Year in 2010. Madame Tussauds New York museum unveiled a wax statue of her in 2015.
Johansson was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2004. In 2006, she appeared on Forbes Celebrity 100 list, and again in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2012. In 2021, she appeared on the Time 100, Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Johansson was included on Forbes annual list of the world's highest-paid actresses from 2014 to 2016, with respective earnings of $17million, $35.5million and $25million. She would later top the list in 2018 and 2019, with earnings of $40.5million and $56million, respectively. She was the highest-grossing actor of 2016, with a total of $1.2billion. As a result, IndieWire credited her for taking on risky roles. , her films have grossed over billion in North America and over billion worldwide, making Johansson the third-highest-grossing box-office star of all time both domestically and worldwide as well as the highest-grossing actress of all time in North America.
Johansson has appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, L'Oréal, and Louis Vuitton, and has represented the Spanish brand Mango since 2009. She was the first Hollywood celebrity to represent a champagne producer, appearing in advertisements for Moët & Chandon. In January 2014, the Israeli company SodaStream, which makes home-carbonation products, hired Johansson as its first global brand ambassador, a relationship that commenced with a television commercial during Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. This created some controversy, as SodaStream at that time operated a plant in Israeli-occupied territory in the West Bank.
Personal life
While attending PCS, Johansson dated classmate Jack Antonoff from 2001 to 2002. She dated her Black Dahlia co-star Josh Hartnett for about two years until the end of 2006. Hartnett said they broke up because their busy schedules kept them apart. Johansson began dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007. They became engaged in May 2008, married in September 2008 on Vancouver Island, separated in December 2010 and divorced in July 2011.
In November 2012, Johansson began dating Frenchman Romain Dauriac, the owner of an advertising agency. They became engaged the following September. The pair divided their time between New York City and Paris. She gave birth to their daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac, in 2014. Johansson and Dauriac married that October in Philipsburg, Montana. They separated in mid-2016 and divorced in September 2017. Johansson began dating Saturday Night Live co-head writer and Weekend Update co-host Colin Jost in May 2017. In May 2019, the two were engaged. They married in October 2020, at their New York home. She gave birth to their son, Cosmo, in August 2021. Johansson resides in New York and Los Angeles.
In September 2011, nude photographs of Johansson hacked from her cell phone were leaked online. She said the pictures had been sent to her then-husband, Ryan Reynolds, three years before the incident. Following an FBI investigation, the hacker was arrested, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In 2014, Johansson won a lawsuit against French publisher JC Lattès over defamatory statements about her relationships in the novel The First Thing We Look At by Grégoire Delacourt. She was awarded $3,400; she had claimed $68,000.
Johansson has criticized the media for promoting an image that causes unhealthy diets and eating disorders among women. In an essay she wrote for The Huffington Post, she encouraged people to maintain a healthy body. She posed nude on the March 2006 cover of Vanity Fair alongside actress Keira Knightley and fully clothed fashion designer Tom Ford, who jumped in last minute on the day of the shoot to replace Rachel McAdams after she walked out. The photograph sparked controversy, as some believed it demonstrated that women are forced to flaunt their sexuality more often than men.
Other ventures
Philanthropy
Johansson has supported various charitable organizations, including Aid Still Required, Cancer Research UK, Stand Up To Cancer, Too Many Women (which works against breast cancer), and USA Harvest, which provides food for people in need. In 2005, Johansson became a global ambassador for the aid and development agency Oxfam. In 2007, she took part in the anti-poverty campaign ONE, which was organized by U2's lead singer Bono. In March 2008, a UK-based bidder paid £20,000 on an eBay auction to benefit Oxfam, winning a hair and makeup treatment, a pair of tickets, and a chauffeured trip to accompany her on a 20-minute date to the world premiere of He's Just Not That into You.
In January 2014, Johansson resigned from her Oxfam position after criticism of her promotion of SodaStream, whose main factory was based in Mishor Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank; Oxfam opposes all trade with such Israeli settlements. Oxfam stated that it was thankful for her contributions in raising funds to fight poverty. Together with her Avengers costars, Johansson raised $500,000 for the victims of Hurricane Maria.
In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. Johansson took part in the Women's March in Los Angeles in January 2018, where she spoke on topics such as abuses of power, sharing her own experience. She received backlash for calling out fellow actor James Franco on allegations of sexual misconduct as in the past she had defended working with Woody Allen amid an accusation by his daughter Dylan Farrow.
Johansson has given support to Operation Warrior Wellness, a division of the David Lynch Foundation that helps veterans learn Transcendental Meditation. Her grand-uncle, Phillip Schlamberg, was the last American pilot to have been killed during WWII. He had gone on a bombing mission with Jerry Yellin, who went on to become co-founder of Operation Warrior Wellness.
Politics
Johansson was registered as an independent, at least through 2008, and campaigned for Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 United States presidential election. When George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, she said she was disappointed.
In January 2008, her campaign for Democratic candidate Barack Obama included appearances in Iowa targeted at younger voters, an appearance at Cornell College, and a speaking engagement at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, on Super Tuesday, 2008. Johansson appeared in the music video for rapper will.i.am's song, "Yes We Can" (2008), directed by Jesse Dylan; the song was inspired by Obama's speech after the 2008 New Hampshire primary. In February 2012, Johansson and Anna Wintour hosted a fashion launch of pro-Obama clothing, bags, and accessories, the proceeds of which went to the President's re-election campaign. She addressed voters at the Democratic National Convention in September 2012, calling for Obama's re-election and for more engagement from young voters. She encouraged women to vote for Obama and condemned Mitt Romney for his opposition to Planned Parenthood.
Johansson publicly endorsed and supported Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's 2013 run for New York City Comptroller by hosting a series of fundraisers. To encourage people to vote in the 2016 presidential election, in which Johansson endorsed Hillary Clinton, she appeared in a commercial alongside her Marvel Cinematic Universe co-star Robert Downey Jr., and Joss Whedon. In 2017, she spoke at the Women's March on Washington, addressing Donald Trump's presidency and stating that she would support the president if he works for women's rights and stops withdrawing federal funding for Planned Parenthood. In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Johansson endorsed Elizabeth Warren, referring to Warren as "thoughtful and progressive but realistic".
In December 2020, three members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an Egyptian civil rights organization, were released from prison in Egypt, after Johansson had described their detention circumstances and demanded the trio's release.
Notes
See also
List of actors nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year
References
Further reading
External links
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
1984 births
Actresses from New York City
American child actresses
American film actresses
American people of Danish descent
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American people of Swedish descent
American stage actresses
American voice actresses
American women film producers
Atco Records artists
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
César Honorary Award recipients
Danish people of Polish-Jewish descent
Danish people of Russian-Jewish descent
Danish people of Swedish descent
Female models from New York (state)
Fraternal twin actresses
Jewish American actresses
Jewish singers
Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni
Living people
Method actors
People from Manhattan
Theatre World Award winners
Time 100
Tony Award winners
Twin people from the United States
| true |
[
"The GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series is one of the annual GLAAD Media Awards which is offered to the best LGBT-related television limited series or movie. At the 31st GLAAD Media Awards, the award was split and honored both a limited series and a TV movie.\n\nWinners and nominations\n\n1990s\n\n2000s\n\n2010s\n\n2020s\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n GLAAD Media Awards\n\nTV Movie or Limited Series",
"Basil Al-Khatib () is a Syrian movie and TV director, from a Palestinian origin. He was born on 6 May 1962 in Hilversum, the Netherlands. He has lived with his family in Damascus, Syria since 1963. His father is the Palestinian poet Yousif Al-Khatib.\n\nBasil is married to Diana Gabbour, a director of the Arab Syrian TV. He was a graduate of the Department of the Film & TV Direction, The Moscow Higher Institute of Cinema (VGIK). Basil was working in cinema and television drama since 1992.\n\nList of television series and movies as a director\n Damascus Aleppo (2018 movie) TBR 28 FEBRUARY 2018 \n The Father\nThe Mother (2015 movie)\n Mariam (2013)\n Al Ghaliboun (2011-2012 TV series)\n Nasser (2008 TV series)\n Abo Zaid Al-Helaly (2005 TV series)\n Mawkib Al-Ebaa''' (2005 movie)\n Nizar Qabbani (2005 TV series)\n Returning to Haifa (2004 TV series)\n Holako (2002 TV series)\n Zy Qar (2001 TV series)\n Al-Risala Al-Akhira (2000 movie)\n Jalila'' (1993 movie)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n YouTube trailer for \"The Father\" War Film\n\n1962 births\nLiving people\nSyrian television directors\nSyrian people of Palestinian descent"
] |
[
"Scarlett Johansson",
"Early roles (1996-2002)",
"What was one of Johanssons early roles?",
"Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo",
"was that a movie or tv series?",
"film"
] |
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Was it a success?
| 3 |
Was "Manny & Lo" a success?
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Scarlett Johansson
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Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role. After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a talented trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth". Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from PCS that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected. CANNOTANSWER
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Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted,
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Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Her films have grossed over billion worldwide, making Johansson the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time. She has received various accolades, including a Tony Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
Johansson aspired to be an actress from an early age and first appeared on stage in an Off-Broadway play as a child actor. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994), and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing a troubled teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) and a seductress in psychological thriller Match Point (2005). The latter was her first collaboration with Woody Allen, who later directed her in Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Johansson's other works of this period include The Prestige (2006) and the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) and Break Up (2009), both of which charted on the Billboard 200.
In 2010, Johansson debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress, and began portraying Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man 2. She reprised the role in eight films, most recently in her solo feature Black Widow (2021), gaining global recognition for her performances. During this period, Johansson starred in the science fiction films Her (2013), Under the Skin (2013) and Lucy (2014). She received two simultaneous Academy Award nominations—Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress—for the respective roles of an actress going through a divorce in the drama Marriage Story (2019) and a single mother in Nazi Germany in the satire Jojo Rabbit (2019).
Labeled a sex symbol, Johansson has been referred to as one of the world's most attractive women by various media outlets. She is a prominent brand endorser and supports several charitable causes. Divorced from actor Ryan Reynolds and businessman Romain Dauriac, Johansson has been married to comedian Colin Jost since 2020. She has two children, one with Dauriac and another with Jost.
Early life
Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark. Her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter, and film director, whose own father was Swedish. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a New Yorker, has worked as a producer; she comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Poland and Russia, originally surnamed Schlamberg, and Johansson describes herself as Jewish. She has an older sister, Vanessa, also an actress; an older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter. She also has an older half-brother, Christian, from her father's first marriage. Johansson holds dual American and Danish citizenship. She discovered that her maternal great-grandfather's family died during the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto on a 2017 episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots.
Johansson attended PS 41, an elementary school in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Her parents divorced when she was thirteen. She was particularly close to her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Sloan, a bookkeeper and schoolteacher; they often spent time together and Johansson considered Dorothy her best friend. Interested in a career in the spotlight from an early age, Johansson often put on song-and-dance routines for her family. She was particularly fond of musical theater and jazz hands. She took lessons in tap dance, and states that her parents were supportive of her career choice. She has described her childhood as very ordinary.
As a child, Johansson practiced acting by staring in the mirror until she made herself cry, wanting to be Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. At age seven, she was devastated when a talent agent signed one of her brothers instead of her, but she later decided to become an actress anyway. She enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and began auditioning for commercials, but soon lost interest: "I didn't want to promote Wonder Bread." She shifted her focus to film and theater, making her first stage appearance in the Off-Broadway play Sophistry with Ethan Hawke, in which she had two lines. Around this time, she began studying at Professional Children's School (PCS), a private educational institution for aspiring child actors in Manhattan.
Acting career
Early work and breakthrough (1994–2002)
At age nine, Johansson made her film debut as John Ritter's daughter in the fantasy comedy North (1994). She says that when she was on the film set, she knew intuitively what to do. She later played minor roles such as the daughter of Sean Connery's and Kate Capshaw's characters in the mystery thriller Just Cause (1995), and an art student in If Lucy Fell (1996). Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role.
After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth".
Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of the same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from Professional Children's School that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected.
Transition to adult roles (2003–2004)
Johansson transitioned from teen to adult roles with two films in 2003: the romantic comedy-drama Lost in Translation and the drama Girl with a Pearl Earring. In the former, directed by Sofia Coppola, she plays Charlotte, a listless and lonely young wife, opposite Bill Murray. Coppola had first noticed Johansson in Manny & Lo, and compared her to a young Lauren Bacall; Coppola based the film's story on the relationship between Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946). Johansson found the experience of working with a female director different because of Coppola's ability to empathize with her. Made on a budget of $4million, the film grossed $119million at the box office and received critical acclaim. Roger Ebert was pleased with the film and described the lead actors' performances as "wonderful", and Entertainment Weekly wrote of Johansson's "embracing, restful serenity". The New York Times praised Johansson, aged 17 at the time of filming, for playing an older character.
In Peter Webber's Girl with a Pearl Earring, which is based on the novel of the same name by Tracy Chevalier, Johansson played Griet, a young 17th-century servant in the household of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (played by Colin Firth). Webber interviewed 150 actors before casting Johansson. Johansson found the character moving, but did not read the novel, as she thought it was better to approach the story with a fresh start. Girl with a Pearl Earring received positive reviews and was profitable. In his review for The New Yorker, Anthony Lane thought that her presence kept the film "alive", writing, "She is often wordless and close to plain onscreen, but wait for the ardor with which she can summon a closeup and bloom under its gaze; this is her film, not Vermeer's, all the way." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly noted her "nearly silent performance", remarking, "The interplay on her face of fear, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is intensely dramatic." She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for both films in 2003, winning the former for Lost in Translation.
In Varietys opinion, Johansson's roles in Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring established her as among the most versatile actresses of her generation. Johansson had five releases in 2004, three of which—the teen heist film The Perfect Score, the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long, and the drama A Good Woman—were critical and commercial failures. Co-starring with John Travolta, Johansson played a discontented teenager in A Love Song for Bobby Long, which is based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. David Rooney of Variety wrote that Johansson's and Travolta's performances rescued the film. Johansson earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama nomination for the film.
In her fourth release in 2004, the live-action animated comedy The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Johansson voiced Princess Mindy, the daughter of King Neptune. She agreed to the project because of her love of cartoons, particularly The Ren & Stimpy Show. The film was her most commercially successful release that year. She would then reprise her role as Mindy in the video game adaptation of the film. She followed it with In Good Company, a comedy-drama in which she complicates the life of her father when she dates his much younger boss. Reviews of the film were generally positive, describing it as "witty and charming". Roger Ebert was impressed with Johansson's portrayal, writing that she "continues to employ the gravitational pull of quiet fascination".
Collaborations with Woody Allen (2005–2009)
Johansson played Nola, an aspiring actress who begins an affair with a married man (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in Woody Allen's drama Match Point in 2005. After replacing Kate Winslet with Johansson for the role, Allen changed the character's nationality from British to American. An admirer of Allen's films, Johansson liked the idea of working with him, but felt nervous her first day on the set. The New York Times was impressed with the performances of Johansson and Rhys Meyers, and Mick LaSalle, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, stated that Johansson "is a powerhouse from the word go", with a performance that "borders on astonishing". The film, a box office success, earned Johansson nominations for the Golden Globe and the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, Johansson underwent a tonsillectomy, after which she starred with Ewan McGregor in Michael Bay's science fiction film The Island, in dual roles as Sarah Jordan and her clone, Jordan Two Delta. Johansson found her filming schedule exhausting: she had to shoot for 14 hours a day, and she hit her head and injured herself. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $163million against a $126million budget.
Two of Johansson's films in 2006 explored the world of stage magicians, both opposite Hugh Jackman. Allen cast her opposite Jackman and himself in the film Scoop (2006), in which she played a journalism student. The film was a modest worldwide box office success, but polarized critics. Ebert was critical of the film, but found Johansson "lovely as always", and Mick LaSalle noted the freshness she brought to her part. She also appeared in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, a film noir shot in Los Angeles and Bulgaria. Johansson later said she was a fan of DePalma and had wanted to work with him on the film, but thought that she was unsuitable for the part. Anne Billson of The Daily Telegraph likewise found her miscast. However, CNN said that she "takes to the pulpy period atmosphere as if it were oxygen".
Also in 2006, Johansson starred in the short film When the Deal Goes Down to accompany Bob Dylan's song "When the Deal Goes Down..." from the album Modern Times. Johansson had a supporting role of assistant and lover of Jackman's character, an aristocratic magician, in Christopher Nolan's mystery thriller The Prestige (2006). Nolan thought Johansson possessed "ambiguity" and "a shielded quality". She was fascinated with Nolan's directing methods and liked working with him. The film was a critical and box office success, recommended by the Los Angeles Times as "an adult, provocative piece of work". Some critics were skeptical of her performance: Billson again judged her miscast, and Dan Jolin of Empire criticized her English accent.
Johansson's sole release of 2007 was the critically panned comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries alongside Chris Evans and Laura Linney, in which she played a college graduate working as a nanny. Reviews of her performance were mixed; Variety wrote, "[She] essays an engaging heroine", and The New Yorker criticized her for looking "merely confused" while "trying to give the material a plausible emotional center". In 2008, Johansson starred, with Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, in The Other Boleyn Girl, which also earned mixed reviews. Promoting the film, Johansson and Portman appeared on the cover of W, discussing with the magazine the public's reception of them. In Rolling Stone, Pete Travers criticized the film for "[moving] in frustrating herks and jerks", but thought that the duo were the only positive aspect of the production. Variety credited the cast as "almost flawless ... at the top of its game", citing "Johansson's quieter Mary ... as the [film's] emotional center".
In her third collaboration with Woody Allen, the romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), which was filmed in Spain, Johansson plays one of the love interests of Javier Bardem's character alongside Penélope Cruz. The film was one of Allen's most profitable and received favorable reviews. A reviewer in Variety described Johansson as "open and malleable" compared to the other actors. She also played the femme fatale Silken Floss in The Spirit, based on the newspaper comic strip of the same name by Will Eisner. It received poor reviews from critics, who deemed it melodramatic, unoriginal, and sexist. Johansson's only role in 2009 was as Anna Marks, a yoga instructor, in the ensemble comedy-drama He's Just Not That into You (2009). The film was released to tepid reviews, but was a box office success.
Marvel Cinematic Universe and worldwide recognition (2010–2013)
Aspiring to appear on Broadway since childhood, Johansson made her debut in a 2010 revival of Arthur Miller's drama A View from the Bridge. Set in the 1950s in an Italian-American neighborhood in New York, it tells the tragic tale of Eddie (Liev Schreiber), who has an inappropriate love for his wife's orphaned niece, Catherine (Johansson). After initial reservations about playing a teenage character, Johansson was convinced by a friend to take on the part. Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote Johansson "melts into her character so thoroughly that her nimbus of celebrity disappears". Varietys David Rooney was impressed with the play and Johansson in particular, describing her as the chief performer. She won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. Some critics and Broadway actors criticized the award committee's decision to reward the work of mainstream Hollywood actors, including Johansson. In response, she said that she understood the frustration, but had worked hard for her accomplishments.
Johansson played Black Widow in Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (2010), a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Before she secured the role, she dyed her hair red to convince Favreau that she was right for the part, and undertook stunt and strength training to prepare for the role. Johansson said the character resonated with her, and she admired the superhero's human traits. The film earned $623.9million against its $200million budget, and received generally positive reviews from critics, although reviewers criticized how her character was written. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph and Matt Goldberg thought that she had little to do but look attractive. In 2011, Johansson played the role of Kelly, a zookeeper in the family film We Bought a Zoo alongside Matt Damon. The film got mainly favorable reviews, and Anne Billson praised Johansson for bringing depth to a rather uninteresting character. Johansson earned a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress: Drama nomination for her performance.
Johansson learned some Russian from a former teacher on the phone for her role as Black Widow in The Avengers (2012), another entry from the MCU. The film received mainly positive reviews and broke many box office records, becoming the third highest-grossing film both in the United States and worldwide. For her performance, she was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards and three People's Choice Awards. Later that year, Johansson portrayed actress Janet Leigh in Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock, a behind-the-scenes drama about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho. Roger Ebert wrote that Johansson did not look much like Leigh, but conveyed her spunk, intelligence, and sense of humor.
In January 2013, Johansson starred in a Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Rob Ashford. Set in the Mississippi Delta, it examines the relationships within the family of Big Daddy (Ciarán Hinds), primarily between his son Brick (Benjamin Walker) and Maggie (Johansson). Her performance received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weeklys Thom Geier wrote Johansson "brings a fierce fighting spirit" to her part, but Joe Dziemianowicz from Daily News called her performance "alarmingly one-note". The 2013 Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, Don Jon. In this romantic comedy-drama, she played the pornography-addicted title character's girlfriend. Gordon-Levitt wrote the role for Johansson, who had previously admired his acting work. The film received positive reviews and Johansson's performance was highlighted by critics. Claudia Puig of USA Today considered it to be one of her best performances.
In 2013, Johansson voiced the character Samantha, a self-aware computer operating system, in Spike Jonze's film Her, replacing Samantha Morton in the role. The film premiered at the 8th Rome International Film Festival, where Johansson won Best Actress; she was also nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. Johansson was intimidated by the role's complexity, and found her recording sessions for the role challenging but liberating. Peter Travers believed Johansson's voice in the film was "sweet, sexy, caring, manipulative, scary [and] award-worthy". Times Richard Corliss called her performance "seductive and winning", and Her was rated as one of the best films of 2013.
She also won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 40th Saturn Awards in 2014 for her performance. Johansson was cast in Jonathan Glazer's science fiction film Under the Skin (2013) as an extraterrestrial creature disguised as a human femme fatale who preys on men in Scotland. The project, an adaptation of Michel Faber's novel of the same name, took nine years to complete. For the role, she learned to drive a van and speak in an English accent. Johansson improvised conversations with non-professional actors on the street, who did not know they were being filmed. It was released to generally positive reviews, with particular praise for Johansson. Erin Whitney, writing for The Huffington Post, considered it to be her finest performance to that point, and noted that it was her first fully nude role. Author Maureen Foster wrote, "How much depth, breadth, and range Johansson mines from her character's very limited allowance of emotional response is a testament to her acting prowess that is, as the film goes on, increasingly stunning." It earned Johansson a BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film nomination.
Blockbuster films and critical acclaim (2014–2020)
Continuing her work in the MCU, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). In the film, she joins forces with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D., while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier. Johansson and Evans wrote their own dialogue for several scenes they had together. Johansson was attracted to her character's way of doing her job, employing her feminine wiles and not her physical appeal. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $714million worldwide. Critic Odie Henderson saw "a genuine emotional shorthand at work, especially from Johansson, who is excellent here". The role earned her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Johansson played a supporting role in the film Chef (2014), alongside Robert Downey, Jr., Sofía Vergara, and director Jon Favreau. It grossed over $45million at the box office and was well received by critics. The Chicago Sun-Times writer Richard Roeper found the film "funny, quirky and insightful, with a bounty of interesting supporting characters". In Luc Besson's science fiction action film Lucy (2014), Johansson starred as the title character, who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream. Besson discussed the role with several actresses, and cast Johansson based on her strong reaction to the script and her discipline. Critics generally praised the film's themes, visuals, and Johansson's performance; some found the plot nonsensical. IGN's Jim Vejvoda attributed the film's success to her acting and Besson's style. The film grossed $458million on a budget of $40million to become the 18th highest-grossing film of 2014.
In 2015 and 2016, Johansson again played Black Widow in the MCU films Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. During filming of the former, a mixture of close-ups, concealing costumes, stunt doubles and visual effects were used to hide her pregnancy. Both films earned more than $1.1billion, ranking among the highest-grossing films of all time. For Civil War, Johansson earned her second nomination for Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie and her fourth for Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. Earlier in 2016, Johansson had featured in the Coen brothers' well-received comedy film Hail, Caesar! about a "fixer" working in the classical Hollywood cinema, trying to discover what happened to a cast member who vanished during the filming of a biblical epic; Johansson plays an actress who becomes pregnant while her film is in production. She also voiced Kaa in Jon Favreau's live-action adaptation of Disney's The Jungle Book, and Ash in the animated musical comedy film Sing (both 2016). That year she also narrated an audiobook of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Johansson played Motoko Kusanagi in Rupert Sanders's 2017 film adaptation of the Ghost in the Shell franchise. The film was praised for its visual style, acting, and cinematography, but was the subject of controversy for whitewashing the cast, particularly Johansson's character, a cyborg who was meant to hold the memories of a Japanese woman. Responding to the backlash, the actress asserted she would never play a non-white character, but wanted to take the rare opportunity to star in a female-led franchise. Ghost in the Shell grossed $169.8million worldwide against a production budget of $110million. In March 2017, Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live for the fifth time, making her the 17th person, and the fourth woman, to enter the NBC sketch comedy's prestigious Five-Timers Club. Johansson's next 2017 film was the comedy Rough Night, where she played Jess Thayer, one of the five friends—alongside Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz—whose bachelorette party goes wrong after a male stripper dies. The film had a mixed critical reception and moderate box office returns. In 2018, Johansson voiced show dog Nutmeg in Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated film Isle of Dogs, released in March, and reprised her MCU role as Black Widow in Avengers: Infinity War, which followed the next month. Johansson was due to star in Rub & Tug, a biographical film in which she would have played Dante "Tex" Gill, a transgender man who operated a massage parlor and prostitution ring in the 1970s and 1980s. She dropped out of the project following backlash to the casting of a cisgender woman to play a transgender man.
In 2019, Johansson once again reprised her role as Black Widow in Avengers: Endgame, which is the highest-grossing film of all time. She next starred in Noah Baumbach's Netflix film Marriage Story, in which Adam Driver and she played a warring couple who file for divorce. Johansson found a connection with her character, as she was amid her own divorce proceedings at the time. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian commended her "brilliantly textured" performance in it. She also took on the supporting role of a young boy's mother who shelters a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany in Taika Waititi's satire Jojo Rabbit. Waititi modeled the character on his own mother, and cast Johansson to provide her a rare opportunity to perform comedy. The film received polarizing reviews, but Stephanie Zacharek labeled her the "lustrous soul of the movie". Johansson received her first two Academy Award nominations, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for her performances in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit, respectively, becoming the eleventh performer to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year. She also received two BAFTA nominations for these films, and a Golden Globe nomination for the former.
Black Widow and lawsuit (2021–present)
After a one-year screen absence, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in her own solo prequel film in 2021, on which she also served as an executive producer. Also starring Florence Pugh, the film is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, and sees Johansson's character on the run and forced to confront her past. Director Cate Shortland, who wanted to make a standalone film on her character, watched Johansson's previous appearances as Black Widow to prepare. Johansson felt proud of the film and that her work playing the role was now complete. She saw this as an opportunity to show her character's ability to be on her own and make choices for herself while facing difficult times, and noted that her vulnerability distinguished her from other Avengers. Critics were generally favorable in their reviews of the film, mainly praising Johansson and Pugh's performances. In a review published in The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney thought the film was "a stellar vehicle" for Johansson. Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood found the actress "again a great presence in the role, showing expert action and acting chops throughout". For the film, Johansson won The Female Movie Star of 2021 at the 47th People's Choice Awards.
In July 2021, Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney claiming that the simultaneous release of Black Widow on their streaming service Disney+ breached a clause in her contract that the film receive exclusive theatrical release. She alleged that the release on Disney+ exempted her from receiving additional bonus from box-office profits, to which she was entitled. In response, Disney said her lawsuit showed an indifference to the "horrific and prolonged" effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also stated that Johansson already received $20million for the film and that the Disney+ Premier Access release would only earn her additional compensation. The Hollywood Reporter described Disney's response as "aggressive". Accusing Disney of intentionally violating their contract with Johansson, Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Bryan Lourd criticized the company for falsely portraying Johansson as insensitive to the effects of the pandemic, which he considered a "direct attack on her character". Lourd further stated that the company including her salary in their public statement was to try to "weaponize her success as an artist and businesswoman". Later that September, both parties announced that they had resolved their dispute, with the terms of the settlement remaining undisclosed.
Music career
In 2006, Johansson sang the track "Summertime" for Unexpected DreamsSongs From the Stars, a non-profit collection of songs recorded by Hollywood actors. She performed with the Jesus and Mary Chain for a Coachella reunion show in Indio, California, in April 2007. The following year, Johansson appeared as the leading lady in Justin Timberlake's music video, for "What Goes Around... Comes Around", which was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.
In May 2008, Johansson released her debut album Anywhere I Lay My Head, which consists of one original song and ten cover versions of Tom Waits songs, and features David Bowie and members from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Celebration. Reviews of the album were mixed. Spin was not particularly impressed with Johansson's singing. Some critics found it to be "surprisingly alluring", "a bravely eccentric selection", and "a brilliant album" with "ghostly magic". NME named the album the "23rd best album of 2008", and it peaked at number126 on the Billboard 200. Johansson started listening to Waits when she was 11 or 12 years old, and said of him, "His melodies are so beautiful, his voice is so distinct and I had my own way of doing Tom Waits songs."
In September 2009, Johansson and singer-songwriter Pete Yorn released a collaborative album, Break Up, inspired by Serge Gainsbourg's duets with Brigitte Bardot. The album reached number 41 in the US. In 2010, Steel Train released Terrible Thrills Vol.1, which includes their favorite female artists singing songs from their self-titled album. Johansson is the first artist on the album, singing "Bullet". Johansson sang "One Whole Hour" for the 2011 soundtrack of the documentary film Wretches & Jabberers (2010). and in 2012 sang on a J.Ralph track entitled "Before My Time" for the end credits of the climate documentary Chasing Ice (2012)
In February 2015, Johansson formed a band called the Singles with Este Haim from HAIM, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan. The group's first single was called "Candy". Johansson was issued a cease and desist order from the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based rock band the Singles, demanding she stop using their name. In 2016, she performed "Trust in Me" for The Jungle Book soundtrack and "Set It All Free" and "I Don't Wanna" for Sing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. In 2018, Johansson collaborated with Pete Yorn again for an EP titled Apart, released June 1.
Public image
Johansson has been called "ScarJo" by the media and fans, and dislikes being called this, finding it lazy, flippant and insulting. She has no social media profiles, saying she does not see the need "to continuously share details of [her] everyday life."
Johansson is described as a sex symbol by the media. The Sydney Morning Herald describes her as "the embodiment of male fantasy". During the filming of Match Point, director Woody Allen remarked upon her attractiveness, calling her "beautiful" and "sexually overwhelming". In 2014, The New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane wrote that "she is evidently, and profitably, aware of her sultriness, and of how much, down to the last inch, it contributes to the contours of her reputation." Johansson has expressed displeasure at being sexualized, and maintains that a preoccupation with one's attractiveness does not last. She lost the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), because the film's director David Fincher found her "too sexy" for the part.
Johansson ranks highly in several beauty listings. Maxim included her in their Hot 100 list from 2006 to 2014. She has been named "Sexiest Woman Alive" twice by Esquire (2006 and 2013), and has been included in similar listings by Playboy (2007), Men's Health (2011), and FHM (since 2005). She was named GQs Babe of the Year in 2010. Madame Tussauds New York museum unveiled a wax statue of her in 2015.
Johansson was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2004. In 2006, she appeared on Forbes Celebrity 100 list, and again in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2012. In 2021, she appeared on the Time 100, Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Johansson was included on Forbes annual list of the world's highest-paid actresses from 2014 to 2016, with respective earnings of $17million, $35.5million and $25million. She would later top the list in 2018 and 2019, with earnings of $40.5million and $56million, respectively. She was the highest-grossing actor of 2016, with a total of $1.2billion. As a result, IndieWire credited her for taking on risky roles. , her films have grossed over billion in North America and over billion worldwide, making Johansson the third-highest-grossing box-office star of all time both domestically and worldwide as well as the highest-grossing actress of all time in North America.
Johansson has appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, L'Oréal, and Louis Vuitton, and has represented the Spanish brand Mango since 2009. She was the first Hollywood celebrity to represent a champagne producer, appearing in advertisements for Moët & Chandon. In January 2014, the Israeli company SodaStream, which makes home-carbonation products, hired Johansson as its first global brand ambassador, a relationship that commenced with a television commercial during Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. This created some controversy, as SodaStream at that time operated a plant in Israeli-occupied territory in the West Bank.
Personal life
While attending PCS, Johansson dated classmate Jack Antonoff from 2001 to 2002. She dated her Black Dahlia co-star Josh Hartnett for about two years until the end of 2006. Hartnett said they broke up because their busy schedules kept them apart. Johansson began dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007. They became engaged in May 2008, married in September 2008 on Vancouver Island, separated in December 2010 and divorced in July 2011.
In November 2012, Johansson began dating Frenchman Romain Dauriac, the owner of an advertising agency. They became engaged the following September. The pair divided their time between New York City and Paris. She gave birth to their daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac, in 2014. Johansson and Dauriac married that October in Philipsburg, Montana. They separated in mid-2016 and divorced in September 2017. Johansson began dating Saturday Night Live co-head writer and Weekend Update co-host Colin Jost in May 2017. In May 2019, the two were engaged. They married in October 2020, at their New York home. She gave birth to their son, Cosmo, in August 2021. Johansson resides in New York and Los Angeles.
In September 2011, nude photographs of Johansson hacked from her cell phone were leaked online. She said the pictures had been sent to her then-husband, Ryan Reynolds, three years before the incident. Following an FBI investigation, the hacker was arrested, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In 2014, Johansson won a lawsuit against French publisher JC Lattès over defamatory statements about her relationships in the novel The First Thing We Look At by Grégoire Delacourt. She was awarded $3,400; she had claimed $68,000.
Johansson has criticized the media for promoting an image that causes unhealthy diets and eating disorders among women. In an essay she wrote for The Huffington Post, she encouraged people to maintain a healthy body. She posed nude on the March 2006 cover of Vanity Fair alongside actress Keira Knightley and fully clothed fashion designer Tom Ford, who jumped in last minute on the day of the shoot to replace Rachel McAdams after she walked out. The photograph sparked controversy, as some believed it demonstrated that women are forced to flaunt their sexuality more often than men.
Other ventures
Philanthropy
Johansson has supported various charitable organizations, including Aid Still Required, Cancer Research UK, Stand Up To Cancer, Too Many Women (which works against breast cancer), and USA Harvest, which provides food for people in need. In 2005, Johansson became a global ambassador for the aid and development agency Oxfam. In 2007, she took part in the anti-poverty campaign ONE, which was organized by U2's lead singer Bono. In March 2008, a UK-based bidder paid £20,000 on an eBay auction to benefit Oxfam, winning a hair and makeup treatment, a pair of tickets, and a chauffeured trip to accompany her on a 20-minute date to the world premiere of He's Just Not That into You.
In January 2014, Johansson resigned from her Oxfam position after criticism of her promotion of SodaStream, whose main factory was based in Mishor Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank; Oxfam opposes all trade with such Israeli settlements. Oxfam stated that it was thankful for her contributions in raising funds to fight poverty. Together with her Avengers costars, Johansson raised $500,000 for the victims of Hurricane Maria.
In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. Johansson took part in the Women's March in Los Angeles in January 2018, where she spoke on topics such as abuses of power, sharing her own experience. She received backlash for calling out fellow actor James Franco on allegations of sexual misconduct as in the past she had defended working with Woody Allen amid an accusation by his daughter Dylan Farrow.
Johansson has given support to Operation Warrior Wellness, a division of the David Lynch Foundation that helps veterans learn Transcendental Meditation. Her grand-uncle, Phillip Schlamberg, was the last American pilot to have been killed during WWII. He had gone on a bombing mission with Jerry Yellin, who went on to become co-founder of Operation Warrior Wellness.
Politics
Johansson was registered as an independent, at least through 2008, and campaigned for Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 United States presidential election. When George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, she said she was disappointed.
In January 2008, her campaign for Democratic candidate Barack Obama included appearances in Iowa targeted at younger voters, an appearance at Cornell College, and a speaking engagement at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, on Super Tuesday, 2008. Johansson appeared in the music video for rapper will.i.am's song, "Yes We Can" (2008), directed by Jesse Dylan; the song was inspired by Obama's speech after the 2008 New Hampshire primary. In February 2012, Johansson and Anna Wintour hosted a fashion launch of pro-Obama clothing, bags, and accessories, the proceeds of which went to the President's re-election campaign. She addressed voters at the Democratic National Convention in September 2012, calling for Obama's re-election and for more engagement from young voters. She encouraged women to vote for Obama and condemned Mitt Romney for his opposition to Planned Parenthood.
Johansson publicly endorsed and supported Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's 2013 run for New York City Comptroller by hosting a series of fundraisers. To encourage people to vote in the 2016 presidential election, in which Johansson endorsed Hillary Clinton, she appeared in a commercial alongside her Marvel Cinematic Universe co-star Robert Downey Jr., and Joss Whedon. In 2017, she spoke at the Women's March on Washington, addressing Donald Trump's presidency and stating that she would support the president if he works for women's rights and stops withdrawing federal funding for Planned Parenthood. In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Johansson endorsed Elizabeth Warren, referring to Warren as "thoughtful and progressive but realistic".
In December 2020, three members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an Egyptian civil rights organization, were released from prison in Egypt, after Johansson had described their detention circumstances and demanded the trio's release.
Notes
See also
List of actors nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year
References
Further reading
External links
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
1984 births
Actresses from New York City
American child actresses
American film actresses
American people of Danish descent
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American people of Swedish descent
American stage actresses
American voice actresses
American women film producers
Atco Records artists
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
César Honorary Award recipients
Danish people of Polish-Jewish descent
Danish people of Russian-Jewish descent
Danish people of Swedish descent
Female models from New York (state)
Fraternal twin actresses
Jewish American actresses
Jewish singers
Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni
Living people
Method actors
People from Manhattan
Theatre World Award winners
Time 100
Tony Award winners
Twin people from the United States
| true |
[
"Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Success, whilst another was planned:\n\n was a 34-gun ship, previously the French ship Jules. She was captured in 1650, renamed HMS Old Success in 1660 and sold in 1662.\n HMS Success was a 24-gun ship launched in 1655 as . She was renamed HMS Success in 1660 and was wrecked in 1680.\n was a 6-gun fireship purchased in 1672 that foundered in 1673.\n was a store hulk purchased in 1692 and sunk as a breakwater in 1707.\n was a 10-gun sloop purchased in 1709 that the French captured in 1710 off Lisbon.\n was a 24-gun storeship launched in 1709, hulked in 1730, and sold in 1748. \n was a 20-gun sixth rate launched in 1712, converted to a fireship in 1739, and sold in 1743.\n was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1736; her fate is unknown.\n was a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1740 and broken up in 1779.\n was a 14-gun ketch launched in 1754. Her fate is unknown.\n was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1781 that the French captured in 1801 but that the British recaptured the same year. She became a convict ship in 1814 and was broken up in 1820.\n was a 3-gun gunvessel, previously in use as a barge. She was purchased in 1797 and sold in 1802.\n was a 28 gun sixth rate launched in 1825, and captained by James Stirling in his journey to Western Australia. She was used for harbour service from 1832 and was broken up 1849.\n HMS Success was to have been a wood screw sloop. She was ordered but not laid down and was cancelled in 1863.\n was a launched in 1901 and wrecked in 1914.\n HMS Success was an launched in 1918. She was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy in 1919 and was sold in 1937.\n was an S-class destroyer launched in 1943. She was transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy later that year and renamed . She was broken up in 1959.\n\nSee also\n , two ships of the Royal Australian Navy.\n\nCitations and references\nCitations\n\nReferences\n \n\nRoyal Navy ship names",
"HMAS Success was an Admiralty destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built for the Royal Navy during World War I, the ship was not completed until 1919, and spent less than eight months in British service before being transferred to the RAN at the start of 1920. The destroyer's career was uneventful, with almost all of it spent in Australian waters. Success was decommissioned in 1930, and was sold for ship breaking in 1937.\n\nDesign and construction\n\nSuccess was built to the Admiralty design of the S-class destroyer, which was designed and built as part of the British emergency war programme. The destroyer had a displacement of 1,075 tons, a length of overall and between perpendiculars, and a beam of . The propulsion machinery consisted of three Yarrow boilers feeding Brown-Curtis turbines, which supplied to the ship's two propeller shafts. Success had a maximum speed of , and a range of at . The ship's company was made up of 6 officers and 93 sailors.\n\nThe destroyer's primary armament consisted of three QF 4-inch Mark IV guns. These were supplemented by a 2-pounder pom-pom, two 9.5-inch howitzer bomb throwers, five .303 inch machine guns (a mix of Lewis and Maxim guns), two twin 21-inch torpedo tube sets, two depth charge throwers, and two depth charge chutes.\n\nSuccess was laid down by William Doxford and Sons Limited at their Sunderland shipyard in 1917. The destroyer was launched on 29 June 1918, and completed on 15 April 1919. The ship was briefly commissioned into the Royal Navy in April 1919, but was quickly marked for transfer to the RAN, along with four sister ships. Success was commissioned into the RAN on 27 January 1920.\n\nOperational history\n\nSuccess and three of her sister ships sailed for Australia on 20 February, visiting ports in the Mediterranean, India, Singapore, and the Netherlands East Indies before reaching Sydney on 29 April. Success operated in Australian waters until 6 October 1921, when she was placed in reserve. The destroyer was reactivated on 1 December 1925. In late May 1926, Success visited Port Moresby.\n\nDecommissioning and fate\nSuccess paid off on 21 May 1930. She was sold to Penguins Limited for ship breaking in 1937.\n\nCitations\n\nReferences\n\nS-class destroyers (1917) of the Royal Australian Navy\nShips built on the River Wear\n1918 ships"
] |
[
"Scarlett Johansson",
"Early roles (1996-2002)",
"What was one of Johanssons early roles?",
"Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo",
"was that a movie or tv series?",
"film",
"Was it a success?",
"Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted,"
] |
C_345ae8aa778e455cabe6b9c1978a57fd_1
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What else did she play in?
| 4 |
What else did Scarlett Johansen play in besides "Manny & Lo" ?
|
Scarlett Johansson
|
Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role. After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a talented trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth". Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from PCS that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected. CANNOTANSWER
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The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford.
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Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Her films have grossed over billion worldwide, making Johansson the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time. She has received various accolades, including a Tony Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
Johansson aspired to be an actress from an early age and first appeared on stage in an Off-Broadway play as a child actor. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994), and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing a troubled teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) and a seductress in psychological thriller Match Point (2005). The latter was her first collaboration with Woody Allen, who later directed her in Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Johansson's other works of this period include The Prestige (2006) and the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) and Break Up (2009), both of which charted on the Billboard 200.
In 2010, Johansson debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress, and began portraying Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man 2. She reprised the role in eight films, most recently in her solo feature Black Widow (2021), gaining global recognition for her performances. During this period, Johansson starred in the science fiction films Her (2013), Under the Skin (2013) and Lucy (2014). She received two simultaneous Academy Award nominations—Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress—for the respective roles of an actress going through a divorce in the drama Marriage Story (2019) and a single mother in Nazi Germany in the satire Jojo Rabbit (2019).
Labeled a sex symbol, Johansson has been referred to as one of the world's most attractive women by various media outlets. She is a prominent brand endorser and supports several charitable causes. Divorced from actor Ryan Reynolds and businessman Romain Dauriac, Johansson has been married to comedian Colin Jost since 2020. She has two children, one with Dauriac and another with Jost.
Early life
Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark. Her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter, and film director, whose own father was Swedish. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a New Yorker, has worked as a producer; she comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Poland and Russia, originally surnamed Schlamberg, and Johansson describes herself as Jewish. She has an older sister, Vanessa, also an actress; an older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter. She also has an older half-brother, Christian, from her father's first marriage. Johansson holds dual American and Danish citizenship. She discovered that her maternal great-grandfather's family died during the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto on a 2017 episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots.
Johansson attended PS 41, an elementary school in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Her parents divorced when she was thirteen. She was particularly close to her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Sloan, a bookkeeper and schoolteacher; they often spent time together and Johansson considered Dorothy her best friend. Interested in a career in the spotlight from an early age, Johansson often put on song-and-dance routines for her family. She was particularly fond of musical theater and jazz hands. She took lessons in tap dance, and states that her parents were supportive of her career choice. She has described her childhood as very ordinary.
As a child, Johansson practiced acting by staring in the mirror until she made herself cry, wanting to be Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. At age seven, she was devastated when a talent agent signed one of her brothers instead of her, but she later decided to become an actress anyway. She enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and began auditioning for commercials, but soon lost interest: "I didn't want to promote Wonder Bread." She shifted her focus to film and theater, making her first stage appearance in the Off-Broadway play Sophistry with Ethan Hawke, in which she had two lines. Around this time, she began studying at Professional Children's School (PCS), a private educational institution for aspiring child actors in Manhattan.
Acting career
Early work and breakthrough (1994–2002)
At age nine, Johansson made her film debut as John Ritter's daughter in the fantasy comedy North (1994). She says that when she was on the film set, she knew intuitively what to do. She later played minor roles such as the daughter of Sean Connery's and Kate Capshaw's characters in the mystery thriller Just Cause (1995), and an art student in If Lucy Fell (1996). Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role.
After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth".
Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of the same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from Professional Children's School that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected.
Transition to adult roles (2003–2004)
Johansson transitioned from teen to adult roles with two films in 2003: the romantic comedy-drama Lost in Translation and the drama Girl with a Pearl Earring. In the former, directed by Sofia Coppola, she plays Charlotte, a listless and lonely young wife, opposite Bill Murray. Coppola had first noticed Johansson in Manny & Lo, and compared her to a young Lauren Bacall; Coppola based the film's story on the relationship between Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946). Johansson found the experience of working with a female director different because of Coppola's ability to empathize with her. Made on a budget of $4million, the film grossed $119million at the box office and received critical acclaim. Roger Ebert was pleased with the film and described the lead actors' performances as "wonderful", and Entertainment Weekly wrote of Johansson's "embracing, restful serenity". The New York Times praised Johansson, aged 17 at the time of filming, for playing an older character.
In Peter Webber's Girl with a Pearl Earring, which is based on the novel of the same name by Tracy Chevalier, Johansson played Griet, a young 17th-century servant in the household of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (played by Colin Firth). Webber interviewed 150 actors before casting Johansson. Johansson found the character moving, but did not read the novel, as she thought it was better to approach the story with a fresh start. Girl with a Pearl Earring received positive reviews and was profitable. In his review for The New Yorker, Anthony Lane thought that her presence kept the film "alive", writing, "She is often wordless and close to plain onscreen, but wait for the ardor with which she can summon a closeup and bloom under its gaze; this is her film, not Vermeer's, all the way." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly noted her "nearly silent performance", remarking, "The interplay on her face of fear, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is intensely dramatic." She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for both films in 2003, winning the former for Lost in Translation.
In Varietys opinion, Johansson's roles in Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring established her as among the most versatile actresses of her generation. Johansson had five releases in 2004, three of which—the teen heist film The Perfect Score, the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long, and the drama A Good Woman—were critical and commercial failures. Co-starring with John Travolta, Johansson played a discontented teenager in A Love Song for Bobby Long, which is based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. David Rooney of Variety wrote that Johansson's and Travolta's performances rescued the film. Johansson earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama nomination for the film.
In her fourth release in 2004, the live-action animated comedy The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Johansson voiced Princess Mindy, the daughter of King Neptune. She agreed to the project because of her love of cartoons, particularly The Ren & Stimpy Show. The film was her most commercially successful release that year. She would then reprise her role as Mindy in the video game adaptation of the film. She followed it with In Good Company, a comedy-drama in which she complicates the life of her father when she dates his much younger boss. Reviews of the film were generally positive, describing it as "witty and charming". Roger Ebert was impressed with Johansson's portrayal, writing that she "continues to employ the gravitational pull of quiet fascination".
Collaborations with Woody Allen (2005–2009)
Johansson played Nola, an aspiring actress who begins an affair with a married man (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in Woody Allen's drama Match Point in 2005. After replacing Kate Winslet with Johansson for the role, Allen changed the character's nationality from British to American. An admirer of Allen's films, Johansson liked the idea of working with him, but felt nervous her first day on the set. The New York Times was impressed with the performances of Johansson and Rhys Meyers, and Mick LaSalle, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, stated that Johansson "is a powerhouse from the word go", with a performance that "borders on astonishing". The film, a box office success, earned Johansson nominations for the Golden Globe and the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, Johansson underwent a tonsillectomy, after which she starred with Ewan McGregor in Michael Bay's science fiction film The Island, in dual roles as Sarah Jordan and her clone, Jordan Two Delta. Johansson found her filming schedule exhausting: she had to shoot for 14 hours a day, and she hit her head and injured herself. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $163million against a $126million budget.
Two of Johansson's films in 2006 explored the world of stage magicians, both opposite Hugh Jackman. Allen cast her opposite Jackman and himself in the film Scoop (2006), in which she played a journalism student. The film was a modest worldwide box office success, but polarized critics. Ebert was critical of the film, but found Johansson "lovely as always", and Mick LaSalle noted the freshness she brought to her part. She also appeared in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, a film noir shot in Los Angeles and Bulgaria. Johansson later said she was a fan of DePalma and had wanted to work with him on the film, but thought that she was unsuitable for the part. Anne Billson of The Daily Telegraph likewise found her miscast. However, CNN said that she "takes to the pulpy period atmosphere as if it were oxygen".
Also in 2006, Johansson starred in the short film When the Deal Goes Down to accompany Bob Dylan's song "When the Deal Goes Down..." from the album Modern Times. Johansson had a supporting role of assistant and lover of Jackman's character, an aristocratic magician, in Christopher Nolan's mystery thriller The Prestige (2006). Nolan thought Johansson possessed "ambiguity" and "a shielded quality". She was fascinated with Nolan's directing methods and liked working with him. The film was a critical and box office success, recommended by the Los Angeles Times as "an adult, provocative piece of work". Some critics were skeptical of her performance: Billson again judged her miscast, and Dan Jolin of Empire criticized her English accent.
Johansson's sole release of 2007 was the critically panned comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries alongside Chris Evans and Laura Linney, in which she played a college graduate working as a nanny. Reviews of her performance were mixed; Variety wrote, "[She] essays an engaging heroine", and The New Yorker criticized her for looking "merely confused" while "trying to give the material a plausible emotional center". In 2008, Johansson starred, with Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, in The Other Boleyn Girl, which also earned mixed reviews. Promoting the film, Johansson and Portman appeared on the cover of W, discussing with the magazine the public's reception of them. In Rolling Stone, Pete Travers criticized the film for "[moving] in frustrating herks and jerks", but thought that the duo were the only positive aspect of the production. Variety credited the cast as "almost flawless ... at the top of its game", citing "Johansson's quieter Mary ... as the [film's] emotional center".
In her third collaboration with Woody Allen, the romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), which was filmed in Spain, Johansson plays one of the love interests of Javier Bardem's character alongside Penélope Cruz. The film was one of Allen's most profitable and received favorable reviews. A reviewer in Variety described Johansson as "open and malleable" compared to the other actors. She also played the femme fatale Silken Floss in The Spirit, based on the newspaper comic strip of the same name by Will Eisner. It received poor reviews from critics, who deemed it melodramatic, unoriginal, and sexist. Johansson's only role in 2009 was as Anna Marks, a yoga instructor, in the ensemble comedy-drama He's Just Not That into You (2009). The film was released to tepid reviews, but was a box office success.
Marvel Cinematic Universe and worldwide recognition (2010–2013)
Aspiring to appear on Broadway since childhood, Johansson made her debut in a 2010 revival of Arthur Miller's drama A View from the Bridge. Set in the 1950s in an Italian-American neighborhood in New York, it tells the tragic tale of Eddie (Liev Schreiber), who has an inappropriate love for his wife's orphaned niece, Catherine (Johansson). After initial reservations about playing a teenage character, Johansson was convinced by a friend to take on the part. Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote Johansson "melts into her character so thoroughly that her nimbus of celebrity disappears". Varietys David Rooney was impressed with the play and Johansson in particular, describing her as the chief performer. She won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. Some critics and Broadway actors criticized the award committee's decision to reward the work of mainstream Hollywood actors, including Johansson. In response, she said that she understood the frustration, but had worked hard for her accomplishments.
Johansson played Black Widow in Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (2010), a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Before she secured the role, she dyed her hair red to convince Favreau that she was right for the part, and undertook stunt and strength training to prepare for the role. Johansson said the character resonated with her, and she admired the superhero's human traits. The film earned $623.9million against its $200million budget, and received generally positive reviews from critics, although reviewers criticized how her character was written. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph and Matt Goldberg thought that she had little to do but look attractive. In 2011, Johansson played the role of Kelly, a zookeeper in the family film We Bought a Zoo alongside Matt Damon. The film got mainly favorable reviews, and Anne Billson praised Johansson for bringing depth to a rather uninteresting character. Johansson earned a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress: Drama nomination for her performance.
Johansson learned some Russian from a former teacher on the phone for her role as Black Widow in The Avengers (2012), another entry from the MCU. The film received mainly positive reviews and broke many box office records, becoming the third highest-grossing film both in the United States and worldwide. For her performance, she was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards and three People's Choice Awards. Later that year, Johansson portrayed actress Janet Leigh in Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock, a behind-the-scenes drama about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho. Roger Ebert wrote that Johansson did not look much like Leigh, but conveyed her spunk, intelligence, and sense of humor.
In January 2013, Johansson starred in a Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Rob Ashford. Set in the Mississippi Delta, it examines the relationships within the family of Big Daddy (Ciarán Hinds), primarily between his son Brick (Benjamin Walker) and Maggie (Johansson). Her performance received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weeklys Thom Geier wrote Johansson "brings a fierce fighting spirit" to her part, but Joe Dziemianowicz from Daily News called her performance "alarmingly one-note". The 2013 Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, Don Jon. In this romantic comedy-drama, she played the pornography-addicted title character's girlfriend. Gordon-Levitt wrote the role for Johansson, who had previously admired his acting work. The film received positive reviews and Johansson's performance was highlighted by critics. Claudia Puig of USA Today considered it to be one of her best performances.
In 2013, Johansson voiced the character Samantha, a self-aware computer operating system, in Spike Jonze's film Her, replacing Samantha Morton in the role. The film premiered at the 8th Rome International Film Festival, where Johansson won Best Actress; she was also nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. Johansson was intimidated by the role's complexity, and found her recording sessions for the role challenging but liberating. Peter Travers believed Johansson's voice in the film was "sweet, sexy, caring, manipulative, scary [and] award-worthy". Times Richard Corliss called her performance "seductive and winning", and Her was rated as one of the best films of 2013.
She also won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 40th Saturn Awards in 2014 for her performance. Johansson was cast in Jonathan Glazer's science fiction film Under the Skin (2013) as an extraterrestrial creature disguised as a human femme fatale who preys on men in Scotland. The project, an adaptation of Michel Faber's novel of the same name, took nine years to complete. For the role, she learned to drive a van and speak in an English accent. Johansson improvised conversations with non-professional actors on the street, who did not know they were being filmed. It was released to generally positive reviews, with particular praise for Johansson. Erin Whitney, writing for The Huffington Post, considered it to be her finest performance to that point, and noted that it was her first fully nude role. Author Maureen Foster wrote, "How much depth, breadth, and range Johansson mines from her character's very limited allowance of emotional response is a testament to her acting prowess that is, as the film goes on, increasingly stunning." It earned Johansson a BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film nomination.
Blockbuster films and critical acclaim (2014–2020)
Continuing her work in the MCU, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). In the film, she joins forces with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D., while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier. Johansson and Evans wrote their own dialogue for several scenes they had together. Johansson was attracted to her character's way of doing her job, employing her feminine wiles and not her physical appeal. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $714million worldwide. Critic Odie Henderson saw "a genuine emotional shorthand at work, especially from Johansson, who is excellent here". The role earned her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Johansson played a supporting role in the film Chef (2014), alongside Robert Downey, Jr., Sofía Vergara, and director Jon Favreau. It grossed over $45million at the box office and was well received by critics. The Chicago Sun-Times writer Richard Roeper found the film "funny, quirky and insightful, with a bounty of interesting supporting characters". In Luc Besson's science fiction action film Lucy (2014), Johansson starred as the title character, who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream. Besson discussed the role with several actresses, and cast Johansson based on her strong reaction to the script and her discipline. Critics generally praised the film's themes, visuals, and Johansson's performance; some found the plot nonsensical. IGN's Jim Vejvoda attributed the film's success to her acting and Besson's style. The film grossed $458million on a budget of $40million to become the 18th highest-grossing film of 2014.
In 2015 and 2016, Johansson again played Black Widow in the MCU films Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. During filming of the former, a mixture of close-ups, concealing costumes, stunt doubles and visual effects were used to hide her pregnancy. Both films earned more than $1.1billion, ranking among the highest-grossing films of all time. For Civil War, Johansson earned her second nomination for Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie and her fourth for Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. Earlier in 2016, Johansson had featured in the Coen brothers' well-received comedy film Hail, Caesar! about a "fixer" working in the classical Hollywood cinema, trying to discover what happened to a cast member who vanished during the filming of a biblical epic; Johansson plays an actress who becomes pregnant while her film is in production. She also voiced Kaa in Jon Favreau's live-action adaptation of Disney's The Jungle Book, and Ash in the animated musical comedy film Sing (both 2016). That year she also narrated an audiobook of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Johansson played Motoko Kusanagi in Rupert Sanders's 2017 film adaptation of the Ghost in the Shell franchise. The film was praised for its visual style, acting, and cinematography, but was the subject of controversy for whitewashing the cast, particularly Johansson's character, a cyborg who was meant to hold the memories of a Japanese woman. Responding to the backlash, the actress asserted she would never play a non-white character, but wanted to take the rare opportunity to star in a female-led franchise. Ghost in the Shell grossed $169.8million worldwide against a production budget of $110million. In March 2017, Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live for the fifth time, making her the 17th person, and the fourth woman, to enter the NBC sketch comedy's prestigious Five-Timers Club. Johansson's next 2017 film was the comedy Rough Night, where she played Jess Thayer, one of the five friends—alongside Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz—whose bachelorette party goes wrong after a male stripper dies. The film had a mixed critical reception and moderate box office returns. In 2018, Johansson voiced show dog Nutmeg in Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated film Isle of Dogs, released in March, and reprised her MCU role as Black Widow in Avengers: Infinity War, which followed the next month. Johansson was due to star in Rub & Tug, a biographical film in which she would have played Dante "Tex" Gill, a transgender man who operated a massage parlor and prostitution ring in the 1970s and 1980s. She dropped out of the project following backlash to the casting of a cisgender woman to play a transgender man.
In 2019, Johansson once again reprised her role as Black Widow in Avengers: Endgame, which is the highest-grossing film of all time. She next starred in Noah Baumbach's Netflix film Marriage Story, in which Adam Driver and she played a warring couple who file for divorce. Johansson found a connection with her character, as she was amid her own divorce proceedings at the time. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian commended her "brilliantly textured" performance in it. She also took on the supporting role of a young boy's mother who shelters a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany in Taika Waititi's satire Jojo Rabbit. Waititi modeled the character on his own mother, and cast Johansson to provide her a rare opportunity to perform comedy. The film received polarizing reviews, but Stephanie Zacharek labeled her the "lustrous soul of the movie". Johansson received her first two Academy Award nominations, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for her performances in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit, respectively, becoming the eleventh performer to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year. She also received two BAFTA nominations for these films, and a Golden Globe nomination for the former.
Black Widow and lawsuit (2021–present)
After a one-year screen absence, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in her own solo prequel film in 2021, on which she also served as an executive producer. Also starring Florence Pugh, the film is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, and sees Johansson's character on the run and forced to confront her past. Director Cate Shortland, who wanted to make a standalone film on her character, watched Johansson's previous appearances as Black Widow to prepare. Johansson felt proud of the film and that her work playing the role was now complete. She saw this as an opportunity to show her character's ability to be on her own and make choices for herself while facing difficult times, and noted that her vulnerability distinguished her from other Avengers. Critics were generally favorable in their reviews of the film, mainly praising Johansson and Pugh's performances. In a review published in The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney thought the film was "a stellar vehicle" for Johansson. Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood found the actress "again a great presence in the role, showing expert action and acting chops throughout". For the film, Johansson won The Female Movie Star of 2021 at the 47th People's Choice Awards.
In July 2021, Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney claiming that the simultaneous release of Black Widow on their streaming service Disney+ breached a clause in her contract that the film receive exclusive theatrical release. She alleged that the release on Disney+ exempted her from receiving additional bonus from box-office profits, to which she was entitled. In response, Disney said her lawsuit showed an indifference to the "horrific and prolonged" effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also stated that Johansson already received $20million for the film and that the Disney+ Premier Access release would only earn her additional compensation. The Hollywood Reporter described Disney's response as "aggressive". Accusing Disney of intentionally violating their contract with Johansson, Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Bryan Lourd criticized the company for falsely portraying Johansson as insensitive to the effects of the pandemic, which he considered a "direct attack on her character". Lourd further stated that the company including her salary in their public statement was to try to "weaponize her success as an artist and businesswoman". Later that September, both parties announced that they had resolved their dispute, with the terms of the settlement remaining undisclosed.
Music career
In 2006, Johansson sang the track "Summertime" for Unexpected DreamsSongs From the Stars, a non-profit collection of songs recorded by Hollywood actors. She performed with the Jesus and Mary Chain for a Coachella reunion show in Indio, California, in April 2007. The following year, Johansson appeared as the leading lady in Justin Timberlake's music video, for "What Goes Around... Comes Around", which was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.
In May 2008, Johansson released her debut album Anywhere I Lay My Head, which consists of one original song and ten cover versions of Tom Waits songs, and features David Bowie and members from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Celebration. Reviews of the album were mixed. Spin was not particularly impressed with Johansson's singing. Some critics found it to be "surprisingly alluring", "a bravely eccentric selection", and "a brilliant album" with "ghostly magic". NME named the album the "23rd best album of 2008", and it peaked at number126 on the Billboard 200. Johansson started listening to Waits when she was 11 or 12 years old, and said of him, "His melodies are so beautiful, his voice is so distinct and I had my own way of doing Tom Waits songs."
In September 2009, Johansson and singer-songwriter Pete Yorn released a collaborative album, Break Up, inspired by Serge Gainsbourg's duets with Brigitte Bardot. The album reached number 41 in the US. In 2010, Steel Train released Terrible Thrills Vol.1, which includes their favorite female artists singing songs from their self-titled album. Johansson is the first artist on the album, singing "Bullet". Johansson sang "One Whole Hour" for the 2011 soundtrack of the documentary film Wretches & Jabberers (2010). and in 2012 sang on a J.Ralph track entitled "Before My Time" for the end credits of the climate documentary Chasing Ice (2012)
In February 2015, Johansson formed a band called the Singles with Este Haim from HAIM, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan. The group's first single was called "Candy". Johansson was issued a cease and desist order from the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based rock band the Singles, demanding she stop using their name. In 2016, she performed "Trust in Me" for The Jungle Book soundtrack and "Set It All Free" and "I Don't Wanna" for Sing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. In 2018, Johansson collaborated with Pete Yorn again for an EP titled Apart, released June 1.
Public image
Johansson has been called "ScarJo" by the media and fans, and dislikes being called this, finding it lazy, flippant and insulting. She has no social media profiles, saying she does not see the need "to continuously share details of [her] everyday life."
Johansson is described as a sex symbol by the media. The Sydney Morning Herald describes her as "the embodiment of male fantasy". During the filming of Match Point, director Woody Allen remarked upon her attractiveness, calling her "beautiful" and "sexually overwhelming". In 2014, The New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane wrote that "she is evidently, and profitably, aware of her sultriness, and of how much, down to the last inch, it contributes to the contours of her reputation." Johansson has expressed displeasure at being sexualized, and maintains that a preoccupation with one's attractiveness does not last. She lost the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), because the film's director David Fincher found her "too sexy" for the part.
Johansson ranks highly in several beauty listings. Maxim included her in their Hot 100 list from 2006 to 2014. She has been named "Sexiest Woman Alive" twice by Esquire (2006 and 2013), and has been included in similar listings by Playboy (2007), Men's Health (2011), and FHM (since 2005). She was named GQs Babe of the Year in 2010. Madame Tussauds New York museum unveiled a wax statue of her in 2015.
Johansson was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2004. In 2006, she appeared on Forbes Celebrity 100 list, and again in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2012. In 2021, she appeared on the Time 100, Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Johansson was included on Forbes annual list of the world's highest-paid actresses from 2014 to 2016, with respective earnings of $17million, $35.5million and $25million. She would later top the list in 2018 and 2019, with earnings of $40.5million and $56million, respectively. She was the highest-grossing actor of 2016, with a total of $1.2billion. As a result, IndieWire credited her for taking on risky roles. , her films have grossed over billion in North America and over billion worldwide, making Johansson the third-highest-grossing box-office star of all time both domestically and worldwide as well as the highest-grossing actress of all time in North America.
Johansson has appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, L'Oréal, and Louis Vuitton, and has represented the Spanish brand Mango since 2009. She was the first Hollywood celebrity to represent a champagne producer, appearing in advertisements for Moët & Chandon. In January 2014, the Israeli company SodaStream, which makes home-carbonation products, hired Johansson as its first global brand ambassador, a relationship that commenced with a television commercial during Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. This created some controversy, as SodaStream at that time operated a plant in Israeli-occupied territory in the West Bank.
Personal life
While attending PCS, Johansson dated classmate Jack Antonoff from 2001 to 2002. She dated her Black Dahlia co-star Josh Hartnett for about two years until the end of 2006. Hartnett said they broke up because their busy schedules kept them apart. Johansson began dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007. They became engaged in May 2008, married in September 2008 on Vancouver Island, separated in December 2010 and divorced in July 2011.
In November 2012, Johansson began dating Frenchman Romain Dauriac, the owner of an advertising agency. They became engaged the following September. The pair divided their time between New York City and Paris. She gave birth to their daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac, in 2014. Johansson and Dauriac married that October in Philipsburg, Montana. They separated in mid-2016 and divorced in September 2017. Johansson began dating Saturday Night Live co-head writer and Weekend Update co-host Colin Jost in May 2017. In May 2019, the two were engaged. They married in October 2020, at their New York home. She gave birth to their son, Cosmo, in August 2021. Johansson resides in New York and Los Angeles.
In September 2011, nude photographs of Johansson hacked from her cell phone were leaked online. She said the pictures had been sent to her then-husband, Ryan Reynolds, three years before the incident. Following an FBI investigation, the hacker was arrested, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In 2014, Johansson won a lawsuit against French publisher JC Lattès over defamatory statements about her relationships in the novel The First Thing We Look At by Grégoire Delacourt. She was awarded $3,400; she had claimed $68,000.
Johansson has criticized the media for promoting an image that causes unhealthy diets and eating disorders among women. In an essay she wrote for The Huffington Post, she encouraged people to maintain a healthy body. She posed nude on the March 2006 cover of Vanity Fair alongside actress Keira Knightley and fully clothed fashion designer Tom Ford, who jumped in last minute on the day of the shoot to replace Rachel McAdams after she walked out. The photograph sparked controversy, as some believed it demonstrated that women are forced to flaunt their sexuality more often than men.
Other ventures
Philanthropy
Johansson has supported various charitable organizations, including Aid Still Required, Cancer Research UK, Stand Up To Cancer, Too Many Women (which works against breast cancer), and USA Harvest, which provides food for people in need. In 2005, Johansson became a global ambassador for the aid and development agency Oxfam. In 2007, she took part in the anti-poverty campaign ONE, which was organized by U2's lead singer Bono. In March 2008, a UK-based bidder paid £20,000 on an eBay auction to benefit Oxfam, winning a hair and makeup treatment, a pair of tickets, and a chauffeured trip to accompany her on a 20-minute date to the world premiere of He's Just Not That into You.
In January 2014, Johansson resigned from her Oxfam position after criticism of her promotion of SodaStream, whose main factory was based in Mishor Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank; Oxfam opposes all trade with such Israeli settlements. Oxfam stated that it was thankful for her contributions in raising funds to fight poverty. Together with her Avengers costars, Johansson raised $500,000 for the victims of Hurricane Maria.
In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. Johansson took part in the Women's March in Los Angeles in January 2018, where she spoke on topics such as abuses of power, sharing her own experience. She received backlash for calling out fellow actor James Franco on allegations of sexual misconduct as in the past she had defended working with Woody Allen amid an accusation by his daughter Dylan Farrow.
Johansson has given support to Operation Warrior Wellness, a division of the David Lynch Foundation that helps veterans learn Transcendental Meditation. Her grand-uncle, Phillip Schlamberg, was the last American pilot to have been killed during WWII. He had gone on a bombing mission with Jerry Yellin, who went on to become co-founder of Operation Warrior Wellness.
Politics
Johansson was registered as an independent, at least through 2008, and campaigned for Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 United States presidential election. When George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, she said she was disappointed.
In January 2008, her campaign for Democratic candidate Barack Obama included appearances in Iowa targeted at younger voters, an appearance at Cornell College, and a speaking engagement at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, on Super Tuesday, 2008. Johansson appeared in the music video for rapper will.i.am's song, "Yes We Can" (2008), directed by Jesse Dylan; the song was inspired by Obama's speech after the 2008 New Hampshire primary. In February 2012, Johansson and Anna Wintour hosted a fashion launch of pro-Obama clothing, bags, and accessories, the proceeds of which went to the President's re-election campaign. She addressed voters at the Democratic National Convention in September 2012, calling for Obama's re-election and for more engagement from young voters. She encouraged women to vote for Obama and condemned Mitt Romney for his opposition to Planned Parenthood.
Johansson publicly endorsed and supported Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's 2013 run for New York City Comptroller by hosting a series of fundraisers. To encourage people to vote in the 2016 presidential election, in which Johansson endorsed Hillary Clinton, she appeared in a commercial alongside her Marvel Cinematic Universe co-star Robert Downey Jr., and Joss Whedon. In 2017, she spoke at the Women's March on Washington, addressing Donald Trump's presidency and stating that she would support the president if he works for women's rights and stops withdrawing federal funding for Planned Parenthood. In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Johansson endorsed Elizabeth Warren, referring to Warren as "thoughtful and progressive but realistic".
In December 2020, three members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an Egyptian civil rights organization, were released from prison in Egypt, after Johansson had described their detention circumstances and demanded the trio's release.
Notes
See also
List of actors nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year
References
Further reading
External links
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
1984 births
Actresses from New York City
American child actresses
American film actresses
American people of Danish descent
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American people of Swedish descent
American stage actresses
American voice actresses
American women film producers
Atco Records artists
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
César Honorary Award recipients
Danish people of Polish-Jewish descent
Danish people of Russian-Jewish descent
Danish people of Swedish descent
Female models from New York (state)
Fraternal twin actresses
Jewish American actresses
Jewish singers
Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni
Living people
Method actors
People from Manhattan
Theatre World Award winners
Time 100
Tony Award winners
Twin people from the United States
| true |
[
"Else Gabriel (b. 1962) is a German performance artist and educator.\n\nBiography\nElse Gabriel was born in Halberstadt, East Germany in 1962. She studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. Else was a key artist in the alternative arts scene that formed by late 1980s. Along with Micha Brendel, Rainer Gorb, and Via Lewandowsky. She was a member of Autoperforatsionsartisten (Auto perforation artists). The Autoperforatsionsartisten, an East German performance art group, combined fluxus and neodada with body art and installations in a multimedia spectacle. In addition to performance art, Else is known for her photographs, in which she combined personal text with images. Though this format did not appear to be logically tied, her intent behind this is to produce an associative, sensual frame of reference.\n\nSince 1991, she has been a part of the group (e.) Twin Gabriel with her partner Ulf Wrede. Gabriel was included in the 1991 exhibition Berlin Divided: Sissel Tolas, Milovan Markovic, Else Gabriel, Rolf Julius at MoMA. In 2019 she was included in the exhibit The Medea Insurrection: Radical Women Artists Behind the Iron Curtain at Wende Museum in Culver City, California.\n\nShe has taught at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California and lectured at the University of Hamburg, the University of Kassel, the University of Kiel and Saarland University. Since 2009 she has taught in Berlin at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee, in the Sculpture Department.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n(e.) Twin Gabriel website\n2016 radio interview with Gabriel on KCRW Berlin\nhttps://www.are.na/block/10839375 JHU “East German Art and the Permeability of the Berlin Wall”\nhttps://www.are.na/block/10839551. Aperture x Princeton “Another Country (mention)\nhttps://performingtheeast.com/else-gabriel/\n\n1962 births\n20th-century German women artists\n21st-century German women artists\nGerman performance artists\nPeople from Halberstadt\nLiving people",
"Robert Else (17 November 1876 – 16 September 1955) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Derbyshire in 1901 and 1903.\n\nElse was born at Lea, Holloway, Derbyshire, the son of John Else and his wife Henrietta Lowe. His father was a bobbin maker and in 1881 they were all living with his grandparents at the Old Hat Factory in Wirksworth. Else made his debut for Derbyshire in May 1901 against Surrey, when his scores were 1 and 2. He played again that season against the South Africans when he opened the batting scoring a duck in the first innings and surviving the whole of the second innings for 6 not out. He did not play again until July 1903 when against London County he took a wicket and made his top score of 28. He played his last two matches in 1903 and made little impression in them.\n\nElse was a left-hand batsman and played ten innings in five first-class matches with an average of 7.3 and a top score of 28. He bowled fifteen overs and took 1 first-class wicket for 61 runs in total.\n\nElse died at Broomhill, Sheffield, Yorkshire at the age of 78.\n\nReferences\n\n1876 births\n1955 deaths\nDerbyshire cricketers\nEnglish cricketers\nPeople from Dethick, Lea and Holloway"
] |
[
"Scarlett Johansson",
"Early roles (1996-2002)",
"What was one of Johanssons early roles?",
"Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo",
"was that a movie or tv series?",
"film",
"Was it a success?",
"Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted,",
"What else did she play in?",
"The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford."
] |
C_345ae8aa778e455cabe6b9c1978a57fd_1
|
What was her character in "The Horse Whisperer"?
| 5 |
What was Scarlett Johansson character in "the Horse Whisperer"?
|
Scarlett Johansson
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Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role. After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a talented trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth". Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from PCS that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected. CANNOTANSWER
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tells the story of a talented trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson.
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Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Her films have grossed over billion worldwide, making Johansson the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time. She has received various accolades, including a Tony Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
Johansson aspired to be an actress from an early age and first appeared on stage in an Off-Broadway play as a child actor. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994), and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing a troubled teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) and a seductress in psychological thriller Match Point (2005). The latter was her first collaboration with Woody Allen, who later directed her in Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Johansson's other works of this period include The Prestige (2006) and the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) and Break Up (2009), both of which charted on the Billboard 200.
In 2010, Johansson debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress, and began portraying Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man 2. She reprised the role in eight films, most recently in her solo feature Black Widow (2021), gaining global recognition for her performances. During this period, Johansson starred in the science fiction films Her (2013), Under the Skin (2013) and Lucy (2014). She received two simultaneous Academy Award nominations—Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress—for the respective roles of an actress going through a divorce in the drama Marriage Story (2019) and a single mother in Nazi Germany in the satire Jojo Rabbit (2019).
Labeled a sex symbol, Johansson has been referred to as one of the world's most attractive women by various media outlets. She is a prominent brand endorser and supports several charitable causes. Divorced from actor Ryan Reynolds and businessman Romain Dauriac, Johansson has been married to comedian Colin Jost since 2020. She has two children, one with Dauriac and another with Jost.
Early life
Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark. Her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter, and film director, whose own father was Swedish. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a New Yorker, has worked as a producer; she comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Poland and Russia, originally surnamed Schlamberg, and Johansson describes herself as Jewish. She has an older sister, Vanessa, also an actress; an older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter. She also has an older half-brother, Christian, from her father's first marriage. Johansson holds dual American and Danish citizenship. She discovered that her maternal great-grandfather's family died during the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto on a 2017 episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots.
Johansson attended PS 41, an elementary school in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Her parents divorced when she was thirteen. She was particularly close to her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Sloan, a bookkeeper and schoolteacher; they often spent time together and Johansson considered Dorothy her best friend. Interested in a career in the spotlight from an early age, Johansson often put on song-and-dance routines for her family. She was particularly fond of musical theater and jazz hands. She took lessons in tap dance, and states that her parents were supportive of her career choice. She has described her childhood as very ordinary.
As a child, Johansson practiced acting by staring in the mirror until she made herself cry, wanting to be Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. At age seven, she was devastated when a talent agent signed one of her brothers instead of her, but she later decided to become an actress anyway. She enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and began auditioning for commercials, but soon lost interest: "I didn't want to promote Wonder Bread." She shifted her focus to film and theater, making her first stage appearance in the Off-Broadway play Sophistry with Ethan Hawke, in which she had two lines. Around this time, she began studying at Professional Children's School (PCS), a private educational institution for aspiring child actors in Manhattan.
Acting career
Early work and breakthrough (1994–2002)
At age nine, Johansson made her film debut as John Ritter's daughter in the fantasy comedy North (1994). She says that when she was on the film set, she knew intuitively what to do. She later played minor roles such as the daughter of Sean Connery's and Kate Capshaw's characters in the mystery thriller Just Cause (1995), and an art student in If Lucy Fell (1996). Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role.
After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth".
Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of the same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from Professional Children's School that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected.
Transition to adult roles (2003–2004)
Johansson transitioned from teen to adult roles with two films in 2003: the romantic comedy-drama Lost in Translation and the drama Girl with a Pearl Earring. In the former, directed by Sofia Coppola, she plays Charlotte, a listless and lonely young wife, opposite Bill Murray. Coppola had first noticed Johansson in Manny & Lo, and compared her to a young Lauren Bacall; Coppola based the film's story on the relationship between Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946). Johansson found the experience of working with a female director different because of Coppola's ability to empathize with her. Made on a budget of $4million, the film grossed $119million at the box office and received critical acclaim. Roger Ebert was pleased with the film and described the lead actors' performances as "wonderful", and Entertainment Weekly wrote of Johansson's "embracing, restful serenity". The New York Times praised Johansson, aged 17 at the time of filming, for playing an older character.
In Peter Webber's Girl with a Pearl Earring, which is based on the novel of the same name by Tracy Chevalier, Johansson played Griet, a young 17th-century servant in the household of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (played by Colin Firth). Webber interviewed 150 actors before casting Johansson. Johansson found the character moving, but did not read the novel, as she thought it was better to approach the story with a fresh start. Girl with a Pearl Earring received positive reviews and was profitable. In his review for The New Yorker, Anthony Lane thought that her presence kept the film "alive", writing, "She is often wordless and close to plain onscreen, but wait for the ardor with which she can summon a closeup and bloom under its gaze; this is her film, not Vermeer's, all the way." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly noted her "nearly silent performance", remarking, "The interplay on her face of fear, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is intensely dramatic." She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for both films in 2003, winning the former for Lost in Translation.
In Varietys opinion, Johansson's roles in Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring established her as among the most versatile actresses of her generation. Johansson had five releases in 2004, three of which—the teen heist film The Perfect Score, the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long, and the drama A Good Woman—were critical and commercial failures. Co-starring with John Travolta, Johansson played a discontented teenager in A Love Song for Bobby Long, which is based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. David Rooney of Variety wrote that Johansson's and Travolta's performances rescued the film. Johansson earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama nomination for the film.
In her fourth release in 2004, the live-action animated comedy The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Johansson voiced Princess Mindy, the daughter of King Neptune. She agreed to the project because of her love of cartoons, particularly The Ren & Stimpy Show. The film was her most commercially successful release that year. She would then reprise her role as Mindy in the video game adaptation of the film. She followed it with In Good Company, a comedy-drama in which she complicates the life of her father when she dates his much younger boss. Reviews of the film were generally positive, describing it as "witty and charming". Roger Ebert was impressed with Johansson's portrayal, writing that she "continues to employ the gravitational pull of quiet fascination".
Collaborations with Woody Allen (2005–2009)
Johansson played Nola, an aspiring actress who begins an affair with a married man (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in Woody Allen's drama Match Point in 2005. After replacing Kate Winslet with Johansson for the role, Allen changed the character's nationality from British to American. An admirer of Allen's films, Johansson liked the idea of working with him, but felt nervous her first day on the set. The New York Times was impressed with the performances of Johansson and Rhys Meyers, and Mick LaSalle, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, stated that Johansson "is a powerhouse from the word go", with a performance that "borders on astonishing". The film, a box office success, earned Johansson nominations for the Golden Globe and the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, Johansson underwent a tonsillectomy, after which she starred with Ewan McGregor in Michael Bay's science fiction film The Island, in dual roles as Sarah Jordan and her clone, Jordan Two Delta. Johansson found her filming schedule exhausting: she had to shoot for 14 hours a day, and she hit her head and injured herself. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $163million against a $126million budget.
Two of Johansson's films in 2006 explored the world of stage magicians, both opposite Hugh Jackman. Allen cast her opposite Jackman and himself in the film Scoop (2006), in which she played a journalism student. The film was a modest worldwide box office success, but polarized critics. Ebert was critical of the film, but found Johansson "lovely as always", and Mick LaSalle noted the freshness she brought to her part. She also appeared in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, a film noir shot in Los Angeles and Bulgaria. Johansson later said she was a fan of DePalma and had wanted to work with him on the film, but thought that she was unsuitable for the part. Anne Billson of The Daily Telegraph likewise found her miscast. However, CNN said that she "takes to the pulpy period atmosphere as if it were oxygen".
Also in 2006, Johansson starred in the short film When the Deal Goes Down to accompany Bob Dylan's song "When the Deal Goes Down..." from the album Modern Times. Johansson had a supporting role of assistant and lover of Jackman's character, an aristocratic magician, in Christopher Nolan's mystery thriller The Prestige (2006). Nolan thought Johansson possessed "ambiguity" and "a shielded quality". She was fascinated with Nolan's directing methods and liked working with him. The film was a critical and box office success, recommended by the Los Angeles Times as "an adult, provocative piece of work". Some critics were skeptical of her performance: Billson again judged her miscast, and Dan Jolin of Empire criticized her English accent.
Johansson's sole release of 2007 was the critically panned comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries alongside Chris Evans and Laura Linney, in which she played a college graduate working as a nanny. Reviews of her performance were mixed; Variety wrote, "[She] essays an engaging heroine", and The New Yorker criticized her for looking "merely confused" while "trying to give the material a plausible emotional center". In 2008, Johansson starred, with Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, in The Other Boleyn Girl, which also earned mixed reviews. Promoting the film, Johansson and Portman appeared on the cover of W, discussing with the magazine the public's reception of them. In Rolling Stone, Pete Travers criticized the film for "[moving] in frustrating herks and jerks", but thought that the duo were the only positive aspect of the production. Variety credited the cast as "almost flawless ... at the top of its game", citing "Johansson's quieter Mary ... as the [film's] emotional center".
In her third collaboration with Woody Allen, the romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), which was filmed in Spain, Johansson plays one of the love interests of Javier Bardem's character alongside Penélope Cruz. The film was one of Allen's most profitable and received favorable reviews. A reviewer in Variety described Johansson as "open and malleable" compared to the other actors. She also played the femme fatale Silken Floss in The Spirit, based on the newspaper comic strip of the same name by Will Eisner. It received poor reviews from critics, who deemed it melodramatic, unoriginal, and sexist. Johansson's only role in 2009 was as Anna Marks, a yoga instructor, in the ensemble comedy-drama He's Just Not That into You (2009). The film was released to tepid reviews, but was a box office success.
Marvel Cinematic Universe and worldwide recognition (2010–2013)
Aspiring to appear on Broadway since childhood, Johansson made her debut in a 2010 revival of Arthur Miller's drama A View from the Bridge. Set in the 1950s in an Italian-American neighborhood in New York, it tells the tragic tale of Eddie (Liev Schreiber), who has an inappropriate love for his wife's orphaned niece, Catherine (Johansson). After initial reservations about playing a teenage character, Johansson was convinced by a friend to take on the part. Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote Johansson "melts into her character so thoroughly that her nimbus of celebrity disappears". Varietys David Rooney was impressed with the play and Johansson in particular, describing her as the chief performer. She won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. Some critics and Broadway actors criticized the award committee's decision to reward the work of mainstream Hollywood actors, including Johansson. In response, she said that she understood the frustration, but had worked hard for her accomplishments.
Johansson played Black Widow in Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (2010), a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Before she secured the role, she dyed her hair red to convince Favreau that she was right for the part, and undertook stunt and strength training to prepare for the role. Johansson said the character resonated with her, and she admired the superhero's human traits. The film earned $623.9million against its $200million budget, and received generally positive reviews from critics, although reviewers criticized how her character was written. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph and Matt Goldberg thought that she had little to do but look attractive. In 2011, Johansson played the role of Kelly, a zookeeper in the family film We Bought a Zoo alongside Matt Damon. The film got mainly favorable reviews, and Anne Billson praised Johansson for bringing depth to a rather uninteresting character. Johansson earned a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress: Drama nomination for her performance.
Johansson learned some Russian from a former teacher on the phone for her role as Black Widow in The Avengers (2012), another entry from the MCU. The film received mainly positive reviews and broke many box office records, becoming the third highest-grossing film both in the United States and worldwide. For her performance, she was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards and three People's Choice Awards. Later that year, Johansson portrayed actress Janet Leigh in Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock, a behind-the-scenes drama about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho. Roger Ebert wrote that Johansson did not look much like Leigh, but conveyed her spunk, intelligence, and sense of humor.
In January 2013, Johansson starred in a Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Rob Ashford. Set in the Mississippi Delta, it examines the relationships within the family of Big Daddy (Ciarán Hinds), primarily between his son Brick (Benjamin Walker) and Maggie (Johansson). Her performance received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weeklys Thom Geier wrote Johansson "brings a fierce fighting spirit" to her part, but Joe Dziemianowicz from Daily News called her performance "alarmingly one-note". The 2013 Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, Don Jon. In this romantic comedy-drama, she played the pornography-addicted title character's girlfriend. Gordon-Levitt wrote the role for Johansson, who had previously admired his acting work. The film received positive reviews and Johansson's performance was highlighted by critics. Claudia Puig of USA Today considered it to be one of her best performances.
In 2013, Johansson voiced the character Samantha, a self-aware computer operating system, in Spike Jonze's film Her, replacing Samantha Morton in the role. The film premiered at the 8th Rome International Film Festival, where Johansson won Best Actress; she was also nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. Johansson was intimidated by the role's complexity, and found her recording sessions for the role challenging but liberating. Peter Travers believed Johansson's voice in the film was "sweet, sexy, caring, manipulative, scary [and] award-worthy". Times Richard Corliss called her performance "seductive and winning", and Her was rated as one of the best films of 2013.
She also won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 40th Saturn Awards in 2014 for her performance. Johansson was cast in Jonathan Glazer's science fiction film Under the Skin (2013) as an extraterrestrial creature disguised as a human femme fatale who preys on men in Scotland. The project, an adaptation of Michel Faber's novel of the same name, took nine years to complete. For the role, she learned to drive a van and speak in an English accent. Johansson improvised conversations with non-professional actors on the street, who did not know they were being filmed. It was released to generally positive reviews, with particular praise for Johansson. Erin Whitney, writing for The Huffington Post, considered it to be her finest performance to that point, and noted that it was her first fully nude role. Author Maureen Foster wrote, "How much depth, breadth, and range Johansson mines from her character's very limited allowance of emotional response is a testament to her acting prowess that is, as the film goes on, increasingly stunning." It earned Johansson a BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film nomination.
Blockbuster films and critical acclaim (2014–2020)
Continuing her work in the MCU, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). In the film, she joins forces with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D., while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier. Johansson and Evans wrote their own dialogue for several scenes they had together. Johansson was attracted to her character's way of doing her job, employing her feminine wiles and not her physical appeal. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $714million worldwide. Critic Odie Henderson saw "a genuine emotional shorthand at work, especially from Johansson, who is excellent here". The role earned her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Johansson played a supporting role in the film Chef (2014), alongside Robert Downey, Jr., Sofía Vergara, and director Jon Favreau. It grossed over $45million at the box office and was well received by critics. The Chicago Sun-Times writer Richard Roeper found the film "funny, quirky and insightful, with a bounty of interesting supporting characters". In Luc Besson's science fiction action film Lucy (2014), Johansson starred as the title character, who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream. Besson discussed the role with several actresses, and cast Johansson based on her strong reaction to the script and her discipline. Critics generally praised the film's themes, visuals, and Johansson's performance; some found the plot nonsensical. IGN's Jim Vejvoda attributed the film's success to her acting and Besson's style. The film grossed $458million on a budget of $40million to become the 18th highest-grossing film of 2014.
In 2015 and 2016, Johansson again played Black Widow in the MCU films Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. During filming of the former, a mixture of close-ups, concealing costumes, stunt doubles and visual effects were used to hide her pregnancy. Both films earned more than $1.1billion, ranking among the highest-grossing films of all time. For Civil War, Johansson earned her second nomination for Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie and her fourth for Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. Earlier in 2016, Johansson had featured in the Coen brothers' well-received comedy film Hail, Caesar! about a "fixer" working in the classical Hollywood cinema, trying to discover what happened to a cast member who vanished during the filming of a biblical epic; Johansson plays an actress who becomes pregnant while her film is in production. She also voiced Kaa in Jon Favreau's live-action adaptation of Disney's The Jungle Book, and Ash in the animated musical comedy film Sing (both 2016). That year she also narrated an audiobook of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Johansson played Motoko Kusanagi in Rupert Sanders's 2017 film adaptation of the Ghost in the Shell franchise. The film was praised for its visual style, acting, and cinematography, but was the subject of controversy for whitewashing the cast, particularly Johansson's character, a cyborg who was meant to hold the memories of a Japanese woman. Responding to the backlash, the actress asserted she would never play a non-white character, but wanted to take the rare opportunity to star in a female-led franchise. Ghost in the Shell grossed $169.8million worldwide against a production budget of $110million. In March 2017, Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live for the fifth time, making her the 17th person, and the fourth woman, to enter the NBC sketch comedy's prestigious Five-Timers Club. Johansson's next 2017 film was the comedy Rough Night, where she played Jess Thayer, one of the five friends—alongside Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz—whose bachelorette party goes wrong after a male stripper dies. The film had a mixed critical reception and moderate box office returns. In 2018, Johansson voiced show dog Nutmeg in Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated film Isle of Dogs, released in March, and reprised her MCU role as Black Widow in Avengers: Infinity War, which followed the next month. Johansson was due to star in Rub & Tug, a biographical film in which she would have played Dante "Tex" Gill, a transgender man who operated a massage parlor and prostitution ring in the 1970s and 1980s. She dropped out of the project following backlash to the casting of a cisgender woman to play a transgender man.
In 2019, Johansson once again reprised her role as Black Widow in Avengers: Endgame, which is the highest-grossing film of all time. She next starred in Noah Baumbach's Netflix film Marriage Story, in which Adam Driver and she played a warring couple who file for divorce. Johansson found a connection with her character, as she was amid her own divorce proceedings at the time. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian commended her "brilliantly textured" performance in it. She also took on the supporting role of a young boy's mother who shelters a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany in Taika Waititi's satire Jojo Rabbit. Waititi modeled the character on his own mother, and cast Johansson to provide her a rare opportunity to perform comedy. The film received polarizing reviews, but Stephanie Zacharek labeled her the "lustrous soul of the movie". Johansson received her first two Academy Award nominations, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for her performances in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit, respectively, becoming the eleventh performer to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year. She also received two BAFTA nominations for these films, and a Golden Globe nomination for the former.
Black Widow and lawsuit (2021–present)
After a one-year screen absence, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in her own solo prequel film in 2021, on which she also served as an executive producer. Also starring Florence Pugh, the film is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, and sees Johansson's character on the run and forced to confront her past. Director Cate Shortland, who wanted to make a standalone film on her character, watched Johansson's previous appearances as Black Widow to prepare. Johansson felt proud of the film and that her work playing the role was now complete. She saw this as an opportunity to show her character's ability to be on her own and make choices for herself while facing difficult times, and noted that her vulnerability distinguished her from other Avengers. Critics were generally favorable in their reviews of the film, mainly praising Johansson and Pugh's performances. In a review published in The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney thought the film was "a stellar vehicle" for Johansson. Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood found the actress "again a great presence in the role, showing expert action and acting chops throughout". For the film, Johansson won The Female Movie Star of 2021 at the 47th People's Choice Awards.
In July 2021, Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney claiming that the simultaneous release of Black Widow on their streaming service Disney+ breached a clause in her contract that the film receive exclusive theatrical release. She alleged that the release on Disney+ exempted her from receiving additional bonus from box-office profits, to which she was entitled. In response, Disney said her lawsuit showed an indifference to the "horrific and prolonged" effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also stated that Johansson already received $20million for the film and that the Disney+ Premier Access release would only earn her additional compensation. The Hollywood Reporter described Disney's response as "aggressive". Accusing Disney of intentionally violating their contract with Johansson, Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Bryan Lourd criticized the company for falsely portraying Johansson as insensitive to the effects of the pandemic, which he considered a "direct attack on her character". Lourd further stated that the company including her salary in their public statement was to try to "weaponize her success as an artist and businesswoman". Later that September, both parties announced that they had resolved their dispute, with the terms of the settlement remaining undisclosed.
Music career
In 2006, Johansson sang the track "Summertime" for Unexpected DreamsSongs From the Stars, a non-profit collection of songs recorded by Hollywood actors. She performed with the Jesus and Mary Chain for a Coachella reunion show in Indio, California, in April 2007. The following year, Johansson appeared as the leading lady in Justin Timberlake's music video, for "What Goes Around... Comes Around", which was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.
In May 2008, Johansson released her debut album Anywhere I Lay My Head, which consists of one original song and ten cover versions of Tom Waits songs, and features David Bowie and members from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Celebration. Reviews of the album were mixed. Spin was not particularly impressed with Johansson's singing. Some critics found it to be "surprisingly alluring", "a bravely eccentric selection", and "a brilliant album" with "ghostly magic". NME named the album the "23rd best album of 2008", and it peaked at number126 on the Billboard 200. Johansson started listening to Waits when she was 11 or 12 years old, and said of him, "His melodies are so beautiful, his voice is so distinct and I had my own way of doing Tom Waits songs."
In September 2009, Johansson and singer-songwriter Pete Yorn released a collaborative album, Break Up, inspired by Serge Gainsbourg's duets with Brigitte Bardot. The album reached number 41 in the US. In 2010, Steel Train released Terrible Thrills Vol.1, which includes their favorite female artists singing songs from their self-titled album. Johansson is the first artist on the album, singing "Bullet". Johansson sang "One Whole Hour" for the 2011 soundtrack of the documentary film Wretches & Jabberers (2010). and in 2012 sang on a J.Ralph track entitled "Before My Time" for the end credits of the climate documentary Chasing Ice (2012)
In February 2015, Johansson formed a band called the Singles with Este Haim from HAIM, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan. The group's first single was called "Candy". Johansson was issued a cease and desist order from the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based rock band the Singles, demanding she stop using their name. In 2016, she performed "Trust in Me" for The Jungle Book soundtrack and "Set It All Free" and "I Don't Wanna" for Sing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. In 2018, Johansson collaborated with Pete Yorn again for an EP titled Apart, released June 1.
Public image
Johansson has been called "ScarJo" by the media and fans, and dislikes being called this, finding it lazy, flippant and insulting. She has no social media profiles, saying she does not see the need "to continuously share details of [her] everyday life."
Johansson is described as a sex symbol by the media. The Sydney Morning Herald describes her as "the embodiment of male fantasy". During the filming of Match Point, director Woody Allen remarked upon her attractiveness, calling her "beautiful" and "sexually overwhelming". In 2014, The New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane wrote that "she is evidently, and profitably, aware of her sultriness, and of how much, down to the last inch, it contributes to the contours of her reputation." Johansson has expressed displeasure at being sexualized, and maintains that a preoccupation with one's attractiveness does not last. She lost the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), because the film's director David Fincher found her "too sexy" for the part.
Johansson ranks highly in several beauty listings. Maxim included her in their Hot 100 list from 2006 to 2014. She has been named "Sexiest Woman Alive" twice by Esquire (2006 and 2013), and has been included in similar listings by Playboy (2007), Men's Health (2011), and FHM (since 2005). She was named GQs Babe of the Year in 2010. Madame Tussauds New York museum unveiled a wax statue of her in 2015.
Johansson was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2004. In 2006, she appeared on Forbes Celebrity 100 list, and again in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2012. In 2021, she appeared on the Time 100, Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Johansson was included on Forbes annual list of the world's highest-paid actresses from 2014 to 2016, with respective earnings of $17million, $35.5million and $25million. She would later top the list in 2018 and 2019, with earnings of $40.5million and $56million, respectively. She was the highest-grossing actor of 2016, with a total of $1.2billion. As a result, IndieWire credited her for taking on risky roles. , her films have grossed over billion in North America and over billion worldwide, making Johansson the third-highest-grossing box-office star of all time both domestically and worldwide as well as the highest-grossing actress of all time in North America.
Johansson has appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, L'Oréal, and Louis Vuitton, and has represented the Spanish brand Mango since 2009. She was the first Hollywood celebrity to represent a champagne producer, appearing in advertisements for Moët & Chandon. In January 2014, the Israeli company SodaStream, which makes home-carbonation products, hired Johansson as its first global brand ambassador, a relationship that commenced with a television commercial during Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. This created some controversy, as SodaStream at that time operated a plant in Israeli-occupied territory in the West Bank.
Personal life
While attending PCS, Johansson dated classmate Jack Antonoff from 2001 to 2002. She dated her Black Dahlia co-star Josh Hartnett for about two years until the end of 2006. Hartnett said they broke up because their busy schedules kept them apart. Johansson began dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007. They became engaged in May 2008, married in September 2008 on Vancouver Island, separated in December 2010 and divorced in July 2011.
In November 2012, Johansson began dating Frenchman Romain Dauriac, the owner of an advertising agency. They became engaged the following September. The pair divided their time between New York City and Paris. She gave birth to their daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac, in 2014. Johansson and Dauriac married that October in Philipsburg, Montana. They separated in mid-2016 and divorced in September 2017. Johansson began dating Saturday Night Live co-head writer and Weekend Update co-host Colin Jost in May 2017. In May 2019, the two were engaged. They married in October 2020, at their New York home. She gave birth to their son, Cosmo, in August 2021. Johansson resides in New York and Los Angeles.
In September 2011, nude photographs of Johansson hacked from her cell phone were leaked online. She said the pictures had been sent to her then-husband, Ryan Reynolds, three years before the incident. Following an FBI investigation, the hacker was arrested, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In 2014, Johansson won a lawsuit against French publisher JC Lattès over defamatory statements about her relationships in the novel The First Thing We Look At by Grégoire Delacourt. She was awarded $3,400; she had claimed $68,000.
Johansson has criticized the media for promoting an image that causes unhealthy diets and eating disorders among women. In an essay she wrote for The Huffington Post, she encouraged people to maintain a healthy body. She posed nude on the March 2006 cover of Vanity Fair alongside actress Keira Knightley and fully clothed fashion designer Tom Ford, who jumped in last minute on the day of the shoot to replace Rachel McAdams after she walked out. The photograph sparked controversy, as some believed it demonstrated that women are forced to flaunt their sexuality more often than men.
Other ventures
Philanthropy
Johansson has supported various charitable organizations, including Aid Still Required, Cancer Research UK, Stand Up To Cancer, Too Many Women (which works against breast cancer), and USA Harvest, which provides food for people in need. In 2005, Johansson became a global ambassador for the aid and development agency Oxfam. In 2007, she took part in the anti-poverty campaign ONE, which was organized by U2's lead singer Bono. In March 2008, a UK-based bidder paid £20,000 on an eBay auction to benefit Oxfam, winning a hair and makeup treatment, a pair of tickets, and a chauffeured trip to accompany her on a 20-minute date to the world premiere of He's Just Not That into You.
In January 2014, Johansson resigned from her Oxfam position after criticism of her promotion of SodaStream, whose main factory was based in Mishor Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank; Oxfam opposes all trade with such Israeli settlements. Oxfam stated that it was thankful for her contributions in raising funds to fight poverty. Together with her Avengers costars, Johansson raised $500,000 for the victims of Hurricane Maria.
In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. Johansson took part in the Women's March in Los Angeles in January 2018, where she spoke on topics such as abuses of power, sharing her own experience. She received backlash for calling out fellow actor James Franco on allegations of sexual misconduct as in the past she had defended working with Woody Allen amid an accusation by his daughter Dylan Farrow.
Johansson has given support to Operation Warrior Wellness, a division of the David Lynch Foundation that helps veterans learn Transcendental Meditation. Her grand-uncle, Phillip Schlamberg, was the last American pilot to have been killed during WWII. He had gone on a bombing mission with Jerry Yellin, who went on to become co-founder of Operation Warrior Wellness.
Politics
Johansson was registered as an independent, at least through 2008, and campaigned for Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 United States presidential election. When George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, she said she was disappointed.
In January 2008, her campaign for Democratic candidate Barack Obama included appearances in Iowa targeted at younger voters, an appearance at Cornell College, and a speaking engagement at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, on Super Tuesday, 2008. Johansson appeared in the music video for rapper will.i.am's song, "Yes We Can" (2008), directed by Jesse Dylan; the song was inspired by Obama's speech after the 2008 New Hampshire primary. In February 2012, Johansson and Anna Wintour hosted a fashion launch of pro-Obama clothing, bags, and accessories, the proceeds of which went to the President's re-election campaign. She addressed voters at the Democratic National Convention in September 2012, calling for Obama's re-election and for more engagement from young voters. She encouraged women to vote for Obama and condemned Mitt Romney for his opposition to Planned Parenthood.
Johansson publicly endorsed and supported Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's 2013 run for New York City Comptroller by hosting a series of fundraisers. To encourage people to vote in the 2016 presidential election, in which Johansson endorsed Hillary Clinton, she appeared in a commercial alongside her Marvel Cinematic Universe co-star Robert Downey Jr., and Joss Whedon. In 2017, she spoke at the Women's March on Washington, addressing Donald Trump's presidency and stating that she would support the president if he works for women's rights and stops withdrawing federal funding for Planned Parenthood. In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Johansson endorsed Elizabeth Warren, referring to Warren as "thoughtful and progressive but realistic".
In December 2020, three members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an Egyptian civil rights organization, were released from prison in Egypt, after Johansson had described their detention circumstances and demanded the trio's release.
Notes
See also
List of actors nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year
References
Further reading
External links
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
1984 births
Actresses from New York City
American child actresses
American film actresses
American people of Danish descent
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American people of Swedish descent
American stage actresses
American voice actresses
American women film producers
Atco Records artists
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
César Honorary Award recipients
Danish people of Polish-Jewish descent
Danish people of Russian-Jewish descent
Danish people of Swedish descent
Female models from New York (state)
Fraternal twin actresses
Jewish American actresses
Jewish singers
Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni
Living people
Method actors
People from Manhattan
Theatre World Award winners
Time 100
Tony Award winners
Twin people from the United States
| false |
[
"The Horse Whisperer is a 1995 novel by English author Nicholas Evans. The book was his debut novel, and gained significant success, becoming the 10th best selling novel in the United States in 1995, selling over 15 million copies. This also makes it one of the best-selling books of all time.\n\nThe book was made into a film, also titled The Horse Whisperer, directed by and starring Robert Redford.\n\nSummary\nThe novel starts in upstate New York where a teenage girl, Grace Maclean, and her friend, Judith, go riding on their horses, Pilgrim and Gulliver, on a snowy morning. As they ride up an icy slope, Gulliver slips and hits Pilgrim. Both horses fall, dragging the girls into a road and into a collision with a tractor-trailer. Judith and Gulliver are killed, while Grace and Pilgrim are severely injured. Grace, left with a partially amputated right leg, is bitter and withdrawn. Grace's mother, Annie, is a workaholic magazine editor, and her father, Robert, is a lawyer. The different approaches taken by each of Grace's parents in dealing with the accident strain relationships with in the family.\n\nFollowing the accident, Pilgrim is traumatised and uncontrollable, leading his caretakers to mistreat him and to suggest that he be put down. Annie refuses to allow her horse to be put down and hears of a 'horse whisperer', Tom Booker. She undertakes a long cross country journey with Pilgrim and Grace to Montana.\n\nOn the Montana ranch, Tom works with Pilgrim and starts to make progress. Both Grace and Annie become happier because the ranch life suits them. During the stay, Annie and Tom become close and eventually begin an affair.\n\nDespite the progress that Tom has made with Pilgrim, Grace is still unable to ride the horse. Tom attempts a drastic intervention by forcing the horse to lie down and having Grace stand on him. This technique works and horse and rider are reunited.\n\nAt the party marking the end of Grace's and Annie's stay in Montana, Grace finds out about the affair, and she rides recklessly into the countryside. Grace unintentionally rides into a herd of wild mustangs that begin a stampede. Tom rides after her and finds Pilgrim fighting with the mustang stallion. Tom manages to save Grace and Pilgrim, but then deliberately gets himself fatally trampled by the stallion, perhaps because he feels guilty about hurting Grace by having an affair with her mother.\n\nGrace, Annie, and Pilgrim return to New York to rebuild their lives with Robert, but Annie discovers she is pregnant and eventually gives birth to a baby with Tom's blue eyes.\n\nCharacters\nGrace Maclean —The daughter of Annie and Robert. She was severely injured in a riding accident at the beginning of the book.\nAnnie Graves —Grace's mother, who arranges the journey to the horse whisperer, and has an affair with him.\nRobert Maclean —Grace's father, and Annie's husband. He appears only briefly in the book.\nTom Booker —The horse whisperer.\nPilgrim —Grace's Morgan horse.\nJudith—Grace's best friend and the owner of Gulliver, both killed by an accident with a truck.\n\nInspiration\nAccording to writer Nicholas Evans, Tom Booker is modelled after horse whisperers Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt and, in particular, their younger disciple Buck Brannaman. Evans has said, \"Others have claimed to be the inspiration for Tom Booker in The Horse Whisperer. The one who truly inspired me was Buck Brannaman. His skill, understanding and his gentle, loving heart have parted the clouds for countless troubled creatures. Buck is the Zen master of the horse world.\"\n\nFilm\nRobert Redford bought the film rights in 1995 for £3 million, and the film The Horse Whisperer was released in 1998, with Redford himself in the title role as Tom Booker.\n\nThe film is mostly faithful to the book but does not include Grace's confrontation with the herd of Mustangs, or the death of Booker. Instead, Annie drives away from the ranch with Pilgrim in the trailer while Booker watches from the top of a hill. There is no indication in the movie that Annie and Tom sexually consummated their affair.\n\nSee also \nJohn Solomon Rarey, early nineteenth century horse whisperer whose techniques were shown in the book\n\nReferences\n\n1995 British novels\nBritish novels adapted into films\nNovels set in New York (state)\nNovels about horses\nNovels set in Montana\nProsthetics in fiction\nAmerican novels adapted into films\n1995 debut novels",
"Tracy Hogg (August 1960 – 25 November 2004) was a British nurse and bestselling author. Her experiences as a nurse at St. Catherine's Hospital for the Mentally Handicapped and other hospitals led to a career as a child care expert. She was nicknamed \"the baby whisperer\" for her ability to placate infants. Hogg emigrated to the United States in 1992 and became famous in her last years for guiding young parents in California, among them Jodie Foster, Cindy Crawford, Jamie Lee Curtis and Calista Flockhart. Her fee for 3 weeks of babysitting was said to be over $15,000.\n\nHer first book, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How To Calm, Connect, and Communicate With Your Baby, co-authored by journalist Melinda Blau, was published in 2001. It became a New York Times bestseller. One year later, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers was published and became a national bestseller as well.\n\nIn June 2002 Hogg teamed up with Discovery Health in Great Britain to produce a fifteen-part television series entitled The Baby Whisperer. In 2004, as she was battling cancer, Hogg and Blau collaborated on The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems. Hogg died of melanoma on 25 November 2004.\n\nBooks\n Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, 2001, \n Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers, 2002, \n The Baby Whisperer Solves all your Problems, 2005,\n\nTV shows\n The Baby Whisperer\n\nExternal links\n Official website\n Tracy Hogg's Baby whisperer Forums\n Author page in publisher's website\n The Telegraph obituary\n The Boston Globe obituary\n\n1960 births\n2004 deaths\nBritish writers\nPeople from Doncaster"
] |
[
"Scarlett Johansson",
"Early roles (1996-2002)",
"What was one of Johanssons early roles?",
"Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo",
"was that a movie or tv series?",
"film",
"Was it a success?",
"Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted,",
"What else did she play in?",
"The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford.",
"What was her character in \"The Horse Whisperer\"?",
"tells the story of a talented trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson."
] |
C_345ae8aa778e455cabe6b9c1978a57fd_1
|
did she win any awards?
| 6 |
did Scarlett Johansson win any awards?
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Scarlett Johansson
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Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role. After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a talented trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth". Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from PCS that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected. CANNOTANSWER
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won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
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Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Her films have grossed over billion worldwide, making Johansson the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time. She has received various accolades, including a Tony Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
Johansson aspired to be an actress from an early age and first appeared on stage in an Off-Broadway play as a child actor. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994), and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing a troubled teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) and a seductress in psychological thriller Match Point (2005). The latter was her first collaboration with Woody Allen, who later directed her in Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Johansson's other works of this period include The Prestige (2006) and the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) and Break Up (2009), both of which charted on the Billboard 200.
In 2010, Johansson debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress, and began portraying Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man 2. She reprised the role in eight films, most recently in her solo feature Black Widow (2021), gaining global recognition for her performances. During this period, Johansson starred in the science fiction films Her (2013), Under the Skin (2013) and Lucy (2014). She received two simultaneous Academy Award nominations—Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress—for the respective roles of an actress going through a divorce in the drama Marriage Story (2019) and a single mother in Nazi Germany in the satire Jojo Rabbit (2019).
Labeled a sex symbol, Johansson has been referred to as one of the world's most attractive women by various media outlets. She is a prominent brand endorser and supports several charitable causes. Divorced from actor Ryan Reynolds and businessman Romain Dauriac, Johansson has been married to comedian Colin Jost since 2020. She has two children, one with Dauriac and another with Jost.
Early life
Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark. Her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter, and film director, whose own father was Swedish. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a New Yorker, has worked as a producer; she comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Poland and Russia, originally surnamed Schlamberg, and Johansson describes herself as Jewish. She has an older sister, Vanessa, also an actress; an older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter. She also has an older half-brother, Christian, from her father's first marriage. Johansson holds dual American and Danish citizenship. She discovered that her maternal great-grandfather's family died during the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto on a 2017 episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots.
Johansson attended PS 41, an elementary school in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Her parents divorced when she was thirteen. She was particularly close to her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Sloan, a bookkeeper and schoolteacher; they often spent time together and Johansson considered Dorothy her best friend. Interested in a career in the spotlight from an early age, Johansson often put on song-and-dance routines for her family. She was particularly fond of musical theater and jazz hands. She took lessons in tap dance, and states that her parents were supportive of her career choice. She has described her childhood as very ordinary.
As a child, Johansson practiced acting by staring in the mirror until she made herself cry, wanting to be Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. At age seven, she was devastated when a talent agent signed one of her brothers instead of her, but she later decided to become an actress anyway. She enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and began auditioning for commercials, but soon lost interest: "I didn't want to promote Wonder Bread." She shifted her focus to film and theater, making her first stage appearance in the Off-Broadway play Sophistry with Ethan Hawke, in which she had two lines. Around this time, she began studying at Professional Children's School (PCS), a private educational institution for aspiring child actors in Manhattan.
Acting career
Early work and breakthrough (1994–2002)
At age nine, Johansson made her film debut as John Ritter's daughter in the fantasy comedy North (1994). She says that when she was on the film set, she knew intuitively what to do. She later played minor roles such as the daughter of Sean Connery's and Kate Capshaw's characters in the mystery thriller Just Cause (1995), and an art student in If Lucy Fell (1996). Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role.
After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth".
Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of the same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from Professional Children's School that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected.
Transition to adult roles (2003–2004)
Johansson transitioned from teen to adult roles with two films in 2003: the romantic comedy-drama Lost in Translation and the drama Girl with a Pearl Earring. In the former, directed by Sofia Coppola, she plays Charlotte, a listless and lonely young wife, opposite Bill Murray. Coppola had first noticed Johansson in Manny & Lo, and compared her to a young Lauren Bacall; Coppola based the film's story on the relationship between Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946). Johansson found the experience of working with a female director different because of Coppola's ability to empathize with her. Made on a budget of $4million, the film grossed $119million at the box office and received critical acclaim. Roger Ebert was pleased with the film and described the lead actors' performances as "wonderful", and Entertainment Weekly wrote of Johansson's "embracing, restful serenity". The New York Times praised Johansson, aged 17 at the time of filming, for playing an older character.
In Peter Webber's Girl with a Pearl Earring, which is based on the novel of the same name by Tracy Chevalier, Johansson played Griet, a young 17th-century servant in the household of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (played by Colin Firth). Webber interviewed 150 actors before casting Johansson. Johansson found the character moving, but did not read the novel, as she thought it was better to approach the story with a fresh start. Girl with a Pearl Earring received positive reviews and was profitable. In his review for The New Yorker, Anthony Lane thought that her presence kept the film "alive", writing, "She is often wordless and close to plain onscreen, but wait for the ardor with which she can summon a closeup and bloom under its gaze; this is her film, not Vermeer's, all the way." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly noted her "nearly silent performance", remarking, "The interplay on her face of fear, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is intensely dramatic." She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for both films in 2003, winning the former for Lost in Translation.
In Varietys opinion, Johansson's roles in Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring established her as among the most versatile actresses of her generation. Johansson had five releases in 2004, three of which—the teen heist film The Perfect Score, the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long, and the drama A Good Woman—were critical and commercial failures. Co-starring with John Travolta, Johansson played a discontented teenager in A Love Song for Bobby Long, which is based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. David Rooney of Variety wrote that Johansson's and Travolta's performances rescued the film. Johansson earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama nomination for the film.
In her fourth release in 2004, the live-action animated comedy The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Johansson voiced Princess Mindy, the daughter of King Neptune. She agreed to the project because of her love of cartoons, particularly The Ren & Stimpy Show. The film was her most commercially successful release that year. She would then reprise her role as Mindy in the video game adaptation of the film. She followed it with In Good Company, a comedy-drama in which she complicates the life of her father when she dates his much younger boss. Reviews of the film were generally positive, describing it as "witty and charming". Roger Ebert was impressed with Johansson's portrayal, writing that she "continues to employ the gravitational pull of quiet fascination".
Collaborations with Woody Allen (2005–2009)
Johansson played Nola, an aspiring actress who begins an affair with a married man (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in Woody Allen's drama Match Point in 2005. After replacing Kate Winslet with Johansson for the role, Allen changed the character's nationality from British to American. An admirer of Allen's films, Johansson liked the idea of working with him, but felt nervous her first day on the set. The New York Times was impressed with the performances of Johansson and Rhys Meyers, and Mick LaSalle, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, stated that Johansson "is a powerhouse from the word go", with a performance that "borders on astonishing". The film, a box office success, earned Johansson nominations for the Golden Globe and the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, Johansson underwent a tonsillectomy, after which she starred with Ewan McGregor in Michael Bay's science fiction film The Island, in dual roles as Sarah Jordan and her clone, Jordan Two Delta. Johansson found her filming schedule exhausting: she had to shoot for 14 hours a day, and she hit her head and injured herself. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $163million against a $126million budget.
Two of Johansson's films in 2006 explored the world of stage magicians, both opposite Hugh Jackman. Allen cast her opposite Jackman and himself in the film Scoop (2006), in which she played a journalism student. The film was a modest worldwide box office success, but polarized critics. Ebert was critical of the film, but found Johansson "lovely as always", and Mick LaSalle noted the freshness she brought to her part. She also appeared in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, a film noir shot in Los Angeles and Bulgaria. Johansson later said she was a fan of DePalma and had wanted to work with him on the film, but thought that she was unsuitable for the part. Anne Billson of The Daily Telegraph likewise found her miscast. However, CNN said that she "takes to the pulpy period atmosphere as if it were oxygen".
Also in 2006, Johansson starred in the short film When the Deal Goes Down to accompany Bob Dylan's song "When the Deal Goes Down..." from the album Modern Times. Johansson had a supporting role of assistant and lover of Jackman's character, an aristocratic magician, in Christopher Nolan's mystery thriller The Prestige (2006). Nolan thought Johansson possessed "ambiguity" and "a shielded quality". She was fascinated with Nolan's directing methods and liked working with him. The film was a critical and box office success, recommended by the Los Angeles Times as "an adult, provocative piece of work". Some critics were skeptical of her performance: Billson again judged her miscast, and Dan Jolin of Empire criticized her English accent.
Johansson's sole release of 2007 was the critically panned comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries alongside Chris Evans and Laura Linney, in which she played a college graduate working as a nanny. Reviews of her performance were mixed; Variety wrote, "[She] essays an engaging heroine", and The New Yorker criticized her for looking "merely confused" while "trying to give the material a plausible emotional center". In 2008, Johansson starred, with Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, in The Other Boleyn Girl, which also earned mixed reviews. Promoting the film, Johansson and Portman appeared on the cover of W, discussing with the magazine the public's reception of them. In Rolling Stone, Pete Travers criticized the film for "[moving] in frustrating herks and jerks", but thought that the duo were the only positive aspect of the production. Variety credited the cast as "almost flawless ... at the top of its game", citing "Johansson's quieter Mary ... as the [film's] emotional center".
In her third collaboration with Woody Allen, the romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), which was filmed in Spain, Johansson plays one of the love interests of Javier Bardem's character alongside Penélope Cruz. The film was one of Allen's most profitable and received favorable reviews. A reviewer in Variety described Johansson as "open and malleable" compared to the other actors. She also played the femme fatale Silken Floss in The Spirit, based on the newspaper comic strip of the same name by Will Eisner. It received poor reviews from critics, who deemed it melodramatic, unoriginal, and sexist. Johansson's only role in 2009 was as Anna Marks, a yoga instructor, in the ensemble comedy-drama He's Just Not That into You (2009). The film was released to tepid reviews, but was a box office success.
Marvel Cinematic Universe and worldwide recognition (2010–2013)
Aspiring to appear on Broadway since childhood, Johansson made her debut in a 2010 revival of Arthur Miller's drama A View from the Bridge. Set in the 1950s in an Italian-American neighborhood in New York, it tells the tragic tale of Eddie (Liev Schreiber), who has an inappropriate love for his wife's orphaned niece, Catherine (Johansson). After initial reservations about playing a teenage character, Johansson was convinced by a friend to take on the part. Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote Johansson "melts into her character so thoroughly that her nimbus of celebrity disappears". Varietys David Rooney was impressed with the play and Johansson in particular, describing her as the chief performer. She won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. Some critics and Broadway actors criticized the award committee's decision to reward the work of mainstream Hollywood actors, including Johansson. In response, she said that she understood the frustration, but had worked hard for her accomplishments.
Johansson played Black Widow in Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (2010), a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Before she secured the role, she dyed her hair red to convince Favreau that she was right for the part, and undertook stunt and strength training to prepare for the role. Johansson said the character resonated with her, and she admired the superhero's human traits. The film earned $623.9million against its $200million budget, and received generally positive reviews from critics, although reviewers criticized how her character was written. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph and Matt Goldberg thought that she had little to do but look attractive. In 2011, Johansson played the role of Kelly, a zookeeper in the family film We Bought a Zoo alongside Matt Damon. The film got mainly favorable reviews, and Anne Billson praised Johansson for bringing depth to a rather uninteresting character. Johansson earned a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress: Drama nomination for her performance.
Johansson learned some Russian from a former teacher on the phone for her role as Black Widow in The Avengers (2012), another entry from the MCU. The film received mainly positive reviews and broke many box office records, becoming the third highest-grossing film both in the United States and worldwide. For her performance, she was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards and three People's Choice Awards. Later that year, Johansson portrayed actress Janet Leigh in Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock, a behind-the-scenes drama about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho. Roger Ebert wrote that Johansson did not look much like Leigh, but conveyed her spunk, intelligence, and sense of humor.
In January 2013, Johansson starred in a Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Rob Ashford. Set in the Mississippi Delta, it examines the relationships within the family of Big Daddy (Ciarán Hinds), primarily between his son Brick (Benjamin Walker) and Maggie (Johansson). Her performance received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weeklys Thom Geier wrote Johansson "brings a fierce fighting spirit" to her part, but Joe Dziemianowicz from Daily News called her performance "alarmingly one-note". The 2013 Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, Don Jon. In this romantic comedy-drama, she played the pornography-addicted title character's girlfriend. Gordon-Levitt wrote the role for Johansson, who had previously admired his acting work. The film received positive reviews and Johansson's performance was highlighted by critics. Claudia Puig of USA Today considered it to be one of her best performances.
In 2013, Johansson voiced the character Samantha, a self-aware computer operating system, in Spike Jonze's film Her, replacing Samantha Morton in the role. The film premiered at the 8th Rome International Film Festival, where Johansson won Best Actress; she was also nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. Johansson was intimidated by the role's complexity, and found her recording sessions for the role challenging but liberating. Peter Travers believed Johansson's voice in the film was "sweet, sexy, caring, manipulative, scary [and] award-worthy". Times Richard Corliss called her performance "seductive and winning", and Her was rated as one of the best films of 2013.
She also won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 40th Saturn Awards in 2014 for her performance. Johansson was cast in Jonathan Glazer's science fiction film Under the Skin (2013) as an extraterrestrial creature disguised as a human femme fatale who preys on men in Scotland. The project, an adaptation of Michel Faber's novel of the same name, took nine years to complete. For the role, she learned to drive a van and speak in an English accent. Johansson improvised conversations with non-professional actors on the street, who did not know they were being filmed. It was released to generally positive reviews, with particular praise for Johansson. Erin Whitney, writing for The Huffington Post, considered it to be her finest performance to that point, and noted that it was her first fully nude role. Author Maureen Foster wrote, "How much depth, breadth, and range Johansson mines from her character's very limited allowance of emotional response is a testament to her acting prowess that is, as the film goes on, increasingly stunning." It earned Johansson a BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film nomination.
Blockbuster films and critical acclaim (2014–2020)
Continuing her work in the MCU, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). In the film, she joins forces with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D., while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier. Johansson and Evans wrote their own dialogue for several scenes they had together. Johansson was attracted to her character's way of doing her job, employing her feminine wiles and not her physical appeal. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $714million worldwide. Critic Odie Henderson saw "a genuine emotional shorthand at work, especially from Johansson, who is excellent here". The role earned her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Johansson played a supporting role in the film Chef (2014), alongside Robert Downey, Jr., Sofía Vergara, and director Jon Favreau. It grossed over $45million at the box office and was well received by critics. The Chicago Sun-Times writer Richard Roeper found the film "funny, quirky and insightful, with a bounty of interesting supporting characters". In Luc Besson's science fiction action film Lucy (2014), Johansson starred as the title character, who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream. Besson discussed the role with several actresses, and cast Johansson based on her strong reaction to the script and her discipline. Critics generally praised the film's themes, visuals, and Johansson's performance; some found the plot nonsensical. IGN's Jim Vejvoda attributed the film's success to her acting and Besson's style. The film grossed $458million on a budget of $40million to become the 18th highest-grossing film of 2014.
In 2015 and 2016, Johansson again played Black Widow in the MCU films Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. During filming of the former, a mixture of close-ups, concealing costumes, stunt doubles and visual effects were used to hide her pregnancy. Both films earned more than $1.1billion, ranking among the highest-grossing films of all time. For Civil War, Johansson earned her second nomination for Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie and her fourth for Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. Earlier in 2016, Johansson had featured in the Coen brothers' well-received comedy film Hail, Caesar! about a "fixer" working in the classical Hollywood cinema, trying to discover what happened to a cast member who vanished during the filming of a biblical epic; Johansson plays an actress who becomes pregnant while her film is in production. She also voiced Kaa in Jon Favreau's live-action adaptation of Disney's The Jungle Book, and Ash in the animated musical comedy film Sing (both 2016). That year she also narrated an audiobook of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Johansson played Motoko Kusanagi in Rupert Sanders's 2017 film adaptation of the Ghost in the Shell franchise. The film was praised for its visual style, acting, and cinematography, but was the subject of controversy for whitewashing the cast, particularly Johansson's character, a cyborg who was meant to hold the memories of a Japanese woman. Responding to the backlash, the actress asserted she would never play a non-white character, but wanted to take the rare opportunity to star in a female-led franchise. Ghost in the Shell grossed $169.8million worldwide against a production budget of $110million. In March 2017, Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live for the fifth time, making her the 17th person, and the fourth woman, to enter the NBC sketch comedy's prestigious Five-Timers Club. Johansson's next 2017 film was the comedy Rough Night, where she played Jess Thayer, one of the five friends—alongside Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz—whose bachelorette party goes wrong after a male stripper dies. The film had a mixed critical reception and moderate box office returns. In 2018, Johansson voiced show dog Nutmeg in Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated film Isle of Dogs, released in March, and reprised her MCU role as Black Widow in Avengers: Infinity War, which followed the next month. Johansson was due to star in Rub & Tug, a biographical film in which she would have played Dante "Tex" Gill, a transgender man who operated a massage parlor and prostitution ring in the 1970s and 1980s. She dropped out of the project following backlash to the casting of a cisgender woman to play a transgender man.
In 2019, Johansson once again reprised her role as Black Widow in Avengers: Endgame, which is the highest-grossing film of all time. She next starred in Noah Baumbach's Netflix film Marriage Story, in which Adam Driver and she played a warring couple who file for divorce. Johansson found a connection with her character, as she was amid her own divorce proceedings at the time. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian commended her "brilliantly textured" performance in it. She also took on the supporting role of a young boy's mother who shelters a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany in Taika Waititi's satire Jojo Rabbit. Waititi modeled the character on his own mother, and cast Johansson to provide her a rare opportunity to perform comedy. The film received polarizing reviews, but Stephanie Zacharek labeled her the "lustrous soul of the movie". Johansson received her first two Academy Award nominations, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for her performances in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit, respectively, becoming the eleventh performer to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year. She also received two BAFTA nominations for these films, and a Golden Globe nomination for the former.
Black Widow and lawsuit (2021–present)
After a one-year screen absence, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in her own solo prequel film in 2021, on which she also served as an executive producer. Also starring Florence Pugh, the film is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, and sees Johansson's character on the run and forced to confront her past. Director Cate Shortland, who wanted to make a standalone film on her character, watched Johansson's previous appearances as Black Widow to prepare. Johansson felt proud of the film and that her work playing the role was now complete. She saw this as an opportunity to show her character's ability to be on her own and make choices for herself while facing difficult times, and noted that her vulnerability distinguished her from other Avengers. Critics were generally favorable in their reviews of the film, mainly praising Johansson and Pugh's performances. In a review published in The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney thought the film was "a stellar vehicle" for Johansson. Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood found the actress "again a great presence in the role, showing expert action and acting chops throughout". For the film, Johansson won The Female Movie Star of 2021 at the 47th People's Choice Awards.
In July 2021, Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney claiming that the simultaneous release of Black Widow on their streaming service Disney+ breached a clause in her contract that the film receive exclusive theatrical release. She alleged that the release on Disney+ exempted her from receiving additional bonus from box-office profits, to which she was entitled. In response, Disney said her lawsuit showed an indifference to the "horrific and prolonged" effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also stated that Johansson already received $20million for the film and that the Disney+ Premier Access release would only earn her additional compensation. The Hollywood Reporter described Disney's response as "aggressive". Accusing Disney of intentionally violating their contract with Johansson, Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Bryan Lourd criticized the company for falsely portraying Johansson as insensitive to the effects of the pandemic, which he considered a "direct attack on her character". Lourd further stated that the company including her salary in their public statement was to try to "weaponize her success as an artist and businesswoman". Later that September, both parties announced that they had resolved their dispute, with the terms of the settlement remaining undisclosed.
Music career
In 2006, Johansson sang the track "Summertime" for Unexpected DreamsSongs From the Stars, a non-profit collection of songs recorded by Hollywood actors. She performed with the Jesus and Mary Chain for a Coachella reunion show in Indio, California, in April 2007. The following year, Johansson appeared as the leading lady in Justin Timberlake's music video, for "What Goes Around... Comes Around", which was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.
In May 2008, Johansson released her debut album Anywhere I Lay My Head, which consists of one original song and ten cover versions of Tom Waits songs, and features David Bowie and members from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Celebration. Reviews of the album were mixed. Spin was not particularly impressed with Johansson's singing. Some critics found it to be "surprisingly alluring", "a bravely eccentric selection", and "a brilliant album" with "ghostly magic". NME named the album the "23rd best album of 2008", and it peaked at number126 on the Billboard 200. Johansson started listening to Waits when she was 11 or 12 years old, and said of him, "His melodies are so beautiful, his voice is so distinct and I had my own way of doing Tom Waits songs."
In September 2009, Johansson and singer-songwriter Pete Yorn released a collaborative album, Break Up, inspired by Serge Gainsbourg's duets with Brigitte Bardot. The album reached number 41 in the US. In 2010, Steel Train released Terrible Thrills Vol.1, which includes their favorite female artists singing songs from their self-titled album. Johansson is the first artist on the album, singing "Bullet". Johansson sang "One Whole Hour" for the 2011 soundtrack of the documentary film Wretches & Jabberers (2010). and in 2012 sang on a J.Ralph track entitled "Before My Time" for the end credits of the climate documentary Chasing Ice (2012)
In February 2015, Johansson formed a band called the Singles with Este Haim from HAIM, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan. The group's first single was called "Candy". Johansson was issued a cease and desist order from the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based rock band the Singles, demanding she stop using their name. In 2016, she performed "Trust in Me" for The Jungle Book soundtrack and "Set It All Free" and "I Don't Wanna" for Sing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. In 2018, Johansson collaborated with Pete Yorn again for an EP titled Apart, released June 1.
Public image
Johansson has been called "ScarJo" by the media and fans, and dislikes being called this, finding it lazy, flippant and insulting. She has no social media profiles, saying she does not see the need "to continuously share details of [her] everyday life."
Johansson is described as a sex symbol by the media. The Sydney Morning Herald describes her as "the embodiment of male fantasy". During the filming of Match Point, director Woody Allen remarked upon her attractiveness, calling her "beautiful" and "sexually overwhelming". In 2014, The New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane wrote that "she is evidently, and profitably, aware of her sultriness, and of how much, down to the last inch, it contributes to the contours of her reputation." Johansson has expressed displeasure at being sexualized, and maintains that a preoccupation with one's attractiveness does not last. She lost the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), because the film's director David Fincher found her "too sexy" for the part.
Johansson ranks highly in several beauty listings. Maxim included her in their Hot 100 list from 2006 to 2014. She has been named "Sexiest Woman Alive" twice by Esquire (2006 and 2013), and has been included in similar listings by Playboy (2007), Men's Health (2011), and FHM (since 2005). She was named GQs Babe of the Year in 2010. Madame Tussauds New York museum unveiled a wax statue of her in 2015.
Johansson was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2004. In 2006, she appeared on Forbes Celebrity 100 list, and again in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2012. In 2021, she appeared on the Time 100, Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Johansson was included on Forbes annual list of the world's highest-paid actresses from 2014 to 2016, with respective earnings of $17million, $35.5million and $25million. She would later top the list in 2018 and 2019, with earnings of $40.5million and $56million, respectively. She was the highest-grossing actor of 2016, with a total of $1.2billion. As a result, IndieWire credited her for taking on risky roles. , her films have grossed over billion in North America and over billion worldwide, making Johansson the third-highest-grossing box-office star of all time both domestically and worldwide as well as the highest-grossing actress of all time in North America.
Johansson has appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, L'Oréal, and Louis Vuitton, and has represented the Spanish brand Mango since 2009. She was the first Hollywood celebrity to represent a champagne producer, appearing in advertisements for Moët & Chandon. In January 2014, the Israeli company SodaStream, which makes home-carbonation products, hired Johansson as its first global brand ambassador, a relationship that commenced with a television commercial during Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. This created some controversy, as SodaStream at that time operated a plant in Israeli-occupied territory in the West Bank.
Personal life
While attending PCS, Johansson dated classmate Jack Antonoff from 2001 to 2002. She dated her Black Dahlia co-star Josh Hartnett for about two years until the end of 2006. Hartnett said they broke up because their busy schedules kept them apart. Johansson began dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007. They became engaged in May 2008, married in September 2008 on Vancouver Island, separated in December 2010 and divorced in July 2011.
In November 2012, Johansson began dating Frenchman Romain Dauriac, the owner of an advertising agency. They became engaged the following September. The pair divided their time between New York City and Paris. She gave birth to their daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac, in 2014. Johansson and Dauriac married that October in Philipsburg, Montana. They separated in mid-2016 and divorced in September 2017. Johansson began dating Saturday Night Live co-head writer and Weekend Update co-host Colin Jost in May 2017. In May 2019, the two were engaged. They married in October 2020, at their New York home. She gave birth to their son, Cosmo, in August 2021. Johansson resides in New York and Los Angeles.
In September 2011, nude photographs of Johansson hacked from her cell phone were leaked online. She said the pictures had been sent to her then-husband, Ryan Reynolds, three years before the incident. Following an FBI investigation, the hacker was arrested, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In 2014, Johansson won a lawsuit against French publisher JC Lattès over defamatory statements about her relationships in the novel The First Thing We Look At by Grégoire Delacourt. She was awarded $3,400; she had claimed $68,000.
Johansson has criticized the media for promoting an image that causes unhealthy diets and eating disorders among women. In an essay she wrote for The Huffington Post, she encouraged people to maintain a healthy body. She posed nude on the March 2006 cover of Vanity Fair alongside actress Keira Knightley and fully clothed fashion designer Tom Ford, who jumped in last minute on the day of the shoot to replace Rachel McAdams after she walked out. The photograph sparked controversy, as some believed it demonstrated that women are forced to flaunt their sexuality more often than men.
Other ventures
Philanthropy
Johansson has supported various charitable organizations, including Aid Still Required, Cancer Research UK, Stand Up To Cancer, Too Many Women (which works against breast cancer), and USA Harvest, which provides food for people in need. In 2005, Johansson became a global ambassador for the aid and development agency Oxfam. In 2007, she took part in the anti-poverty campaign ONE, which was organized by U2's lead singer Bono. In March 2008, a UK-based bidder paid £20,000 on an eBay auction to benefit Oxfam, winning a hair and makeup treatment, a pair of tickets, and a chauffeured trip to accompany her on a 20-minute date to the world premiere of He's Just Not That into You.
In January 2014, Johansson resigned from her Oxfam position after criticism of her promotion of SodaStream, whose main factory was based in Mishor Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank; Oxfam opposes all trade with such Israeli settlements. Oxfam stated that it was thankful for her contributions in raising funds to fight poverty. Together with her Avengers costars, Johansson raised $500,000 for the victims of Hurricane Maria.
In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. Johansson took part in the Women's March in Los Angeles in January 2018, where she spoke on topics such as abuses of power, sharing her own experience. She received backlash for calling out fellow actor James Franco on allegations of sexual misconduct as in the past she had defended working with Woody Allen amid an accusation by his daughter Dylan Farrow.
Johansson has given support to Operation Warrior Wellness, a division of the David Lynch Foundation that helps veterans learn Transcendental Meditation. Her grand-uncle, Phillip Schlamberg, was the last American pilot to have been killed during WWII. He had gone on a bombing mission with Jerry Yellin, who went on to become co-founder of Operation Warrior Wellness.
Politics
Johansson was registered as an independent, at least through 2008, and campaigned for Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 United States presidential election. When George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, she said she was disappointed.
In January 2008, her campaign for Democratic candidate Barack Obama included appearances in Iowa targeted at younger voters, an appearance at Cornell College, and a speaking engagement at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, on Super Tuesday, 2008. Johansson appeared in the music video for rapper will.i.am's song, "Yes We Can" (2008), directed by Jesse Dylan; the song was inspired by Obama's speech after the 2008 New Hampshire primary. In February 2012, Johansson and Anna Wintour hosted a fashion launch of pro-Obama clothing, bags, and accessories, the proceeds of which went to the President's re-election campaign. She addressed voters at the Democratic National Convention in September 2012, calling for Obama's re-election and for more engagement from young voters. She encouraged women to vote for Obama and condemned Mitt Romney for his opposition to Planned Parenthood.
Johansson publicly endorsed and supported Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's 2013 run for New York City Comptroller by hosting a series of fundraisers. To encourage people to vote in the 2016 presidential election, in which Johansson endorsed Hillary Clinton, she appeared in a commercial alongside her Marvel Cinematic Universe co-star Robert Downey Jr., and Joss Whedon. In 2017, she spoke at the Women's March on Washington, addressing Donald Trump's presidency and stating that she would support the president if he works for women's rights and stops withdrawing federal funding for Planned Parenthood. In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Johansson endorsed Elizabeth Warren, referring to Warren as "thoughtful and progressive but realistic".
In December 2020, three members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an Egyptian civil rights organization, were released from prison in Egypt, after Johansson had described their detention circumstances and demanded the trio's release.
Notes
See also
List of actors nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year
References
Further reading
External links
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
1984 births
Actresses from New York City
American child actresses
American film actresses
American people of Danish descent
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American people of Swedish descent
American stage actresses
American voice actresses
American women film producers
Atco Records artists
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
César Honorary Award recipients
Danish people of Polish-Jewish descent
Danish people of Russian-Jewish descent
Danish people of Swedish descent
Female models from New York (state)
Fraternal twin actresses
Jewish American actresses
Jewish singers
Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni
Living people
Method actors
People from Manhattan
Theatre World Award winners
Time 100
Tony Award winners
Twin people from the United States
| true |
[
"Nena Danevic is a film editor who was nominated at the 57th Academy Awards for Best Film Editing. She was nominated for Amadeus. She shared her nomination with Michael Chandler.\n\nShe did win at the 39th British Academy Film Awards for Best Editing. Also for Amadeus with Michael Chandler.\n\nShe also won at the American Cinema Editors awards.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nBest Editing BAFTA Award winners\nFilm editors\nPossibly living people\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"Sheena Napier is a British costume designer who was nominated at the 65th Academy Awards for her work on the film Enchanted April, for which she was nominated for Best Costumes.\n\nIn addition she did win at the BAFTA Television Awards for the TV film Parade's End, which she was also nominated for an Emmy for.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nBritish costume designers\nLiving people\nBAFTA winners (people)\nWomen costume designers\nYear of birth missing (living people)"
] |
[
"Scarlett Johansson",
"Early roles (1996-2002)",
"What was one of Johanssons early roles?",
"Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo",
"was that a movie or tv series?",
"film",
"Was it a success?",
"Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted,",
"What else did she play in?",
"The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford.",
"What was her character in \"The Horse Whisperer\"?",
"tells the story of a talented trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson.",
"did she win any awards?",
"won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance."
] |
C_345ae8aa778e455cabe6b9c1978a57fd_1
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What movie did she win that award for?
| 7 |
What movie did Scarlett Johansson win Toronto Film Critics Association Award for?
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Scarlett Johansson
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Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role. After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a talented trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth". Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from PCS that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected. CANNOTANSWER
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Ghost World (2001),
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Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Her films have grossed over billion worldwide, making Johansson the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time. She has received various accolades, including a Tony Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
Johansson aspired to be an actress from an early age and first appeared on stage in an Off-Broadway play as a child actor. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994), and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing a troubled teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) and a seductress in psychological thriller Match Point (2005). The latter was her first collaboration with Woody Allen, who later directed her in Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Johansson's other works of this period include The Prestige (2006) and the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) and Break Up (2009), both of which charted on the Billboard 200.
In 2010, Johansson debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress, and began portraying Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man 2. She reprised the role in eight films, most recently in her solo feature Black Widow (2021), gaining global recognition for her performances. During this period, Johansson starred in the science fiction films Her (2013), Under the Skin (2013) and Lucy (2014). She received two simultaneous Academy Award nominations—Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress—for the respective roles of an actress going through a divorce in the drama Marriage Story (2019) and a single mother in Nazi Germany in the satire Jojo Rabbit (2019).
Labeled a sex symbol, Johansson has been referred to as one of the world's most attractive women by various media outlets. She is a prominent brand endorser and supports several charitable causes. Divorced from actor Ryan Reynolds and businessman Romain Dauriac, Johansson has been married to comedian Colin Jost since 2020. She has two children, one with Dauriac and another with Jost.
Early life
Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark. Her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter, and film director, whose own father was Swedish. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a New Yorker, has worked as a producer; she comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Poland and Russia, originally surnamed Schlamberg, and Johansson describes herself as Jewish. She has an older sister, Vanessa, also an actress; an older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter. She also has an older half-brother, Christian, from her father's first marriage. Johansson holds dual American and Danish citizenship. She discovered that her maternal great-grandfather's family died during the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto on a 2017 episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots.
Johansson attended PS 41, an elementary school in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Her parents divorced when she was thirteen. She was particularly close to her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Sloan, a bookkeeper and schoolteacher; they often spent time together and Johansson considered Dorothy her best friend. Interested in a career in the spotlight from an early age, Johansson often put on song-and-dance routines for her family. She was particularly fond of musical theater and jazz hands. She took lessons in tap dance, and states that her parents were supportive of her career choice. She has described her childhood as very ordinary.
As a child, Johansson practiced acting by staring in the mirror until she made herself cry, wanting to be Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. At age seven, she was devastated when a talent agent signed one of her brothers instead of her, but she later decided to become an actress anyway. She enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and began auditioning for commercials, but soon lost interest: "I didn't want to promote Wonder Bread." She shifted her focus to film and theater, making her first stage appearance in the Off-Broadway play Sophistry with Ethan Hawke, in which she had two lines. Around this time, she began studying at Professional Children's School (PCS), a private educational institution for aspiring child actors in Manhattan.
Acting career
Early work and breakthrough (1994–2002)
At age nine, Johansson made her film debut as John Ritter's daughter in the fantasy comedy North (1994). She says that when she was on the film set, she knew intuitively what to do. She later played minor roles such as the daughter of Sean Connery's and Kate Capshaw's characters in the mystery thriller Just Cause (1995), and an art student in If Lucy Fell (1996). Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo (1996) alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role.
After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth".
Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World (2001), an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of the same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from Professional Children's School that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected.
Transition to adult roles (2003–2004)
Johansson transitioned from teen to adult roles with two films in 2003: the romantic comedy-drama Lost in Translation and the drama Girl with a Pearl Earring. In the former, directed by Sofia Coppola, she plays Charlotte, a listless and lonely young wife, opposite Bill Murray. Coppola had first noticed Johansson in Manny & Lo, and compared her to a young Lauren Bacall; Coppola based the film's story on the relationship between Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946). Johansson found the experience of working with a female director different because of Coppola's ability to empathize with her. Made on a budget of $4million, the film grossed $119million at the box office and received critical acclaim. Roger Ebert was pleased with the film and described the lead actors' performances as "wonderful", and Entertainment Weekly wrote of Johansson's "embracing, restful serenity". The New York Times praised Johansson, aged 17 at the time of filming, for playing an older character.
In Peter Webber's Girl with a Pearl Earring, which is based on the novel of the same name by Tracy Chevalier, Johansson played Griet, a young 17th-century servant in the household of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (played by Colin Firth). Webber interviewed 150 actors before casting Johansson. Johansson found the character moving, but did not read the novel, as she thought it was better to approach the story with a fresh start. Girl with a Pearl Earring received positive reviews and was profitable. In his review for The New Yorker, Anthony Lane thought that her presence kept the film "alive", writing, "She is often wordless and close to plain onscreen, but wait for the ardor with which she can summon a closeup and bloom under its gaze; this is her film, not Vermeer's, all the way." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly noted her "nearly silent performance", remarking, "The interplay on her face of fear, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is intensely dramatic." She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for both films in 2003, winning the former for Lost in Translation.
In Varietys opinion, Johansson's roles in Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring established her as among the most versatile actresses of her generation. Johansson had five releases in 2004, three of which—the teen heist film The Perfect Score, the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long, and the drama A Good Woman—were critical and commercial failures. Co-starring with John Travolta, Johansson played a discontented teenager in A Love Song for Bobby Long, which is based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. David Rooney of Variety wrote that Johansson's and Travolta's performances rescued the film. Johansson earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama nomination for the film.
In her fourth release in 2004, the live-action animated comedy The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Johansson voiced Princess Mindy, the daughter of King Neptune. She agreed to the project because of her love of cartoons, particularly The Ren & Stimpy Show. The film was her most commercially successful release that year. She would then reprise her role as Mindy in the video game adaptation of the film. She followed it with In Good Company, a comedy-drama in which she complicates the life of her father when she dates his much younger boss. Reviews of the film were generally positive, describing it as "witty and charming". Roger Ebert was impressed with Johansson's portrayal, writing that she "continues to employ the gravitational pull of quiet fascination".
Collaborations with Woody Allen (2005–2009)
Johansson played Nola, an aspiring actress who begins an affair with a married man (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in Woody Allen's drama Match Point in 2005. After replacing Kate Winslet with Johansson for the role, Allen changed the character's nationality from British to American. An admirer of Allen's films, Johansson liked the idea of working with him, but felt nervous her first day on the set. The New York Times was impressed with the performances of Johansson and Rhys Meyers, and Mick LaSalle, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, stated that Johansson "is a powerhouse from the word go", with a performance that "borders on astonishing". The film, a box office success, earned Johansson nominations for the Golden Globe and the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, Johansson underwent a tonsillectomy, after which she starred with Ewan McGregor in Michael Bay's science fiction film The Island, in dual roles as Sarah Jordan and her clone, Jordan Two Delta. Johansson found her filming schedule exhausting: she had to shoot for 14 hours a day, and she hit her head and injured herself. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $163million against a $126million budget.
Two of Johansson's films in 2006 explored the world of stage magicians, both opposite Hugh Jackman. Allen cast her opposite Jackman and himself in the film Scoop (2006), in which she played a journalism student. The film was a modest worldwide box office success, but polarized critics. Ebert was critical of the film, but found Johansson "lovely as always", and Mick LaSalle noted the freshness she brought to her part. She also appeared in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, a film noir shot in Los Angeles and Bulgaria. Johansson later said she was a fan of DePalma and had wanted to work with him on the film, but thought that she was unsuitable for the part. Anne Billson of The Daily Telegraph likewise found her miscast. However, CNN said that she "takes to the pulpy period atmosphere as if it were oxygen".
Also in 2006, Johansson starred in the short film When the Deal Goes Down to accompany Bob Dylan's song "When the Deal Goes Down..." from the album Modern Times. Johansson had a supporting role of assistant and lover of Jackman's character, an aristocratic magician, in Christopher Nolan's mystery thriller The Prestige (2006). Nolan thought Johansson possessed "ambiguity" and "a shielded quality". She was fascinated with Nolan's directing methods and liked working with him. The film was a critical and box office success, recommended by the Los Angeles Times as "an adult, provocative piece of work". Some critics were skeptical of her performance: Billson again judged her miscast, and Dan Jolin of Empire criticized her English accent.
Johansson's sole release of 2007 was the critically panned comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries alongside Chris Evans and Laura Linney, in which she played a college graduate working as a nanny. Reviews of her performance were mixed; Variety wrote, "[She] essays an engaging heroine", and The New Yorker criticized her for looking "merely confused" while "trying to give the material a plausible emotional center". In 2008, Johansson starred, with Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, in The Other Boleyn Girl, which also earned mixed reviews. Promoting the film, Johansson and Portman appeared on the cover of W, discussing with the magazine the public's reception of them. In Rolling Stone, Pete Travers criticized the film for "[moving] in frustrating herks and jerks", but thought that the duo were the only positive aspect of the production. Variety credited the cast as "almost flawless ... at the top of its game", citing "Johansson's quieter Mary ... as the [film's] emotional center".
In her third collaboration with Woody Allen, the romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), which was filmed in Spain, Johansson plays one of the love interests of Javier Bardem's character alongside Penélope Cruz. The film was one of Allen's most profitable and received favorable reviews. A reviewer in Variety described Johansson as "open and malleable" compared to the other actors. She also played the femme fatale Silken Floss in The Spirit, based on the newspaper comic strip of the same name by Will Eisner. It received poor reviews from critics, who deemed it melodramatic, unoriginal, and sexist. Johansson's only role in 2009 was as Anna Marks, a yoga instructor, in the ensemble comedy-drama He's Just Not That into You (2009). The film was released to tepid reviews, but was a box office success.
Marvel Cinematic Universe and worldwide recognition (2010–2013)
Aspiring to appear on Broadway since childhood, Johansson made her debut in a 2010 revival of Arthur Miller's drama A View from the Bridge. Set in the 1950s in an Italian-American neighborhood in New York, it tells the tragic tale of Eddie (Liev Schreiber), who has an inappropriate love for his wife's orphaned niece, Catherine (Johansson). After initial reservations about playing a teenage character, Johansson was convinced by a friend to take on the part. Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote Johansson "melts into her character so thoroughly that her nimbus of celebrity disappears". Varietys David Rooney was impressed with the play and Johansson in particular, describing her as the chief performer. She won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. Some critics and Broadway actors criticized the award committee's decision to reward the work of mainstream Hollywood actors, including Johansson. In response, she said that she understood the frustration, but had worked hard for her accomplishments.
Johansson played Black Widow in Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (2010), a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Before she secured the role, she dyed her hair red to convince Favreau that she was right for the part, and undertook stunt and strength training to prepare for the role. Johansson said the character resonated with her, and she admired the superhero's human traits. The film earned $623.9million against its $200million budget, and received generally positive reviews from critics, although reviewers criticized how her character was written. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph and Matt Goldberg thought that she had little to do but look attractive. In 2011, Johansson played the role of Kelly, a zookeeper in the family film We Bought a Zoo alongside Matt Damon. The film got mainly favorable reviews, and Anne Billson praised Johansson for bringing depth to a rather uninteresting character. Johansson earned a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress: Drama nomination for her performance.
Johansson learned some Russian from a former teacher on the phone for her role as Black Widow in The Avengers (2012), another entry from the MCU. The film received mainly positive reviews and broke many box office records, becoming the third highest-grossing film both in the United States and worldwide. For her performance, she was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards and three People's Choice Awards. Later that year, Johansson portrayed actress Janet Leigh in Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock, a behind-the-scenes drama about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho. Roger Ebert wrote that Johansson did not look much like Leigh, but conveyed her spunk, intelligence, and sense of humor.
In January 2013, Johansson starred in a Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Rob Ashford. Set in the Mississippi Delta, it examines the relationships within the family of Big Daddy (Ciarán Hinds), primarily between his son Brick (Benjamin Walker) and Maggie (Johansson). Her performance received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weeklys Thom Geier wrote Johansson "brings a fierce fighting spirit" to her part, but Joe Dziemianowicz from Daily News called her performance "alarmingly one-note". The 2013 Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, Don Jon. In this romantic comedy-drama, she played the pornography-addicted title character's girlfriend. Gordon-Levitt wrote the role for Johansson, who had previously admired his acting work. The film received positive reviews and Johansson's performance was highlighted by critics. Claudia Puig of USA Today considered it to be one of her best performances.
In 2013, Johansson voiced the character Samantha, a self-aware computer operating system, in Spike Jonze's film Her, replacing Samantha Morton in the role. The film premiered at the 8th Rome International Film Festival, where Johansson won Best Actress; she was also nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. Johansson was intimidated by the role's complexity, and found her recording sessions for the role challenging but liberating. Peter Travers believed Johansson's voice in the film was "sweet, sexy, caring, manipulative, scary [and] award-worthy". Times Richard Corliss called her performance "seductive and winning", and Her was rated as one of the best films of 2013.
She also won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 40th Saturn Awards in 2014 for her performance. Johansson was cast in Jonathan Glazer's science fiction film Under the Skin (2013) as an extraterrestrial creature disguised as a human femme fatale who preys on men in Scotland. The project, an adaptation of Michel Faber's novel of the same name, took nine years to complete. For the role, she learned to drive a van and speak in an English accent. Johansson improvised conversations with non-professional actors on the street, who did not know they were being filmed. It was released to generally positive reviews, with particular praise for Johansson. Erin Whitney, writing for The Huffington Post, considered it to be her finest performance to that point, and noted that it was her first fully nude role. Author Maureen Foster wrote, "How much depth, breadth, and range Johansson mines from her character's very limited allowance of emotional response is a testament to her acting prowess that is, as the film goes on, increasingly stunning." It earned Johansson a BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film nomination.
Blockbuster films and critical acclaim (2014–2020)
Continuing her work in the MCU, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). In the film, she joins forces with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D., while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier. Johansson and Evans wrote their own dialogue for several scenes they had together. Johansson was attracted to her character's way of doing her job, employing her feminine wiles and not her physical appeal. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $714million worldwide. Critic Odie Henderson saw "a genuine emotional shorthand at work, especially from Johansson, who is excellent here". The role earned her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Johansson played a supporting role in the film Chef (2014), alongside Robert Downey, Jr., Sofía Vergara, and director Jon Favreau. It grossed over $45million at the box office and was well received by critics. The Chicago Sun-Times writer Richard Roeper found the film "funny, quirky and insightful, with a bounty of interesting supporting characters". In Luc Besson's science fiction action film Lucy (2014), Johansson starred as the title character, who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream. Besson discussed the role with several actresses, and cast Johansson based on her strong reaction to the script and her discipline. Critics generally praised the film's themes, visuals, and Johansson's performance; some found the plot nonsensical. IGN's Jim Vejvoda attributed the film's success to her acting and Besson's style. The film grossed $458million on a budget of $40million to become the 18th highest-grossing film of 2014.
In 2015 and 2016, Johansson again played Black Widow in the MCU films Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. During filming of the former, a mixture of close-ups, concealing costumes, stunt doubles and visual effects were used to hide her pregnancy. Both films earned more than $1.1billion, ranking among the highest-grossing films of all time. For Civil War, Johansson earned her second nomination for Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie and her fourth for Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. Earlier in 2016, Johansson had featured in the Coen brothers' well-received comedy film Hail, Caesar! about a "fixer" working in the classical Hollywood cinema, trying to discover what happened to a cast member who vanished during the filming of a biblical epic; Johansson plays an actress who becomes pregnant while her film is in production. She also voiced Kaa in Jon Favreau's live-action adaptation of Disney's The Jungle Book, and Ash in the animated musical comedy film Sing (both 2016). That year she also narrated an audiobook of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Johansson played Motoko Kusanagi in Rupert Sanders's 2017 film adaptation of the Ghost in the Shell franchise. The film was praised for its visual style, acting, and cinematography, but was the subject of controversy for whitewashing the cast, particularly Johansson's character, a cyborg who was meant to hold the memories of a Japanese woman. Responding to the backlash, the actress asserted she would never play a non-white character, but wanted to take the rare opportunity to star in a female-led franchise. Ghost in the Shell grossed $169.8million worldwide against a production budget of $110million. In March 2017, Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live for the fifth time, making her the 17th person, and the fourth woman, to enter the NBC sketch comedy's prestigious Five-Timers Club. Johansson's next 2017 film was the comedy Rough Night, where she played Jess Thayer, one of the five friends—alongside Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz—whose bachelorette party goes wrong after a male stripper dies. The film had a mixed critical reception and moderate box office returns. In 2018, Johansson voiced show dog Nutmeg in Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated film Isle of Dogs, released in March, and reprised her MCU role as Black Widow in Avengers: Infinity War, which followed the next month. Johansson was due to star in Rub & Tug, a biographical film in which she would have played Dante "Tex" Gill, a transgender man who operated a massage parlor and prostitution ring in the 1970s and 1980s. She dropped out of the project following backlash to the casting of a cisgender woman to play a transgender man.
In 2019, Johansson once again reprised her role as Black Widow in Avengers: Endgame, which is the highest-grossing film of all time. She next starred in Noah Baumbach's Netflix film Marriage Story, in which Adam Driver and she played a warring couple who file for divorce. Johansson found a connection with her character, as she was amid her own divorce proceedings at the time. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian commended her "brilliantly textured" performance in it. She also took on the supporting role of a young boy's mother who shelters a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany in Taika Waititi's satire Jojo Rabbit. Waititi modeled the character on his own mother, and cast Johansson to provide her a rare opportunity to perform comedy. The film received polarizing reviews, but Stephanie Zacharek labeled her the "lustrous soul of the movie". Johansson received her first two Academy Award nominations, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for her performances in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit, respectively, becoming the eleventh performer to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year. She also received two BAFTA nominations for these films, and a Golden Globe nomination for the former.
Black Widow and lawsuit (2021–present)
After a one-year screen absence, Johansson reprised her role as Black Widow in her own solo prequel film in 2021, on which she also served as an executive producer. Also starring Florence Pugh, the film is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, and sees Johansson's character on the run and forced to confront her past. Director Cate Shortland, who wanted to make a standalone film on her character, watched Johansson's previous appearances as Black Widow to prepare. Johansson felt proud of the film and that her work playing the role was now complete. She saw this as an opportunity to show her character's ability to be on her own and make choices for herself while facing difficult times, and noted that her vulnerability distinguished her from other Avengers. Critics were generally favorable in their reviews of the film, mainly praising Johansson and Pugh's performances. In a review published in The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney thought the film was "a stellar vehicle" for Johansson. Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood found the actress "again a great presence in the role, showing expert action and acting chops throughout". For the film, Johansson won The Female Movie Star of 2021 at the 47th People's Choice Awards.
In July 2021, Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney claiming that the simultaneous release of Black Widow on their streaming service Disney+ breached a clause in her contract that the film receive exclusive theatrical release. She alleged that the release on Disney+ exempted her from receiving additional bonus from box-office profits, to which she was entitled. In response, Disney said her lawsuit showed an indifference to the "horrific and prolonged" effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also stated that Johansson already received $20million for the film and that the Disney+ Premier Access release would only earn her additional compensation. The Hollywood Reporter described Disney's response as "aggressive". Accusing Disney of intentionally violating their contract with Johansson, Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Bryan Lourd criticized the company for falsely portraying Johansson as insensitive to the effects of the pandemic, which he considered a "direct attack on her character". Lourd further stated that the company including her salary in their public statement was to try to "weaponize her success as an artist and businesswoman". Later that September, both parties announced that they had resolved their dispute, with the terms of the settlement remaining undisclosed.
Music career
In 2006, Johansson sang the track "Summertime" for Unexpected DreamsSongs From the Stars, a non-profit collection of songs recorded by Hollywood actors. She performed with the Jesus and Mary Chain for a Coachella reunion show in Indio, California, in April 2007. The following year, Johansson appeared as the leading lady in Justin Timberlake's music video, for "What Goes Around... Comes Around", which was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.
In May 2008, Johansson released her debut album Anywhere I Lay My Head, which consists of one original song and ten cover versions of Tom Waits songs, and features David Bowie and members from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Celebration. Reviews of the album were mixed. Spin was not particularly impressed with Johansson's singing. Some critics found it to be "surprisingly alluring", "a bravely eccentric selection", and "a brilliant album" with "ghostly magic". NME named the album the "23rd best album of 2008", and it peaked at number126 on the Billboard 200. Johansson started listening to Waits when she was 11 or 12 years old, and said of him, "His melodies are so beautiful, his voice is so distinct and I had my own way of doing Tom Waits songs."
In September 2009, Johansson and singer-songwriter Pete Yorn released a collaborative album, Break Up, inspired by Serge Gainsbourg's duets with Brigitte Bardot. The album reached number 41 in the US. In 2010, Steel Train released Terrible Thrills Vol.1, which includes their favorite female artists singing songs from their self-titled album. Johansson is the first artist on the album, singing "Bullet". Johansson sang "One Whole Hour" for the 2011 soundtrack of the documentary film Wretches & Jabberers (2010). and in 2012 sang on a J.Ralph track entitled "Before My Time" for the end credits of the climate documentary Chasing Ice (2012)
In February 2015, Johansson formed a band called the Singles with Este Haim from HAIM, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan. The group's first single was called "Candy". Johansson was issued a cease and desist order from the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based rock band the Singles, demanding she stop using their name. In 2016, she performed "Trust in Me" for The Jungle Book soundtrack and "Set It All Free" and "I Don't Wanna" for Sing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. In 2018, Johansson collaborated with Pete Yorn again for an EP titled Apart, released June 1.
Public image
Johansson has been called "ScarJo" by the media and fans, and dislikes being called this, finding it lazy, flippant and insulting. She has no social media profiles, saying she does not see the need "to continuously share details of [her] everyday life."
Johansson is described as a sex symbol by the media. The Sydney Morning Herald describes her as "the embodiment of male fantasy". During the filming of Match Point, director Woody Allen remarked upon her attractiveness, calling her "beautiful" and "sexually overwhelming". In 2014, The New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane wrote that "she is evidently, and profitably, aware of her sultriness, and of how much, down to the last inch, it contributes to the contours of her reputation." Johansson has expressed displeasure at being sexualized, and maintains that a preoccupation with one's attractiveness does not last. She lost the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), because the film's director David Fincher found her "too sexy" for the part.
Johansson ranks highly in several beauty listings. Maxim included her in their Hot 100 list from 2006 to 2014. She has been named "Sexiest Woman Alive" twice by Esquire (2006 and 2013), and has been included in similar listings by Playboy (2007), Men's Health (2011), and FHM (since 2005). She was named GQs Babe of the Year in 2010. Madame Tussauds New York museum unveiled a wax statue of her in 2015.
Johansson was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2004. In 2006, she appeared on Forbes Celebrity 100 list, and again in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2012. In 2021, she appeared on the Time 100, Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Johansson was included on Forbes annual list of the world's highest-paid actresses from 2014 to 2016, with respective earnings of $17million, $35.5million and $25million. She would later top the list in 2018 and 2019, with earnings of $40.5million and $56million, respectively. She was the highest-grossing actor of 2016, with a total of $1.2billion. As a result, IndieWire credited her for taking on risky roles. , her films have grossed over billion in North America and over billion worldwide, making Johansson the third-highest-grossing box-office star of all time both domestically and worldwide as well as the highest-grossing actress of all time in North America.
Johansson has appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, L'Oréal, and Louis Vuitton, and has represented the Spanish brand Mango since 2009. She was the first Hollywood celebrity to represent a champagne producer, appearing in advertisements for Moët & Chandon. In January 2014, the Israeli company SodaStream, which makes home-carbonation products, hired Johansson as its first global brand ambassador, a relationship that commenced with a television commercial during Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. This created some controversy, as SodaStream at that time operated a plant in Israeli-occupied territory in the West Bank.
Personal life
While attending PCS, Johansson dated classmate Jack Antonoff from 2001 to 2002. She dated her Black Dahlia co-star Josh Hartnett for about two years until the end of 2006. Hartnett said they broke up because their busy schedules kept them apart. Johansson began dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007. They became engaged in May 2008, married in September 2008 on Vancouver Island, separated in December 2010 and divorced in July 2011.
In November 2012, Johansson began dating Frenchman Romain Dauriac, the owner of an advertising agency. They became engaged the following September. The pair divided their time between New York City and Paris. She gave birth to their daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac, in 2014. Johansson and Dauriac married that October in Philipsburg, Montana. They separated in mid-2016 and divorced in September 2017. Johansson began dating Saturday Night Live co-head writer and Weekend Update co-host Colin Jost in May 2017. In May 2019, the two were engaged. They married in October 2020, at their New York home. She gave birth to their son, Cosmo, in August 2021. Johansson resides in New York and Los Angeles.
In September 2011, nude photographs of Johansson hacked from her cell phone were leaked online. She said the pictures had been sent to her then-husband, Ryan Reynolds, three years before the incident. Following an FBI investigation, the hacker was arrested, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In 2014, Johansson won a lawsuit against French publisher JC Lattès over defamatory statements about her relationships in the novel The First Thing We Look At by Grégoire Delacourt. She was awarded $3,400; she had claimed $68,000.
Johansson has criticized the media for promoting an image that causes unhealthy diets and eating disorders among women. In an essay she wrote for The Huffington Post, she encouraged people to maintain a healthy body. She posed nude on the March 2006 cover of Vanity Fair alongside actress Keira Knightley and fully clothed fashion designer Tom Ford, who jumped in last minute on the day of the shoot to replace Rachel McAdams after she walked out. The photograph sparked controversy, as some believed it demonstrated that women are forced to flaunt their sexuality more often than men.
Other ventures
Philanthropy
Johansson has supported various charitable organizations, including Aid Still Required, Cancer Research UK, Stand Up To Cancer, Too Many Women (which works against breast cancer), and USA Harvest, which provides food for people in need. In 2005, Johansson became a global ambassador for the aid and development agency Oxfam. In 2007, she took part in the anti-poverty campaign ONE, which was organized by U2's lead singer Bono. In March 2008, a UK-based bidder paid £20,000 on an eBay auction to benefit Oxfam, winning a hair and makeup treatment, a pair of tickets, and a chauffeured trip to accompany her on a 20-minute date to the world premiere of He's Just Not That into You.
In January 2014, Johansson resigned from her Oxfam position after criticism of her promotion of SodaStream, whose main factory was based in Mishor Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank; Oxfam opposes all trade with such Israeli settlements. Oxfam stated that it was thankful for her contributions in raising funds to fight poverty. Together with her Avengers costars, Johansson raised $500,000 for the victims of Hurricane Maria.
In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. Johansson took part in the Women's March in Los Angeles in January 2018, where she spoke on topics such as abuses of power, sharing her own experience. She received backlash for calling out fellow actor James Franco on allegations of sexual misconduct as in the past she had defended working with Woody Allen amid an accusation by his daughter Dylan Farrow.
Johansson has given support to Operation Warrior Wellness, a division of the David Lynch Foundation that helps veterans learn Transcendental Meditation. Her grand-uncle, Phillip Schlamberg, was the last American pilot to have been killed during WWII. He had gone on a bombing mission with Jerry Yellin, who went on to become co-founder of Operation Warrior Wellness.
Politics
Johansson was registered as an independent, at least through 2008, and campaigned for Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 United States presidential election. When George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, she said she was disappointed.
In January 2008, her campaign for Democratic candidate Barack Obama included appearances in Iowa targeted at younger voters, an appearance at Cornell College, and a speaking engagement at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, on Super Tuesday, 2008. Johansson appeared in the music video for rapper will.i.am's song, "Yes We Can" (2008), directed by Jesse Dylan; the song was inspired by Obama's speech after the 2008 New Hampshire primary. In February 2012, Johansson and Anna Wintour hosted a fashion launch of pro-Obama clothing, bags, and accessories, the proceeds of which went to the President's re-election campaign. She addressed voters at the Democratic National Convention in September 2012, calling for Obama's re-election and for more engagement from young voters. She encouraged women to vote for Obama and condemned Mitt Romney for his opposition to Planned Parenthood.
Johansson publicly endorsed and supported Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's 2013 run for New York City Comptroller by hosting a series of fundraisers. To encourage people to vote in the 2016 presidential election, in which Johansson endorsed Hillary Clinton, she appeared in a commercial alongside her Marvel Cinematic Universe co-star Robert Downey Jr., and Joss Whedon. In 2017, she spoke at the Women's March on Washington, addressing Donald Trump's presidency and stating that she would support the president if he works for women's rights and stops withdrawing federal funding for Planned Parenthood. In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Johansson endorsed Elizabeth Warren, referring to Warren as "thoughtful and progressive but realistic".
In December 2020, three members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an Egyptian civil rights organization, were released from prison in Egypt, after Johansson had described their detention circumstances and demanded the trio's release.
Notes
See also
List of actors nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year
References
Further reading
External links
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
1984 births
Actresses from New York City
American child actresses
American film actresses
American people of Danish descent
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American people of Swedish descent
American stage actresses
American voice actresses
American women film producers
Atco Records artists
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
César Honorary Award recipients
Danish people of Polish-Jewish descent
Danish people of Russian-Jewish descent
Danish people of Swedish descent
Female models from New York (state)
Fraternal twin actresses
Jewish American actresses
Jewish singers
Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni
Living people
Method actors
People from Manhattan
Theatre World Award winners
Time 100
Tony Award winners
Twin people from the United States
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[
"Anuradha Bhat is an Indian playback singer for the feature films. She sings predominantly in Kannada language films. Bhat has recorded 1500 songs in 15 different languages for various private music albums and films .\n\nEarly life and background \n\nAnuradha Bhat was born to Srikrishna Bhat and Gayathri Srikrishna Bhat in Mangalore, Karnataka. Anuradha has a younger sister, Anupama Bhat who is a television host (TV anchor) and actor.\n\nAnuradha Bhat received her primary education from Carmel school and later from premier institutes like Canara College and MSNM Besant PG Institute of Management Studies (both affiliated to Mangalore University) and passed out her B.Sc. and MBA.\nShe received training for Bharatanatyam. She also got trained for Carnatic classical vocal.\n\nCareer \n\nAnuradha Bhat was first spotted by Music Director Gurukiran who judged her singing at a District Level - Open to all - Singing Competition that was held in Mangalore. She then started performing in Gurukiran's Concerts in India and abroad. Anuradha, during her college days, was selected to sing alongside S. P. Balasubrahmanyam through \"Yedhe Thumbi Haaduvenu - Anveshane\", a talent show conducted by ETV Kannada. She was then called for an audition by the renowned Music Director Hamsalekha and was selected to sing the re-recording (background score) bits for the movie Nenapirali. She did a lot of chorus & track singing for Hamsalekha where most of her songs got retained.\n\nPlayback singing \n\nAnuradha Bhat emerged as a full-fledged playback singer through her song \"Vasantha Vasantha\" for the movie Meera Madhava Raghava under the music direction of Hamsalekha. She then got to sing for all other music directors including V. Manohar, Sadhu Kokila, Rajesh Ramnath, Gurukiran, Mano Murthy, V. Harikrishna, Arjun Janya, Ilaiyaraja, M. M. Keeravani, Manisharma, S. Thaman among others.\nShe is known for her songs including Marali Mareyagi (Savaari), Jum Jum Maaya (Veera Madakari), Ellello oduva manase (Sidlingu), Srikrishna (Bhajarangi), O Baby (Ricky), Appa I love you paa (Chowka) and many more. So far, Bhat has lent her voice for over 1500 Kannada movies and a few songs in Tulu, Tamil and Telugu.\n\nOther projects and activities \n\nAnuradha Bhat has worked in several non-film music projects like devotional, folk, bhavageethe, pop albums, remix songs, TV serials, Ad films/jingles, children’s songs & rhymes.\n\n\"Chinnu - Series of Kannada Animated Rhymes\" rendered by Anuradha Bhat is popular among the toddlers.\n\nBhat also conceptualised, sang & featured in her first ever video single \"Naa haaduve nimagaagiye\" - an ode to her native land Karnataka\n\nA compilation of few of her popular songs - “Anuradha Bhat mashup” is another video song that features her.\n\n\"Navilugari\" is yet another non-film song that she has rendered alongside Rajesh Krishnan.\n\nLive Performances / Concerts \n\nAnuradha Bhat is also known for her concerts / Live performances. She has performed at various prestigious events like the Hampi Utsav, Mysore Dasara, Yuva Dasara, Mysore Winter Festival, Vishwa Kannada Sammelana and Bengaluru Ganesh Utsava (BGU) to name a few.\n\nShe also performs in various other countries namely - United States of America (USA), London (UK), Netherlands (Europe), Australia, Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.\n\nAwards and Nominations \n\nWon\n Karnataka State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer (2012) presented by the Government of Karnataka for her song \"Jnaanajyothi\" from the movie \"Little Master\" \n Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Kannada (2015) for \"Chanana Chanana\" from the movie Ugramm\n Zee Music Award (conferred by Zee Kannada) for Best Female Singer (2015) for \"Usiraaguve\" from the movie Bahuparak\n RED FM Tulu Film Awards Best Female Playback Singer - Tulu (2016) for \"Mahamaye\" from the movie Chaali Polilu\n Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2018) for \"Appa I love you\" from the movie Chowka\n SIIMA Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada for \"Appa I love you\" from the movie Chowka\n\nNominations\nAnuradha Bhat has 7 consecutive nominations (2013-2019) for Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada out of which she has 2 wins (2015 & 2018). She also has 5 South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA) nominations out of which she has 1 win. She has also been nominated by the Chandanavana Film Critics Academy (CFCA) 2 times. Here's the nominations list:\n\n Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Kannada (2013) for \"Ellello Oduva Manase (Female)\" from the movie Sidlingu\n Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Kannada (2014) for \"Srikrishna\" from the movie Bhajarangi\n Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Kannada (2015) for \"Chanana Chanana\" from the movie Ugramm\n Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Kannada (2016) for \"Irali Hege\" from the movie Benkipatna\n Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Kannada (2017) for \"Yavoora Geleya\" from the movie Ricky\n Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2018) for \"Appa I love you\" from the movie Chowka\n Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2019) for \"Holeva Holeyachege (Slow)\" from the movie Ammachi Yemba Nenapu\n SIIMA Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2013) for \"Ellello Oduva Manase (Female)\" from the movie Sidlingu\n SIIMA Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2014) for \"Srikrishna\" from the movie Bhajarangi\n SIIMA Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2015) for \"Neenu Iruvaga\" from the movie Ninnindale\n SIIMA Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2016) for \"Mareyada Pusthaka\" from the movie Rathavara\n SIIMA Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2018) for \"Appa I love you\" from the movie Chowka\n SIIMA Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2021) for \"Hrudaya\" from the movie I Love You\n Chandanavana Film Critics Award for Best Female Singer (2020) for \"Elliruve Hariye\" from the movie Kurukshetra\n Chandanavana Film Critics Award for Best Female Singer (2020-2021) for \"Dheera Sammohagaara\" from the movie Bicchugatti\n\nDiscography \n'''\n\n2006\n\n2007\n\n2008\n\n2009\n\n2010\n\n2011\n\n2012\n\n2013\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Anuradha songs list\n Smashits\n \n \n\nIndian women playback singers\nKannada playback singers\nLiving people\nMusicians from Mangalore\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nSingers from Karnataka\nFilm musicians from Karnataka\n21st-century Indian women singers\n21st-century Indian singers\nWomen musicians from Karnataka",
"Rae'Ven Larrymore Kelly (born June 28, 1985) is an American actress.\n\nLife and career\nKelly was born in Fairfax, Virginia. She later moved to Atlanta, Georgia for better exposure in her film career. Kelly was taught by Janet Lawing at Covenant Presbyterian preschool in Marietta, Georgia. She graduated Valedictorian from Sunland Christian Academy in Sunland, California and attended Hillcrest Christian School in Granada Hills, California.\n\nShe attended Mount St. Mary's College in Brentwood and is a graduate of UCLA in Westwood.\n\nHas been nominated for over 4 NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Youth Performance. In 2009, she won Best Lead Actress at The NAACP Theater Awards in Beverly Hills.\n\nShe is goddaughter of late actress and civil rights activist Yolanda King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King and Kelly starred in 3 films together HBO's America's Dream, Odessa and they shared the same role of Reena Evers in Ghosts of Mississippi, daughter of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers.\n\nShe is the adopted granddaughter of actors Cicely Tyson, Bill Cobbs, and Marla Gibbs. Tyson, Cobbs, and Gibbs all adopted Kelly as their granddaughter after playing her grandparents on film.\n\nShe performed in several film and television projects such as A Time to Kill and What's Love Got to Do with It as young Tina Turner. Kelly has also appeared in guest-starring roles on shows like E.R. and Roseanne. In early 2010 Kelly played Marcia in the movie Preacher's Kid.\n\nFilmography\n\nAwards and nominations\n\n 1993, win, Young Artist Award for Outstanding Actress Under Ten in a Television Series for I'll Fly Away\n 1994, win, Young Artist Award for Youth Actress Leading Role in a Television Series, for I'll Fly Away\n 1995, win, Young Artist Award for Best Performance by a Youth Actress in a TV Miniseries or Special for Lily in Winter\n 1995, win, Young Artist Award for Best Performance by a Youth Actress – TV Guest Star for Sweet Justice\n 1997, nomination, Young Star Awards for 'Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama Film' for A Time to Kill\n 1998, nomination, Young Artist Award for 'Best Performance in a TV Movie or Feature Film – Young Ensemble' for The Ditchdigger's Daughters\n 2000, nomination, Young Star Awards for 'Best Young Actress/Performance in a Miniseries/Made-For-TV Film' for Freedom Song\n 2009, win, NAACP Theater Awards Best Lead Actress in a Play for Turpentine Jake\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nBiography at Filmreference.com\n\n1985 births\nActresses from Virginia\nAfrican-American Christians\nLiving people\nActors from Fairfax, Virginia\nAmerican cheerleaders\nAfrican-American women singer-songwriters\nUniversity of California, Los Angeles alumni\n21st-century American actresses\n20th-century American actresses\nAmerican television actresses\nAfrican-American actresses\nAmerican film actresses\nAmerican child actresses\nSinger-songwriters from Virginia\n21st-century African-American women singers"
] |
[
"All Time Low",
"2011: Dirty Work"
] |
C_0fd9a62a282441e1873e80a5a9ce7595_0
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Was this an album?
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Was Dirty work an album?
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All Time Low
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All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour. In March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut. Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK. In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns. CANNOTANSWER
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All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work,
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All Time Low is an American rock band from Towson, Maryland formed in 2003. Consisting of lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth, lead guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist/backing vocalist Zack Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson, the band took its name from lyrics in the song "Head on Collision" by New Found Glory. The band has consistently done year-long tours, has headlined numerous tours, and has appeared at music festivals including Warped Tour, Reading and Leeds, and Soundwave.
Beginning as a band in high school, All Time Low released their debut EP, The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP, in 2004 through local label Emerald Moon. Since then the band has released eight studio albums: The Party Scene (2005), So Wrong, It's Right (2007), Nothing Personal (2009), Dirty Work (2011), Don't Panic (2012), Future Hearts (2015), Last Young Renegade (2017), and Wake Up, Sunshine (2020). They released their first live album, Straight to DVD, in 2010, and released their second live album, Straight to DVD II: Past, Present and Future Hearts, on September 9, 2016.
History
2003–2006: Formation and The Party Scene
Formed while still in high school in 2003, All Time Low began covering songs by pop punk bands such as Blink-182. The band's line-up included Alex Gaskarth on vocals, Jack Barakat on guitar, TJ Ihle on lead guitar and backing vocals, Chris Cortilello on bass, and Rian Dawson on drums. Cortilello and Ihle left the band, resulting in the band laying dormant until Zack Merrick joined on bass and Gaskarth picked up guitar. They released a four-song EP in November before signing to Emerald Moon Records in 2004. They released their second EP, titled The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP later that same year. The band released their debut studio album, The Party Scene, in July 2005.
In December, it was announced that the band was no longer signed, but were attracting attention from a number of record labels. In late 2006, the band performed a showcase for John Janick the founder of record label Fueled by Ramen. They were not signed because Cute Is What We Aim For had recently been taken on by the label, which was not in a position to sign another band at the time. The band was brought to the attention of Hopeless Records by fellow touring band Amber Pacific; on March 28, 2006, it was announced that All Time Low had signed with Hopeless. The band said in an interview that they were starting to get serious about music while in their senior year of high school; following their graduation, the members focused on the group full-time, and released the Put Up or Shut Up EP in July. The EP entered the Independent Albums chart at No. 20 and the Top Heatseekers at No. 12.
All Time Low began a busy tour in support of the EP in late 2006. After the tour, the band began writing material for their second studio album.
2007–2008: So Wrong, It's Right
In the summer of 2007, All Time Low played the Vans Warped Tour on the Smartpunk Stage. They made their live debut in the UK in late 2007 supporting Plain White T's.
All Time Low released their second studio album So Wrong, It's Right in September 2007. It peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard 200 and No. 6 on the Independent Albums chart. The second single from the album, "Dear Maria, Count Me In", which was written about a stripper, became the band's first single to reach the charts and peaked at No. 86 on the Pop 100. In 2011, the single was certified Gold for 500,000 shipments.
In early 2008 the band completed their first headlining tour, the Manwhores and Open Sores Tour with opening acts Every Avenue, Mayday Parade, and Just Surrender.
Following the release of So Wrong, It's Right, All Time Low quickly gained popularity, eventually making their TRL debut on February 12, 2008. They have also been featured on MTV's Discover and Download and Music Choice's Fresh Crops, and have been added to both MTV's Big Ten and MTV Hits playlists. On March 7, 2008, the band made their live television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and then performed live at the mtvU Woodie Awards.
From March 2008 to May 2008, they co-headlined the AP Tour 2008 with The Rocket Summer; supported by acts such as The Matches, Sonny Moore, and Forever the Sickest Kids. In May 2008 they played at the Give It a Name Festival. Also in May 2008, they co-headlined a UK tour with Cobra Starship. In July 2008, the band headlined the Shortest Tour Ever with supporting acts Hit the Lights, Valencia, and There for Tomorrow. From mid-July to mid-August they played the 2008 Vans Warped Tour. They ended 2008 with their headlining tour, The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour with Mayday Parade, The Maine, and Every Avenue.
In December 2008, All Time Low was named "Band of the Year" by Alternative Press magazine and featured on the cover of their January 2009 issue.
2009–2010: Nothing Personal
In early 2009, All Time Low confirmed in an interview with UK magazine Rock Sound that they had begun writing new material for a third studio album and revealed they had collaborated with artists and producers to help co-write a number of songs.
Although still in the writing process, All Time Low began recording for their new album in January 2009, they finished recording only a month later. The album's lead single "Weightless" was released in March 2009 and became the band's first song to achieve some radio play worldwide. The song was included during the band's appearance at major concert venues, such as Bambooozle in May 2009, to promote the new album.
All Time Low released their third studio album Nothing Personal in July 2009. Before its official release, the full album was made available for streaming download one week earlier through MTV's The Leak.
Billboard magazine predicted that the album "looked like it could" enter the top ten of the Billboard 200 in its debut week, with anywhere between 60,000 and 75,000 sales. Nothing Personal debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard chart and sold 63,000 copies, making it the band's highest charting album to date
They played Fall Out Boy's Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour in spring 2009, with Metro Station, Cobra Starship, and Hey Monday. All Time Low also announced tours in both Australia and Japan in June 2009 with Set Your Goals. The band also did a ten date tour with We the Kings, Cartel and Days Difference. They headlined Warped Tour 2009 from July 19 through the end of the tour, and then played at Voodoo Experience 2009, which was headlined by Eminem, Kiss and The Flaming Lips.
All Time Low completed a European tour in the Fall of 2009, with support from The Audition and The Friday Night Boys. All Time Low also headlined the first The Glamour Kills Tour with We The Kings, Hey Monday, and The Friday Night Boys. It began October 15, 2009, and ran through December 6, 2009.
All Time Low announced in November 2009 that they had been signed to major label Interscope Records. One month later, the band won the "Best Pop Punk Band" at the Top In Rock Awards.
In May 2010, All Time Low released their first live album, entitled Straight to DVD. The CD/DVD was a recording of a show in New York.
All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour.
On March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut.
2011–2013: Dirty Work and Don't Panic
Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK.
In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns.
The band returned to the UK on January 12, 2012. supported by The Maine and We Are The In Crowd and toured until February 4. Several of these dates sold out, so more dates were added. All Time Low also played the Warped Tour (June–August 2012) and the Reading and Leeds Festival (August 2012).
In May 2012, All Time Low left their label Interscope Records and released a new song titled "The Reckless and the Brave" on June 1 via their website as a free download. The band announced that they had been working on a new studio album, due for release sometime in 2012. On July 3, All Time Low announced that they had signed to Hopeless Records again and that the new album would be released in the second half of 2012. On August 10 they announced that their new album, titled Don't Panic would be released October 9 through Hopeless Records. On August 24, a new song titled "For Baltimore" was released through Alternative Press. "Somewhere in Neverland" was released next, peaking in the top 50 on the US iTunes charts.
After the completion of the 2012 Warped Tour, the band announced a "Rockshow at the End of the World" headlining tour with The Summer Set, The Downtown Fiction and Hit The Lights. They headlined in Dublin, Ireland on August 20, Aberdeen, Scotland on August 22 and in Edinburgh, Scotland on August 23, 2012. They then played a series of shows around Europe including supporting Green Day in Germany. All Time Low were announced on Soundwave's 2013 lineup for Australia.
On September 27, All Time Low released the song "Outlines", featuring Jason Vena from the band Acceptance via MTV. On October 2, a week before its release, Hopeless Records' YouTube channel posted the entire Don't Panic album as a stream, with lyrics for all the songs.
In September 2013, the band re-released their album as Don't Panic: It's Longer Now!. It featured four newly recorded songs and four additional acoustic remixes as well as the original material. The lead single, A Love Like War featuring Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil was released on September 2. Starting on September 23, All Time Low toured with Pierce the Veil as a supporting act of A Day To Remember's House Party Tour.
2014–2016: Future Hearts
On March 8, 2014, All Time Low toured the UK as part of their "A Love Like War: UK Tour" before moving on to the states on March 28 for the remaining part of the tour. The music video for their song "The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver" used clips from that tour and premiered on Kerrang! on May 14.
Their next album would be recorded with producer John Feldman. The album, Future Hearts, was announced with the first single, "Something's Gotta Give", premiering on Radio One on January 11, 2015. The second single, "Kids In The Dark", was released on March 9, 2015. The band played Soundwave 2015 in Australia and headlined sideshows.
They headlined a spring US 2015 tour for the album with support from Issues, Tonight Alive and State Champs, and co-headlining a UK tour with You Me At Six. Future Hearts debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 75,000 copies in its first week, becoming the band's highest charting and biggest selling week ever. It also topped the UK Albums Chart with almost 20,000 first week sales.
In July 2015, the band won four awards at the 2015 Alternative Press Music Awards.
The band has since toured and released music videos, including one for "Runaways" in August 2015. On September 1, 2016, the band leaked a new song titled "Take Cover", which was later officially released with a music video the next day as a bonus track for their live album, "Straight to DVD II: Past, Present, and Future Hearts". Members of the band also appeared for surprise DJ sets at Emo Nite in Los Angeles in 2015.
2017–2019: Last Young Renegade
In mid-February 2017, the band announced a new song to be premiered on BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw, called "Dirty Laundry". The music video was directed by Pat Tracy, who had also directed the music video for "Missing You". This was the first release after changing record labels from Hopeless Records to Fueled by Ramen. Both songs are singles from their album, Last Young Renegade, which was released on June 2, 2017. The band also released their cover of "Longview" by Green Day for the documentary "Green Day: The Early Years". On March 1, 2018, it was announced All Time Low would play three dates of the 2018 Vans Warped Tour. On June 12, 2018, the band released a song called "Everything Is Fine." The song's teasing featured the band members posting the song's title to social media repeatedly a day before it was released. On June 29, 2018, the band released a song called "Birthday." A live-in-the-studio re-recording of Nothing Personal was released on November 8, 2019.
On 29 May 2019, All Time Low performed at Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer's Friends of Friends sold-out benefit concert, held in Venice, California. All proceeds from the event were donated to the Safe Place for Youth project, a housing and support service for homeless youth in Los Angeles.
2020–present: Wake Up, Sunshine
On January 1, 2020, the band released a video indicating the Last Young Renegade era had come to an end with a person in a panda suit burning their renegade jerseys, hinting their new album was coming.
Later that same month on January 21, 2020, the band released the song "Some Kind of Disaster".
On February 17, 2020, the band announced their new album, titled Wake Up, Sunshine, and would be released on April 3, 2020. The album featured 15 tracks and collaborations with rapper Blackbear and The Band Camino.
On February 24, 2020, it was announced that All Time Low would be opening acts for Australian band, 5 Seconds of Summer for the European arena concert dates on their No Shame Tour. Initially set to take place between 26 May 2020 to 16 June 2020, the European leg of the tour was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The European shows are now set to begin on 20 April 2021 at the Palais 12 Arena in Brussels, Belgium with All Time Low being the opening act for thirteen shows.
On December 4, 2020, the band's song "Monsters" was re-released, featuring vocals from singer Demi Lovato.
On March 24, 2021, the band released the single "Once In a Lifetime".
On July 30, 2021, the band released a single "PMA" (Postmodern Anxiety) featuring Pale Waves.
Online allegations
In early October 2021, a TikTok video surfaced that accused an unnamed pop-punk band of inviting a 13-year-old onto its tour bus, claiming in the comments section that they "tried to take my bra off" with additional indications that it was All Time Low. A Twitter thread was later released anonymously detailing allegations against Jack Barakat. The band released a statement calling the allegations "completely and utterly false" and said they would pursue legal action. Meet Me at the Altar and Nothing,Nowhere dropped out of the band's Autumn tour and announced joint dates for shows in the wake of the allegations. The band sued three anonymous accounts for libel in February 2022, claiming they were "the victims of defamatory social media posts falsely and maliciously accusing them of sexual abuse and knowingly enabling such illegal conduct."
Musical style and influences
All Time Low's musical style has generally been described as pop punk, pop rock, power pop, emo pop, emo, and alternative rock. All Time Low cites bands such as Blink-182, Green Day, MxPx, New Found Glory, Saves the Day, and The Get Up Kids as influences.
Band members
Current members
Alex Gaskarth – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (2003–present)
Jack Barakat – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003–present); rhythm guitar (2003)
Rian Dawson – drums, percussion (2003–present)
Zack Merrick – bass guitar, backing vocals (2003–present)
Former members
Chris Cortilello – bass guitar (2003)
TJ Ihle – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003)
Touring members
Dan Swank – rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, percussion (2020–present)
Bryan Donahue – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2013–2020)
Matt Colussy – rhythm guitar (2011–2013)
Matt Flyzik – backing vocals (2006–2013)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
The Party Scene (2005)
So Wrong, It's Right (2007)
Nothing Personal (2009)
Dirty Work (2011)
Don't Panic (2012)
Future Hearts (2015)
Last Young Renegade (2017)
Wake Up, Sunshine (2020)
Tours
Headlining
Manwhores and Open Sores Tour (2008)
AP Tour 2008 (2008)
Shortest Tour Ever (2008)
The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour (2008)
The Glamour Kills Tour (2009)
A Love Like War (2014)
Opening acts
Fall Out Boy – Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour (2009)
5 Seconds of Summer – No Shame Tour (European shows only) (April 2021)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Pop punk groups from Maryland
American pop rock music groups
American power pop groups
American emo musical groups
Interscope Records artists
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups established in 2003
Musical groups from Baltimore
Rock music groups from Maryland
Musical quartets
People from Towson, Maryland
Hopeless Records artists
| true |
[
"That Was Then This Is Now may refer to:\n\nThat Was Then, This Is Now, a 1971 novel by S. E. Hinton\nThat Was Then... This Is Now, a 1985 film based on Hinton's novel\nThat Was Then, This Is Now (radio series), a BBC Radio 2 comedy sketch series\n\nMusic \nThat Was Then, This Is Now (Tha Dogg Pound album), 2009\n\"That Was Then, This Is Now\" (The James Cleaver Quintet album), 2011\nThat Was Then This Is Now (Wain McFarlane album), 2001\nThat Was Then, This Is Now, Vol. 1 (1999) and That Was Then, This Is Now, Vol. 2 (2000), studio albums by American rapper Frost\nThat Was Then, This Is Now (Andy Timmons album), an album by Andy Timmons\n\"That Was Then, This Is Now\" (song), a 1986 song by The Mosquitos, also covered by The Monkees\nThat Was Then, This Is Now, an album by Chasen\nThat Was Then, This Is Now (Josh Wilson album), 2015\n\nSee also\n\"That Was Then but This Is Now\", a 1983 song by ABC\nIf Not Now Then When?, an album by Ethan Johns\nIf Not Now Then When, an album by The Motels\nIf Not Now, When? (disambiguation)",
"Vértigo () is the fifth studio album by Spanish singer-songwriter Pablo Alborán. The album was released on 11 December 2020. The album received nominations for a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album and at the Latin Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.\n\nBackground and release\nThe album was released on December 11, 2020, though it was supposed to be released on November 6, 2020, but its release was delayed due to the second wave of the coronavirus in Spain. In an interview with El Comercio (Peru), Alboran stated: Vertigo is an album where I have thrown myself more than ever because it is very sincere, because it comes at a time of vulnerability for everyone in this pandemic. It is an album that I have written between the last tour and this pandemic, so there is a mixture of emotions there. It is an album very faithful to my present too, and very loyal to how I feel.\n\nTrack listing \nAll credits adapted from AllMusic.\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences \n\n \n2020 albums\nPablo Alborán albums"
] |
[
"All Time Low",
"2011: Dirty Work",
"Was this an album?",
"All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work,"
] |
C_0fd9a62a282441e1873e80a5a9ce7595_0
|
Which year was it released?
| 2 |
Which year was Dirty Work by all Time Low released?
|
All Time Low
|
All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour. In March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut. Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK. In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns. CANNOTANSWER
|
in June 2011,
|
All Time Low is an American rock band from Towson, Maryland formed in 2003. Consisting of lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth, lead guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist/backing vocalist Zack Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson, the band took its name from lyrics in the song "Head on Collision" by New Found Glory. The band has consistently done year-long tours, has headlined numerous tours, and has appeared at music festivals including Warped Tour, Reading and Leeds, and Soundwave.
Beginning as a band in high school, All Time Low released their debut EP, The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP, in 2004 through local label Emerald Moon. Since then the band has released eight studio albums: The Party Scene (2005), So Wrong, It's Right (2007), Nothing Personal (2009), Dirty Work (2011), Don't Panic (2012), Future Hearts (2015), Last Young Renegade (2017), and Wake Up, Sunshine (2020). They released their first live album, Straight to DVD, in 2010, and released their second live album, Straight to DVD II: Past, Present and Future Hearts, on September 9, 2016.
History
2003–2006: Formation and The Party Scene
Formed while still in high school in 2003, All Time Low began covering songs by pop punk bands such as Blink-182. The band's line-up included Alex Gaskarth on vocals, Jack Barakat on guitar, TJ Ihle on lead guitar and backing vocals, Chris Cortilello on bass, and Rian Dawson on drums. Cortilello and Ihle left the band, resulting in the band laying dormant until Zack Merrick joined on bass and Gaskarth picked up guitar. They released a four-song EP in November before signing to Emerald Moon Records in 2004. They released their second EP, titled The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP later that same year. The band released their debut studio album, The Party Scene, in July 2005.
In December, it was announced that the band was no longer signed, but were attracting attention from a number of record labels. In late 2006, the band performed a showcase for John Janick the founder of record label Fueled by Ramen. They were not signed because Cute Is What We Aim For had recently been taken on by the label, which was not in a position to sign another band at the time. The band was brought to the attention of Hopeless Records by fellow touring band Amber Pacific; on March 28, 2006, it was announced that All Time Low had signed with Hopeless. The band said in an interview that they were starting to get serious about music while in their senior year of high school; following their graduation, the members focused on the group full-time, and released the Put Up or Shut Up EP in July. The EP entered the Independent Albums chart at No. 20 and the Top Heatseekers at No. 12.
All Time Low began a busy tour in support of the EP in late 2006. After the tour, the band began writing material for their second studio album.
2007–2008: So Wrong, It's Right
In the summer of 2007, All Time Low played the Vans Warped Tour on the Smartpunk Stage. They made their live debut in the UK in late 2007 supporting Plain White T's.
All Time Low released their second studio album So Wrong, It's Right in September 2007. It peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard 200 and No. 6 on the Independent Albums chart. The second single from the album, "Dear Maria, Count Me In", which was written about a stripper, became the band's first single to reach the charts and peaked at No. 86 on the Pop 100. In 2011, the single was certified Gold for 500,000 shipments.
In early 2008 the band completed their first headlining tour, the Manwhores and Open Sores Tour with opening acts Every Avenue, Mayday Parade, and Just Surrender.
Following the release of So Wrong, It's Right, All Time Low quickly gained popularity, eventually making their TRL debut on February 12, 2008. They have also been featured on MTV's Discover and Download and Music Choice's Fresh Crops, and have been added to both MTV's Big Ten and MTV Hits playlists. On March 7, 2008, the band made their live television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and then performed live at the mtvU Woodie Awards.
From March 2008 to May 2008, they co-headlined the AP Tour 2008 with The Rocket Summer; supported by acts such as The Matches, Sonny Moore, and Forever the Sickest Kids. In May 2008 they played at the Give It a Name Festival. Also in May 2008, they co-headlined a UK tour with Cobra Starship. In July 2008, the band headlined the Shortest Tour Ever with supporting acts Hit the Lights, Valencia, and There for Tomorrow. From mid-July to mid-August they played the 2008 Vans Warped Tour. They ended 2008 with their headlining tour, The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour with Mayday Parade, The Maine, and Every Avenue.
In December 2008, All Time Low was named "Band of the Year" by Alternative Press magazine and featured on the cover of their January 2009 issue.
2009–2010: Nothing Personal
In early 2009, All Time Low confirmed in an interview with UK magazine Rock Sound that they had begun writing new material for a third studio album and revealed they had collaborated with artists and producers to help co-write a number of songs.
Although still in the writing process, All Time Low began recording for their new album in January 2009, they finished recording only a month later. The album's lead single "Weightless" was released in March 2009 and became the band's first song to achieve some radio play worldwide. The song was included during the band's appearance at major concert venues, such as Bambooozle in May 2009, to promote the new album.
All Time Low released their third studio album Nothing Personal in July 2009. Before its official release, the full album was made available for streaming download one week earlier through MTV's The Leak.
Billboard magazine predicted that the album "looked like it could" enter the top ten of the Billboard 200 in its debut week, with anywhere between 60,000 and 75,000 sales. Nothing Personal debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard chart and sold 63,000 copies, making it the band's highest charting album to date
They played Fall Out Boy's Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour in spring 2009, with Metro Station, Cobra Starship, and Hey Monday. All Time Low also announced tours in both Australia and Japan in June 2009 with Set Your Goals. The band also did a ten date tour with We the Kings, Cartel and Days Difference. They headlined Warped Tour 2009 from July 19 through the end of the tour, and then played at Voodoo Experience 2009, which was headlined by Eminem, Kiss and The Flaming Lips.
All Time Low completed a European tour in the Fall of 2009, with support from The Audition and The Friday Night Boys. All Time Low also headlined the first The Glamour Kills Tour with We The Kings, Hey Monday, and The Friday Night Boys. It began October 15, 2009, and ran through December 6, 2009.
All Time Low announced in November 2009 that they had been signed to major label Interscope Records. One month later, the band won the "Best Pop Punk Band" at the Top In Rock Awards.
In May 2010, All Time Low released their first live album, entitled Straight to DVD. The CD/DVD was a recording of a show in New York.
All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour.
On March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut.
2011–2013: Dirty Work and Don't Panic
Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK.
In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns.
The band returned to the UK on January 12, 2012. supported by The Maine and We Are The In Crowd and toured until February 4. Several of these dates sold out, so more dates were added. All Time Low also played the Warped Tour (June–August 2012) and the Reading and Leeds Festival (August 2012).
In May 2012, All Time Low left their label Interscope Records and released a new song titled "The Reckless and the Brave" on June 1 via their website as a free download. The band announced that they had been working on a new studio album, due for release sometime in 2012. On July 3, All Time Low announced that they had signed to Hopeless Records again and that the new album would be released in the second half of 2012. On August 10 they announced that their new album, titled Don't Panic would be released October 9 through Hopeless Records. On August 24, a new song titled "For Baltimore" was released through Alternative Press. "Somewhere in Neverland" was released next, peaking in the top 50 on the US iTunes charts.
After the completion of the 2012 Warped Tour, the band announced a "Rockshow at the End of the World" headlining tour with The Summer Set, The Downtown Fiction and Hit The Lights. They headlined in Dublin, Ireland on August 20, Aberdeen, Scotland on August 22 and in Edinburgh, Scotland on August 23, 2012. They then played a series of shows around Europe including supporting Green Day in Germany. All Time Low were announced on Soundwave's 2013 lineup for Australia.
On September 27, All Time Low released the song "Outlines", featuring Jason Vena from the band Acceptance via MTV. On October 2, a week before its release, Hopeless Records' YouTube channel posted the entire Don't Panic album as a stream, with lyrics for all the songs.
In September 2013, the band re-released their album as Don't Panic: It's Longer Now!. It featured four newly recorded songs and four additional acoustic remixes as well as the original material. The lead single, A Love Like War featuring Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil was released on September 2. Starting on September 23, All Time Low toured with Pierce the Veil as a supporting act of A Day To Remember's House Party Tour.
2014–2016: Future Hearts
On March 8, 2014, All Time Low toured the UK as part of their "A Love Like War: UK Tour" before moving on to the states on March 28 for the remaining part of the tour. The music video for their song "The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver" used clips from that tour and premiered on Kerrang! on May 14.
Their next album would be recorded with producer John Feldman. The album, Future Hearts, was announced with the first single, "Something's Gotta Give", premiering on Radio One on January 11, 2015. The second single, "Kids In The Dark", was released on March 9, 2015. The band played Soundwave 2015 in Australia and headlined sideshows.
They headlined a spring US 2015 tour for the album with support from Issues, Tonight Alive and State Champs, and co-headlining a UK tour with You Me At Six. Future Hearts debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 75,000 copies in its first week, becoming the band's highest charting and biggest selling week ever. It also topped the UK Albums Chart with almost 20,000 first week sales.
In July 2015, the band won four awards at the 2015 Alternative Press Music Awards.
The band has since toured and released music videos, including one for "Runaways" in August 2015. On September 1, 2016, the band leaked a new song titled "Take Cover", which was later officially released with a music video the next day as a bonus track for their live album, "Straight to DVD II: Past, Present, and Future Hearts". Members of the band also appeared for surprise DJ sets at Emo Nite in Los Angeles in 2015.
2017–2019: Last Young Renegade
In mid-February 2017, the band announced a new song to be premiered on BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw, called "Dirty Laundry". The music video was directed by Pat Tracy, who had also directed the music video for "Missing You". This was the first release after changing record labels from Hopeless Records to Fueled by Ramen. Both songs are singles from their album, Last Young Renegade, which was released on June 2, 2017. The band also released their cover of "Longview" by Green Day for the documentary "Green Day: The Early Years". On March 1, 2018, it was announced All Time Low would play three dates of the 2018 Vans Warped Tour. On June 12, 2018, the band released a song called "Everything Is Fine." The song's teasing featured the band members posting the song's title to social media repeatedly a day before it was released. On June 29, 2018, the band released a song called "Birthday." A live-in-the-studio re-recording of Nothing Personal was released on November 8, 2019.
On 29 May 2019, All Time Low performed at Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer's Friends of Friends sold-out benefit concert, held in Venice, California. All proceeds from the event were donated to the Safe Place for Youth project, a housing and support service for homeless youth in Los Angeles.
2020–present: Wake Up, Sunshine
On January 1, 2020, the band released a video indicating the Last Young Renegade era had come to an end with a person in a panda suit burning their renegade jerseys, hinting their new album was coming.
Later that same month on January 21, 2020, the band released the song "Some Kind of Disaster".
On February 17, 2020, the band announced their new album, titled Wake Up, Sunshine, and would be released on April 3, 2020. The album featured 15 tracks and collaborations with rapper Blackbear and The Band Camino.
On February 24, 2020, it was announced that All Time Low would be opening acts for Australian band, 5 Seconds of Summer for the European arena concert dates on their No Shame Tour. Initially set to take place between 26 May 2020 to 16 June 2020, the European leg of the tour was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The European shows are now set to begin on 20 April 2021 at the Palais 12 Arena in Brussels, Belgium with All Time Low being the opening act for thirteen shows.
On December 4, 2020, the band's song "Monsters" was re-released, featuring vocals from singer Demi Lovato.
On March 24, 2021, the band released the single "Once In a Lifetime".
On July 30, 2021, the band released a single "PMA" (Postmodern Anxiety) featuring Pale Waves.
Online allegations
In early October 2021, a TikTok video surfaced that accused an unnamed pop-punk band of inviting a 13-year-old onto its tour bus, claiming in the comments section that they "tried to take my bra off" with additional indications that it was All Time Low. A Twitter thread was later released anonymously detailing allegations against Jack Barakat. The band released a statement calling the allegations "completely and utterly false" and said they would pursue legal action. Meet Me at the Altar and Nothing,Nowhere dropped out of the band's Autumn tour and announced joint dates for shows in the wake of the allegations. The band sued three anonymous accounts for libel in February 2022, claiming they were "the victims of defamatory social media posts falsely and maliciously accusing them of sexual abuse and knowingly enabling such illegal conduct."
Musical style and influences
All Time Low's musical style has generally been described as pop punk, pop rock, power pop, emo pop, emo, and alternative rock. All Time Low cites bands such as Blink-182, Green Day, MxPx, New Found Glory, Saves the Day, and The Get Up Kids as influences.
Band members
Current members
Alex Gaskarth – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (2003–present)
Jack Barakat – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003–present); rhythm guitar (2003)
Rian Dawson – drums, percussion (2003–present)
Zack Merrick – bass guitar, backing vocals (2003–present)
Former members
Chris Cortilello – bass guitar (2003)
TJ Ihle – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003)
Touring members
Dan Swank – rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, percussion (2020–present)
Bryan Donahue – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2013–2020)
Matt Colussy – rhythm guitar (2011–2013)
Matt Flyzik – backing vocals (2006–2013)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
The Party Scene (2005)
So Wrong, It's Right (2007)
Nothing Personal (2009)
Dirty Work (2011)
Don't Panic (2012)
Future Hearts (2015)
Last Young Renegade (2017)
Wake Up, Sunshine (2020)
Tours
Headlining
Manwhores and Open Sores Tour (2008)
AP Tour 2008 (2008)
Shortest Tour Ever (2008)
The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour (2008)
The Glamour Kills Tour (2009)
A Love Like War (2014)
Opening acts
Fall Out Boy – Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour (2009)
5 Seconds of Summer – No Shame Tour (European shows only) (April 2021)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Pop punk groups from Maryland
American pop rock music groups
American power pop groups
American emo musical groups
Interscope Records artists
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups established in 2003
Musical groups from Baltimore
Rock music groups from Maryland
Musical quartets
People from Towson, Maryland
Hopeless Records artists
| true |
[
"Hina Tasleem (also written as Heena Rehmaan) is an Indian actress who acted in several films.\n\nBiography\nTasleem made her debut in Bollywood with I Proud to Be an Indian which was released in 2004. In 2005 her film Fun – Can Be Dangerous Sometimes was released. Her film Ladies Tailor was released in 2006. She also worked in Ghutan which was released in 2007.\n\nTasleem's film Meri Padosan was released in 2009. Her film Meri Life Mein Uski Wife was released in 2009 too. In 2010 her film Ajab Devra Ka Gazab Bhauji was released which was a Bhojpuri film. Her film Sheetalbhabi.com was released in 2011.\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nLiving people\nIndian film actresses\nActresses in Hindi cinema\nActresses in Bhojpuri cinema\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"Sonia Mann is an Indian actress and model. She appeared in films and music videos.\n\nEarly life and education\nMann was born on 10 September 1986 in Haldwani to Baldev Singh Mann and Paramjit Kaur. Her father was a left wing activist. He was killed by militants in Amritsar on 26 September 1986 when he was on his way to see his new-born daughter. She was brought up in Amritsar. She completed her school life from Holy Heart Presidency School. Then she completed her college life from BBK DAV College for Women, Amritsar.\n\nCareer\nMann appeared in many Punjabi music videos. Her Malayalam film Hide n' Seek in 2012. Then, she appeared in another Malayalam film titled Teens which was released in 2013. She also appeared in a Punjabi film titled Haani which was released in 2013. Her Punjabi film Bade Changey Ne Mere Yaar Kaminey was released in 2014. She also appeared in a Hindi film in that year titled Kahin Hai Mera Pyar.\n\nMann's Telugu film Dhee Ante Dhee was released in 2015. Her Punjabi film 25 Kille was released in 2016. Her another Punjabi film titled Motor Mitraan Di was also released in that year.\n\nMann did a cameo role on a Marathi film titled Hrudayantar in 2017. Her second Telugu film titled Dr. Chakravarthy was also released in that year. She was also a part of hindi film Happy Hardy and Heer which was released on 31 January 2020.\n\nFilmography\n\nMusic videos\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLiving people\n1990 births\nGuru Nanak Dev University alumni\nActresses in Punjabi cinema\nActresses in Telugu cinema\nActresses in Malayalam cinema\nActresses in Hindi cinema\nActresses in Marathi cinema\nIndian female models\nPeople from Haldwani"
] |
[
"All Time Low",
"2011: Dirty Work",
"Was this an album?",
"All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work,",
"Which year was it released?",
"in June 2011,"
] |
C_0fd9a62a282441e1873e80a5a9ce7595_0
|
What was done before the album was released?
| 3 |
What was done before Dirty Work was released?
|
All Time Low
|
All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour. In March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut. Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK. In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns. CANNOTANSWER
|
In March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers"
|
All Time Low is an American rock band from Towson, Maryland formed in 2003. Consisting of lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth, lead guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist/backing vocalist Zack Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson, the band took its name from lyrics in the song "Head on Collision" by New Found Glory. The band has consistently done year-long tours, has headlined numerous tours, and has appeared at music festivals including Warped Tour, Reading and Leeds, and Soundwave.
Beginning as a band in high school, All Time Low released their debut EP, The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP, in 2004 through local label Emerald Moon. Since then the band has released eight studio albums: The Party Scene (2005), So Wrong, It's Right (2007), Nothing Personal (2009), Dirty Work (2011), Don't Panic (2012), Future Hearts (2015), Last Young Renegade (2017), and Wake Up, Sunshine (2020). They released their first live album, Straight to DVD, in 2010, and released their second live album, Straight to DVD II: Past, Present and Future Hearts, on September 9, 2016.
History
2003–2006: Formation and The Party Scene
Formed while still in high school in 2003, All Time Low began covering songs by pop punk bands such as Blink-182. The band's line-up included Alex Gaskarth on vocals, Jack Barakat on guitar, TJ Ihle on lead guitar and backing vocals, Chris Cortilello on bass, and Rian Dawson on drums. Cortilello and Ihle left the band, resulting in the band laying dormant until Zack Merrick joined on bass and Gaskarth picked up guitar. They released a four-song EP in November before signing to Emerald Moon Records in 2004. They released their second EP, titled The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP later that same year. The band released their debut studio album, The Party Scene, in July 2005.
In December, it was announced that the band was no longer signed, but were attracting attention from a number of record labels. In late 2006, the band performed a showcase for John Janick the founder of record label Fueled by Ramen. They were not signed because Cute Is What We Aim For had recently been taken on by the label, which was not in a position to sign another band at the time. The band was brought to the attention of Hopeless Records by fellow touring band Amber Pacific; on March 28, 2006, it was announced that All Time Low had signed with Hopeless. The band said in an interview that they were starting to get serious about music while in their senior year of high school; following their graduation, the members focused on the group full-time, and released the Put Up or Shut Up EP in July. The EP entered the Independent Albums chart at No. 20 and the Top Heatseekers at No. 12.
All Time Low began a busy tour in support of the EP in late 2006. After the tour, the band began writing material for their second studio album.
2007–2008: So Wrong, It's Right
In the summer of 2007, All Time Low played the Vans Warped Tour on the Smartpunk Stage. They made their live debut in the UK in late 2007 supporting Plain White T's.
All Time Low released their second studio album So Wrong, It's Right in September 2007. It peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard 200 and No. 6 on the Independent Albums chart. The second single from the album, "Dear Maria, Count Me In", which was written about a stripper, became the band's first single to reach the charts and peaked at No. 86 on the Pop 100. In 2011, the single was certified Gold for 500,000 shipments.
In early 2008 the band completed their first headlining tour, the Manwhores and Open Sores Tour with opening acts Every Avenue, Mayday Parade, and Just Surrender.
Following the release of So Wrong, It's Right, All Time Low quickly gained popularity, eventually making their TRL debut on February 12, 2008. They have also been featured on MTV's Discover and Download and Music Choice's Fresh Crops, and have been added to both MTV's Big Ten and MTV Hits playlists. On March 7, 2008, the band made their live television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and then performed live at the mtvU Woodie Awards.
From March 2008 to May 2008, they co-headlined the AP Tour 2008 with The Rocket Summer; supported by acts such as The Matches, Sonny Moore, and Forever the Sickest Kids. In May 2008 they played at the Give It a Name Festival. Also in May 2008, they co-headlined a UK tour with Cobra Starship. In July 2008, the band headlined the Shortest Tour Ever with supporting acts Hit the Lights, Valencia, and There for Tomorrow. From mid-July to mid-August they played the 2008 Vans Warped Tour. They ended 2008 with their headlining tour, The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour with Mayday Parade, The Maine, and Every Avenue.
In December 2008, All Time Low was named "Band of the Year" by Alternative Press magazine and featured on the cover of their January 2009 issue.
2009–2010: Nothing Personal
In early 2009, All Time Low confirmed in an interview with UK magazine Rock Sound that they had begun writing new material for a third studio album and revealed they had collaborated with artists and producers to help co-write a number of songs.
Although still in the writing process, All Time Low began recording for their new album in January 2009, they finished recording only a month later. The album's lead single "Weightless" was released in March 2009 and became the band's first song to achieve some radio play worldwide. The song was included during the band's appearance at major concert venues, such as Bambooozle in May 2009, to promote the new album.
All Time Low released their third studio album Nothing Personal in July 2009. Before its official release, the full album was made available for streaming download one week earlier through MTV's The Leak.
Billboard magazine predicted that the album "looked like it could" enter the top ten of the Billboard 200 in its debut week, with anywhere between 60,000 and 75,000 sales. Nothing Personal debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard chart and sold 63,000 copies, making it the band's highest charting album to date
They played Fall Out Boy's Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour in spring 2009, with Metro Station, Cobra Starship, and Hey Monday. All Time Low also announced tours in both Australia and Japan in June 2009 with Set Your Goals. The band also did a ten date tour with We the Kings, Cartel and Days Difference. They headlined Warped Tour 2009 from July 19 through the end of the tour, and then played at Voodoo Experience 2009, which was headlined by Eminem, Kiss and The Flaming Lips.
All Time Low completed a European tour in the Fall of 2009, with support from The Audition and The Friday Night Boys. All Time Low also headlined the first The Glamour Kills Tour with We The Kings, Hey Monday, and The Friday Night Boys. It began October 15, 2009, and ran through December 6, 2009.
All Time Low announced in November 2009 that they had been signed to major label Interscope Records. One month later, the band won the "Best Pop Punk Band" at the Top In Rock Awards.
In May 2010, All Time Low released their first live album, entitled Straight to DVD. The CD/DVD was a recording of a show in New York.
All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour.
On March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut.
2011–2013: Dirty Work and Don't Panic
Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK.
In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns.
The band returned to the UK on January 12, 2012. supported by The Maine and We Are The In Crowd and toured until February 4. Several of these dates sold out, so more dates were added. All Time Low also played the Warped Tour (June–August 2012) and the Reading and Leeds Festival (August 2012).
In May 2012, All Time Low left their label Interscope Records and released a new song titled "The Reckless and the Brave" on June 1 via their website as a free download. The band announced that they had been working on a new studio album, due for release sometime in 2012. On July 3, All Time Low announced that they had signed to Hopeless Records again and that the new album would be released in the second half of 2012. On August 10 they announced that their new album, titled Don't Panic would be released October 9 through Hopeless Records. On August 24, a new song titled "For Baltimore" was released through Alternative Press. "Somewhere in Neverland" was released next, peaking in the top 50 on the US iTunes charts.
After the completion of the 2012 Warped Tour, the band announced a "Rockshow at the End of the World" headlining tour with The Summer Set, The Downtown Fiction and Hit The Lights. They headlined in Dublin, Ireland on August 20, Aberdeen, Scotland on August 22 and in Edinburgh, Scotland on August 23, 2012. They then played a series of shows around Europe including supporting Green Day in Germany. All Time Low were announced on Soundwave's 2013 lineup for Australia.
On September 27, All Time Low released the song "Outlines", featuring Jason Vena from the band Acceptance via MTV. On October 2, a week before its release, Hopeless Records' YouTube channel posted the entire Don't Panic album as a stream, with lyrics for all the songs.
In September 2013, the band re-released their album as Don't Panic: It's Longer Now!. It featured four newly recorded songs and four additional acoustic remixes as well as the original material. The lead single, A Love Like War featuring Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil was released on September 2. Starting on September 23, All Time Low toured with Pierce the Veil as a supporting act of A Day To Remember's House Party Tour.
2014–2016: Future Hearts
On March 8, 2014, All Time Low toured the UK as part of their "A Love Like War: UK Tour" before moving on to the states on March 28 for the remaining part of the tour. The music video for their song "The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver" used clips from that tour and premiered on Kerrang! on May 14.
Their next album would be recorded with producer John Feldman. The album, Future Hearts, was announced with the first single, "Something's Gotta Give", premiering on Radio One on January 11, 2015. The second single, "Kids In The Dark", was released on March 9, 2015. The band played Soundwave 2015 in Australia and headlined sideshows.
They headlined a spring US 2015 tour for the album with support from Issues, Tonight Alive and State Champs, and co-headlining a UK tour with You Me At Six. Future Hearts debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 75,000 copies in its first week, becoming the band's highest charting and biggest selling week ever. It also topped the UK Albums Chart with almost 20,000 first week sales.
In July 2015, the band won four awards at the 2015 Alternative Press Music Awards.
The band has since toured and released music videos, including one for "Runaways" in August 2015. On September 1, 2016, the band leaked a new song titled "Take Cover", which was later officially released with a music video the next day as a bonus track for their live album, "Straight to DVD II: Past, Present, and Future Hearts". Members of the band also appeared for surprise DJ sets at Emo Nite in Los Angeles in 2015.
2017–2019: Last Young Renegade
In mid-February 2017, the band announced a new song to be premiered on BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw, called "Dirty Laundry". The music video was directed by Pat Tracy, who had also directed the music video for "Missing You". This was the first release after changing record labels from Hopeless Records to Fueled by Ramen. Both songs are singles from their album, Last Young Renegade, which was released on June 2, 2017. The band also released their cover of "Longview" by Green Day for the documentary "Green Day: The Early Years". On March 1, 2018, it was announced All Time Low would play three dates of the 2018 Vans Warped Tour. On June 12, 2018, the band released a song called "Everything Is Fine." The song's teasing featured the band members posting the song's title to social media repeatedly a day before it was released. On June 29, 2018, the band released a song called "Birthday." A live-in-the-studio re-recording of Nothing Personal was released on November 8, 2019.
On 29 May 2019, All Time Low performed at Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer's Friends of Friends sold-out benefit concert, held in Venice, California. All proceeds from the event were donated to the Safe Place for Youth project, a housing and support service for homeless youth in Los Angeles.
2020–present: Wake Up, Sunshine
On January 1, 2020, the band released a video indicating the Last Young Renegade era had come to an end with a person in a panda suit burning their renegade jerseys, hinting their new album was coming.
Later that same month on January 21, 2020, the band released the song "Some Kind of Disaster".
On February 17, 2020, the band announced their new album, titled Wake Up, Sunshine, and would be released on April 3, 2020. The album featured 15 tracks and collaborations with rapper Blackbear and The Band Camino.
On February 24, 2020, it was announced that All Time Low would be opening acts for Australian band, 5 Seconds of Summer for the European arena concert dates on their No Shame Tour. Initially set to take place between 26 May 2020 to 16 June 2020, the European leg of the tour was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The European shows are now set to begin on 20 April 2021 at the Palais 12 Arena in Brussels, Belgium with All Time Low being the opening act for thirteen shows.
On December 4, 2020, the band's song "Monsters" was re-released, featuring vocals from singer Demi Lovato.
On March 24, 2021, the band released the single "Once In a Lifetime".
On July 30, 2021, the band released a single "PMA" (Postmodern Anxiety) featuring Pale Waves.
Online allegations
In early October 2021, a TikTok video surfaced that accused an unnamed pop-punk band of inviting a 13-year-old onto its tour bus, claiming in the comments section that they "tried to take my bra off" with additional indications that it was All Time Low. A Twitter thread was later released anonymously detailing allegations against Jack Barakat. The band released a statement calling the allegations "completely and utterly false" and said they would pursue legal action. Meet Me at the Altar and Nothing,Nowhere dropped out of the band's Autumn tour and announced joint dates for shows in the wake of the allegations. The band sued three anonymous accounts for libel in February 2022, claiming they were "the victims of defamatory social media posts falsely and maliciously accusing them of sexual abuse and knowingly enabling such illegal conduct."
Musical style and influences
All Time Low's musical style has generally been described as pop punk, pop rock, power pop, emo pop, emo, and alternative rock. All Time Low cites bands such as Blink-182, Green Day, MxPx, New Found Glory, Saves the Day, and The Get Up Kids as influences.
Band members
Current members
Alex Gaskarth – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (2003–present)
Jack Barakat – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003–present); rhythm guitar (2003)
Rian Dawson – drums, percussion (2003–present)
Zack Merrick – bass guitar, backing vocals (2003–present)
Former members
Chris Cortilello – bass guitar (2003)
TJ Ihle – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003)
Touring members
Dan Swank – rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, percussion (2020–present)
Bryan Donahue – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2013–2020)
Matt Colussy – rhythm guitar (2011–2013)
Matt Flyzik – backing vocals (2006–2013)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
The Party Scene (2005)
So Wrong, It's Right (2007)
Nothing Personal (2009)
Dirty Work (2011)
Don't Panic (2012)
Future Hearts (2015)
Last Young Renegade (2017)
Wake Up, Sunshine (2020)
Tours
Headlining
Manwhores and Open Sores Tour (2008)
AP Tour 2008 (2008)
Shortest Tour Ever (2008)
The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour (2008)
The Glamour Kills Tour (2009)
A Love Like War (2014)
Opening acts
Fall Out Boy – Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour (2009)
5 Seconds of Summer – No Shame Tour (European shows only) (April 2021)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Pop punk groups from Maryland
American pop rock music groups
American power pop groups
American emo musical groups
Interscope Records artists
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups established in 2003
Musical groups from Baltimore
Rock music groups from Maryland
Musical quartets
People from Towson, Maryland
Hopeless Records artists
| false |
[
"Bon Voyage is the firsdebut studio albumand by the Swiss singer-songwriter Anna Rossinelli, released on December 9, 2011, by Universal Music. The album includes the single \"Joker\". The album was produced by Fred Herrmann and entered the Swiss Albums Chart at number 10. The song \"No One\" was available for free on iTunes before the release of the album.\n\nSingles\n \"Joker\" was released as the album's first single on 14 October 2011. The song was written by Phillipa Alexander, Ellie Wyatt, Alex Ball and Vicky Nolan and produced by Fred Herrmann.\n \"See What You've Done\" was released as the album's second single. The video was released on 12 April 2012.\n\nTrack listing\n\nChart performance\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Anna Rossinelli's official website\n Anna Rossinelli on Twitter\n Anna Rossinelli on Twitter\n\n2011 debut albums\nAnna Rossinelli albums\nUniversal Music Germany albums",
"\"What Have You Done\" is the first single from Dutch symphonic metal and rock band Within Temptation's fourth studio album The Heart of Everything (2007). The song features guest vocals from Life of Agony's lead singer Mina Caputo and it was released as the album's first single in early 2007 (see 2007 in music). It became their first charting single in Canada and in the United States. A new edit and version of the song was released in the US through iTunes on 26 June 2007.\n\nMusic video\nThere are two music videos for \"What Have You Done\".\n\nIn the first video, Sharon den Adel is a spy. Mina Caputo is an FBI agent who has been assigned the task of capturing den Adel. They were formerly lovers, but an unconfirmed issue rose between them, causing them to separate. Caputo searches the world for Adel before finally locating her singing with the band in a bar in Thailand; however, he is thrown out by the bouncer and is refused re-entry. Den Adel stands behind the bouncer, grinning suspiciously. She makes her way through a jungle in the next scene, with Caputo following her. After reaching a cliff with no escape, den Adel faces Caputo and whispers \"I love you.\" She turns and jumps off the cliff. Although Caputo is under the impression that den Adel did not survive the fall, at the end she is lying on rocks, smiling.\n\nIn the alternative video, den Adel seems to be leaving an abusive partner. Her partner is left behind in a house, and trashes it, smashing mirrors and vases. This video has a more sinister and dark atmosphere present. This video also contains footage of Caputo, although not together with any member of Within Temptation.\n\nThe first video was quickly replaced by this version. The band stated that they wanted to replace the video because the \"band shots were too dark and the 'jungle' part didn't look very convincing.\"\nOnly the second version was released on DVD with the special edition of The Heart of Everything and with Black Symphony. A new edit of this version was also used to promote the single in the United States.\n\nLive versions\n\n\"What Have You Done\" (feat. Mina Caputo) was also released as a live version on the band's Black Symphony release. Roadrunner Records USA/Australia used this version to promote Black Symphony before its release. This recording with the Metropole Orchestra in Ahoy, Rotterdam, 2008 was one of the two only live performances of the song in which Mina Caputo sang along live (the other one being at the Dauwpop festival in 2007). In other performances, the band plays a video of Mina Caputo singing on screen and encourages the audience to sing the parts.\n\nIn acoustic performances of this song, as found on the \"Frozen\" maxi-single and the special edition of The Heart of Everything, Caputo's vocals are absent and Sharon den Adel sings Caputo's parts as well. On the live album An Acoustic Night at the Theatre, \"What Have You Done\" appears as a duet with Caputo once again, although Caputo's vocals were not recorded live.\n\n\"What Have You Done\" in other media\nThis song is available as a downloadable song in the games Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero 5, and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. In 2008, Dutch TV program Koefnoen made a parody on this song titled \"What Am I Doing Here\".\n\nFormats and track listings\nThese are the formats and track listings of major single releases of \"What Have You Done\".\n\nEuropean CD promotional single\n\"What Have You Done\" (European radio version) a.k.a. (single version) (3:59)\n\"What Have You Done\" (rock mix) (3:52)\n\nCanadian and European CD single\n\"What Have You Done\" (European radio version) a.k.a. (single version) (3:59)\n\"What Have You Done\" (album version) (5:16)\n\nEuropean maxi CD single\n\"What Have You Done\" (European radio version) a.k.a. (single version) (3:59)\n\"What Have You Done\" (album version) (5:16)\n\"Blue Eyes\" (non-album track) (5:26)\n\"Aquarius\" (Live at Java-eiland, Amsterdam) (4:46)\n\"Caged\" (Live at Java-eiland, Amsterdam) (5:44)\n\nUS promotional single number one\n\"What Have You Done\" (US edit) (3:24)\n\nUS promotional single number two\n\"What Have You Done\" (US pop mix) (4:00)\n\nUS iTunes EP (digital exclusive)\n\"What Have You Done\" (US edit) (3:24)\n\"What Have You Done\" (album version) (5:16)\n\"What Have You Done\" (acoustic live) (4:33)\n\"What Have You Done\" (video)\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n2007 singles\nWithin Temptation songs\nSongs written by Sharon den Adel\nSongs written by Robert Westerholt\n2007 songs\nRoadrunner Records singles"
] |
[
"All Time Low",
"2011: Dirty Work",
"Was this an album?",
"All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work,",
"Which year was it released?",
"in June 2011,",
"What was done before the album was released?",
"In March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song \"Painting Flowers\""
] |
C_0fd9a62a282441e1873e80a5a9ce7595_0
|
Which album was this song on?
| 4 |
Which album was "Painting Flowers" on?
|
All Time Low
|
All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour. In March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut. Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK. In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns. CANNOTANSWER
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album Almost Alice,
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All Time Low is an American rock band from Towson, Maryland formed in 2003. Consisting of lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth, lead guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist/backing vocalist Zack Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson, the band took its name from lyrics in the song "Head on Collision" by New Found Glory. The band has consistently done year-long tours, has headlined numerous tours, and has appeared at music festivals including Warped Tour, Reading and Leeds, and Soundwave.
Beginning as a band in high school, All Time Low released their debut EP, The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP, in 2004 through local label Emerald Moon. Since then the band has released eight studio albums: The Party Scene (2005), So Wrong, It's Right (2007), Nothing Personal (2009), Dirty Work (2011), Don't Panic (2012), Future Hearts (2015), Last Young Renegade (2017), and Wake Up, Sunshine (2020). They released their first live album, Straight to DVD, in 2010, and released their second live album, Straight to DVD II: Past, Present and Future Hearts, on September 9, 2016.
History
2003–2006: Formation and The Party Scene
Formed while still in high school in 2003, All Time Low began covering songs by pop punk bands such as Blink-182. The band's line-up included Alex Gaskarth on vocals, Jack Barakat on guitar, TJ Ihle on lead guitar and backing vocals, Chris Cortilello on bass, and Rian Dawson on drums. Cortilello and Ihle left the band, resulting in the band laying dormant until Zack Merrick joined on bass and Gaskarth picked up guitar. They released a four-song EP in November before signing to Emerald Moon Records in 2004. They released their second EP, titled The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP later that same year. The band released their debut studio album, The Party Scene, in July 2005.
In December, it was announced that the band was no longer signed, but were attracting attention from a number of record labels. In late 2006, the band performed a showcase for John Janick the founder of record label Fueled by Ramen. They were not signed because Cute Is What We Aim For had recently been taken on by the label, which was not in a position to sign another band at the time. The band was brought to the attention of Hopeless Records by fellow touring band Amber Pacific; on March 28, 2006, it was announced that All Time Low had signed with Hopeless. The band said in an interview that they were starting to get serious about music while in their senior year of high school; following their graduation, the members focused on the group full-time, and released the Put Up or Shut Up EP in July. The EP entered the Independent Albums chart at No. 20 and the Top Heatseekers at No. 12.
All Time Low began a busy tour in support of the EP in late 2006. After the tour, the band began writing material for their second studio album.
2007–2008: So Wrong, It's Right
In the summer of 2007, All Time Low played the Vans Warped Tour on the Smartpunk Stage. They made their live debut in the UK in late 2007 supporting Plain White T's.
All Time Low released their second studio album So Wrong, It's Right in September 2007. It peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard 200 and No. 6 on the Independent Albums chart. The second single from the album, "Dear Maria, Count Me In", which was written about a stripper, became the band's first single to reach the charts and peaked at No. 86 on the Pop 100. In 2011, the single was certified Gold for 500,000 shipments.
In early 2008 the band completed their first headlining tour, the Manwhores and Open Sores Tour with opening acts Every Avenue, Mayday Parade, and Just Surrender.
Following the release of So Wrong, It's Right, All Time Low quickly gained popularity, eventually making their TRL debut on February 12, 2008. They have also been featured on MTV's Discover and Download and Music Choice's Fresh Crops, and have been added to both MTV's Big Ten and MTV Hits playlists. On March 7, 2008, the band made their live television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and then performed live at the mtvU Woodie Awards.
From March 2008 to May 2008, they co-headlined the AP Tour 2008 with The Rocket Summer; supported by acts such as The Matches, Sonny Moore, and Forever the Sickest Kids. In May 2008 they played at the Give It a Name Festival. Also in May 2008, they co-headlined a UK tour with Cobra Starship. In July 2008, the band headlined the Shortest Tour Ever with supporting acts Hit the Lights, Valencia, and There for Tomorrow. From mid-July to mid-August they played the 2008 Vans Warped Tour. They ended 2008 with their headlining tour, The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour with Mayday Parade, The Maine, and Every Avenue.
In December 2008, All Time Low was named "Band of the Year" by Alternative Press magazine and featured on the cover of their January 2009 issue.
2009–2010: Nothing Personal
In early 2009, All Time Low confirmed in an interview with UK magazine Rock Sound that they had begun writing new material for a third studio album and revealed they had collaborated with artists and producers to help co-write a number of songs.
Although still in the writing process, All Time Low began recording for their new album in January 2009, they finished recording only a month later. The album's lead single "Weightless" was released in March 2009 and became the band's first song to achieve some radio play worldwide. The song was included during the band's appearance at major concert venues, such as Bambooozle in May 2009, to promote the new album.
All Time Low released their third studio album Nothing Personal in July 2009. Before its official release, the full album was made available for streaming download one week earlier through MTV's The Leak.
Billboard magazine predicted that the album "looked like it could" enter the top ten of the Billboard 200 in its debut week, with anywhere between 60,000 and 75,000 sales. Nothing Personal debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard chart and sold 63,000 copies, making it the band's highest charting album to date
They played Fall Out Boy's Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour in spring 2009, with Metro Station, Cobra Starship, and Hey Monday. All Time Low also announced tours in both Australia and Japan in June 2009 with Set Your Goals. The band also did a ten date tour with We the Kings, Cartel and Days Difference. They headlined Warped Tour 2009 from July 19 through the end of the tour, and then played at Voodoo Experience 2009, which was headlined by Eminem, Kiss and The Flaming Lips.
All Time Low completed a European tour in the Fall of 2009, with support from The Audition and The Friday Night Boys. All Time Low also headlined the first The Glamour Kills Tour with We The Kings, Hey Monday, and The Friday Night Boys. It began October 15, 2009, and ran through December 6, 2009.
All Time Low announced in November 2009 that they had been signed to major label Interscope Records. One month later, the band won the "Best Pop Punk Band" at the Top In Rock Awards.
In May 2010, All Time Low released their first live album, entitled Straight to DVD. The CD/DVD was a recording of a show in New York.
All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour.
On March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut.
2011–2013: Dirty Work and Don't Panic
Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK.
In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns.
The band returned to the UK on January 12, 2012. supported by The Maine and We Are The In Crowd and toured until February 4. Several of these dates sold out, so more dates were added. All Time Low also played the Warped Tour (June–August 2012) and the Reading and Leeds Festival (August 2012).
In May 2012, All Time Low left their label Interscope Records and released a new song titled "The Reckless and the Brave" on June 1 via their website as a free download. The band announced that they had been working on a new studio album, due for release sometime in 2012. On July 3, All Time Low announced that they had signed to Hopeless Records again and that the new album would be released in the second half of 2012. On August 10 they announced that their new album, titled Don't Panic would be released October 9 through Hopeless Records. On August 24, a new song titled "For Baltimore" was released through Alternative Press. "Somewhere in Neverland" was released next, peaking in the top 50 on the US iTunes charts.
After the completion of the 2012 Warped Tour, the band announced a "Rockshow at the End of the World" headlining tour with The Summer Set, The Downtown Fiction and Hit The Lights. They headlined in Dublin, Ireland on August 20, Aberdeen, Scotland on August 22 and in Edinburgh, Scotland on August 23, 2012. They then played a series of shows around Europe including supporting Green Day in Germany. All Time Low were announced on Soundwave's 2013 lineup for Australia.
On September 27, All Time Low released the song "Outlines", featuring Jason Vena from the band Acceptance via MTV. On October 2, a week before its release, Hopeless Records' YouTube channel posted the entire Don't Panic album as a stream, with lyrics for all the songs.
In September 2013, the band re-released their album as Don't Panic: It's Longer Now!. It featured four newly recorded songs and four additional acoustic remixes as well as the original material. The lead single, A Love Like War featuring Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil was released on September 2. Starting on September 23, All Time Low toured with Pierce the Veil as a supporting act of A Day To Remember's House Party Tour.
2014–2016: Future Hearts
On March 8, 2014, All Time Low toured the UK as part of their "A Love Like War: UK Tour" before moving on to the states on March 28 for the remaining part of the tour. The music video for their song "The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver" used clips from that tour and premiered on Kerrang! on May 14.
Their next album would be recorded with producer John Feldman. The album, Future Hearts, was announced with the first single, "Something's Gotta Give", premiering on Radio One on January 11, 2015. The second single, "Kids In The Dark", was released on March 9, 2015. The band played Soundwave 2015 in Australia and headlined sideshows.
They headlined a spring US 2015 tour for the album with support from Issues, Tonight Alive and State Champs, and co-headlining a UK tour with You Me At Six. Future Hearts debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 75,000 copies in its first week, becoming the band's highest charting and biggest selling week ever. It also topped the UK Albums Chart with almost 20,000 first week sales.
In July 2015, the band won four awards at the 2015 Alternative Press Music Awards.
The band has since toured and released music videos, including one for "Runaways" in August 2015. On September 1, 2016, the band leaked a new song titled "Take Cover", which was later officially released with a music video the next day as a bonus track for their live album, "Straight to DVD II: Past, Present, and Future Hearts". Members of the band also appeared for surprise DJ sets at Emo Nite in Los Angeles in 2015.
2017–2019: Last Young Renegade
In mid-February 2017, the band announced a new song to be premiered on BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw, called "Dirty Laundry". The music video was directed by Pat Tracy, who had also directed the music video for "Missing You". This was the first release after changing record labels from Hopeless Records to Fueled by Ramen. Both songs are singles from their album, Last Young Renegade, which was released on June 2, 2017. The band also released their cover of "Longview" by Green Day for the documentary "Green Day: The Early Years". On March 1, 2018, it was announced All Time Low would play three dates of the 2018 Vans Warped Tour. On June 12, 2018, the band released a song called "Everything Is Fine." The song's teasing featured the band members posting the song's title to social media repeatedly a day before it was released. On June 29, 2018, the band released a song called "Birthday." A live-in-the-studio re-recording of Nothing Personal was released on November 8, 2019.
On 29 May 2019, All Time Low performed at Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer's Friends of Friends sold-out benefit concert, held in Venice, California. All proceeds from the event were donated to the Safe Place for Youth project, a housing and support service for homeless youth in Los Angeles.
2020–present: Wake Up, Sunshine
On January 1, 2020, the band released a video indicating the Last Young Renegade era had come to an end with a person in a panda suit burning their renegade jerseys, hinting their new album was coming.
Later that same month on January 21, 2020, the band released the song "Some Kind of Disaster".
On February 17, 2020, the band announced their new album, titled Wake Up, Sunshine, and would be released on April 3, 2020. The album featured 15 tracks and collaborations with rapper Blackbear and The Band Camino.
On February 24, 2020, it was announced that All Time Low would be opening acts for Australian band, 5 Seconds of Summer for the European arena concert dates on their No Shame Tour. Initially set to take place between 26 May 2020 to 16 June 2020, the European leg of the tour was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The European shows are now set to begin on 20 April 2021 at the Palais 12 Arena in Brussels, Belgium with All Time Low being the opening act for thirteen shows.
On December 4, 2020, the band's song "Monsters" was re-released, featuring vocals from singer Demi Lovato.
On March 24, 2021, the band released the single "Once In a Lifetime".
On July 30, 2021, the band released a single "PMA" (Postmodern Anxiety) featuring Pale Waves.
Online allegations
In early October 2021, a TikTok video surfaced that accused an unnamed pop-punk band of inviting a 13-year-old onto its tour bus, claiming in the comments section that they "tried to take my bra off" with additional indications that it was All Time Low. A Twitter thread was later released anonymously detailing allegations against Jack Barakat. The band released a statement calling the allegations "completely and utterly false" and said they would pursue legal action. Meet Me at the Altar and Nothing,Nowhere dropped out of the band's Autumn tour and announced joint dates for shows in the wake of the allegations. The band sued three anonymous accounts for libel in February 2022, claiming they were "the victims of defamatory social media posts falsely and maliciously accusing them of sexual abuse and knowingly enabling such illegal conduct."
Musical style and influences
All Time Low's musical style has generally been described as pop punk, pop rock, power pop, emo pop, emo, and alternative rock. All Time Low cites bands such as Blink-182, Green Day, MxPx, New Found Glory, Saves the Day, and The Get Up Kids as influences.
Band members
Current members
Alex Gaskarth – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (2003–present)
Jack Barakat – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003–present); rhythm guitar (2003)
Rian Dawson – drums, percussion (2003–present)
Zack Merrick – bass guitar, backing vocals (2003–present)
Former members
Chris Cortilello – bass guitar (2003)
TJ Ihle – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003)
Touring members
Dan Swank – rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, percussion (2020–present)
Bryan Donahue – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2013–2020)
Matt Colussy – rhythm guitar (2011–2013)
Matt Flyzik – backing vocals (2006–2013)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
The Party Scene (2005)
So Wrong, It's Right (2007)
Nothing Personal (2009)
Dirty Work (2011)
Don't Panic (2012)
Future Hearts (2015)
Last Young Renegade (2017)
Wake Up, Sunshine (2020)
Tours
Headlining
Manwhores and Open Sores Tour (2008)
AP Tour 2008 (2008)
Shortest Tour Ever (2008)
The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour (2008)
The Glamour Kills Tour (2009)
A Love Like War (2014)
Opening acts
Fall Out Boy – Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour (2009)
5 Seconds of Summer – No Shame Tour (European shows only) (April 2021)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Pop punk groups from Maryland
American pop rock music groups
American power pop groups
American emo musical groups
Interscope Records artists
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups established in 2003
Musical groups from Baltimore
Rock music groups from Maryland
Musical quartets
People from Towson, Maryland
Hopeless Records artists
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[
"W.A.H. is the fifth mini album by J-pop singer-songwriter Marie Ueda. It released on April 17, 2019 under the Giza Studio label.\n\nBackground\nThe album was released in two editions, regular CD and limited CD+DVD. DVD will consist of live footage Utautau Vol.3 with 14 tracks. This is Ueda's first album which was released in the shortest time.\n\nThe concept of the album is \"Japonism\".\n\nPromotion\nThe promotional and lead digital single, \"Bloomin'\" released on March 13. On 28 March, it was announced that it will serve as an ending song on April in TBS music television program Count Down TV. The song was composed after the release of F.A.R, on February.\n\nWasurena ni Kuchizuke was used as a commercial song for Choya's summer drink Natsu Ume. Television broadcast of the commercial was published online on May 15, 2018. The song was released as a single on July 25, 2018.\n\nTomoshibi was used as a theme song for the movie Tomoshibi: Choshi Dentesu 6.4km no Kiseki., in the movie Ueda was playing a minor role. On May 25, 2017 it was released as a digital single and on the same day the music videoclip was published on the Creek and River movie company's official YouTube channel.\n\nNagai Yoru was used as a commercial song for furniture company Sansyodo campaign Anata de Iru. On August 25, 2018, the commercial video was uploaded on Sansyodo official YouTube channel. Marie composed this song when she was 19 years old. Nagai Yoru wasn't released before as a single, it will be recorded as the song for the first time in this album.\n\nOn 1 May, was announced media promotion of album track Hinemosu as a power push song for local TV Aichi television program A-NN.\n\nCharting performance\nThe album debuted at number 18 on the Oricon Album Daily Charts. The album debuted at number 33 on the Oricon Album Weekly Charts and charted for two weeks.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nCredits adapted from the Official Website.\n\nMarie Ueda - vocals, songwriting\nHirofumi Nishimura - piano, arrange, programming\nAkihito Tokunaga - bass\nKeisuke Kurumatani (Sensation) - drums\nSeiichiro Iwai (ex. U-ka Saegusa in dB) - acoustic guitar\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSpecial website for mini album W.A.H. \n\n2019 albums\nBeing Inc. albums\nGiza Studio albums\nJapanese-language albums",
"Join the Club is the second and major-label debut studio album by English musician Lucy Spraggan. It was released on 4 October 2013. The album includes the singles \"Lighthouse\" and \"Last Night (Beer Fear)\". The album has peaked to number 7 on the UK Albums Chart and number 6 on the Scottish Albums Chart. It was certified Silver by the BPI on the 12th of October 2018.\n\nSingles\n\"Lighthouse\" was released as the album's lead single on 28 June 2013. The song reached number 26 in the UK Singles Chart.\n\n\"Last Night (Beer Fear)\" was released on 29 September 2013, as the album's second single. The original version was featured on Spraggan's debut album, Top Room at the Zoo and was her audition song for The X Factor in 2012. A new version has been recorded for this album. Music video for this song was released on Lucy's vevo on 16 September 2013 and it's a remake of first video for this song.\n\nOn her October 2013 Join the Club tour Spraggan announced each night prior to performing \"Tea & Toast\" that she \"was proud to announce this [Tea & Toast] would be her third official album single. Spraggan confirmed via her Twitter page that she had been recording an accompanying music video for the track. The single was released on 13 December 2013.\n\nOther songs\n\"Tea & Toast\" was released independently as a single on 13 July 2012. Spraggan performed the song in the boot camp stage of The X Factor after Tulisa asked to hear another one of her original songs. The song reached number 135 in the UK.\n\n\"Mountains\" was made available to download from the album on iTunes when it was made available to pre-order. A music video for the track was also released on 21 August 2013. Spraggan performed the song on the first live show of The X Factor in 2012.\n\n\"Someone\" was iTunes' single of the week and was available to download for free on the same week as the album's release.\n\nTrack listing\n\nAll credits are taken from the album's liner notes.\n\nChart performance\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nLucy Spraggan albums\n2013 debut albums"
] |
[
"All Time Low",
"2011: Dirty Work",
"Was this an album?",
"All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work,",
"Which year was it released?",
"in June 2011,",
"What was done before the album was released?",
"In March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song \"Painting Flowers\"",
"Which album was this song on?",
"album Almost Alice,"
] |
C_0fd9a62a282441e1873e80a5a9ce7595_0
|
Did this album chart on the billboard or others?
| 5 |
Did Dirty Work chart on the billboard or others?
|
All Time Low
|
All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour. In March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut. Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK. In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns. CANNOTANSWER
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Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas.
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All Time Low is an American rock band from Towson, Maryland formed in 2003. Consisting of lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth, lead guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist/backing vocalist Zack Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson, the band took its name from lyrics in the song "Head on Collision" by New Found Glory. The band has consistently done year-long tours, has headlined numerous tours, and has appeared at music festivals including Warped Tour, Reading and Leeds, and Soundwave.
Beginning as a band in high school, All Time Low released their debut EP, The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP, in 2004 through local label Emerald Moon. Since then the band has released eight studio albums: The Party Scene (2005), So Wrong, It's Right (2007), Nothing Personal (2009), Dirty Work (2011), Don't Panic (2012), Future Hearts (2015), Last Young Renegade (2017), and Wake Up, Sunshine (2020). They released their first live album, Straight to DVD, in 2010, and released their second live album, Straight to DVD II: Past, Present and Future Hearts, on September 9, 2016.
History
2003–2006: Formation and The Party Scene
Formed while still in high school in 2003, All Time Low began covering songs by pop punk bands such as Blink-182. The band's line-up included Alex Gaskarth on vocals, Jack Barakat on guitar, TJ Ihle on lead guitar and backing vocals, Chris Cortilello on bass, and Rian Dawson on drums. Cortilello and Ihle left the band, resulting in the band laying dormant until Zack Merrick joined on bass and Gaskarth picked up guitar. They released a four-song EP in November before signing to Emerald Moon Records in 2004. They released their second EP, titled The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP later that same year. The band released their debut studio album, The Party Scene, in July 2005.
In December, it was announced that the band was no longer signed, but were attracting attention from a number of record labels. In late 2006, the band performed a showcase for John Janick the founder of record label Fueled by Ramen. They were not signed because Cute Is What We Aim For had recently been taken on by the label, which was not in a position to sign another band at the time. The band was brought to the attention of Hopeless Records by fellow touring band Amber Pacific; on March 28, 2006, it was announced that All Time Low had signed with Hopeless. The band said in an interview that they were starting to get serious about music while in their senior year of high school; following their graduation, the members focused on the group full-time, and released the Put Up or Shut Up EP in July. The EP entered the Independent Albums chart at No. 20 and the Top Heatseekers at No. 12.
All Time Low began a busy tour in support of the EP in late 2006. After the tour, the band began writing material for their second studio album.
2007–2008: So Wrong, It's Right
In the summer of 2007, All Time Low played the Vans Warped Tour on the Smartpunk Stage. They made their live debut in the UK in late 2007 supporting Plain White T's.
All Time Low released their second studio album So Wrong, It's Right in September 2007. It peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard 200 and No. 6 on the Independent Albums chart. The second single from the album, "Dear Maria, Count Me In", which was written about a stripper, became the band's first single to reach the charts and peaked at No. 86 on the Pop 100. In 2011, the single was certified Gold for 500,000 shipments.
In early 2008 the band completed their first headlining tour, the Manwhores and Open Sores Tour with opening acts Every Avenue, Mayday Parade, and Just Surrender.
Following the release of So Wrong, It's Right, All Time Low quickly gained popularity, eventually making their TRL debut on February 12, 2008. They have also been featured on MTV's Discover and Download and Music Choice's Fresh Crops, and have been added to both MTV's Big Ten and MTV Hits playlists. On March 7, 2008, the band made their live television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and then performed live at the mtvU Woodie Awards.
From March 2008 to May 2008, they co-headlined the AP Tour 2008 with The Rocket Summer; supported by acts such as The Matches, Sonny Moore, and Forever the Sickest Kids. In May 2008 they played at the Give It a Name Festival. Also in May 2008, they co-headlined a UK tour with Cobra Starship. In July 2008, the band headlined the Shortest Tour Ever with supporting acts Hit the Lights, Valencia, and There for Tomorrow. From mid-July to mid-August they played the 2008 Vans Warped Tour. They ended 2008 with their headlining tour, The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour with Mayday Parade, The Maine, and Every Avenue.
In December 2008, All Time Low was named "Band of the Year" by Alternative Press magazine and featured on the cover of their January 2009 issue.
2009–2010: Nothing Personal
In early 2009, All Time Low confirmed in an interview with UK magazine Rock Sound that they had begun writing new material for a third studio album and revealed they had collaborated with artists and producers to help co-write a number of songs.
Although still in the writing process, All Time Low began recording for their new album in January 2009, they finished recording only a month later. The album's lead single "Weightless" was released in March 2009 and became the band's first song to achieve some radio play worldwide. The song was included during the band's appearance at major concert venues, such as Bambooozle in May 2009, to promote the new album.
All Time Low released their third studio album Nothing Personal in July 2009. Before its official release, the full album was made available for streaming download one week earlier through MTV's The Leak.
Billboard magazine predicted that the album "looked like it could" enter the top ten of the Billboard 200 in its debut week, with anywhere between 60,000 and 75,000 sales. Nothing Personal debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard chart and sold 63,000 copies, making it the band's highest charting album to date
They played Fall Out Boy's Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour in spring 2009, with Metro Station, Cobra Starship, and Hey Monday. All Time Low also announced tours in both Australia and Japan in June 2009 with Set Your Goals. The band also did a ten date tour with We the Kings, Cartel and Days Difference. They headlined Warped Tour 2009 from July 19 through the end of the tour, and then played at Voodoo Experience 2009, which was headlined by Eminem, Kiss and The Flaming Lips.
All Time Low completed a European tour in the Fall of 2009, with support from The Audition and The Friday Night Boys. All Time Low also headlined the first The Glamour Kills Tour with We The Kings, Hey Monday, and The Friday Night Boys. It began October 15, 2009, and ran through December 6, 2009.
All Time Low announced in November 2009 that they had been signed to major label Interscope Records. One month later, the band won the "Best Pop Punk Band" at the Top In Rock Awards.
In May 2010, All Time Low released their first live album, entitled Straight to DVD. The CD/DVD was a recording of a show in New York.
All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour.
On March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut.
2011–2013: Dirty Work and Don't Panic
Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK.
In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns.
The band returned to the UK on January 12, 2012. supported by The Maine and We Are The In Crowd and toured until February 4. Several of these dates sold out, so more dates were added. All Time Low also played the Warped Tour (June–August 2012) and the Reading and Leeds Festival (August 2012).
In May 2012, All Time Low left their label Interscope Records and released a new song titled "The Reckless and the Brave" on June 1 via their website as a free download. The band announced that they had been working on a new studio album, due for release sometime in 2012. On July 3, All Time Low announced that they had signed to Hopeless Records again and that the new album would be released in the second half of 2012. On August 10 they announced that their new album, titled Don't Panic would be released October 9 through Hopeless Records. On August 24, a new song titled "For Baltimore" was released through Alternative Press. "Somewhere in Neverland" was released next, peaking in the top 50 on the US iTunes charts.
After the completion of the 2012 Warped Tour, the band announced a "Rockshow at the End of the World" headlining tour with The Summer Set, The Downtown Fiction and Hit The Lights. They headlined in Dublin, Ireland on August 20, Aberdeen, Scotland on August 22 and in Edinburgh, Scotland on August 23, 2012. They then played a series of shows around Europe including supporting Green Day in Germany. All Time Low were announced on Soundwave's 2013 lineup for Australia.
On September 27, All Time Low released the song "Outlines", featuring Jason Vena from the band Acceptance via MTV. On October 2, a week before its release, Hopeless Records' YouTube channel posted the entire Don't Panic album as a stream, with lyrics for all the songs.
In September 2013, the band re-released their album as Don't Panic: It's Longer Now!. It featured four newly recorded songs and four additional acoustic remixes as well as the original material. The lead single, A Love Like War featuring Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil was released on September 2. Starting on September 23, All Time Low toured with Pierce the Veil as a supporting act of A Day To Remember's House Party Tour.
2014–2016: Future Hearts
On March 8, 2014, All Time Low toured the UK as part of their "A Love Like War: UK Tour" before moving on to the states on March 28 for the remaining part of the tour. The music video for their song "The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver" used clips from that tour and premiered on Kerrang! on May 14.
Their next album would be recorded with producer John Feldman. The album, Future Hearts, was announced with the first single, "Something's Gotta Give", premiering on Radio One on January 11, 2015. The second single, "Kids In The Dark", was released on March 9, 2015. The band played Soundwave 2015 in Australia and headlined sideshows.
They headlined a spring US 2015 tour for the album with support from Issues, Tonight Alive and State Champs, and co-headlining a UK tour with You Me At Six. Future Hearts debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 75,000 copies in its first week, becoming the band's highest charting and biggest selling week ever. It also topped the UK Albums Chart with almost 20,000 first week sales.
In July 2015, the band won four awards at the 2015 Alternative Press Music Awards.
The band has since toured and released music videos, including one for "Runaways" in August 2015. On September 1, 2016, the band leaked a new song titled "Take Cover", which was later officially released with a music video the next day as a bonus track for their live album, "Straight to DVD II: Past, Present, and Future Hearts". Members of the band also appeared for surprise DJ sets at Emo Nite in Los Angeles in 2015.
2017–2019: Last Young Renegade
In mid-February 2017, the band announced a new song to be premiered on BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw, called "Dirty Laundry". The music video was directed by Pat Tracy, who had also directed the music video for "Missing You". This was the first release after changing record labels from Hopeless Records to Fueled by Ramen. Both songs are singles from their album, Last Young Renegade, which was released on June 2, 2017. The band also released their cover of "Longview" by Green Day for the documentary "Green Day: The Early Years". On March 1, 2018, it was announced All Time Low would play three dates of the 2018 Vans Warped Tour. On June 12, 2018, the band released a song called "Everything Is Fine." The song's teasing featured the band members posting the song's title to social media repeatedly a day before it was released. On June 29, 2018, the band released a song called "Birthday." A live-in-the-studio re-recording of Nothing Personal was released on November 8, 2019.
On 29 May 2019, All Time Low performed at Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer's Friends of Friends sold-out benefit concert, held in Venice, California. All proceeds from the event were donated to the Safe Place for Youth project, a housing and support service for homeless youth in Los Angeles.
2020–present: Wake Up, Sunshine
On January 1, 2020, the band released a video indicating the Last Young Renegade era had come to an end with a person in a panda suit burning their renegade jerseys, hinting their new album was coming.
Later that same month on January 21, 2020, the band released the song "Some Kind of Disaster".
On February 17, 2020, the band announced their new album, titled Wake Up, Sunshine, and would be released on April 3, 2020. The album featured 15 tracks and collaborations with rapper Blackbear and The Band Camino.
On February 24, 2020, it was announced that All Time Low would be opening acts for Australian band, 5 Seconds of Summer for the European arena concert dates on their No Shame Tour. Initially set to take place between 26 May 2020 to 16 June 2020, the European leg of the tour was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The European shows are now set to begin on 20 April 2021 at the Palais 12 Arena in Brussels, Belgium with All Time Low being the opening act for thirteen shows.
On December 4, 2020, the band's song "Monsters" was re-released, featuring vocals from singer Demi Lovato.
On March 24, 2021, the band released the single "Once In a Lifetime".
On July 30, 2021, the band released a single "PMA" (Postmodern Anxiety) featuring Pale Waves.
Online allegations
In early October 2021, a TikTok video surfaced that accused an unnamed pop-punk band of inviting a 13-year-old onto its tour bus, claiming in the comments section that they "tried to take my bra off" with additional indications that it was All Time Low. A Twitter thread was later released anonymously detailing allegations against Jack Barakat. The band released a statement calling the allegations "completely and utterly false" and said they would pursue legal action. Meet Me at the Altar and Nothing,Nowhere dropped out of the band's Autumn tour and announced joint dates for shows in the wake of the allegations. The band sued three anonymous accounts for libel in February 2022, claiming they were "the victims of defamatory social media posts falsely and maliciously accusing them of sexual abuse and knowingly enabling such illegal conduct."
Musical style and influences
All Time Low's musical style has generally been described as pop punk, pop rock, power pop, emo pop, emo, and alternative rock. All Time Low cites bands such as Blink-182, Green Day, MxPx, New Found Glory, Saves the Day, and The Get Up Kids as influences.
Band members
Current members
Alex Gaskarth – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (2003–present)
Jack Barakat – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003–present); rhythm guitar (2003)
Rian Dawson – drums, percussion (2003–present)
Zack Merrick – bass guitar, backing vocals (2003–present)
Former members
Chris Cortilello – bass guitar (2003)
TJ Ihle – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003)
Touring members
Dan Swank – rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, percussion (2020–present)
Bryan Donahue – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2013–2020)
Matt Colussy – rhythm guitar (2011–2013)
Matt Flyzik – backing vocals (2006–2013)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
The Party Scene (2005)
So Wrong, It's Right (2007)
Nothing Personal (2009)
Dirty Work (2011)
Don't Panic (2012)
Future Hearts (2015)
Last Young Renegade (2017)
Wake Up, Sunshine (2020)
Tours
Headlining
Manwhores and Open Sores Tour (2008)
AP Tour 2008 (2008)
Shortest Tour Ever (2008)
The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour (2008)
The Glamour Kills Tour (2009)
A Love Like War (2014)
Opening acts
Fall Out Boy – Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour (2009)
5 Seconds of Summer – No Shame Tour (European shows only) (April 2021)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Pop punk groups from Maryland
American pop rock music groups
American power pop groups
American emo musical groups
Interscope Records artists
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups established in 2003
Musical groups from Baltimore
Rock music groups from Maryland
Musical quartets
People from Towson, Maryland
Hopeless Records artists
| true |
[
"American singer and songwriter Chris Brown has released 9 studio albums, 9 mixtapes, 58 singles (including 118 as a featured artist) and 13 promotional singles.\n\nAccording to Billboard, Brown has the ninth most Hot 100 entries on the chart with 107. As of December 2021, he has achieved 50 top 40 entries on the Hot 100 and 16 top 10 entries. Brown is the singer with the fifth-most consecutive weeks on the Hot 100 chart (161 weeks). According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), he is the ninth-best selling digital singles artist in the United States with sales of 90.5 million.\n\nBrown's self-titled debut album, Chris Brown was released on November 29, 2005; which reached at number 2 on the US Billboard 200, while charting into the top 10 on the several other music markets. It was later certified double platinum in the United States, and gold in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. The album's lead single, \"Run It!\" featuring Juelz Santana, peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, spending a month atop the chart. Internationally, the single charted at the top or in the top ten of several charts. Chris Brown also included the US top ten singles: \"Yo (Excuse Me Miss)\" and \"Say Goodbye\"; as well as the US R&B top 5 singles: \"Gimme That\" featuring Lil Wayne, and \"Poppin'\".\n\nBrown released his second album, Exclusive on November 6, 2007. It followed in the steps of its predecessor, reaching the top ten into the several countries. Exclusive was certified double platinum in the United States and Australia, and platinum in the United Kingdom. The album also generated the singles \"Kiss Kiss\" featuring T-Pain, \"With You\" and \"Forever\". In addition, it contained the top five US R&B singles: \"Take You Down\", and \"Superhuman\" featuring Keri Hilson;, which this song has reached the top 30 into several countries. The album also included the single \"Wall to Wall\". On December 4, 2009, Brown released his third album Graffiti; which peaked into the top 10 on the US Billboard 200. It preceded the album with the release of the lead single, \"I Can Transform Ya\" featuring Lil Wayne and Swizz Beatz; which the song peaked within the top 20 on several countries. \"Crawl\" was also released as the second single from the album.\n\nBrown released his fourth studio album F.A.M.E. on March 18, 2011; which became his first album to reach the number one on the US Billboard 200. It was certified gold in the United States, Australia and Ireland. Its lead single, \"Yeah 3x\" has reached the top 10 into several countries. The album's second single, \"Look at Me Now\" featuring Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes; which became Brown's first top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 since 2008. F.A.M.E. has also spawned four other singles: \"Beautiful People\" featuring Benny Benassi, \"She Ain't You\", \"Next to You\" featuring Justin Bieber, and \"Wet the Bed\" featuring Ludacris. With only a mixtape cut of the single, \"Deuces\" featuring Tyga and Kevin McCall; has charted the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, and became Brown's first number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart since 2006. Brown released his fifth studio album, Fortune on June 29, 2012; which became his second number one album on the US Billboard 200. The album also spawned the US top 10 singles: \"Turn Up the Music\" and \"Don't Wake Me Up\".\n\nBrown's sixth studio album, X was released on September 16, 2014, and was preceded by five singles: The lead single, \"Fine China\", reached the top ten in Australia, and was later certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). \"Don't Think They Know\" was released as the second single from the album, featuring the previously-unreleased vocals from a late Aaliyah. The third single, \"Love More\" featuring Nicki Minaj; which reached the top 10 in Australia, being certified gold by the ARIA. \"Loyal\" featuring Lil Wayne was the highest-charting single from the album, giving Brown his first top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 since \"Don't Wake Me Up\". \"Loyal\" has been certified four times platinum by the RIAA. The fifth and final single from X, was titled \"New Flame\" featuring Usher and Rick Ross.\n\nAfter releasing the mixtape Fan of a Fan together in 2010, Brown and rapper Tyga released a collaborative album in 2015, each artist's first, titled Fan of a Fan: The Album. The album reached number 7 on the Billboard 200, becoming his joint-lowest charting album since Graffiti. Fan of a Fan: The Album has spawned the single \"Ayo\"; which was a commercial success in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart, and later being certified Silver by the BPI. On October 7, 2021 Fan of a Fan: The Album was Certified Gold By the RIAA.\n\nBrown's seventh studio album, Royalty was released on December 18, 2015, and was preceded by four singles: \"Liquor\", which subsequently peaked at number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was followed by two more singles: \"Zero\" and \"Back to Sleep\". The former peaked at number 80 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the latter debuted at number 20. \"Fine by Me\", was released as the album's fourth and final single on November 27, 2015. In 2016, Royalty was certified gold by the RIAA.\n\nIn 2017, Brown released his eighth studio album, Heartbreak on a Full Moon. One week after its release Heartbreak on a Full Moon was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units in the United States, and Brown became the first R&B male artist that went gold in a week since Usher's Confessions in 2004. The album has been certified Double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).\n\nHis ninth studio album Indigo was released in 2019 and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 108,000 album-equivalent units, which included 28,000 pure album sales in its first week. The album is his third number-one album in the country, and included five singles: \"Undecided\", \"Back to Love\", \"Wobble Up\", featuring Nicki Minaj and G-Eazy, \"No Guidance\", featuring Drake, \"Heat\", featuring Gunna. On December 9, 2019 Indigo was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).\n His single \"Go Crazy\" released the following year, alongside Young Thug as part of their collaborative mixtape Slime & B, reached number 3 on the Hot 100.\n\nAlbums\n\nStudio albums\n\nCollaborative albums\n\nMixtapes\n\nExtended plays\n\nSingles\n\nAs lead artist\n\nAs featured artist\n\nPromotional singles\n\nOther charted songs\n\nGuest appearances\n\nProduction discography\n\nNotes\n\nA \"Superhuman\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 20 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nB \"Yeah 3x\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 22 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nC \"Beautiful People\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 1 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nE \"Make the World Go Round\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 22 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nF \"Head of My Class\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 23 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nG \"Back to the Crib\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 24 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.\nH \"Ain't Thinkin' 'Bout You\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 11 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.\nI \"Pot of Gold\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 1 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.\nJ \"International Love\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 11 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nK \"Algo Me Gusta de Ti\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 10 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.\nL \"Long Gone\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 21 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. It did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 2 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\n\nM \"Ya Man Ain't Me\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 1 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nN \"Damage\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 21 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nO \"Better on the Other Side\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 13 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nP \"Another Planet\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 2 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nQ \"Oh Yeah\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 19 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nR \"Paper, Scissors, Rock\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 23 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nS \"Undercover\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 15 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nT \"Look at Her Go\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 22 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.\nU \"Arena\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 16 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.\nV \"Marry Go Round\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 1 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.\nW \"Anyway\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 7 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles.\nX \"Wrist\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 17 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles.\nZ \"Songs on 12 Play\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 25 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles.\nZ \"Drunk Texting\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 24 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles.\nZ \"Autumn Leaves\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 10 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles.\n\nSee also\nChris Brown videography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n[ Discography of Chris Brown] at Allmusic\n\nDiscographies of American artists\nPop music discographies\nRhythm and blues discographies\nDiscography",
"The discography of Common, an American rapper, consists of fourteen studio albums, one collaborative album, one extended play, two compilation albums, forty-nine singles (including fifteen as a featured artist) and twenty-one music videos. It also contains the list of Common songs. Common sold more than 2.8 million albums in the United States. Common released his first album, Can I Borrow a Dollar? (1992), and follow suit with his second album, Resurrection, which met with critical acclaim, calling the album as one of the classic of the 90s. Common released his third album, One Day It'll All Make Sense, which was a little commercial success, follow suit with his fourth album, Like Water for Chocolate, which was met with critical acclaim from music critics, calling it the best rap album of the year. The album was also a commercial success certifying it gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His fifth studio album Electric Circus was met with acclaim from music critics. However, it failed to meet the commercial success with Like Water for Chocolate, which only peaked at number 47 on the US Billboard 200.\n\nIn 2005, he was helped by Kanye West to release his 6th album Be. West produced the whole album and was featured on it a few times. The album helped Common to get back into the spotlight and sold 185,000 copies in its first week debuting at number 2 on the charts and also it was Common's first album to have commercial success outside the US, peaking in several territories. The album was met with universal acclaim and it was described to be Common's best album. The album was certified gold by the RIAA. His next album Finding Forever peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 being his first chart-topper. His next album Universal Mind Control sold 81,663 in its first week debuting only at number 12. The album was promoted by the successful single \"Universal Mind Control\" which peaked at number 62 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was met with mixed reviews. His next album The Dreamer/The Believer was met with positive reviews from music critics and debuted at number 18 on the charts, selling 70,000 copies in its first week and was promoted by five singles. In 2014 Common released his 10th album Nobody's Smiling which peaked at number 6 on the charts and had features from Big Sean and Vince Staples and others. In 2015 he collaborated with John Legend on the single \"Glory\" which peaked at number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was from the film Selma.\n\nStudio albums\n\nCollaborative albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nEPs\n\nSingles\n\nAs lead artist\n\nAs featured artist\n\nOther charted songs\n\nGuest appearances\n\nVideography\n\nMusic videos\n\nNotes \n\nA \"Breaker 1/9\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 7 on the Bubbling Under Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.\nB \"Soul by the Pound\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 8 on the Bubbling Under Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.\nC \"Resurrection\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 2 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot 100.\nD \"Reminding Me (Of Sef)\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 1 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot 100.\nE \"One-Nine-Nine-Nine\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 10 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot 100.\nF \"The 6th Sense\" and \"The Light\" charted as a double A-side single in the United Kingdom.\nG Two single versions of \"Come Close\" were released: the first features Mary. J Blige, and the second features Erykah Badu, Pharrell and Q-Tip.\nH \"The Corner\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 10 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot 100.\nI \"Testify\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 9 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot 100.\nJ \"A Dream\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 16 on the Bubbling Under Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.\nK \"The People\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 11 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot 100.\nL \"I Want You\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 12 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot 100.\nM \"The Bizness\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 1 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot 100.\nN \"In the Sun\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 9 on the Bubbling Under Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.\nO \"The Light\" (Remix) did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 17 on the Bubbling Under Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.\nP \"Decision\" did not enter the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but peaked at number 10 on the Bubbling Under Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.\nQ \"The Morning\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 19 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, which acts as a 25-song extension to the Hot 100.\n\nReferences\n\nHip hop discographies\nDiscographies of American artists\nDiscography"
] |
[
"All Time Low",
"2011: Dirty Work",
"Was this an album?",
"All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work,",
"Which year was it released?",
"in June 2011,",
"What was done before the album was released?",
"In March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song \"Painting Flowers\"",
"Which album was this song on?",
"album Almost Alice,",
"Did this album chart on the billboard or others?",
"Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas."
] |
C_0fd9a62a282441e1873e80a5a9ce7595_0
|
Did they tour?
| 6 |
Did All Time Low tour?
|
All Time Low
|
All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour. In March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut. Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK. In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns. CANNOTANSWER
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In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released,
|
All Time Low is an American rock band from Towson, Maryland formed in 2003. Consisting of lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth, lead guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist/backing vocalist Zack Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson, the band took its name from lyrics in the song "Head on Collision" by New Found Glory. The band has consistently done year-long tours, has headlined numerous tours, and has appeared at music festivals including Warped Tour, Reading and Leeds, and Soundwave.
Beginning as a band in high school, All Time Low released their debut EP, The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP, in 2004 through local label Emerald Moon. Since then the band has released eight studio albums: The Party Scene (2005), So Wrong, It's Right (2007), Nothing Personal (2009), Dirty Work (2011), Don't Panic (2012), Future Hearts (2015), Last Young Renegade (2017), and Wake Up, Sunshine (2020). They released their first live album, Straight to DVD, in 2010, and released their second live album, Straight to DVD II: Past, Present and Future Hearts, on September 9, 2016.
History
2003–2006: Formation and The Party Scene
Formed while still in high school in 2003, All Time Low began covering songs by pop punk bands such as Blink-182. The band's line-up included Alex Gaskarth on vocals, Jack Barakat on guitar, TJ Ihle on lead guitar and backing vocals, Chris Cortilello on bass, and Rian Dawson on drums. Cortilello and Ihle left the band, resulting in the band laying dormant until Zack Merrick joined on bass and Gaskarth picked up guitar. They released a four-song EP in November before signing to Emerald Moon Records in 2004. They released their second EP, titled The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP later that same year. The band released their debut studio album, The Party Scene, in July 2005.
In December, it was announced that the band was no longer signed, but were attracting attention from a number of record labels. In late 2006, the band performed a showcase for John Janick the founder of record label Fueled by Ramen. They were not signed because Cute Is What We Aim For had recently been taken on by the label, which was not in a position to sign another band at the time. The band was brought to the attention of Hopeless Records by fellow touring band Amber Pacific; on March 28, 2006, it was announced that All Time Low had signed with Hopeless. The band said in an interview that they were starting to get serious about music while in their senior year of high school; following their graduation, the members focused on the group full-time, and released the Put Up or Shut Up EP in July. The EP entered the Independent Albums chart at No. 20 and the Top Heatseekers at No. 12.
All Time Low began a busy tour in support of the EP in late 2006. After the tour, the band began writing material for their second studio album.
2007–2008: So Wrong, It's Right
In the summer of 2007, All Time Low played the Vans Warped Tour on the Smartpunk Stage. They made their live debut in the UK in late 2007 supporting Plain White T's.
All Time Low released their second studio album So Wrong, It's Right in September 2007. It peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard 200 and No. 6 on the Independent Albums chart. The second single from the album, "Dear Maria, Count Me In", which was written about a stripper, became the band's first single to reach the charts and peaked at No. 86 on the Pop 100. In 2011, the single was certified Gold for 500,000 shipments.
In early 2008 the band completed their first headlining tour, the Manwhores and Open Sores Tour with opening acts Every Avenue, Mayday Parade, and Just Surrender.
Following the release of So Wrong, It's Right, All Time Low quickly gained popularity, eventually making their TRL debut on February 12, 2008. They have also been featured on MTV's Discover and Download and Music Choice's Fresh Crops, and have been added to both MTV's Big Ten and MTV Hits playlists. On March 7, 2008, the band made their live television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and then performed live at the mtvU Woodie Awards.
From March 2008 to May 2008, they co-headlined the AP Tour 2008 with The Rocket Summer; supported by acts such as The Matches, Sonny Moore, and Forever the Sickest Kids. In May 2008 they played at the Give It a Name Festival. Also in May 2008, they co-headlined a UK tour with Cobra Starship. In July 2008, the band headlined the Shortest Tour Ever with supporting acts Hit the Lights, Valencia, and There for Tomorrow. From mid-July to mid-August they played the 2008 Vans Warped Tour. They ended 2008 with their headlining tour, The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour with Mayday Parade, The Maine, and Every Avenue.
In December 2008, All Time Low was named "Band of the Year" by Alternative Press magazine and featured on the cover of their January 2009 issue.
2009–2010: Nothing Personal
In early 2009, All Time Low confirmed in an interview with UK magazine Rock Sound that they had begun writing new material for a third studio album and revealed they had collaborated with artists and producers to help co-write a number of songs.
Although still in the writing process, All Time Low began recording for their new album in January 2009, they finished recording only a month later. The album's lead single "Weightless" was released in March 2009 and became the band's first song to achieve some radio play worldwide. The song was included during the band's appearance at major concert venues, such as Bambooozle in May 2009, to promote the new album.
All Time Low released their third studio album Nothing Personal in July 2009. Before its official release, the full album was made available for streaming download one week earlier through MTV's The Leak.
Billboard magazine predicted that the album "looked like it could" enter the top ten of the Billboard 200 in its debut week, with anywhere between 60,000 and 75,000 sales. Nothing Personal debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard chart and sold 63,000 copies, making it the band's highest charting album to date
They played Fall Out Boy's Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour in spring 2009, with Metro Station, Cobra Starship, and Hey Monday. All Time Low also announced tours in both Australia and Japan in June 2009 with Set Your Goals. The band also did a ten date tour with We the Kings, Cartel and Days Difference. They headlined Warped Tour 2009 from July 19 through the end of the tour, and then played at Voodoo Experience 2009, which was headlined by Eminem, Kiss and The Flaming Lips.
All Time Low completed a European tour in the Fall of 2009, with support from The Audition and The Friday Night Boys. All Time Low also headlined the first The Glamour Kills Tour with We The Kings, Hey Monday, and The Friday Night Boys. It began October 15, 2009, and ran through December 6, 2009.
All Time Low announced in November 2009 that they had been signed to major label Interscope Records. One month later, the band won the "Best Pop Punk Band" at the Top In Rock Awards.
In May 2010, All Time Low released their first live album, entitled Straight to DVD. The CD/DVD was a recording of a show in New York.
All Time Low returned to Ireland & The UK in January and February 2010 as they headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Tour 2010 With The Blackout, My Passion and Young Guns. They played a few mainland Europe shows immediately afterward, mostly in countries they had never been before. All Time Low returned to Australia in February and March to play at Soundwave festival. All Time Low co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June, with Boys Like Girls, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO, along with numerous supporting bands including Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. All Time Low played the Reading and Leeds Festival 2010 in the UK over the August Bank Holiday. All Time Low headlined the My Small Package Tour in fall 2010, with supporting acts A Rocket to the Moon and City (Comma) State. Halfway during the tour, Before You Exit became a supporting act. On October 24, Storm The Beaches opened on the Baltimore date of the tour.
On March 15, 2010, All Time Low released the song "Painting Flowers" for the album Almost Alice, the soundtrack for the fantasy-adventure film Alice in Wonderland. They then began writing for their fourth studio album, which would also be their major label debut.
2011–2013: Dirty Work and Don't Panic
Demos for the band's album leaked to the web in August 2010. The band later confirmed in an interview which tracks would be on the upcoming album. All Time Low released their fourth studio album almost a year later, titled Dirty Work, in June 2011, after being pushed back from a March release date. The album is currently All Time Low's highest-selling album to date overseas. It earned the album a peak position of No. 13 in Australia and Canada and No. 20 in the UK.
In spring of 2011, All Time Low embarked on the Dirty Work Tour even though the album was not yet released, supported by Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set. They were joined by Yellowcard and Young Guns on their UK tour shortly after. All Time Low concluded their summer 2011 tour, "Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour", with opening acts Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, The Starting Line, Brighter, and The Cab. In September 2011, the band was scheduled to play at Soundwave Revolution in Australia, but the festival was cancelled. All Time Low co-headlined a mini-festival tour, Counter Revolution, in its place. The band finished their fall 2011 tour, "The Rise and Fall Of My Pants Tour" with The Ready Set, He Is We, and Paradise Fears. In Canada, the group toured with Simple Plan, Marianas Trench, and These Kids Wear Crowns.
The band returned to the UK on January 12, 2012. supported by The Maine and We Are The In Crowd and toured until February 4. Several of these dates sold out, so more dates were added. All Time Low also played the Warped Tour (June–August 2012) and the Reading and Leeds Festival (August 2012).
In May 2012, All Time Low left their label Interscope Records and released a new song titled "The Reckless and the Brave" on June 1 via their website as a free download. The band announced that they had been working on a new studio album, due for release sometime in 2012. On July 3, All Time Low announced that they had signed to Hopeless Records again and that the new album would be released in the second half of 2012. On August 10 they announced that their new album, titled Don't Panic would be released October 9 through Hopeless Records. On August 24, a new song titled "For Baltimore" was released through Alternative Press. "Somewhere in Neverland" was released next, peaking in the top 50 on the US iTunes charts.
After the completion of the 2012 Warped Tour, the band announced a "Rockshow at the End of the World" headlining tour with The Summer Set, The Downtown Fiction and Hit The Lights. They headlined in Dublin, Ireland on August 20, Aberdeen, Scotland on August 22 and in Edinburgh, Scotland on August 23, 2012. They then played a series of shows around Europe including supporting Green Day in Germany. All Time Low were announced on Soundwave's 2013 lineup for Australia.
On September 27, All Time Low released the song "Outlines", featuring Jason Vena from the band Acceptance via MTV. On October 2, a week before its release, Hopeless Records' YouTube channel posted the entire Don't Panic album as a stream, with lyrics for all the songs.
In September 2013, the band re-released their album as Don't Panic: It's Longer Now!. It featured four newly recorded songs and four additional acoustic remixes as well as the original material. The lead single, A Love Like War featuring Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil was released on September 2. Starting on September 23, All Time Low toured with Pierce the Veil as a supporting act of A Day To Remember's House Party Tour.
2014–2016: Future Hearts
On March 8, 2014, All Time Low toured the UK as part of their "A Love Like War: UK Tour" before moving on to the states on March 28 for the remaining part of the tour. The music video for their song "The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver" used clips from that tour and premiered on Kerrang! on May 14.
Their next album would be recorded with producer John Feldman. The album, Future Hearts, was announced with the first single, "Something's Gotta Give", premiering on Radio One on January 11, 2015. The second single, "Kids In The Dark", was released on March 9, 2015. The band played Soundwave 2015 in Australia and headlined sideshows.
They headlined a spring US 2015 tour for the album with support from Issues, Tonight Alive and State Champs, and co-headlining a UK tour with You Me At Six. Future Hearts debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 75,000 copies in its first week, becoming the band's highest charting and biggest selling week ever. It also topped the UK Albums Chart with almost 20,000 first week sales.
In July 2015, the band won four awards at the 2015 Alternative Press Music Awards.
The band has since toured and released music videos, including one for "Runaways" in August 2015. On September 1, 2016, the band leaked a new song titled "Take Cover", which was later officially released with a music video the next day as a bonus track for their live album, "Straight to DVD II: Past, Present, and Future Hearts". Members of the band also appeared for surprise DJ sets at Emo Nite in Los Angeles in 2015.
2017–2019: Last Young Renegade
In mid-February 2017, the band announced a new song to be premiered on BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw, called "Dirty Laundry". The music video was directed by Pat Tracy, who had also directed the music video for "Missing You". This was the first release after changing record labels from Hopeless Records to Fueled by Ramen. Both songs are singles from their album, Last Young Renegade, which was released on June 2, 2017. The band also released their cover of "Longview" by Green Day for the documentary "Green Day: The Early Years". On March 1, 2018, it was announced All Time Low would play three dates of the 2018 Vans Warped Tour. On June 12, 2018, the band released a song called "Everything Is Fine." The song's teasing featured the band members posting the song's title to social media repeatedly a day before it was released. On June 29, 2018, the band released a song called "Birthday." A live-in-the-studio re-recording of Nothing Personal was released on November 8, 2019.
On 29 May 2019, All Time Low performed at Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer's Friends of Friends sold-out benefit concert, held in Venice, California. All proceeds from the event were donated to the Safe Place for Youth project, a housing and support service for homeless youth in Los Angeles.
2020–present: Wake Up, Sunshine
On January 1, 2020, the band released a video indicating the Last Young Renegade era had come to an end with a person in a panda suit burning their renegade jerseys, hinting their new album was coming.
Later that same month on January 21, 2020, the band released the song "Some Kind of Disaster".
On February 17, 2020, the band announced their new album, titled Wake Up, Sunshine, and would be released on April 3, 2020. The album featured 15 tracks and collaborations with rapper Blackbear and The Band Camino.
On February 24, 2020, it was announced that All Time Low would be opening acts for Australian band, 5 Seconds of Summer for the European arena concert dates on their No Shame Tour. Initially set to take place between 26 May 2020 to 16 June 2020, the European leg of the tour was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The European shows are now set to begin on 20 April 2021 at the Palais 12 Arena in Brussels, Belgium with All Time Low being the opening act for thirteen shows.
On December 4, 2020, the band's song "Monsters" was re-released, featuring vocals from singer Demi Lovato.
On March 24, 2021, the band released the single "Once In a Lifetime".
On July 30, 2021, the band released a single "PMA" (Postmodern Anxiety) featuring Pale Waves.
Online allegations
In early October 2021, a TikTok video surfaced that accused an unnamed pop-punk band of inviting a 13-year-old onto its tour bus, claiming in the comments section that they "tried to take my bra off" with additional indications that it was All Time Low. A Twitter thread was later released anonymously detailing allegations against Jack Barakat. The band released a statement calling the allegations "completely and utterly false" and said they would pursue legal action. Meet Me at the Altar and Nothing,Nowhere dropped out of the band's Autumn tour and announced joint dates for shows in the wake of the allegations. The band sued three anonymous accounts for libel in February 2022, claiming they were "the victims of defamatory social media posts falsely and maliciously accusing them of sexual abuse and knowingly enabling such illegal conduct."
Musical style and influences
All Time Low's musical style has generally been described as pop punk, pop rock, power pop, emo pop, emo, and alternative rock. All Time Low cites bands such as Blink-182, Green Day, MxPx, New Found Glory, Saves the Day, and The Get Up Kids as influences.
Band members
Current members
Alex Gaskarth – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (2003–present)
Jack Barakat – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003–present); rhythm guitar (2003)
Rian Dawson – drums, percussion (2003–present)
Zack Merrick – bass guitar, backing vocals (2003–present)
Former members
Chris Cortilello – bass guitar (2003)
TJ Ihle – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003)
Touring members
Dan Swank – rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, percussion (2020–present)
Bryan Donahue – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2013–2020)
Matt Colussy – rhythm guitar (2011–2013)
Matt Flyzik – backing vocals (2006–2013)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
The Party Scene (2005)
So Wrong, It's Right (2007)
Nothing Personal (2009)
Dirty Work (2011)
Don't Panic (2012)
Future Hearts (2015)
Last Young Renegade (2017)
Wake Up, Sunshine (2020)
Tours
Headlining
Manwhores and Open Sores Tour (2008)
AP Tour 2008 (2008)
Shortest Tour Ever (2008)
The Compromising of Integrity, Morality and Principles in Exchange for Money Tour (2008)
The Glamour Kills Tour (2009)
A Love Like War (2014)
Opening acts
Fall Out Boy – Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux Tour (2009)
5 Seconds of Summer – No Shame Tour (European shows only) (April 2021)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Pop punk groups from Maryland
American pop rock music groups
American power pop groups
American emo musical groups
Interscope Records artists
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups established in 2003
Musical groups from Baltimore
Rock music groups from Maryland
Musical quartets
People from Towson, Maryland
Hopeless Records artists
| true |
[
"\nThis is a list of the 29 players who earned their 2011 PGA Tour card through Q School in 2010. Note: Michael Putnam and Justin Hicks had already qualified for the PGA Tour by placing in the Top 25 during the 2010 Nationwide Tour season; they did not count among the Top 25 Q school graduates, but Putnam did improve his status.\n\nPlayers in yellow are 2011 PGA Tour rookies.\n\n2011 Results\n\n*PGA Tour rookie in 2011\nT = Tied \nGreen background indicates the player retained his PGA Tour card for 2012 (finished inside the top 125). \nYellow background indicates the player did not retain his PGA Tour card for 2012, but retained conditional status (finished between 126-150). \nRed background indicates the player did not retain his PGA Tour card for 2012 (finished outside the top 150).\n\nWinners on the PGA Tour in 2011\n\nRunners-up on the PGA Tour in 2011\n\nSee also\n2010 Nationwide Tour graduates\n\nReferences\nShort bios from pgatour.com\n\nPGA Tour Qualifying School\nPGA Tour Qualifying School Graduates\nPGA Tour Qualifying School Graduates",
"\nThis is a list of the 29 players who earned their 2012 PGA Tour card through Q School in 2011. Note: Roberto Castro and Mark Anderson had already qualified for the PGA Tour by placing in the Top 25 during the 2011 Nationwide Tour season; they did not count among the Top 25 Q school graduates.\n\nPlayers in yellow were 2012 PGA Tour rookies.\n\n2012 Results\n\n*PGA Tour rookie in 2012\nT = Tied \nGreen background indicates the player retained his PGA Tour card for 2013 (won or finished inside the top 125). \nYellow background indicates the player did not retain his PGA Tour card for 2013, but retained conditional status (finished between 126-150). \nRed background indicates the player did not retain his PGA Tour card for 2013 (finished outside the top 150).\n\nWinners on the PGA Tour in 2012\n\nRunners-up on the PGA Tour in 2012\n\nSee also\n2011 Nationwide Tour graduates\n\nReferences\nResults from pgatour.com\n\nPGA Tour Qualifying School\nPGA Tour Qualifying School Graduates\nPGA Tour Qualifying School Graduates"
] |
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