The hub of biographies......

maradona

2009-11-16T10:10:00.000-08:00

Full name	Diego Armando Maradona
Date of birth	30 October 1960 (1960-10-30) (age 49)
Place of birth	Lanús, Argentina
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Playing position	Attacking Midfielder/Second Striker

Diego Armando Maradona is arguably the greatest footballer that has ever put on a pair of boots. He is born in the slums of Villa Fiorito near Buenos Aires as the fifth of eight children. Maradona enters professional football at the astonishing age of 15. By the time he turns 16, Diego is called in the senior national squad of Argentina. Regardless of his talent, Diego is considered too young by coach Cesar Menotti, who rejects him from his selection for the 1978 World Cup. Bitterly disappointed, Maradona watches the tournament from home as his country wins gold. In the following four years, Diego dominates his country's domestic league and is eventually added to the Argentine squad for Spain 1982.
Argentina advances from the first stage of the tournament by losing to Belgium, but beating Hungary and Salvador. Maradona manages to leave his mark with two beautiful, yet not critical goals. In the the second stage of the tournament, Maradona is manhandled by his Italian marker Claudio Gentile. Diego's frustration gets him sent off. Argentina fails to advance and Diego is again suppressed from unleashing his full potential. Although unsuccessful, the brilliance of the Argentine footballer does not go unnoticed and after the World Cup, he is picked up by European powerhouse Barcelona. By 1984, Maradona had established himself in Barca and is picked up by the Italian club Napoli.
At the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Maradona makes his return on the World stage in a spectacular fashion. After leading his team to a quarter final against England, Diego steals the attention of millions with both his controversial character and technical brilliance. The fuss around the Argentina-England encounter is further elevated by the Falkland Islands conflict, which at that time had turned both countries against each other. Diego opens the game 1-0 by striking the ball with his hand over the English goalkeeper Shilton. Unnoticed by the referees, the mishap is ruled a goal. Five minutes later, Maradona single handedly takes the ball through the entire English defense with a slalom from midfield right down to the goal line. After the match, when confronted with the video footage of the illegal goal, Maradona replies simply "Even if there was a hand, it must have been the hand of God." Maradona silenced his critics by deciding the following semi and final matches. By scoring two goals in the first and with an assist in the second, Maradona practically earns the World Cup for his nation.
Maradona's influence on his teammates was carried over to his club side Napoli, as they reached unprecedented heights, winning their very first and second Scudetto (1997 and 1990) and the UEFA Cup in 1988/99.
At Italy 1990, all eyes are on Argentina and its brightest star Diego Maradona. Diego comes close to replicating his success from four years ago. With Maradona's ability, Argentina defeats Brazil, Yugoslavia and Italy on its way to the final. Most memorable is the semi-final match between Argentina and Italy played at Diego's club home Naples. To the torment of Maradona, the fans at his own club stadium boo him during the match. Nevertheless, Argentina eliminates Italy after a penalty shootout. The final of the 1990 World Cup, leaves Diego helpless as Argentina are defeated 0-1 by West Germany with a goal from a questionable penalty.
After the loss against West Germany, Maradona's career plummets. In March of 1991, he tested positive for doping and is banned from football for 15 months. Maradona refuses to return back to Napoli after the World Cup incident and transferrs to Sevilla for a year. He eventually goes back to Argentina with Newell's Old Boys.
The 1994 World Cup confirms that Diego's career in international football is over. He is suspended again after failing yet another doping test. Hurt by his absence, Argentina is eventually eliminated by Romania in the second stage.
Shortly after, Diego takes on a new career path as a coach. He fails miserably again, unable to remain at a single club for more than four months. By 1995, Maradona is forced to return to the game as a player. He goes back to his former club Boca Juniors, and remains there until his last match on 25th of October 1997. Five days later, during his 37th birthday, Maradona announces his retirement from football. Up until 2001, Diego remains away from the playing pitch, periodically entering rehab for cocaine abuse. Diego plays his farewell match on the 10th of November 2001 against a select team comprised by some of the greatest footballers in the game including Ferrara, Suker, Stoichkov, Cantona, Higuita, and Romario. One year earlier, Maradona is voted Best Football Player of the Century by a global Internet poll. Controversy is stirred yet again, by his nearly unanimous victory. FIFA, who find Maradona's personal image as the 'King of Football' unacceptable, decide to give the same award to Pelé as the Best Footballer for the first half of the century.

Joe and Jeff Foster-Co_founders of reebok

2009-10-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

SORRY-IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE

Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of German sportswear giant Adidas, is a producer of athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle. In 1890 in Bolton, England, Joseph William Foster was making a living producing regular running shoes when he came up with the idea to create a novelty spiked running shoe. After his ideas progressed he joined with his sons, and founded a shoe company named J.W. Foster and Sons in 1895.
In 1960, two of the founder's grandsons Joe and Jeff Foster renamed the company Reebok in England, having found the name in a dictionary won in a race by Joe Foster as a boy; the dictionary was South African edition hence the spelling. The company lived up to the J.W. Foster legacy, manufacturing first-class footwear for customers throughout the UK. In 1979, Paul Fireman, a US sporting goods distributor, saw a pair of Reeboks at an international trade show and negotiated to sell them in North America.

William Sylvester Harley-Inventor of the World Famous Harley-Davidson Motorcycle

2009-10-26T06:56:00.001-07:00

The Harley-Davidson motorcycle is one that dominates the road. The bike is everywhere and everyone has heard of it. However, Harley-Davidson began with somewhat humble beginnings. It began as a vision that both Harley and Davidson had. William S. Harley was one of the founding partners.

Born in 1880, William S. Harley worked in a bicycle factory by the time he was fifteen years old. His childhood friend, Arthur Davidson was someone who would become instrumental in the partnership that he would later form. Harley would go on to get his education and out of the four Harley-Davidson partners, he would be the only one to graduate from college.

When Harley and Davidson were young boys, they would hook up their bicycles to engines. They had a particular way that they would do it so that their bikes could go much faster. Later in life it would be determined that there wasn’t a bike that William S. Harley couldn’t ride because he was so familiar with them.

William S. Harley went to the University of Wisconsin. He graduated with his engineering degree and went straight to work. He began testing the designs of Harley-Davidson and the company began.

During both world wars, Harley would play an instrumental role for the company. He would be a key contact between Harley-Davidson and the officials over the Department of War.

Later in life, Harley took up photography and sketching. His company began to more or less run itself. Today, Harley-Davidson is the most recognized name in motorcycles.

William J. "Bill" Bowerman-Co-founder of Nike,

2009-10-26T06:51:00.000-07:00

William J. "Bill" Bowerman (February 19, 1911 – December 24, 1999) was an American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, Inc. He was a very successful track coach, training 31 Olympic athletes, 51 All-Americans, 12 American record-holders, 24 NCAA champions, and 16 sub-4 minute milers. During his 24 years as coach at the University of Oregon, the track and field team had a winning season every season but one, attained 4 NCAA titles, and finished in the top 10 in the nation 16 times. He is also the recipient of the Oxford Cup, Beta Theta Pi's greatest honor.

In 1964, Bowerman entered into a handshake agreement with Phil Knight, who had been a miler under him in the 1950s, to start an athletic footwear distribution company called Blue Ribbon Sports, later known as Nike, Inc.. Knight managed the business end of the partnership, while Bowerman experimented with improvements in athletic footwear design.
Bowerman's design ideas led to the creation of a running shoe in 1966 that would ultimately be named "Cortez" in 1968, which quickly became a top-seller and remains one of Nike's most iconic footwear designs. Bowerman designed several Nike shoes, but is best known for ruining his wife's waffle iron in 1970 or 1971, experimenting with the idea of using waffle-ironed rubber to create a new sole for footwear that would grip but be lightweight.
Bowerman's design inspiration led to the introduction of the so-called "Moon Shoe" in 1972, so named because the waffle tread was said to resemble the footprints left by astronauts on the moon. Further refinement resulted in the "Waffle Trainer" in 1974, which helped fuel the explosive growth of Blue Ribbon Sports/Nike.
Bowerman's obsession with shaving weight off his athletes' running shoes was legendary. He believed that custom-made shoes would weigh less on the feet of his runners and cut down on blisters, as well as reduce the overall drag on their energy for every ounce he could remove from the shoe.
Today, the headquarters for Nike is located on Bowerman Drive in homage to the company's co-founder.
On December 24, 1999, Bowerman died at a retirement home in Fossil, Oregon at the age of 88.

Adolph (Adi) Dassler (1900-1959) The Founder of Adidas

2009-10-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

Today it's something we take for granted, but in 1920, at the age of 20, Adolph (Adi) Dassler invented spiked shoes for track and field. Four years later Adi and his brother Rudolph (Rudi) founded the German sports shoe company Gebrüder Dassler OHG—later known as adidas (pron. AH-dee-DAHS, not ah-DEE-duhs). The brothers' father was a cobbler in Herzogenaurauch, Germany, where they were born.

HEAR the German pronunciation of 'Adidas'

By 1925 the Dasslers were making leather Fußballschuhe (Adi was an avid soccer player) with nailed studs and track shoes with hand-forged spikes. Beginning with the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, Adi's uniquely designed shoes began to gain a worldwide reputation. Jesse Owens was wearing a pair of Dassler's track shoes when he won gold for the USA at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. By the time of his death in 1959, Dassler held over 700 patents related to sports shoes and other athletic equipment. In 1978, he was inducted into the American Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame as one of the founders of the modern sporting goods industry.

Adi and Rudi split up in 1948 when Rudi founded Puma (one of adidas' biggest competitors in Europe) and Adi renamed his firm by combining elements of his name. In the 1970s, adidas was the top athletic shoe brand sold in the US. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier were both wearing adidas boxing shoes in their "Fight of the Century" in 1971. Adidas was named the official supplier for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Although still a strong, well-known brand today, adidas' share of the world sports shoe market dropped over the years, and what began as a German family business is now a corporation (adidas-Salomon AG) combined with the French global concern Salomon. In 2004 adidas bought Valley Apparel Company, a U.S. company that held licenses for outfitting more than 140 U.S. college athletic teams. In August 2005 adidas announced that it was purchasing the American shoemaker Reebok. Currently, adidas ranks number two in worldwide sales, after first-place Nike and third-ranked Reebok. But the adidas world headquarters are still located in Adi Dassler's hometown of Herzogenaurauch.

Dassler Links

Tim Burton

2009-10-26T06:42:00.000-07:00

Tim Burton is one of the last people you'd imagine would become one of the most acclaimed directors in the world. He is an introverted, unassuming person. His career got underway at the most famous animation studio in Hollywood, he landed his first directing gig because of a bootleg tape of a short film that was never released, and (for a while, at least) he had a movie in the top-ten grossers of all time.

Timothy William Burton was born August 25, 1958 in Burbank, California. Burbank may not ring as many bells as Hollywood, but it is the home to many film and television studios -- NBC, Warner Brothers, Disney, and others. Burbank was quintessential 1950s American suburbia, a world in which the shy, artistic Tim was not quite in step with the shiny happy people surrounding him. He was not particularly good in school, and was not a bookworm. Instead, he found his pleasure in painting, drawing, and movies. He loved monster movies: Godzilla, the Hammer horror films from Great Britain, the work of Ray Harryhausen. One of his heroes was actor Vincent Price.

After high school in 1976, Burton attended the California Institute of the Arts. Cal Arts had been founded by Disney as a "breeding ground" for new animators, though they did offer other courses of study. Burton entered the Disney animation program in his second year, thinking it would be a good way to make a living. In 1979, he was drafted to join the Disney animation ranks.

Burton did not enjoy being an animator, not one little bit. Imagine, if you will, what it's like to be an animator. Films are projected at 24 frames per second. For a 90-minute film, that's over 129,000 individual frames. Characters are drawn separately and then put together, and placed over painted backgrounds. The work requires talented artists, but they cannot deviate from the structured manner of drawing the characters. Burton had been brought in to work on The Fox And The Hound. It bored him silly.

The studio recognized that Burton's talent was not being utilized. They made him a conceptual artist, the people who design the characters that appear in the films. He did early work on The Black Cauldron, the adaptation of the second volume of Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain (a seven-volume fantasy series). If you're familiar with Burton's artwork, you can imagine that his concept drawings were nothing like your standard Disney fare. It didn't go over too well, and it was not used. However, he was set loose on his own projects. These included a poem and artwork that years later would become The Nightmare Before Christmas, the animated short Vincent, and the live-action short Frankenweenie.

The latter two received little or no outside exposure, but Burton did get to work with his idol, Vincent Price, for the first time and they remained friends until Price's death in 1993. Frankenweenie was awarded a PG rating, which precluded its release with their G-rated animated features. It only saw theatrical release overseas, and a short release on VHS. However, it would be the film that landed him his first feature directing job.

Horror writer Stephen King (you have heard of him, right?) had seen Frankenweenie, and strongly recommended it to Bonni Lee, an executive at Warner Brothers. Lee then showed the film to Paul Reubens. Reubens was the man behind Pee-wee Herman, and was in the process of bringing his alter ego to the big screen. He knew right away that Tim Burton was the perfect choice for the job, and indeed they were a perfect match. As they say, the rest is history.

Following the surprise success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Burton didn't make another film for almost three years. It wasn't until he was offered the anarchic screenplay for Beetlejuice that he finally found another project suited to his unique vision. The film was an even bigger hit, and led to Warner Bros. offering Burton the job directing an eagerly awaited comic book adaptation that had been years in the planning.

Batman was less a movie, more of an event. It sparked controversy with the casting of Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight, and generated a merchandising blitz that is now standard for blockbusters. However, despite all the hype and studio interference, Burton still managed to put his own stamp on the film and it remains one of the most influential Hollywood movies of the last few decades. It's box office gross of over $250 million is also one of the highest in the studio's history.

Rather than jump into making another blockbuster, Burton used his new clout to get an extremely personal project greenlit by 20th Century Fox. Edward Scissorhands was the first time Burton had full creative control over a feature film, having written the story and also produced the movie. The film was a hit with moviegoers and critics, and marked the beginning of Burton being taken seriously as an artist.

He followed it up in 1992 with the sequel Batman Returns. It was not as big a hit as the first film, and suffered a backlash from parents who considered it too dark and twisted for younger Bat fans. Although the film was an artistic triumph, the perceived disappointment led to Joel Schumacher taking over the franchise (although Burton did have a producer credit on Batman Forever). The same year Burton also found time to play a small cameo role in Cameron Crowe's grunge film, Singles, and an even smaller cameo as a corpse in his buddy Danny DeVito's film, Hoffa.

After finally seeing his dream project realised with the feature length stop-motion film The Nightmare Before Christmas, Burton returned to smaller filmmaking with his next project, Ed Wood. An affectionate tribute to the supposed worst filmmaker of all time, it was not a hit at the box office, but won Burton the best reviews of his career, as well as two Oscars. It was followed by an indirect homage to Wood's films, Mars Attacks! The film was a disappointment at the box office, and scorned by many critics, but has gained a cult status over the years. Burton made something of a comeback three years later with his first real horror film, Sleepy Hollow.

As for Burton's personal life, he married German artist Lena Gieseke in 1989 (while in the middle of production on Batman). They separated shortly after filming of Batman Returns. He began dating Lisa Marie shortly after. She appeared in four of his films: Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow and Planet of the Apes.

Between Mars Attacks! and Sleepy Hollow, Tim Burton spent over a year working on a new Superman film. A preliminary script draft was written by independent filmmaker and comic geek extraordinaire Kevin Smith. Nicolas Cage was attached to the project to play the Man Of Steel. However, Burton was not particularly happy with the script, and a spiraling budget caused Warner Brothers to pull the plug on the project.

His next project was a reworking of the classic sci-fi film Planet Of The Apes. The film was rushed into production after a long gestation period, and may have suffered as a result. The film was visually stunning, and featured several strong performances by the actors in Rick Baker's astonishing ape makeup, but it was regarded as a disappointment by many.

At the same time Burton's personal life was in a state of upheaval. Both of his parents died within a short space of time, and his relationship with Lisa Marie ended. Shortly after the release of Planet of the Apes, Burton began dating one of the stars of the film, Helena Bonham Carter. Their son, Billy, was born in October, 2003.

Burton's next project couldn't have been more different, even though it shared the same producer (Richard D. Zanuck). Big Fish was an adaptation of the novel by Daniel Wallace. Perhaps the theme of a man trying to reconnect with his dying father resulted in this being Burton's most personal and emotional film in years, and it earned respectable reviews and box office.

In 2005, Burton directed back to back movies for the first time. His first project was another movie based on a novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Johnny Depp played the lead role of Willy Wonka, and the film was one of the most successful blockbusters of 2005. It was followed two months later by the release of the stop motion animated film, Corpse Bride. Both films generally received good reviews, and Corpse Bride was even nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature (it lost to Wallace and Gromit).

As for his next project, Burton was set to direct Believe It or Not (starring Jim Carrey) about the life of Robert Ripley.However, that project was delayed and will now be directed, apparently, by Spike Jonze (though Burton will still produce). Burton's next directorial project turned out to be the long-rumored musical Sweeney Todd. It was released in the U.S. in December, 2007 to rave reviews. Burton has three directing jobs on the horizon - Alice in Wonderland, Frankenweenie and The Spook's Apprentice, which means his fans have no shortage of films to look forward to.

Mike Jackson and Arran McDermott 2006

Tim's Biography can also be read on the following languages, click on the link to get to the translation:
German
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Tim Burton's Filmography

Contact Information:
One of the questions we receive most frequently is an address where Tim Burton can be contacted. The following are the only addresses we have. We're not sure if they're up to date, so you may or may not receive a reply.

HIS AGENT:
Tim Burton
c/o Mike Simpson, William Morris Agency
One William Morris Plaza
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

HIS PRODUCTION COMPANY:
Tim Burton Productions
7175 Willoughby Avenue
West Hollywood, CA 90046

Peter Jackson

2009-10-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
31 October 1961, Pukerua Bay, North Island, New Zealand

Nickname
PJ

Height
5' 6½" (1.69 m)

Mini Biography
Peter Jackson was born as an only child in a small coast-side town in New Zealand in 1961. When a friend of his parents bought him a super 8mm movie camera (because she saw how much he enjoyed taking photos), the then eight-year-old Peter instantly grabbed the thing to start recording his own movies, which he made with his friends. They were usually short, but they already had the spectacular trademark that would make Jackson famous: impressive special effects, made at a very low cost. For example, for his film "World War Two" which he made as a teenager, he used to simulate a firing gun by punching little holes into the celluloid, so that, once projected, the gun gave the impression of displaying a small fire. Jackson's first step towards the more serious filmmaking came with an entry in a local contest to stimulate amateur and children's film. For this film, he used stop-motion animation to create a monster that ruins a city in the style of Ray Harryhausen. Unfortunately, he didn't win. When Jackson was 22, he embarked on an movie making-adventure that would change his life. This film, Bad Taste (1987), was begun as any other Jackson film, in an amateuristic style, at a low budget and using friends and local people to star in his film. Jackson himself did nearly everything in the movie, he directed, produced, filmed and starred in it, in a number of roles, amongst them that of the hero, "Derek". And everything was filmed on a second-hand, $250 camera. It took Jackson and his friends four years to complete the movie. What had started out as an joke in a group of friends, then became a cult-classic. A friend of Jackson who was working in the movie industry convinced him the film had commercial prospects and arranged for it to be shown at the Cannes film festival, where it won a lot of acclaim, as well as a number of prizes. The movie soon became a hit because of its bizarre humor and overdose of special-effects, some realistic, some hilarious because of their amateuristic look. After the success of Bad Taste (1987), Jackson became recognized as a director and the door to fame and fortune was opened. He gave up his job at a local photographer's shop and became a well-known director of horror-movies, after the success of his first professionally made movie, Braindead (1992).

IMDb Mini Biography By: T. van der Sluijs

Spouse
Fran Walsh (1987 - present) 2 children

Trade Mark
His films frequently conclude with a bloodbath, e.g.: the lawnmower with the zombies in Braindead (1992), and the murder of Honora Parker in Heavenly Creatures (1994).

Frequently set his movies in Wellington, New Zealand.

Likes to make cameo appearances in his movies: the morgue assistant in Braindead (1992), the homeless man in_Heavenly Creatures (1994)_, the dude in _Frighteners, The (1996/I)_, the drunk in _Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001)_, the guy throwing a spear in Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), and the Corsair Leader in _Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003)_.

Always writes his scripts with his real-life partner Fran Walsh.

In his movies, there's frequently a fake documentary: the Christchurch footage in Heavenly Creatures (1994), The Murders & Psychos documentary in _Frighteners, The (1996/I)_, the Colin McKenzie biopic in _Forgotten Silver (1995)_, and _Lord of The Piercing (2002)_ (on_Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001)_ region 1 extended edition DVD).

In his movies, there are always axes: the Whitey Alien's axe in Bad Taste (1987), the explorers' axe in Braindead (1992), the Diello's axe in Heavenly Creatures (1994), the executioner's axe in _Forgotten Silver (1995)_, the Reaper's axe in _Frighteners, The (1996/I)_, Gimli's axe in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).

Has an interest in matricide (Derek is "born-again" in the ending of Bad Taste (1987), Sidney kills his wife and mother of his son in Meet the Feebles (1989), Lionel Cosgrove kills his mother in Braindead (1992), Pauline Rieper kills her mother in Heavenly Creatures (1994), Patricia Ann Bradley kills her mother in _The Frighteners (1996/I)_.

Frequently wears shorts, even in freezing cold weather.

Frequently casts Andy Serkis.

Frequently casts Jed Brophy

Trivia
Owns two houses in Wellington, New Zealand.

Made the latex models for Bad Taste (1987) in his mom's kitchen oven, often forcing the family to have sausages for dinner because they couldn't use the oven.

Owner of production companies WingNut Films, Weta Limited and Three Foot Six.

Father of Billy Jackson and Katie Jackson.

Collects models of airplanes from World War One.

During filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), he used the same pair of shoes and only two T-shirts.

He likes 1960s music: his favorites are The Beatles (and he homaged them in Bad Taste (1987)).

After his parents, Bill and Joan, died, Jackson owns the modest Pukerua Bay house where he grew up.

The stuff in the bowl, in his first movie Bad Taste (1987), was yoghurt, muesli and green food colouring.

In 1998, he bought the New Zealand based film company National Film Unit.

Credits his favorite movie King Kong (1933) as his biggest inspiration in filmmaking. He said that he cried when King Kong fell off the Empire State Building.

The movie that gave him the love for splatter is George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978). After seeing it, he felt a bit sick but amazed too.

Together with his partner Fran Walsh, he received the honorary graduation from Massey University [26 November 2001]

With Fran Walsh, he become member of the New Zealand Order of Merit [5 March 2002]

He left school at the age of 17 and started working on a Wellington newspaper.

For his first movie, Bad Taste (1987), he did all the special effects, the make-up effects and built exact replicas of the weapons.

He allegedly offered $150,000 to Aint-it-cool webmaster Harry Jay Knowles for his King Kong (1933) original poster.

Started writing a re-make of King Kong (1933) in 1996, which went through several drafts, until in 2003 he made one that was greenlighted by Universal.

Ranked #20 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List. Had ranked #41 in 2002.

Voted 'Man of the Year 2002' in the Australian Empire Magazine March 2003.

Both of his parents died during production of The Lord of the Rings.

Met Fran Walsh in 1987, during post-production for the gross-out cult classic Bad Taste (1987).

Son of Bill Jackson and Joan Jackson.

Nominated for a Best Director Academy Award for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) (which he won), but not for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).

The London Daily Mail reported (December 5, 2003) that Jackson was so fond of King Kong (1933) that he once cut up his mother's old fur coat and used it to make a model of the great ape; also that he consulted with Andy Serkis on the script of his version of the movie.

Has worked with three generations of Astins: John Astin (The Frighteners (1996)); John's son, Sean Astin (The Lord of The Rings Trilogy); and Sean's daughter, Alexandra Astin (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)).

Ranked #6 in Premiere's 2004 annual Power 100 List. Had ranked #20 in 2003. He is the second-highest rated director on the list, behind only Steven Spielberg.

The copies of the "Lord of the Rings" books that he referred to during filming are the ones that he bought after seeing _Lord of the Rings, The (1978)_. The books have cover art by Ralph Bakshi.

Has been referred to by Fran Walsh as being a hobbit himself, due to his physical stature, his tendency to go barefoot, and the fact that he is swarthy (in Walsh's words, "furry").

Estimated earnings from the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy come close to $125 million.

Along with his wife Fran Walsh, he was one of two husband/wife teams to be nominated for an Oscar for the 2003 season, the other team was Michael McKean and his wife, Annette O'Toole.

Three of his collaborators have had connections to the material being filmed, outside the context of the film being made. Ian Holm, whom he cast as Bilbo in The Lord of the Rings, was cast because he had played Frodo in the BBC radio adaptation. That adaptation was written by Brian Sibley, who is a cousin of his wife, Fran Walsh. In _Heavenly Creatures (1994)_, Kate Winslet plays Juliet Hulme, who would later be known as real-life mystery novelist Anne Perry. Winslet has a sister, Anna Winslet, who appears as Dora in The Cater Street Hangman (1998) (TV), which was based on one of Perry's novels.

Is among an elite group of 7 directors who have won Best Picture, Best Director & Best Screenplay (Orig/Adapted) for the same film. In 2004 he won all three for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). The other directors are Billy Wilder, Leo McCarey, Francis Ford Coppola, James L. Brooks and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (the brothers co-produced, co-directed and co-wrote No Country for Old Men (2007) with each other).

Crowned the most powerful man in Hollywood by ranking #1 on Premiere's 2005 Power 50 List. It is his first #1 ranking. Had ranked #6 in 2004.

Ranked #7 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Greatest directors ever!" [2005]

Lost 70 lbs. during the production of King Kong (2005).

No longer needs glasses after undergoing eye surgery during the making of King Kong (2005).

Described the production of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy as "laying the tracks down in front of the train" as it was moving forward.

Was invested as a Companion Of The New Zealand Order Of Merit [CNZM] by the Governor-General of New Zealand in March 2002.

Ranked #11 on Premiere's 2006 "Power 50" list. Had ranked #1 in 2005.

Is a fan of "Doctor Who" (1963), and has used the screen name Xoanon, taken from the Doctor Who story "The Face of Evil.".

One of few directors to be offered the chance of writing and directing sequels to many famous horror franchises. He was offered Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990), Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), Freddy vs. Jason (2003), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) and Child's Play 3 (1991).

2007 - Ranked #16 on EW's The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood.

To acquaint actors who had not read the books with the story, he used the BBC Radio version of The Lord of the Rings, which starred Ian Holm. He ended up using Holm as Bilbo in the films.

Personal Quotes
New Zealand is not a small country but a large village.

What I don't like are pompous, pretencious movies

On Meet the Feebles (1989): "I have a moronic sense of humour."

On horror: "I don't take stuff seriously. I saw 'Hellraiser 3' the other day at Cannes; it's OK, it's a good film, I didn't hate it or anything. I thought it was quite good, but it was all just so serious. Some guy walking round with pins sticking out of his face. I just can't sit there and think ,'this is really scary.' If I made a 'Hellraiser' film, I'd like Pinhead to be whacked against a wall and have all the pins flattened into his face. I immediately start thinking of funny things and gags - that's just the way I am. I doubt I could ever control myself sufficiently to make a serious horror film."

[on The Lord of the Rings:] "This is a giant undertaking, but I consider this a personal film. It's my film of a lifetime. I read the book when I was 18 years old and thought then, 'I can't wait till the movie comes out.' Twenty years later, no one had done it - so I got impatient."

'Return of the King' is the most enjoyable because in the structure of the movies, it is nothing other than pay-off, there is no more setting up to do, no more exposition, no more introducing characters. The pay-off is very character-based. It is action-orientated as well, but all of our characters have been pushed to a point where their life and death depends on what happens in the third movie. It is very emotional, and from an actors point of view it is very enjoyable to work on, because they were able to play some pretty intense drama. From my point of view it was always great, because we were heading toward an ending, a climax which we never had in the other two.

On making "The Lord of the Rings": "Looking back, I think we were a bit naive. At the beginning I don't think anybody had any idea how difficult or complicated it would be. We somehow went into it thinking we could do it. And then we've stumbled along just taking each day at a time."

I think that George Lucas' 'Star Wars' films are fantastic. What he's done, which I admire, is he has taken all the money and profit from those films and poured it into developing digital sound and surround sound, which we are using today. He got ILM started and they developed all the computer technology we use. George Lucas is incredible. He has made a huge difference to the way films are made now. And he has used his money on things that benefit every filmmaker who gets films produced. I respect that a lot.

To get an Oscar would be an incredible moment in my career, there is no doubt about that. But the 'Lord of the Rings' films are not made for Oscars, they are made for the audience.

"I always trusted him. If there was a way that I had seen something and he had seen it differently, I would ... trust his vision. We were in brilliant hands." -- Elijah Wood on filming "Lord of the Rings," December 14, 2003

We made a promise to ourselves at the beginning of the process that we weren't going to put any of our own politics, our own messages or our own themes into these movies. What we were trying to do was to analyze what was important to Tolkien and to try to honor that. In a way, we were trying to make these films for him, not for ourselves.

The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself. The worst type is dictated by demographics or what is hip or what kids are into. Kong isn't driven by that. No way would a studio think this is the year that people want to see a big gorilla movie. I've come to realize that, as much as anything, I am making this for the 9-year-old Peter.

Don't worry. Gollum isn't going to be another Jar Jar Binks.

(on the 1976 remake of King Kong): "I was 15 when that film came out. I took the day off school, went into Wellington and was first in line to see it. It was a disappointment because I wanted it to have stop-motion animation, dinosaurs and the Empire State Building. I didn't like the updating of it, and it has dated very badly. I watched it again a year or so ago. I thought Jeff Bridges was excellent, John Barry's score was very good, and Rick Baker did a sterling job in that very heavy monkey suit he was wearing. But it was kind of kitsch and it wasn't the Kong that I saw when I was nine."

I don't quite know what an auteur is. I've never quite understood that term, because filmmaking is such a huge team effort, you - I mean, I regard myself as being sort of the final filter, so everything that ends up in the movie is there, because it's something that I'd think was cool if I saw the film that somebody else had made. I'm very much trying to make the film that I've enjoyed, but I'm open to ideas, I need a huge team of people to help me, everybody contributes and I try to encourage people to contribute as much as possible. I think that's the job of a director really, is to sort of funnel all the creative into one centralized point of view. And the marketing is sort of something that really happens with other people, it's not something that I'm at all an expert in, and I regard my job at the end of the day as to make the best possible film I can, and that's really where my job stops and marketing people take over after that.

No film has captivated my imagination more than King Kong. I'm making movies today because I saw this film when I was 9 years old. It has been my sustained dream to reinterpret this classic story for a new age.

Regarding his spat with New Line: "We have a great many friends at New Line and utmost respect for the risk they took with us and it hurts to be hit with the level of venom directed at us from individuals in that company. It's been a lot more nasty behind the scenes than what's been made public. It's just an accounting dispute at the end of the day, but it makes you wonder what they have to hide."

[On the aborted Halo movie] Well, Microsoft has a whole strategy with the Halo property, and when the rights expired with the two studios, that sort of ended my involvement with the project. That fell apart because of internal politics at Fox and Universal. It had nothing to do with the budget or anything else. In fact, we hadn't even been greenlit at all at that point.

I think that's one of the most depressing things about the film industry generally today. The writers and directors should be blamed just as much as the studios because really everything seems to be a remake or adapting a 1970s TV show that was never particularly good. Why anyone thinks that it would be a good feature film now, you know, goodness knows why. I guess it's easy to say it's security that you know a studio is only prepared to put $150 million or $200 million into something if it's a known quantity, but at the same time I'm also aware that audiences are getting fed up with the lack of original ideas and original stories. Everything in the film business tends to be cyclic and hopefully this all drains itself out in a couple years and we'll be back into original stories again.

Salary
King Kong (2005) $20,000,000 + 20% of the gross (to be shared with co-writer/producer Fran Walsh & co-writer Philippa Boyens)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $10,000,000 + gross points (this salary is for all 3 films)

Where Are They Now
(January 2004) In New Zealand filming King Kong (2005).

(November 2007) In Pennsylvania filming The Lovely Bones

John Woo

2009-10-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

FAST FACTS

Cantonese name: Ng Yu-Sum
Manadrin name: Wu Yu-Sen
Born: 1946 in Guangzhou, Canton (China)
First film as director: The Young Dragons (filmed in 1973, released in 1975)
First US movie: Hard Target (1993)

AWARDS
-- 1997 MTV: Best On-Screen Duo (Face/Off)
-- 1997 MTV: Best Action Sequence (Face/Off)
-- 1996 Cine Asia: Lifetime Achievement
-- 1993 Hong Kong: Best Editing (Hard-Boiled)
-- 1991 Hong Kong: Best Editing (Bullet in the Head)
-- 1990 Hong Kong: Best Director (The Killer)
-- 1987 Hong Kong: Best Picture (A Better Tommorrow)

TRADEMARKS
-- Fighting with a gun in each hand
-- Characters tossing guns to each other
-- "Mexican standoffs": Two or more characters will have a dead lock on each other
-- Use of religious imagery and/or music
-- Slow motion, freeze frames and "wipes"
-- Characters see key actions through reflections
-- Use of birds
-- Themes of honor, friendship, revenge

FAVORITE MOVIES
Citizen Kane
The Seven Samurai
The Wild Bunch
Lawrence of Arabia
2001: A Space Odyssey
West Side Story
Mean Streets
Raging Bull
The Godfather Part II

MAILING ADDRESS
JOHN WOO
c/o Lion Rock Productions
MGM Studios
2500 Broadway
Building F, Suite 370
Santa Monica, CA 90404, U.S.A.

The bread-and-butter of the film industry is the action movie. Each summer, audiences can expect to see car chases, gunfights and explosions, and studios can expect to see millions and millions of dollars in return. Though most viewers and critics see these movies as "fluff" entertainment (and rightfully so), there is one director that puts as much heart and soul into his "fluff" as any number of talented directors put into their "serious" movies. His name is John Woo. Even though you may not have heard about him, he is widely considered to be "the best contemporary director of action films working anywhere." In this essay, I will show you an overview of John Woo's career thus far, the impact and influence his films have had, and how he will come to be known as an auteur in the years to come.

Born in Guanzhou, Canton in 1946, young Wu Yu-Sen (Woo's given name) lived a meager existence, due to the fact that his father had tuberculosis and could not work. In fact, his family was homeless for a time in 1953 (two years after they had moved to Hong Kong) when their home was burned to the ground during a brush fire which swept through most of the city.

Even when Woo's family had money (they benefited periodically from donations from a Save the Children-like charity), times were tough. Hong Kong's housing projects were already becoming notorious for the crime that surrounded and dwelled in them. One of Woo's most vivid childhood memories was seeing a man killed on his front steps. After his family was aided by a local church (who allowed Woo to attend school there), he envisioned a different kind of path -- one of the cloth. He wanted to become a priest, but the fathers saw something different in him. As Woo said in an interview: "One priest, who I really admired, told me I was too free-spirited and artistic to become a priest. I was devastated but deep down I knew he was right."

The doors of religion closed to him, Woo turned to the movies, which were a refuge for him from his earliest memories. Since children could attend for free, his mother brought him to see movies often, and it was these first movies that instilled a love for cinema in Woo, as he stated in an interview:

"When I was 11, even though we were poor, my mother was a fan of movies from the west. She used to bring me to the theatre. At that time, a parent could bring a child to the theatre for free. I was fascinated by the musicals, I think they influenced me the most. Also a lot of Fred Astaire...I loved movies and I wanted to be a filmmaker some day."

As a teenager, with borrowed film equipment, Woo and several of his friends began experimenting with the items and by the time he was 22 (with no formal film education, since he could not afford to go to a four-year college) Woo was making his own movies. In 1969 (when he was 23) Woo landed his first "real" job as a script supervisor at Cathay Studios. In an interview, Woo described his beginnings in more detail:

"It was hard to get work in films so I began on the stage...I wanted to be an actor [because] I was really shy...I stuttered and spoke slowly. In acting you train to speak fluently and express your emotions. That was my first purpose. I also overcame my fear of meeting people...when I was on stage I was totally different. At that time I never dreamed about working in movies...I always found my dreams in movies...I was mostly influenced by the French New Wave and French gangster films. After high school, I couldn't afford to continue my education and [at the time] Hong Kong didn't have a film school. So I stole film books from the library. Theories on editing and directing. Books on technique...art books, philosophy books. So that is how I learned film theory and film as a spiritual art. I also learned by watching many, many movies...then I joined a group of young people who were crazy about movies. We all made experimental films. At that
time, Hong Kong films were really bad...I wanted to make films that looked good. The second inspiration was the French New Wave. The idea of director as auteur. It was revolutionary. The crews were smaller...with a single camera and small budgets and they made good movies. This encouraged me by showing me that I didn't need a lot of money or a big crew to make good movies. So I was determined to become a film director. I was twenty."

In 1971, Woo moved to the prestigious Shaw Bros. studio, where he worked under the well-known martial-arts director Chang Cheh, who taught Woo many things (the most important being editing). By 1973, Woo started working on his first film as director, The Young Dragons, a fairly nondescript martial-arts film that also had a young Jackie Chan working on it (as the fighting coordinator). The film (or more specifically, a fight featuring a Freddy Kruger-like knived glove) was thought to be too violent (a problem Woo would and does encounter throughout his career) and was shelved for two years.

Upon release of The Young Dragons and its success at the box office, Woo was hired by Golden Harvest, which, while viewed as a young upstart at the time, would go on to become one of Hong Kong's biggest studios in the mid-1980's. Woo went on to write and direct several more martial-arts films, including Hand of Death (1976) (a.k.a. Countdown in Kung Fu) which not only starred Woo himself but also reunited him with Jackie Chan (who was in a starring capacity this time out) and featured future Hong Kong superstar Sammo Hung. While it may be viewed as slow-moving and cliched today, Hand of Death was an important step in Woo's career as he was able to both write and direct the film, quite an accomplishment in the Hong Kong film industry (which was still under a form of the 1930's Hollywood studio system that favored experience rather than talent) for someone so young. Woo said "it was a great honor to be able to do the movie...most directors were in their forties and I was still in my twenties." Hand of Death was also important for introducing Woo's ideals about dictators and revolutionaries (as shown by Woo's character) and brotherhood and loyalty (shown by Chan's character).

After his initial kung-fu phase, he made a comedy called The Pilferer's Progress (1977) which became a huge success and gave Woo recognition as a comedy director. While Woo enjoyed success with comedies, by the early eighties he started to tire of comedy (having to produce several films a year was quickly taking its toll) and his films suffered because of it. Woo took to working clandestinely under various pseudonyms with Dean Shek's small studio Cinema City in Taiwan just to have something more productive to do. However, even the Taiwanese "excursions" could not help matters back at home, and Woo took to drinking heavily, teetering on the edge of becoming an alcoholic. He spent his days in disgust working on films he didn't care about.

A new world

Woo's Heroes Shed No Tears marked his first venture outside of the kung-fu and comedy genres.

The one exception was Heroes Shed No Tears (1983), where Woo escaped from the kung-fu and comedy genres in an ultra-violent tale of mercenaries sent to capture a drug lord deep inside Vietnam. Woo was satisfied with the film (he has called it his "first real movie") but the studio thought it too violent and shelved it. Woo clashed so hard with the studio heads and made so many enemies in the Hong Kong movie industry, it looked as if Woo's career was dead until he met (through Dean Shek) the noted director/producer Tsui Hark, who -- after numerous late-night drinking sessions with Woo where they bounced ideas off one another -- asked him to direct A Better Tomorrow. As Terence Chang, Woo's current production partner, says:

Heroic bloodshed

A Better Tomorrow would be the film that made John Woo (as well as star Chow Yun-Fat) major forces in Hong Kong cinema.

"John was in Taiwan for two years and made two comedies that were not successful. He wanted to go back to Hong Kong but he had a contract with Cinema City and at the time those people there thought he was washed up as a director. And then his friend, Tsui Hark, helped him. Tsui had become a very successful producer and he had left Golden Harvest and had a deal at Cinema City. It was his insistence that got 'A Better Tomorrow' made."

The film, based on a 1960's movie called True Colors of a Hero, told the story of Ho, a man torn between two worlds. Ho (played by veteran actor Ti Lung) makes his living by working for the Triad (the "Asian Mafia") as a counterfeiter and feels great loyalty to his best friend, Mark Gor (played by Hong Kong action film icon Chow Yun-Fat). However, his little brother Kit (pop star turned actor Leslie Cheung) is about to become a cop, so Ho decides to "hang up his guns" after one last job. The job turns out to be a double-cross, and Ho is captured by the police. To try and stop Ho from talking, the Triad send a thug out to kidnap Ho's father, but he bungles the job and ends up killing the father instead; thus, Kit learns his brother's true line of work.

The new breed

Chow Yun-Fat as the prototypical movie Triad member, Mark Gor, in A Better Tomorrow. The character was so popular that stores in Hong Kong sold out of Gor's trademark Ray-Ban sunglasses and black trenchcoat less than a week after the film's premiere.

Meanwhile, Mark attempts to get revenge for Ho's double-cross by killing a local gangster. He succeeds, but not before a bullet cripples his leg. Upon Ho's release from prison, he finds his best friend a cripple washing windows for measly tips and his brother a stranger. Ho tries to go straight, but neither the Triad (who still want Ho to work for him) or Kit (who wants information) will allow him to. Eventually, he teams with Mark and Kit to try and bring down the local gangsters in a blood-soaked finale. In an article, Woo discussed his own reasons behind making the movie:

"Comedies and Kung Fu films dominated Hong Kong cinema in the mid-eighties. Other genres rarely got the support of the studio and the audience. And also, right before 'A Better Tomorrow,' I shot two films in Taiwan...[that] were commercially unsuccessful; so it seemed quite impossible for me to make the films I really wanted to make. Both Tsui Hark and myself felt that Hong Kong at that time was seriously lacking in moral values. Young people were lost and trust toward the government was shaken. So I wanted to make an uplifting film to highlight the lost traditional values, including the values of family, friendship, tolerance etc. So I decided to remake a sixties film ('True Colors of a Hero,' directed by Lung Kong), and that became 'A Better Tomorrow.'

Woo and Hark would continue to team together and produce some of the landmark titles of the "heroic bloodshed" genre, which combines Scoresian-style relationships and themes, such as friendship and loyalty, with Peckinpah-style "ultraviolence." ABT also (probably permanently) linked Woo with leading man Chow Yun-Fat. Before ABT, Chow was primarily known for romantic comedies, but afterwards, he became synonymous with two-fisted gun action, going on to star in action movies directed by not only Woo, but other noted action directors such as Ringo Lam and Wong Jing in films like 1992's high-powered crime/action movie Full Contact.

With the success of ABT, Golden Harvest decided to finally release Heroes Shed No Tears in 1986 -- albeit with an added sex scene, which Woo despises to this day. He eventually moved on to create Just Heroes (1987) as a sort of benefit project for his aging mentor Chang Cheh. The film, a loose retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear set within a Triad "family," was actually a joint project between Woo and his friend Wu Ma (who was having financial troubles at the time). As such, even though it features big Hong Kong stars such as Danny Lee and Woo's now-typical explosive gunfight sequences, the film lacked the focus of ABT and was a disappointment for Woo. He did enjoy some aspects of filming Just Heroes, though -- it allowed him to pay homage to Akira Kurosawa (who had also done his own version of King Lear called Ran) and thumb his nose at his political critics by placing a self-parodying Mark Gor-wannabe in the film. Despite Woo's lack of enthusiasm for the finished product, he was "hot" in Hong Kong and Just Heroes did well at the Hong Kong box office, even though it is now considered one of Woo's weakest movies.

Old friends reunited

Woo's friend Dean Shek (second from left) helped convince Woo to make ABT2.

After Just Heroes, Woo struggled to find another project. He wanted to stay away from ABT, but the film's popularity (teenagers took to dressing like Mark Gor, something which got Woo in trouble with politicians, who accused him of glorifying the Triad lifestyle) and Tsui Hark's constant prodding eventually convinced Woo to do the sequel. A Better Tomorrow 2 (1987) suffered from a weak plot which had Mark Gor's twin brother Ken (once again played by Chow Yun-Fat) coming to Hong Kong to help out Ho and Kit after a old gangster (played by Dean Shek, in a move some said was a payback to Shek after he helped Woo out) finds himself nearly insane in America. Despite the somewhat questionable premise, ABT2 features a high-powered finale with one of the highest body counts per minute recorded on film and was another huge hit for Woo. However, things behind the scenes were not so rosy. The initial cut of ABT2 ran over three hours, and the studio demanded it be cut down. Woo felt the characters in ABT were under-developed and was against any changes, but went ahead and made another edit. Producer Tsui Hark also made his own edit and the two began arguing about what should and should not be in the movie.

Is this supposed to be funny?

The Killer, despite a mediocre run at the Hong Kong box office, would be the film that brought both John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat to Western audiences' attention -- even though it was (due to poor translating) initially marketed as a comedy.

The two managed to patch things up enough to work on one of the aforementioned "landmark titles," and the movie that would break Woo to western audiences (and win Woo a Hong Kong Film Award for direction) -- 1989's The Killer. The film tells the story of an assassin-for-hire named Jeff (played by Chow Yun-Fat, whose character is called "John" in alternate translations of the movie) who has a change of heart after accidentally blinding Jennie (Sally Yeh), a nightclub singer, during a "hit." After prodding from his best (and only) friend, Sydney (Chu Kong), Jeff agrees to take on one last job so he can pay for a cornea transplant for Jennie. However, during the job, he is spotted by a hot-headed cop named Danny (Danny Lee); Jeff's bosses now view him as a liability and try to kill him, shooting an innocent little girl in the process. After Jeff risks his life (and getting captured) to save the child, Danny realizes that he is not dealing with a typical "gun-for-hire." Eventually, the two team up to take on Jeff's bosses in a climatic shootout in a church (the imagery of which is so "shocking" to some in the U.S. that three minutes was excised from this sequences for its release on American shores). Despite its status now as a classic, The Killer (which is Woo's favorite movie, since he feels that the characters are fully developed) flopped in Hong Kong. Many people thought the film too serious and just not very "fun" to watch. However (despite inane marketing campaigns that touted The Killer as a comedy due to bad translations), Woo was gaining international recognition. He was invited all over the world to attend film festivals and talk about his movies. At the age of 44, Woo was being called a "wunderkind" by his contemporaries and he finally started to think of himself as a success. The good times could not last forever, though.

A personal tragedy

Woo calls Bullet in the Head his most personal film. Despite the fact that it is now considered one of Woo's best films, it failed miserably at the Hong Kong box office and was taken out of his hands and re-edited.

After a series of disputes over A Better Tomorrow III, Woo and Hark parted ways. Hark himself directed ABTIII and began to spread the word that Woo was unreliable to work with. Most everybody believed him (or at least wanted to), because many of the "old school" of martial-arts directors thought Woo had "ruined" Hong Kong cinema. Lau Kar-Leung, a noted martial-arts director who directed such classics of the genre as Jackie Chan's groundbreaking Drunken Master (1979), said sadly in an interview that "people don't want to see realistic martial arts films anymore...all they want to see is Chow Yun-Fat with 300 bullet holes in him." After being virtually blackballed from most of the major studios, Woo eventually formed his own production company with his new business partner Terence Chang.

Woo used his new company to produce his version of the ABTIII script, which he reworked into Bullet in the Head. BITH is, by Woo's own account, his most personal film to date. It tells the story of three friends Ben (Tony Leung), Frank (Jacky Cheung) and Paul (Waise Lee) who must journey to war-torn Vietnam after Ben and Frank accidentally kill a man. While in Vietnam, they try to deliver some contraband to a local crime boss but their car is blown up by some revolutionaries and they are forced to join with a local rogue, Luke (Simon Yam) to attempt to steal some gold from the boss. They succeed, but are captured by the Viet Cong, who get Paul (who has become obsessed with the gold) to sell out his friends. Luke comes to the rescue, but not before a cowardly Paul shoots an injured Frank in the head to keep him quiet. Upon his return to Hong Kong, Ben seeks out Paul for revenge. While BITH is regarded as one of Woo's best films, again the local audience didn't like it. This time, the intense riot scenes were just too much for a people still reeling from the Tiannemen Square Massacre. Woo was forced to shoot another ending (which, ironically, still had the same result but in a more "action-packed" way), but even so the studio took the movie from Woo's hand and did their own edit. Only a few official copies of Woo's original vision survive today.

Out with a bang

John Woo's final Hong Kong movie Hard-Boiled features some of his most explosive action sequences to date.

Dismayed by lack of audience response and wanting to do something lighter, Woo's next film was 1991's Once a Thief, a breezy comedy/action/romance reteaming Chow Yun-Fat and Leslie Cheung as two-thirds of a high-class robbery crew who are in love with the same woman, Cherie (Cherie Cheung), who is the other third of the crew. While not a huge hit, Once a Thief did well enough at the box office to gain Woo funding for his next movie, Hard-Boiled (1992).

Hard-Boiled would be Woo's last Hong Kong movie, but it is by no means his weakest. Chow Yun-Fat once again stars, this time as a supercop named Tequila who is hot on the trail of arms dealer Johnny Wong (Anthony Wong). Complicating matters is a undercover cop named Tony (Tony Leung) who is so determined to catch Wong himself he personally guns down his old gang. The two eventually team up to take on Wong and his small army, who are stationed in a hospital. While the story is somewhat conventional, Hard-Boiled sets a tone that has rarely (if ever) been matched, even in other Woo films. Not content to just show large explosions, Woo also crated some striking symbolism for the upcoming Chinese takeover of Hong Kong, especially during the finale, where Tequila brings a newborn baby out of danger. Again though, Hard-Boiled was not popular with the Hong Kong people. Many felt Woo was becoming too dark and over-the-top, and many accused him of "selling out" to Hollywood. However, as with Woo's previous films, Hard-Boiled has become known as a classic in the action genre, both in Hong Kong and around the world.

The big time

Nicolas Cage in Woo's first major US hit Face/Off. The film took in over $125 million at the US box office and seems to have cemented Woo's future in Hollywood.

After attracting Hollywood's attention, Woo was invited by Universal to direct the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle Hard Target in 1993. Woo clashed with the studio heads many times during the making of the picture, mostly due to the fact that his initial edits failed to produce a "R" rated picture. Eventually, Hard Target was taken out of Woo's hands and chopped down by the studio itself (after even "the muscles from Brussels" Van Damme had a shot in editing the film) to produce a "suitable" cut. Woo was very dissatisfied with the finished product (and the "Hollywood system"), but decided to stick it out due to the worsening business conditions in Hong Kong from the approaching Chinese takeover.

In 1996, after receiving CineAsia's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, he finished working on Broken Arrow, which teamed him with American pop icon John Travolta. While the film was not a huge success (both critically and financially), it gave Woo his break in Hollywood and allowed him to gain enough power to finally get script approval for his next movie, Face/Off (1997), which would go on to surpass the "hit" mark for American movies, taking in over $100 million at the box office. The film would also earn him his first American film awards, winning the "Best On-Screen Duo" and "Best Action Sequence" at the 1997 MTV Movie Awards. Recently, Woo has begun diversifying his interests. He has directed two pilots for television, John Woo's Once a Thief (based on the Hong Kong movie) and Blackjack, and has become an executive producer, lending his name to The Replacement Killers (which was Chow Yun-Fat's American debut) and The Big Hit. Woo's latest film, Mission:Impossible 2 (2000), was Woo's largest hit to date. Despite persistent rumors of Woo and producer/star Tom Cruise clashing on the set and a delayed release date, MI2 stood out as one of the few true successes of a lackluster summer season, taking in over 200 million dollars in the United States alone.

The influence of Woo's films is quite easy to see, especially in his native Hong Kong; by 1988, just two years after A Better Tomorrow, the martial-arts genre was almost eclipsed (save for movies by "outsiders" such as Van Damme or Steven Seagal, or the occasional movie by popular stars such as Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung), by literally dozens of copycat "heroic bloodshed" movies. In western countries such as America, the effects were more subtle. For example, the "mindless killing machine" personified by John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) in 1985's Rambo: First Blood Part II gave way to the "killer with a conscience" or "man trapped in a situation out of his control" personified by John McLane (Bruce Willis) in 1988's Die Hard. The trend continues today; very rarely do we see a hero in American films such as Clint Eastwood's "Dirty" Harry Callahan (a virtual icon for 1970's and 80's American action movies) who kill with no remorse -- rather, we see characters like Cameron Poe (played by Nicolas Cage, who lists The Killer as one of his favorite movies and would team with Woo for Face/Off) in Con Air (1997), who takes time out after killing a man to retrieve a stuffed bunny for his daughter.

Besides the motivations behind the characters, Woo's films have also influenced the look of those characters in American action films. Quentin Tarantino once said that after seeing A Better Tomorrow, he went out and got different clothes so he could look like Chow Yun-Fat. In fact, the "black suits with skinny ties look" popularized by Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction was first used in Woo's A Better Tomorrow II (as an interesting side note, two characters in the Tarantino-scripted film True Romance are watching ABTII on television during one scene in the movie). In Keenan Ivory Wayans' A Low Down Dirty Shame, one character goes so far as to call himself Chow Yun-Fat while wearing the sunglasses and trenchcoat Chow had made popular in the ABT series -- a look also sported by Keanu Reeves in one of 1999's biggest hits, The Matrix.

Chow Yun-Fat's "Mark Gor look" as seen in the A Better Tomorrow films (left) was mimicked by Keanu Reeves in The Matrix (right). In a strange coincidence, The Matrix was blamed for encouraging youth violence in the US, similar to what happened with ABT in Hong Kong.

Woo's "killer with a conscience" featured in films like A Better Tomorrow and The Killer came into fruition in American films like Die Hard (right), which featured more realistic characters than previous US action films such as Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (left).

Of course, Woo is known for action, and this is where a great deal of the "new breed" of action directors (and some old veterans) get their "inspiration" for their action sequences. One of Woo's trademarks, men shooting it out with a gun in each hand, has almost become a cliche of the action genre. Even Pamela Anderson in the "fluffy" Barb Wire took out the "bad guys" with dual guns blazing. Bruce Willis in Last Man Standing always fights with two guns out, dropping one only to take a drink. Returning to A Low Down Dirty Shame, one character directly mimics Chow Yun-Fat in A Better Tomorrow II by taking out his enemies while sliding backwards down a staircase.

John Woo's signature trademarks, such as the use of a gun in each hand (demonstrated on the left by Chow Yun-Fat in Hard-Boiled) have made their way into American movies, such as Bruce Willis' Last Man Standing (right).

Woo is also known for the "Mexican standoff," where one or more characters have a "dead lock" on one another (while other directors, notably Sam Peckinpah, used the technique before, many people believe it was Woo that perfected it). This has been seen in literally dozens of American films in recent years, including Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Natural Born Killers and 2 Days in the Valley, just to name a few. Woo's innovative editing techniques, such as the use of "wipes" and freeze-frames (which were considered by many American editors to be "hokey" and "too TV") have also become mainstays of American action cinema, as has Woo's use of slow-motion to add dramatics to his action sequences. It is because of all of these influences that many consider John Woo to be an auteur.

The "Mexican Standoff" as seen in Woo's The Killer (left) and Quentin Taratino's Reservoir Dogs (right). The suits worn by the characters in Reservoir Dogs are similar to those worn by the heroes in A Better Tomorrow 2.

But, you may ask, what is an auteur and how would it apply to John Woo? The term "auteur" was first put forth by a group of French film critics in a journal known as Cahier Du Cinema in the early 1960's. Basically, it states that the director of the film is the "author," that is, he/she is responsible for anything and everything that is put on the screen. Usually this term is given only to those directors who have demonstrated some sort of originality, creativity and/or longevity. Some contemporary examples of auteurs would include Martin Scorsese (Casino, GoodFellas), Steven Spielberg (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan) and Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange). Even though Woo is primarily an action director (and carries with it those negative connotations held by many "educated" people), one needs only to look at the faces of two friends as they must act as executioners for their Viet Cong captors in Bullet in the Head or at the expression of anguish in Jeff's eyes in The Killer when he realizes he will never be able to save Jennie, or at the face of a child caught in a cross-fire in Face-Off to see that Woo is capable of creating something far more exciting than explosions; he is capable of creating "real" emotions on film, and that is what being a true auteur is all about. Perhaps, in a few years, when the dust settles, his fans (and critics) will be able to step back and look at the big picture and beyond the bullets and bodies.

In conclusion, John Woo, after many years of hard work, has become known as the world's best action film directors. His action sequences have become the stuff of legend and are now the basis from which all other action movies are judged. More importantly, along with the bloodshed, Woo has proven that he can create real characters with real emotions that the audience can sympathize with. Perhaps that is his greatest talent, and perhaps that is why he will become known as an auteur in the years to come.

Michael Moore

2009-10-26T06:37:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
23 April 1954, Flint, Michigan, USA

Birth Name
Michael Francis Moore

Nickname
The Big Man

Height
5' 11½" (1.82 m)

Mini Biography
Michael Moore was born in Flint, Michigan April 23, 1954. He studied journalism at the University of Michigan-Flint, and also pursued other hobbies such as gun shooting, for which he even won a competition. Michael began his journalistic career writing for the school newspaper "The Michigan Times," and after dropping out of college briefly worked as editor for "Mother Jones."

He then turned to filmmaking, and to earn the money for the budget of his first film Roger & Me (1989) he ran neighborhood bingo games. The success of this film launched his career as one of America's best-known and most controversial documentarians. He has produced a string of documentary films and TV series predominantly about the same subject: attacks on corrupt politicians and greedy business corporations. He landed his first big hit with Bowling for Columbine (2002) about the bad points of the right to bear arms in America, which earned him an Oscar and a big reputation. He then shook the world with his even bigger hit Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), making fun of President George W. Bush. This is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. Michael is known for having the guts to give his opinion in public, which not many people are courageous enough to do, and for that is respected by many.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Francesco Bori

Spouse
Kathleen Glynn (19 October 1991 - present) 1 child

Trade Mark
Usually wears a baseball cap and glasses.

Often mentions or shows his hometown of Flint, Michigan in his films.

Famous for his provocative populist documentaries that are unapologetic attacks on social wrongs, including those he considers callous business corporations and opportunistic right wing politicians.

Usually wears jeans and sneakers.

Narrates all of his documentaries in the first person

Often uses classic film clips and music for juxtaposition.

Trivia
Was arrested during filming of the video "Sleep Now In The Fire" by Rage Against the Machine, protesting Wall Street and the investment of American money overseas (i.e. in hostile and Communist countries). The filming also shut down the New York Stock Exchange early that day when band members tried to enter the floor uninvited.

His favourite films are Smultronstället (1957) and Taxi Driver (1976).

It was announced on March 13, 2002 his book "Stupid White Men...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation", had reached #1 on the New York Times non-fiction list.

Briefly served as both editor and columnist for Mother Jones magazine.

Raised money for the production of his first film, Roger & Me (1989), by running neighborhood bingo games in his house.

Irish-American.

Is a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association. Moore told Tim Russert that he joined so as to be elected its president and then dismantle the organization.

On the day after his infamous "Oscar Backlash", where he attacked both George W. Bush and the Iraq war, attendance for his movie Bowling for Columbine (2002) went up 110%. The following weekend, the box office for the film was up 73%.

Throughout his film Bowling for Columbine (2002) Moore proudly sports a Michigan State University baseball hat.

Has a daughter, Natalie.

Lives in New York City.

Elected to Davison, Michigan board of education at age 18; this is described and elaborated upon in chapter 5 "Idiot Nation" in his book "Stupid White Men."

His movie Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) was shown at the Cannes Film festival, making it the most sought-after movie there. [May 2004]

Attended the University of Michigan-Flint in the 1970s.

Supported Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential elections.

Although he owns a VW Beetle, he is now said to travel about by chauffered limo.

Early in Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) a celebrity-filled rally for Al Gore is shown and Moore (in his narration) refers to Ben Affleck, "Little Stevie" Wonder, and "the guy from Taxi Driver (1976)," that "guy" being Robert De Niro. This was perhaps a bit of joke because Taxi Driver (1976) is Moore's favorite film and De Niro is one of the actors Moore respects the most.

Senator John McCain referred to him as a "disingenuous filmmaker" during his speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Moore, who was present at the convention in the press area, stood and waved both arms at the crowd, which started chanting "four more years!" Moore then flashed a sign language L (for "loser") at the crowd and, according to "The Guardian" newspaper, said, "Two more months!"

While the press tried to pit Moore and his Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) against Mel Gibson and his The Passion of the Christ (2004) against each other as the representation of "blue" and "red" states in the election year of 2004, the two men get along well personally and find their opposition to be an invention of the press. Actually Moore, a practicing Catholic, loved "Passion" and saw it many times and Gibson, who opposed the invasion of Iraq despite his conservative reputation, greatly enjoyed "Fahrenheit."

Another of his favorite films is also his favorite documentary, Hearts and Minds (1974).

After the box office failure of Canadian Bacon (1995), a very depressed Moore briefly contemplated early retirement. However, famous producer rep John Pierson and filmmaker Kevin Smith changed Moore's mind and gave him inspiration during Pierson's "Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes" book tour. Smith could identify with Moore's grief, having just experienced the box office failure of Mallrats (1995).

2007 - Ranked #27 on EW's The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood.

Though born in Flint, it is not actually his hometown. He grew up 10 miles east of Flint in Davison, which doesn't have a hospital.

Having completed Capitalism: A Love Story (2009), he has hinted that he may take a break from documentary filmmaking and that his next project will be a feature film. He's written two screenplays he'd like to get made, a comedy and a thriller.

Personal Quotes
I like America to some extent. Take the Japanese for instance. They are complicated and tend to be reserved in expressing themselves. Sometimes, it is difficult for me to understand them. Americans are simple and clear. They are charming people. You will understand how good an individual American is. What I am not satisfied with America is that the nation cannot control the government and economy. Only a handful of people have the power to control the country.

I don't compromise my values and I don't compromise my work. That's why I've been kicked from one network to the next: I won't give in.

Americans, when they see Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), will see things they have never seen before.

When asked by David Letterman why Disney didn't want to release his film Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004): "They watched it."

In response to bootleg copies of the movie popping up: "Is it wrong for someone who's bought a film on DVD to let a friend watch it for free? Of course it's not. It never has been and never will be. I think information, art and ideas should be shared. I don't agree with the copyright laws, and I don't have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people as long as they're not trying to make a profit off my labour. I would oppose that. I do well enough already, and I made this film because I want the world to change. The more people who see it, the better, so I'm happy this is happening."

"There is no terrorist threat!".

About his follow-up film to Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and the re-election of President George W. Bush, where Bush won 51% of the popular vote: "We want to get cameras rolling now and have it ready in two, three years. We want to document it. Fifty-one per cent of the American people lacked information (in this election), and we want to educate and enlighten them. They weren't told the truth. We're communicators and it's up to us to start doing it now. The official mourning period is over today, and there is a silver lining: George W. Bush is prohibited by law from running (for presidency) again."

Thousands of Republicans turned to me chanting "Four more years.' I thought, 'That's strange, Republicans are usually good at math, but they're off by a few dozen months. Bush only has two months left.' So I held up two fingers to correct their miscalculation. But that just drove them into more of a frenzy.

Upon winning his Academy Award for Bowling for Columbine (2002): "On behalf of our producers, Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan from Canada, I'd like to thank the Academy for this. I have invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us, and we would like to say that they're here in solidarity with me because we like non-fiction. We like non-fiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or fiction of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. [Interrupted by mingled boos and cheering] And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much."

"I thought it was a powerful piece of filmmaking. I'm a practicing Catholic, and you know I think Mel and I may be from different wings of the Catholic Church. My film might have been called 'The Compassion of the Christ.'" - On The Passion of the Christ (2004)

"I remember going back to my hotel room that night, where they had all the pundits on post-Oscar and they were all like, 'That's the end of Michael Moore. That's the last we'll see of him.' By the end of the night, I believed it. I thought, 'No one is going to want to work with me in this town. I just ruined their big party.' We're all supposed to ignore that the war is going on and just have a party. Well, now here we three years later and it's not just me. It's a few other people saying that we weren't told the truth." - On The 75th Annual Academy Awards (2003) (TV)

We've spent the better part of the year shooting our next movie, Sicko (2007). As we've done with our other films, we don't discuss them while we are making them. If people ask, we tell them 'Sicko' is a comedy about the 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on Earth.

When I'm shooting a movie, I'm always in an invisible theater seat. I respect the fact that people have worked hard all week and want to go to the movies on the weekend and be entertained. But the struggle for me does not come between politics and entertainment, because I know that if I succeed in making an entertaining and funny or sad film, the things I want to say politically will come through very strong. If there ever is a struggle, making a good movie will always supersede the need to be noble.

Having been bumped from Larry King last night for Paris Hilton, I am beginning to take things personally. The priorities in this country are seriously askew.

About Sicko (2007): I made Bowling for Columbine (2002) in the hope the school shootings would stop and that we would address the issue of how easy it is to get a gun in the United States and, tragically, those school shootings continue. I made Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and I said that we'd been led to a war under false pretense. I said it on the Oscar stage and I was booed off. It's my profound hope that people will listen this time.

I think [homophobia is] a very ripe subject for someone like me to make a movie about. Simply because we are not there yet and it remains one of the last open wounds on our soul that we are not willing to fix yet... If you believe in equality, if you believe in standing up for the rights of all, especially for people most affected by bigotry and discrimination, then you have no choice but to be present and accounted for when it comes to standing up for gays and lesbians in our society.

I am not sure what I am going to do for my next film, but I certainly believe that I have no right to tell another couple whether they can or cannot be married. That is simply not allowed in my ethical book of standards. I am a very spiritual person - I don't talk about it publicly that much, but I went to the seminary when I was in high school; I read the New Testament. And let me tell you something: There is nowhere in the four Gospels where Jesus uses the word homosexual, nor the word abortion. The right wing has appropriated this guy. It makes you think, what someone can do in your name a thousand years from now. And they have used him to attack gays and lesbians, when he never said a single word against people who are homosexual. Anyone who professes to be a Christian and does that is certainly not following the teachings of Jesus Christ.

People want to see documentaries, but there's a disconnect between that desire and the exhibitors out there. We're not asking for charity. This could be on the 15th screen of a multiplex that would otherwise have the sixth showing of the new Harry Potter movie. Some of these films make $200 or $300 per screen.

Ang Lee

2009-10-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
23 October 1954, Pingtung, Taiwan

Height
5' 7" (1.70 m)

Mini Biography
Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Masters Degree in Film Production at New York University. At NYU, he served as Assistant Director on Spike Lee's student film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983). After Lee wrote a couple of screenplays, he eventually appeared on the film scene with Tui shou (1992) (aka Pushing Hands), a dramatic-comedy reflecting on generational conflicts and cultural adaptation, centering on the metaphor of the grandfather's Tai-Chi technique of "Pushing Hands". Xi yan (1993) (aka The Wedding Banquet) was Lee's next film, an exploration of cultural and generational conflicts through a homosexual Chinese man who feigns a marriage in order to satisfy the traditional demands of his Taiwanese parents. It garnered Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, and won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The third movie in his trilogy of Taiwanese-Culture/Generation films, all of them featuring his patriarch figure Sihung Lung, was Yin shi nan nu (1994) (aka Eat Drink Man Woman), which received a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination. Lee followed this with Sense and Sensibility (1995), his first Hollywood-mainstream movie. It acquired a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and won Best Adapted Screenplay, for the film's screenwriter and lead actress, Emma Thompson. Lee was also voted the year's Best Director by the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. Lee and frequent collaborator James Schamus next filmed The Ice Storm (1997), an adaptation of Rick Moody's novel involving 1970s New England suburbia. The movie acquired the 1997 Best Screenplay at Cannes for screenwriter James Schamus, among other accolades. The Civil War drama Ride with the Devil (1999/I) soon followed and received critical praise, but it was Lee's Wo hu cang long (2000) (aka Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) that is considered one of his greatest works, a sprawling period film and martial-arts epic that dealt with love, loyalty and loss. It swept the Oscar nominations, eventually winning Best Foreign Language Film, as well as Best Director at the Golden Globes, and became the highest grossing foreign-language film ever released in America. Lee then filmed the comic-book adaptation, Hulk (2003) - an elegantly and skillfully film with nice action scenes. Lee has also shot a short film - Chosen (2001) (aka Hire, The Chosen) - and most recently won the 2005 Best Director Academy Award for Brokeback Mountain (2005), a film based on a short story by Annie Proulx.

IMDb Mini Biography By: artist_signal

Spouse
Jane Lin (1983 - present) 2 children

Trade Mark
Frequently casts actor Sihung Lung as his 'father figure'

Some of his films - Sense and Sensibility (1995), Wo hu cang long (2000) (aka Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) - involved repressed women trying to deal with the confines of their society.

Outdoor settings

Trivia
While attending NYU, worked on Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983), Spike Lee's well-renowned student film.

Graduated from Tisch School of the Arts Graduate program

Graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1980 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Theater Studies from the Department of Theater.

Earned his Masters Degree in Fine Arts from New York University

Turned down an offer to direct Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).

Two sons: Haan (b. 1984) and Mason (b. 1990), both born in Illinois.

His movies Xi yan (1993), Yin shi nan nu (1994) and Wo hu cang long (2000) were Oscar-nominated for "Best Foreign Language Film". Wo hu cang long (2000) won.

Father of Mason Lee

Left Taiwan in 1978 to study in the US.

A dedicated fan of Calgary Flames hockey team.

Taught Kai Wong filmmaking as Montgomery-Fellow-in-Residence at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League college which Meryl Streep once attended.

Never storyboards his movies, even visually complex films such has his acclaimed Wo hu cang long (2000) (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon)

Developed a very strong relationship with Anne Hathaway while filming Brokeback Mountain (2005). It was Ang who persuaded Anne to take the role of Jane Austen in Becoming Jane (2007); having directed Sense and Sensibility (1995) he knew she would be perfect for the role.

One of 4 children.

Father Sheng Lee died in 2004 at the age of 91. He was the head teacher at Tainan First Senior High School.

Is one of only seven living directors who have won the Directors Guild of America Award more than once. The others are Steven Spielberg (3 times) and two-time winners Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, Francis Coppola, Oliver Stone and Milos Forman. However, Lee is unique in this group and being the only one not to have directed a best picture Oscar winner.

Directed 5 actors in Oscar nominated performances: Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Michelle Williams.

Is one of 7 directors to win the Golden Globe, Director's Guild, BAFTA, and Oscar for the same movie, winning for Brokeback Mountain (2005). The other directors to achieve this are Mike Nichols for The Graduate (1967), 'Milos Forman' for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Richard Attenborough for Gandhi (1982), Oliver Stone for Platoon (1986), Steven Spielberg for Schindler's List (1993), and Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (2008).

Personal Quotes
"Making a martial arts film in English to me is the same as John Wayne speaking Chinese in a western".

It could be the hidden side of you; I think making movies is a great way to release that. I think it is important to be honest with that, and have fun with it.

There's a private feeling to the movie, an intimate feeling. I think eventually everybody has a Brokeback Mountain (2005) in them. Someone you want to come back to. And, of course, some people don't come back.

I don't know where I am, but I never know where I am. I was born in China, then my parents moved to Taiwan, where we were outsiders, then to the States, then back to China, then back here. I trust the elusive world created by movies more than anything else. I live on the other side of the screen.

American films are less American every day, because you have to please a world audience. There's less authenticity, so it's more accessible.

On the receiving side, I think the whole world is more ready, with the Internet, with film festivals and DVDs. It used to be a one-way street from West to East: we were receiving and the West was producing. I think we're getting closer and closer. The gap between cultures is getting erased every day.

I'm experienced enough to know that the hardest thing to tell is an epic short story; slices of life that add up to an epic feeling.

Everywhere can be home and everywhere is not really home and you have to deal with loneliness and alienation. I'm old enough to realize that eventually you have to deal with loneliness, anyway. I'm happily married, I love my children, but eventually you have to deal with yourself. I trust the elusive world created by movies more than anything else. I'm very happy when I'm making a movie.

Nothing stands still. That's important in my movies. People want to believe in something, want to hang on to something to get security and want to trust each other. But things change. Given enough time, nothing stands still. I think seeking for security and lack of security is another thing in my movies.

Every movie I make. That's my hideout, the place I don't quite understand, but feel most at home.

My father's family were liquidated during the Cultural Revolution in China because they were landowners. He was the only one to escape. I was born and brought up in Taiwan. But you absorb the trauma. My parents had no sense of security. It was as if the world could turn against them at any moment.

I think I find something new in each culture after being away for a bit, and that's creatively important. You can't move forward without changing, and that's why I try to stay open to new perspectives. I want to keep learning. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you can never learn enough.

I think you look like a fool as a director when you talk too much about what the actors are doing. You want them to listen to you, but personally speaking, I don't want them to just follow everything I say without processing it. This is a problem for Asian actors. They are so polite, and they've been trained to smile and nod and agree with everything someone in power tells them. I'm not looking for conflict, but I'm not happy if someone is repressing their feelings either.

I was never romantic in real life. That is why I have to make movies about it.

I'm a drifter and an outsider. There's not one single environment I can totally belong to. My cultural roots are something illusive.

Working with Heath was one of the purest joys of my life. He brought to the role of Ennis more than any of us could have imagined - a thirst for life, for love, and for truth, and a vulnerability that made everyone who knew him love him. His death is heartbreaking. - Mourning actor Heath Ledger.

Quentin Tarantino

2009-10-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
27 March 1963, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

Birth Name
Quentin Jerome Tarantino

Nickname
QT

Height
6' 1" (1.85 m)

Mini Biography
In January of 1992, Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival, by first-time writer-director Quentin Tarantino. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D'Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was nominated for the best picture, best director and best original screenplay. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for best original screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Allison Anders. The film opened on December 25th in the United States to very weak reviews. Tarantino's next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a vampire/crime story which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Kale Whorton

Trade Mark
Lead characters usually drive General Motors vehicles, particularly Chevrolet and Cadillac, such as Jules' 1974 Nova and Vincent's 1960s Malibu.

Briefcases and suitcases play an important role in Pulp Fiction (1994), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Jackie Brown (1997), True Romance (1993), and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004).

Makes references to cult movies and television.

Frequently works with Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Uma Thurman, and Samuel L. Jackson.

His films usually have a shot from inside a car trunk.

He always has a Dutch element in his films: The opening tune, Little Green Bag, in Reservoir Dogs (1992) was performed by George Baker and written by Jan Gerbrand Visser and Benjamino Bouwens who are all Dutch. The character Freddy Newandyke, played by Tim Roth is a direct translation to a typical Dutch last name, Nieuwendijk. The code name of Tim Roth is Mr. Orange, the royal color of Holland, and the last name of the royal family. The Amsterdam conversation in PulpFiction, Vincent Vega smokes from a Dutch tobacco shag (Drum), the mentioning of Rutger Hauer in Jackie Brown (1997), the bride's name is Beatrix, the name of the Royal Dutch Queen.

[The Mexican Standoff] All his movies (including True Romance (1993), which he only wrote and did not direct) feature a scene in which three or more characters are pointing guns at each other at the same time.

Often uses an unconventional storytelling device in his films, such as retrospect (Reservoir Dogs (1992)), non-linear (Pulp Fiction (1994)), or "chapter" format (_Kill Bill: Vol.1 (2003)_).

His films will often include one long, unbroken take where a character is followed around somewhere.

Often casts comedians in small roles: 'Stephen Wright' as the DJ in Reservoir Dogs (1992), Kathy Griffin as an accident witness and Julia Sweeney as the junkyard guy's daughter in Pulp Fiction (1994), 'Chris Tucker' as Beaumont in Jackie Brown (1997).

Widely imitated quick cuts of character's hands performing actions in extreme closeup, a technique reminiscent of Brian De Palma.

Long closeup of a person's face while someone else speaks off-screen (closeup of The Bride while Bill talks, of Butch while Marsellus talks).

[Aliases] He uses aliases in nearly all of his movies: Honey Bunny and Pumpkin from Pulp Fiction (1994), Mr White, Blonde, Orange etc. from Reservoir Dogs (1992). Bill's team in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) (Black Mamba, Copperhead, Cottonmouth, and California Mountain Snake), The Basterds and other major characters in Inglourious Basterds (2009)

[Director's Cameo] Often plays a small role in his films (Jimmie Dimmick in Pulp Fiction (1994), Mr. Brown in Reservoir Dogs (1992), the answering machine voice in Jackie Brown (1997), The Rapist in Grindhouse (2007) and Warren in Death Proof (2007)).

Frequently uses Mêlée weapons, such as the samuri sword that Butch uses in Pulp Fiction (1994) and the bride uses in the Kill Bill movies, also the stake attached to a jackhammer used by George Clooney in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).

Extreme violence, much of which is off-screen in his films.

Frequently has a female character who wears a black and white pant suit (Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction (1994), Pam Grier in Jackie Brown (1997), Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)).

Often creates fictional brands of objects due to his dislike of product placement. The Red Apple cigarettes and Big Kahuna burger established in Pulp Fiction (1994) are often referenced in his other films.

Frequently sets his films in Los Angeles.

Often frames characters with doorways and shows them opening and closing doors.

Minor character dialogue is off-screen in his films.

A character cooly talks through an intense situation, either delaying the occurrence of violence or avoiding it through resolution.

Interjects scenes with introduction of a character's background (Inglorious Basterds, Hans Stieglitz is introduced. In Kill Bill V1. O-Ren is introduced with a interuption in the main story)

Trivia
Was sued by Don Murphy for $5,000,000, accused of assault. Tarantino attacked Murphy in restaurant, slammed him against the wall and punched him. [14 November 1997]

Together with Lawrence Bender founded record company called A Band Apart Records. It will focus on film soundtracks and its releases will be distributed through Maverick Records, owned by Madonna. [30 July 1997]

Was planning to direct an episode of "The X Files" (1993) but refused to join the Director's Guild of America. The Guild refused his request for a waiver so that he could direct the show. [November 1996]

Claims that Tarantino acted in the film Dawn of the Dead (1978) or the film King Lear (1987) are incorrect. Quentin falsely listed these credits years ago on his acting resume to compensate for his lack of experience and these incorrect credits have subsequently been attributed to him in such places as Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide and the Cinemania CD ROM.

First noted screenplay was titled "Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit," which was written in 1985.

Tarantino claims that James Best taught him how to act.

Collects old board games having to do with TV shows like "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965), "The Dukes of Hazzard" (1979), "The A-Team" (1983), etc.

In all of his original screenplays the name of a police detective named Scagnetti is referred to at least once. Most of the times the particular scene was cut out of the final versions.

Is widely reported to have helped to write Tony Scott's Crimson Tide (1995).

As of the year 2001, he wanted to begin filming the film Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) with Uma Thurman. Production was delayed because of Thurman's pregnancy.

Is a big fan of The Three Stooges.

His father, actor/musician Tony Tarantino is of Italian descent, and his mother, Connie McHugh, is half-Irish and half-Cherokee.

Although he uses both elements in his films, he strongly detests violence and drugs.

Is listed in the acknowledgments of actor Ethan Hawke's novel, Ash Wednesday.

Two of Tarantino's favorite films are _'Manos' the Hands of Fate (1966)_ (which he owns a 35mm copy of) and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982), which he references in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003).

Was the head judge at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where Pulp Fiction (1994) won the Palme D'or, the top honor, only ten years earlier.

In most of his movies, you'll spot Red Apple cigarettes.

Considers Ride in the Whirlwind (1965) one of the finest Westerns ever made, even writing an extensive article about it for Sight And Sound magazine titled A Rare Sorrow. The article was featured in the Pulp Fiction (1994) Special Edition DVD as an extra and also appears in Paul A. Woods' Film Geek Files (pgs. 129-132). Interestingly, the director of Ride in the Whirlwind, Monte Hellman, was the executive producer of Reservoir Dogs (1992).

Has an IQ of 160 despite dropping out of high school.

He is a good friend of Robert Rodriguez.

He has called Uma Thurman his muse.

Named after the Burt Reynolds character Quint Asper from "Gunsmoke" (1955)

Was at one point in his life considering to become a novelist. He said that he tried writing two chapters of a novel about his experiences working at the Video Archives in Hermosa Beach. As can be immediately seen, novelistic narrative techniques bear a strong influence on his distinct filmmaking style.

In 1994, before Pulp Fiction (1994), in an interview with Charlie Rose, he cited his three favorite films as Blow Out (1981) (directed by Brian De Palma), Rio Bravo (1959) (directed by Howard Hawks) and Taxi Driver (1976) (directed by Martin Scorsese).

In the last Sight & Sound Greatest Films Poll (2002), he listed his Top Ten films as: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966) (aka "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," Leone), Rio Bravo (1959) (Hawks), Taxi Driver (1976) (Scorsese), His Girl Friday (1940) (Hawks), Rolling Thunder (1977) (Flynn), They All Laughed (1981) (Bogdanovich), The Great Escape (1963) (J. Sturges), Carrie (1976) (De Palma), Coffy (1973) (Hill), Dazed and Confused (1993) (Linklater), _Tian xia di yi quan (1973)_ (aka "Five Fingers of Death," Chang) and Hi Diddle Diddle (1943) (Stone).

Considers two of his best friends to be Paul Thomas Anderson and Sofia Coppola.

His mother was only 16 when she gave birth to him.

Once a vocal proponent of celluloid-over-digital film-making, Tarantino got his first experience with the latter technology by directing a segment of the film Sin City (2005) with his friend 'Robert Rodriguez' (I) . Rodriguez, who lauds the technology at every opportunity, made it his mission to convert Tarantino as well. At the end of shooting, Tarantino is reported to have said simply, "Mission accomplished."

On "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992), he stated his all-time favorite James Bond film is From Russia with Love (1963).

Hates product placement hence, the use of the fictional cigarette Red Apple and now-defunct cereal Fruit Brute in his films.

Dropped out of Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California, at the age of sixteen to pursue film making.

Six of his movies are mentioned in FHM's (DK) 100 Best Male Movies Ever (7 October 2004 issue): True Romance (1993) at #75, From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) at #73, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) at #26, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) at #25, Reservoir Dogs (1992) at #11, and Pulp Fiction (1994) at #1.

Was offered the role of the President of the United States of America in Batoru rowaiaru II: Chinkonka (2003) but had to decline due to scheduling conflicts.

Known for giving comebacks to "forgotten" actors and/or cult actors by giving them important roles in his movies: John Travolta (Pulp Fiction (1994)), David Carradine(Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)), Lawrence Tierney (Reservoir Dogs (1992)), Pam Grier (Jackie Brown (1997)), Robert Forster (Jackie Brown (1997)), Sonny Chiba (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003))... even in smaller/cameo roles: Sid Haig (Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)), Edward Bunker (Reservoir Dogs (1992)) and Michael Parks (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), and From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), which QT wrote and co-starred in).

Frequently casts Michael Bowen.

Has stated that he would like to direct a James Bond movie at some point in his career.

Has named Rio Bravo (1959) as one of his favorite films.

Named his production company, A Band Apart, after the Jean-Luc Godard film Bande à part (1964) (Band of Outsiders).

Often references numerous attributes of the works of Jean-Luc Godard, particularly in Pulp Fiction (1994). The disjointed structure of Pulp Fiction (1994) may itself be an homage to Godard's use of jump cuts in À bout de souffle (1960) (Breathless), the film that launched the French New Wave of cinema.

Is a huge fan of the Half-Life computer game series, and has considered possibilities of directing a movie adaptation.

Ranked #81 on Premiere's 2004 annual Power 100 List. He was unranked in 2003.

Cites his influences as Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Sergio Leone, and Jean-Luc Godard.

Ranked #8 in Empire (UK) magazine's greatest directors ever 2005 poll.

Was the spokesman for SkyperfecTV, a Japanese based satellite TV network, a competitor to the now locally defunct DirecTV endorsed by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Was guest director for one scene for Robert Rodriguez' Sin City (2005).

Eli Roth wanted to have the world premiere of Hostel (2005) at the 2005 Iceland Film Festival. During the festival, Roth and Quentin Tarantino were made honorary vikings at Viking Village, in a ceremony arranged by Eythor Gudjonsson. Roth's Icelandic name is Eli Sheldonsson, and Tarantino's Icelandic name is Quentin Conniesson.

His all-time favorite director is Howard Hawks.

Each of his movies, with the exception of Death Proof (2007), features someone from the cast of Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973). Harvey Keitel from Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994), Robert De Niro from Jackie Brown (1997), David Carradine from Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), and David Proval is in Four Rooms (1995).

Was originally offered the chance to direct Men in Black (1997), but turned it down.

Was originally offered the chance to direct Speed (1994/I), but turned it down.

Is godfather to two of Michael Madsen's sons Hudson and Calvin Michael. Michael and his wife DeAnna joked in OK! magazine about naming Quentin godfather to their newest son Luke Ray as well.

Is spoofed in the short film Let's Get Real! (1999), which contains several satirical references to Pulp Fiction (1994).

Has stated that he would like to make and star in a film telling the story of John Brown, the abolitionist.

Named his favorite films of 2005 as Sin City (2005), Domino (2005), Hustle & Flow (2005) and The Devil's Rejects (2005).

Has named My Bloody Valentine (1981) his all-time favorite slasher film.

During his stay in the Philippines, Tarantino got trapped in traffic due to flooding as he was traveling to Malacanang Palace to meet President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and receive a lifetime achievement award. Refusing to give up, he and his partner Tikoy Aguiluz got off their limousine and took a pedicab each to reach the palace. After arriving, Tarantino stated "It was a lot of fun. It just took a long time but it was not bad at all".

Has two sisters and one brother: Tanya Marie Tarantino (b. Pasadena, California, 4 Oct 1964), Ronnajean Tarantino (b. Arizona, Phoenix, 22 June 1969) and Edward James Tarantino (b. Simi Valley, California, Simi Valley, 3 Oct 1974).

His father was born in Queens, New York, and has a sister named Diane. Their parents are Dominic Tarantino and wife Elizabeth.

His mother was born in Tennessee on September 3, 1946, She is the adopted daughter of Ellis and Elizabeth (Betty) Shaffer.

After his parents divorced, his mother married Curtis Zastoupil.

As a child, one of his favorite movies was Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). He credits the film with helping him learn genre distinctions.

Wrote the forward for the book Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi".

Was offered a chance to direct Westworld (2009), but turned it down.

Was ex-girlfriend Mira Sorvino's date the night she won her best supporting actress Oscar.

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he was raised in Los Angeles.

Close friends with Jennifer Beals.

Is of Italian, Irish and Cherokee descent.

In the 2008 Empire Magazine poll of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, Tarantino listed his favorite films as: 1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), (Sergio Leone), 2. Rio Bravo (1959), (Howard Hawks), 3. Blow Out (1981), (Brian De Palma), 4. Taxi Driver (1976), (Martin Scorsese), 5. His Girl Friday (1940), Howard Hawks), 6. 5 Fingers of Death / King Boxer (1972), (Chang-hwa Jeong), 7. Pandora's Box (1929), ('Georg Wilhelm Pabst'), 8. Carrie (1976), (Brian De Palma), 9. Unfaithfully Yours (1948), (Preston Sturges), 10. Five Graves to Cairo (1943), (Billy Wilder), 11. Jaws (1975), (Steven Spielberg). Choices #2, 3 and 4 are marked as "interchangeable".

Lived with Jennifer Beals while getting his first films produced.

Directed 4 actors in Oscar nominated performances: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, and Robert Forster.

His three favourite Alfred Hitchcock movies are; Suspicion (1941), Sabotage (1936) and Torn Curtain (1966).

Personal Quotes
(At MTV Movie Awards 1994) As he won Best Picture for Pulp Fiction (1994) "Pop quiz, hotshot: you go to the awards ceremonies all year long; you keep losing to Forrest Gump (1994)! It's really annoying the hell out of you - what do you do? You go to the MTV Awards!"

On "rival" director Guy Ritchie marrying Madonna: "I guess I'll have to marry Elvis Presley to get even."

If I've made it a little easier for artists to work in violence, great! I've accomplished something.

When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'no, I went to films.'

On using surfing music, when hating the surfing culture: "It's like surf music, I've always like loved that but, for me, I don't know what surf music has to do with surf boards. To me, it just sounds like rock and roll, even Morricone music. It sounds like rock and roll Spaghetti Western music, so that's how I kind of laid it in."

Movies are my religion and God is my patron. I'm lucky enough to be in the position where I don't make movies to pay for my pool. When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me; like I would die for it.

On the comparison between Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)'s group fight and Neo vs. 100 Agent Smiths in The Matrix Reloaded (2003): "First off, I've always thought of the black suits as mine, so I don't think of them as Agent Smiths, I think of them as Reservoir Dogs with less cool sunglasses. The similarities between the fight sequences never occurred to me until I had a director's screening and Luc Besson turned up with Keanu Reeves as his guest. I watched Keanu watching and suddenly I felt it."

On media criticisms of violence in his movies: "Sure, Kill Bill's a violent movie. But it's a Tarantino movie. You don't go to see Metallica and ask the fuckers to turn the music down."

On media criticisms of violence in his movies: "What if a kid goes to school after seeing Kill Bill and starts slicing up other kids? You know, I'll take that chance! Violent films don't turn children into violent people. They may turn them into violent filmmakers but that's another matter altogether."

On collecting movies: "If you're a film fan, collecting video is sort of like marijuana. Laser discs, they're definitely cocaine. Film prints are heroin, all right? You're shooting smack when you start collecting film prints. So, I kinda got into it in a big way, and I've got a pretty nice collection I'm real proud of."

On how to take the violence in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) (re: The final duel with Lucy Liu): "It's supposed to be kind of amusing and poetic at the same time. And also just a teeny-tiny bit solemn. When you see her head, it's funny. And then her line, 'that really was a Hattori Hanzo sword,' that's funny. But then, the next shot is not funny, when she tips over and Meiko Kaji is singing about revenge on the soundtrack. So, it's all together. Funny. Solemn. Beautiful. Gross. All at the same time."

On becoming famous: "Going into a videostore and going through the videos, looking at every title they have, trying to find some old spaghetti western, that's gone."

I have an idea for a Godzilla movie that I've always wanted to do. The whole idea of Godzilla's role in Tokyo, where he's always battling these other monsters, saving humanity time and again- wouldn't Godzilla become God? It would be called Living Under the Rule of Godzilla. This is what society is like when a big fucking green lizard rules your world.

On violence in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003): "When I was on "The View" (1997), Barbara Walters was asking me about the blood and stuff, and I said, 'Well, you know, that's a staple of Japanese cinema.' And then she came back,'But this is America.' And I go, 'I don't make movies for America. I make movies for planet Earth.'"

On directing the "ER" (1994) episode "Motherhood": "When I was directing ER, I didn't want to stand out. Everyone else is wearing all that crap. I wanted to fit in. I didn't want to be the odd man out. I wanted to be inside, not on the outside. When I was directing the ER thing, the emergency room guys wore the green scrubs. I wore those for a few days. Then, I wore the blue scrubs, which were the surgeons,' for a few days. When I wore the nurse's pink scrubs, though, that's when I became a hero on the set. The nurses didn't think I was going to throw in with them. I ended the episode, the last two days, wearing the nurses' scrubs. When I walked on the set all the nurses applauded me. They were like, 'Oh my God, he's so cool!'"

On Thriller - en grym film (1974) and its influences on Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003): "And that is, of all the revenge movies I've ever seen, that is definitely the roughest. The roughest revenge movie ever made! There's never been anything as tough as that movie."

"If you want to make a movie, make it. Don't wait for a grant, don't wait for the perfect circumstances, just make it." - Giving advice to young aspiring filmmakers at the 1994 Independent Spirit Awards

I hope to give you at least 15 more years of movies. I'm not going to be this old guy that keeps cranking them out. My plan is to have a theater by that time in some small town and I will be the manager - this crazy old movie guy. (March 2005)

I will never do 'Pulp Fiction 2', but having said that, I could very well do other movies with these characters.

I've come to a point where I like Pauline Kael's reviews of Godard more than Godard's films.

(On making another "Kill Bill" movie) "Oh yeah, initially I was thinking this would be my "Dollars Trilogy". I was going to do a new one every ten years. But I need at least fifteen years before I do this again. I've already got the whole mythology: Sofie Fatale will get all of Bill's money. She'll raise Nikki, who'll take on The Bride. Nikki deserves her revenge every bit as much as The Bride deserved hers. I might even shoot a couple of scenes for it now so I can get the actresses while they're this age."

I'm never going to be shy about anything, what I write about is what I know; it's more about my version of the truth as I know it. That's part of my talent, really - putting the way people really speak into the things I write. My only obligation is to my characters. And they came from where I have been.

The exploitation films were made in such an artless way with these big wide shots of Sunset Boulevard or of Arcadia or downtown L.A. or wherever. In mainstream films, especially in the 1980s, the Los Angeles you saw wasn't the real one; it was a character with this back-lot sort of atmosphere. They tried to luxuriate it. In exploitation films, you see what the place really looked like, you see the bars and mom-and-pop restaurants.

There's only one list that's more illustrious than the list of directors who won the Palme d'Or. It's the list of directors who didn't.

I don't believe in putting in music as a band aid to get you over some rough parts or bad film making. If it's there it's got to add to it or take it to another level.

When I give props to these movies, you have to understand - it's not like they were all good. There's an expression: You have to drink a lot of milk before you can appreciate cream. Well, with exploitation movies, you have to drink a lot of milk-gone-bad before you can even appreciate milk! That's what part of the love of these movies is - going through the rummage bin and finding the jewels.

[on the death of David Carradine] He was a dream to direct, a fantastic actor, a great character actor and really one of Hollywood's great mad geniuses.

[On how The Dirty Dozen (1967) could never be made today] Ernest Borgnine. Charles Bronson. Those guys were real men. They were a different breed. Many of them had been to war. Today's young actors are soft.

[On the Cannes Film Festival] I just like Cannes. It's like the whole planet is checking your movie out - boom! - at one time, and - bam! - it either works or it doesn't. And especially when I'm there - it's the closest thing to Muhammad Ali having a championship fight. It's just - bam! You're throwing it down.

I've had people write that I've seen too many movies. In what other art form would being an expert be considered a negative? If I were a poet, would I be criticized for knowing too much about Sappho? Or Aristotle?

Some people will like Inglourious Basterds (2009). Some people won't. But it was made with all the passion I've made everything with - except maybe my first film, which was probably made with more passion than I'll ever have again.

When you gotta go out and make a movie to pay for the kid's private school and for the three ex-wives, don't talk to me about your artistry. It's their job. It's not my job. It's my calling.

[On why his characters in Inglourious Basterds (2009) use Native American fighting tactics] I'm actually equating the Jews in this situation, in World War II, with the Indians. It's not nothing that they're doing Apache resistance. It's not about dying. It's about killing. They ambush their guys. They trick the enemy. It's not a straight-up fight. And then they go and they just completely desecrate the bodies to win a psychological war.

[On Late Night with Conan O'Brien, when asked how he comes up with such good dialog] Well, not to be facetious or anything, but....I'm a good writer!

I think the opening chapter of Inglourious Basterds (2009) is one of the best things I've ever written - before that sequence my best piece of writing would be the Sicilian sequence in the True Romance (1993) script; that was the best thing I'd ever done in a beginning to end piece. And I think I finally matched it, or topped it with that sequence so I knew I couldn't just let it go. I would have been haunted by it and I wouldn't be able to move on to anything else until I had it out of the way.

CGI has fully ruined car crashes. Because how can you be impressed with them now? When you watch them in the '70s, it was real cars, real metal, real blasts. They're really doing it and risking their lives. But I knew CGI was gonna start taking over.

There's my realer-than-real movies like Reservoir Dogs (1992). And then there's my movie-movies. And Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) is definitely one of those. It's the movies that Jules and Vince (from Pulp Fiction (1994)) would go and see...I always thought of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) as my Apocalypse Now (1979) and that House Of Blue Leaves is my 'Ride Of The Valkyries' helicopter sequences.

When I first discovered Howard Hawks, I spent a year and a half reading the TV guide and they played about 80 percent of his entire oeuvre on Los Angeles TV. Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone and Hawks were a huge influence on me.

Where Are They Now
(September 2006) Currently at the shooting of Hostel: Part II (2007).

(August 2007) Planning to write a book about the Philipinne B-movie industry.

Date of Birth 14 May 1944, Modesto, California, USA Birth Name George Walton Lucas Jr. Height 5' 7" (1.70 m) Mini Biography George Lucas was rai

2009-10-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
14 May 1944, Modesto, California, USA

Birth Name
George Walton Lucas Jr.

Height
5' 7" (1.70 m)

Mini Biography
George Lucas was raised on a walnut ranch in Modesto, California. His father was a stationery store owner and he had three siblings. During his late teens he went to Downey High School and was very much interested in drag car racing. He planned to become a professional racecar driver. However a terrible car accident just after his high school graduation ended that dream permanently. The accident changed his views on life. He decided to attend Modesto Junior College before enrolling in the University of Southern California film school. As a film student he made several short films including THX-1138: 4EB (Electronic Labyinth) which won first prize at the 1967-68 National Student Film Festival. In 1967 he was awarded a scholarship by Warner Brothers to observe the making of Finian's Rainbow (1968) which was being directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Lucas and Coppola became good friends and formed a company called American Zoetrope in 1969. The company's first project was Lucas' full-length version of THX 1138 (1971). In 1971, Coppola went into production for The Godfather (1972), and Lucas formed his own company, Lucasfilm Ltd. In 1973 he wrote and directed the semi-autobiographical American Graffiti (1973) which won the Golden Globe and garnered five Academy Award nominations. This gave him the clout he needed for his next daring venture. From 1973 to 1974 he began writing the screenplay for Star Wars (1977). He was inspired to make this movie from Flash Gordon and the Planet of the Apes films. In 1975 he established ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) to produce the visual effects needed for the movie. Another company called Sprocket Systems was established to edit and mix Star Wars and later becomes known as Skywalker Sound. His movie was turned down by several studios until Twentieth Century Fox gave him a chance. Lucas agreed to forgo his directing salary in exchange for 40% of the film's box-office take and all merchandising rights. The movie went on to break all box office records and earned seven Academy Awards. It redefined the term "blockbuster". The rest is history. Lucas made the other Star Wars films and along with 'Steven Spielberg' created the Indiana Jones series which made box office records of their own. From 1980 to 1985 Lucas was busy with the construction of Skywalker Ranch, built to accommodate the creative, technical, and administrative needs of Lucasfilm. Lucas also revloutionized movie theaters with the THX System which was created to maintain the highest quality standards in motion picture viewing. He went on to make several more movies that have created major breakthroughs in film making. He is chairman of the board of The George Lucas Educational Foundation. In 1992 George Lucas was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his lifetime achievement.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Sujit R. Varma < sujit_varma@hotmail.com>

Spouse
Marcia Lucas (22 February 1969 - 1983) (divorced)

Trade Mark
Letters/numbers THX-1138 (name of his first "real" movie) appears in many films: The licence plate number on Milner's deuce coupe in American Graffiti (1973) was THX 138. A battle droid who captures Jar Jar Binks and the Gungans has the number 1138 written on his back. In Star Wars (1977), Luke Skywalker said (with reference to Chewbacca) "Prisoner transfer from cell block 1138." In Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), General Rieekan says, "Send Rogues ten and eleven (11) to station three-eight (38)."

His films usually feature a battle scene which takes place around a large shaft or pit.

Characters he has created often have "a bad feeling about this" (as in all of the Star Wars movies and in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008))

Stunning visual effects sequences, provided by Lucas's own special effects company, ILM.

Abstract and innovative sound design (THX 1138 (1971), Star Wars (1977)).

According to Lucas, one of the themes in all of his films is man's relationship to machines and technology - either controlling them, or being controlled by them.

High-energy action scenes using fast-paced montage (Includes all films in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series).

Frequently uses the famous "Wilhelm Scream" sound effect in his films. This sound effect has been used in dozens of movies.

Rereleases new versions of his films with enhanced special effects, much to the chagrin of critics and fans (the special editions of the original Star Wars trilogy, the director's cut of THX 1138 (1971)).

Trivia
Three adopted children: Amanda Lucas (aka Amanda Lucas, b. 1981), Katie Lucas (b. 1988), and Jett Lucas(b. 1993).

Graduated from USC's school of cinema (1962)

Shortly before graduating high school, he was involved in a high speed car accident that left him hospitalized and near death

Lucas provided all the funding for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).

For 2nd consecutive year, ranked No. 4 on Entertainment Weekly's annual list of "101 Most Powerful People in Entertainment." Ranked just ahead of Steven Spielberg and just behind the power couple that runs Time Warner Turner media empire.

Sits on USC School of Cinema-Television's Board of Councilors.

In the 2001 edition of the Forbes' "400 Richest People In America", it is reported that Lucas' fortune is $3 billion.

He is a diabetic.

He has created the image of always being on the cutting edge of technology. However, when he writes, he does it in longhand in a loose leaf binder rather than on a word processor.

He was so impressed with relatively unknown stage actor James Wheaton that he cast him over studio objections in the voiceover role of "OMM" in THX 1138 (1971). The studio wanted Orson Welles to play the role.

His script for Star Wars (1977) was turned down by every major Hollywood studio, the reason being that no one would want to see it. In a last ditch attempt, Lucas approached 20th Century Fox who decided to go ahead with the script even though they were convinced it would flop. Star Wars ended up becoming the highest grossing movie ever released at that time. It still ranks as one of the highest grossing movies ever made to this day.

Sold Lucasfilm's Computer Graphics Division to Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs, and it later became Pixar Animation Studio.

His name backwards is Egroeg Sacul. This name is also used in the Disney theme park ride Star Tours (1987).

Rewrote the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) to tighten it up due to the fact that the scene would have been too busy. It originally ended with the mine-car chase that was later added to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).

Conceived Indiana Jones while on vacation with his friend Steven Spielberg in Hawaii. Lucas decided to produce while Spielberg would direct.

Had a long romantic involvement with Linda Ronstadt.

With THX 1138 (1971) and Star Wars (1977), Lucas re-invented the way sound was used in films. Using it in both a linear and abstract way, to tell the story, he pushed sound design to the forefront of the filmmaking process.

Refuses to put "critics quotes" on his movie posters. Something that infuriates many critic societies.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 605-610. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

He based the character of Han Solo on his friend Francis Ford Coppola.

He originally wanted his friend Steven Spielberg to direct Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), but his dispute with the Director's Guild barred him from doing so. He settled for director Richard Marquand instead.

Became so stressed during the filming of the original Star Wars (1977) that he checked himself into a hospital, where he was diagnosed with hyper-tension.

Said that Alec Guinness was very helpful to him during the filming of the original Star Wars (1977) even to the point of getting the other actors to work more seriously.

Disowned Howard the Duck (1986) after the film's release.

When he began his apprenticeship at Warner Brothers, what he wanted to see most was the Animation Department. He claims that the day he arrived on the lot was the very day the Animation Department was closed down.

Despite a reputation as Hollywood blockbusters, all of the Star Wars films are actually independent films, with the exception of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The only way he could get the required funding to make the film was to apply for studio funding. With the success of the film and its merchandising, Lucas no longer needed to go to the studios. For Episodes V and VI, he took out bank loans, which he paid off on each films' earnings. For the Prequel Trilogy, he no longer needed bank loans, having made enough money to fund each film out of his own personal savings.

He made what was at the time an unusual deal for the film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Paramount financed the film's entire $20 million budget. In exchange, Lucas would own over 40% of the film and collect almost half of the profits after the studio a grossed a certain amount. It turned out to be a very lucrative deal for Lucas. Paramount executive Michael Eisner said that he felt the script for the film was the best he had ever read.

Won the American Film Institute's Life Time Achievement Award.

His favorite stage of filmmaking is editing the film together.

His nickname in high school was Luke. This later became the name of the hero of his original Star Wars trilogy, Luke Skywalker.

He originally wanted to do a film adaptation of Flash Gordon, but he could not obtain the rights, so he created Star Wars instead, which was in a similar vein to Flash Gordon.

Used the 1927 U.F.A. film "Metropolis" as guidelines for some of his Star Wars characters - the "robotic man" for "C3PO" and the "robots creator" as "Anakin Skywalker." Both the creator and Anakin lost a hand. The "robotic man's creator" loses his hand while building the robot.

Became rich almost overnight due to him keeping the rights to Star Wars and not selling them outright to Twentieth Century Fox.

In the 2005 edition of Forbes' "400 Richest People in America" list, his net worth is estimated at $3.5 billion. He and good friend Steven Spielberg are the only filmmakers on the list.

Plans to reissue all of the Star Wars movies in 3-D versions using the Dimensionalization process by ILM. The process was first used in Chicken Little (2005).

Had a dog named 'Indiana' which not only inspired the Indiana Jones character, but Chewbacca from Star Wars was also modelled around the way the dog looked.

He received a medal from US president George Bush for outstanding achievement in improvements in technology in movies made by his special effects company ILM

Star Wars (1977), AKA as "Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope" is ranked #39 on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time.

Grand marshal, Tournament of Roses parade [2007]

He, his mentor Francis Ford Coppola, and friend Steven Spielberg presented Martin Scorsese with his first ever Oscar for Best Director for The Departed (2006).

Is a fan of "Doctor Who" (1963).

Skywalker Ranch, Lucas' film production facility, covers an area of some 3,000 acres in Northern California's Marin County hills. The precise address is: 5858 Lucas Valley Road, Nicasio, CA, 94946. The facility employs around 200 personnel, is home to a baseball field, a vineyard, 3 restaurants and a fire station, not to mention the array of hi-tech amenities. The fact that Skywalker Ranch is located off Lucas Valley Road is pure coincidence.

Graduated from Modesto's Roosevelt Junior High school in 1958.

Rankings on Premiere's annual Power 100 List - 2002: #14; 2003: #10; 2004: #16; 2005: #11.

Quit the DGA after some disputes over the opening credits in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). The movie had no opening credits and the DGA fined Lucas with $250.000, which he paid, and eventually quit.

George Lucas has been in a relationship with Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, LLC, since 2007.

Lucas supported Barack Obama for President in 2008. With girlfriend, Mellody Hobson, he attended the "We Are One" Presidential Pre-Inaugural Concert on 18 January 2009.

As a fan of "Family Guy" (1999), he occasionally gives the producers the clearance to do "Star Wars" gags on the show.

George Lucas's close friend John Landis was originally slated to direct Howard the Duck (1986) but after reading the script turned down the opportunity due to the police car crashes in the finale. He felt this was too similar to that of his previous film The Blues Brothers (1980).

During pre-production of Empire Strikes Back (1980) George created a phony working title - not for fan purposes, but to save money. Vendors and service providers, upon getting wind of the next Star Wars picture, were doubling their prices.

Personal Quotes
A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.

The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie.

The script is what you've dreamed up-this is what it should be. The film is what you end up with.

I am simply trying to struggle through life; trying to do God's bidding.

On the making of Star Wars (1977): "When you're directing, you have to get up at four thirty [A.M], have breakfast at five, leave the hotel at six, drive an hour to location, start shooting at eight, and finish shooting around six. Then you wrap, go to your office, and set up the next day's work. You get back to the hotel about eight or nine, hopefully get a bite to eat, then you go to your room and figure out your homework, how you're going to shoot the next day's scenes, then you go to sleep. The next morning it starts all over again."

I took over control of the merchandising not because I thought it was going to make me rich, but because I wanted to control it. I wanted to make a stand for social, safety, and quality reasons. I didn't want someone using the name 'Star Wars' on a piece of junk.

The object is to try to get the (movie) system to work for you, instead of against you. And the only way you can do it is through success, I'm afraid.

Making a film is like putting out a fire with sieve. There are so many elements, and it gets so complicated.

To be renewed is everything. What more could one ask for than to have one's youth back again?

"He is his own man, he is not a son anymore, he is an equal." - describing Luke Skywalker after his duel with Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

I wanted to make abstract films that are emotional, and I still do.

"He is one of the best. He's outwitted the empire on numerous occaisons, and he has made some very fast deals. One of his problems is that he gambles quite heavily and that's where he loses most of his money. He's tough and sharp, but never manages to scrape together enough to get any power...He's slightly self-destructive and he sort of enjoys being on the brink of disaster...You might meet him and he may be worth ten billion dollars and the next time you meet him he's in debt up to his ears." - Describing Han Solo

It's hard work making movies. It's like being a doctor:you work long hours, very hard hours, and it's emotional, tense work. If you don't really love it, then it ain't worth it.

From being a struggling, starving filmmaker to being incredibly successful in a period of a couple of years is quite a powerful experience, and not necessarily a good one.

I've had a very volatile relationship with Francis (Ford Coppola). It's on both sides, like we were married and we got divorced. It's as close a relationship as I've had with anybody.

If you can tune into the fantasy life of an 11-year-old girl, you can make a fortune in this business.

Regarding Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005): "Right or wrong this is my movie, this is my decision, and this is my creative vision, and if people don't like it, they don't have to see it."

I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them.

On Gangs of New York (2002): We showed a print of it at the Skywalker Ranch. I was amazed by what he (Scorsese) did with it and where he went. It was terrific.

The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable.

I've worked hard enough and earned enough to fail for the rest of my life. And I'm gonna do it!! - About making art films that he admits no one will want to see.

When asked what it was like to watch Steven Spielberg direct: It's like watching Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison. It's like watching Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, any genius you can name.

Part of the reason I went back to tell the prequel, of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, is that it's an interesting story and a fun one to tell. Because it is the story of how a good person turns bad.

"I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that the films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them." - expressing concern over the Colorization of black & white films

"Thank you. Thank you all. This is a very, very important award for me. Star Wars, oddly enough, doesn't really get that many awards. I'm not a big favorite with the critics, but who listens to them? I'm not a big industry favorite either, but of course they are a bunch of studio executives. The most important people for any filmmaker, the reason that I make films, is for you! The audience rules! Thank you. Thank you very much!" - while receiving the Best Movie award for Revenge Of The Sith at the Peoples Choice Awards.

With film, if you get a million people to see your movie on the first weekend, you've made about $5 million. That basically will not end up on the top-10 chart. You have to get 10 million people on the first weekend. And if you don't do it in two days, you're basically out of the theaters and into the DVD market. There's just an ecology there. If you're a mouse, don't expect to kill a lion, because it ain't gonna happen. If you want to have that kind of power, it's better to be a lion, because the mice are fine - you can have a life and everything - but the lions are the ones out there prowling and scaring the hell out of everybody.

Yeah, I have a few dollars, but when you're getting up to the point where the average movie costs $80 million, anything under $20 million is pretty cheap. Anything under $10 million is almost impossible. And anything under $5 million is Roger Corman.

[on film critics] "There are a few critics overseas, and occasionally a critic will write an astute analysis of the movie. There is value in reading critics that actually have something intelligent to say, but the journalistic community lives in a world of sound bites and literary commerce: selling newspapers, selling books, and they do that simply by trashing things. They don't criticize or analyze them. They simply trash them for the sake of a headline, or to shock people to get them to buy whatever it is they're selling."

[on critics] "You have to have a thick enough skin to cope with the criticism. I'm very self-critical and I have a lot of friends that I trust who are film directors and writers and people in my profession. I trust them to be extremely critical but I trust their opinion; their opinion is thoughtful, knowledgeable. I also know them personally so I know the psychological slant they are putting on it. I know what their tastes are and I can say, "Well that's great for them but that's not great for me." Technical criticism is extremely helpful but you are only going to get that from your peers. "

None of the films I've done was designed for a mass audience, except for Indiana Jones. Nobody in their right mind thought American Graffiti or Star Wars would work.

[About THX-1138] My first film was a parable about the way we are living our lives today. I realize it was a rather depressing statement. People really weren't interested in a depressing statement. Being a pessimist doesn't seem to accomplish anything.

[About the origin of Chewbacca] There was a dog in American Graffiti, but I didn't use Indiana for the part because it was a night scene and I wanted a white dog. My wife was very upset that I didn't put my own dog in the movie; so I said I'd put Indiana's spirit in the next one. And that's how the Wookiee came into being.

[About the upcoming 2008 film, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"] When you do a movie like this, a sequel that's very, very anticipated, people anticipate ultimately that it's going to be the Second Coming. And it's not. It's just a movie. Just like the other movies. You probably have fond memories of the other movies. But if you went back and looked at them, they might not hold up the same way your memory holds up... You're not going to get a lot of accolades... All you can do is lose.

Honestly, everyone feels you have to talk about yourself all the time. They say I'm introverted because I don't give many interviews. But I don't give many interviews because I don't make many films.

On the influence of Star Wars on Hollywood films: People say my movies are just like Hollywood movies. And I say, "I can't help it if Hollywood copies."

I am the father of our Star Wars (1977) movie world - the filmed entertainment, the features and now the animated film and television series. And I'm going to do a live-action television series. Those are all things I am very involved in: I set them up and I train the people and I go through them all. I'm the father; that's my work. Then we have the licensing group, which does the games, toys and books, and all that other stuff. I call that the son - and the son does pretty much what he wants. Then we have the third group, the holy ghost, which is the bloggers and fans. They have created their own world. I worry about the father's world. The son and holy ghost can go their own way.

My greatest regret in my career is that John [Landis] was unable to direct Howard the Duck. I feel the movie would have been far more successful and saved me the years of hardship following its release. - on John Landis turning down directing Howard the Duck (1986)

People think of me as a sort of pathological, Howard Hughes-type guy sitting in a hotel room, which is definitely not so.

[On why he waited so long to do the Star Wars (1977) prequels] Jurassic Park (1993) inspired me. I didn't have to use rubber masks. I could build digital characters that can act and perform and walk around and interact with actors. I can use digital sets. I can paint reality. In essence, it means that cinema has gone from being a photographic medium to a painterly one.

Salary
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $400,000,000
Body Heat (1981) $250,000 + 5% of profits
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) $2,500,000 + net profits
Star Wars (1977) $200,000 + 40% of the net profits
American Graffiti (1973) $50,000 + 15% of gross
THX 1138 (1971) $15,000
The Rain People (1969) $3,000
Finian's Rainbow (1968) $3,000

Yash Chopra

2009-10-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
1932, Lahore, Punjab, British India (now Pakistan)

Mini Biography
Labeled the eternal romantic and with one of the best musical senses in the business, Yash Chopra is arguably India's most successful director of romantic films. Although he made action-oriented films like the ever-popular Deewaar (1975), it is in tackling love and its various aspects that he has been at his best. One of the few remaining commercial Indian directors who started their careers in the 1950s, he has successfully moved with the times from the socially significant Dhool Ka Phool (1959) to the young and cool Dil To Pagal Hai (1997).

Yash Chopra was born in Lahore in 1932, to an accountant in the PWD division of the British Punjab administration, the youngest of eight children. He began as an assistant director to I.S. Johar before working with his elder brother, the legendary B.R. Chopra; while another brother, Dharam Chopra, worked as his cameraman. He was given his first directorial opportunity with Dhool Ka Phool (1959), a melodrama about illegitimacy; it became a hit and even now remains popular today. Encouraged by this success, the Chopra brothers made a few more movies together, the most notable being Waqt (1965), India's first multi-starrer; and Ittefaq (1969), a thriller. On the personal front, Chopra married Pamela Chopra (née Singh) in 1970, and they had two children, Aditya Chopra and Uday Chopra, both working in the film industry today.

In 1973, the Chopra brothers separated, with Yash Chopra founded his studio, Yash Raj Films, and launched it with Daag: A Poem of Love (1973), a successful melodrama about a polygamous man. He then entered one of his best phases with two Amitabh Bachchan classics: Deewaar (1975) and Kabhi Kabhie - Love Is Life (1976). These movies set the standard for the 1970s and 1980s, establishing Bachchan as the greatest and most beloved Indian film star of all time. His respective roles--a bitter criminal and a sensitive, brooding poet--are considered to be his greatest performances, although complete opposites of each other.

In the 1980s, Chopra went through a rough time. Two of his melodramas, Silsila (1981) and Faasle (1985); and two action-oriented films, Mashaal (1984) and Vijay (1988), flopped at the box office, although the latter became a critically acclaimed classic years later. However, he made a comeback with his musical love triangle Chandni (1989). The film was a huge success, with great performances by established heroine Sridevi and action hero Vinod Khanna. Then came what critics and Chopra himself considered his best film, Lamhe (1991), a beautiful film about cross-generational love. It couldn't survive the box office, however, due to its incestuous nature.

Parampara (1992), done for an outside producer, was a misfire, but then came the box-office hit and trend setter Darr (1993). Starring the then-débutant Shahrukh Khan, it showed a sympathetic look at obsessive love and an emotion often overlooked in love--fear--and its success catapulted Khan to super-stardom. In 1995, Chopra turned to production and Aditya Chopra made his directorial debut with Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), which had the longest-running initial release in cinema history. He directed one more film, Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), a love story set against the theater, which became a huge success and a cult hit, before he retired from directing. However, in 2004, he made a grand comeback with Veer-Zaara (2004), a touching cross-border love story, which he said would be his last directorial effort.

The ages of the director and playback singer Lata Mangeshkar, his muse, proved you need to be young, as well as crazy, at heart, to be a true romantic....

IMDb Mini Biography By: Q. Leo Rahman

Spouse
Pamela Chopra (1970 - present) 2 children

Trade Mark
His films are always romantic films, with shots from foreign locations and having high-quality music.

Trivia
Younger brother of B.R. Chopra and Dharam Chopra.

He decided to leave his brother's studio to form Yash Raj Films after returning from his honeymoon. It is unclear what influenced him to do so.

He has a habit of repeating his actors in his films and frequently casts Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Waheeda Rehman, Rishi Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Shahrukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee.

Father of Aditya Chopra and Uday Chopra.

Member of jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2006.

He has shot in Switzerland so many times that a lake in the Alpenrausch, a favourite shooting spot of his, has been christened Chopra Lake.

Personal Quotes
"We're making all kinds of films - English, Hinglish, sex, horror... this and that. It's a healthy trend. But for a film to run it has to have Indian values. For a film to be a blockbuster it has to be rooted to our culture."

"I'm the sentimental sort. I cry easily. I cry when I see poignant films made by other directors."

"You can always make a good film but for it to be successful, you need God's blessing."

About Veer-Zaara (2004): "Though it's a film about cross-border love, there isn't a word of politics in it. Forget politics, there isn't slap, not even a raised voice in Veer-Zaara (2004). It's a very intense, humane and emotional story. Veer-Zaara (2004) is a humble tribute to my home in Punjab. It's my tribute to the one-ness of people on both sides of the border. Every religion preaches peace. Then why the bloodshed for the sake of religion? Why are we destroying each other?"

"I always believe that my films should give some hope to the man who comes to watch them for those three hours. If he goes home on an optimistic note, I would feel satisfied at having done my duty."

"Films have been my only passion in life. I have always been proud of making films and will continue taking pride in all my films. I have never made a movie I have not believed in. However, though I love all my films, one tends to get attached to films that do well. But I do not have any regrets about making films that did not really do well at the box office."

On singer Lata Mangeshkar: "Lataji has always been so kind to me. She can never say no to me. As long as I am there and she's there she'll continue to sing for my films. When others sing they follow music, but when she sings, music follows her. I truly believe that. When she sang for Dhool Ka Phool (1959) the first film I directed, I was in awe of her. Today I'm much closer to her. But the awe remains."

The reason for his seven-year hiatus in direction: "My son Aditya made Mohabbatein (2000), which took a lot of time and energy. Then we started looking for a script for me to direct. Nothing seemed to excite us both. There's a complete bankruptcy of screenwriting in our cinema. I wanted a very earthy and Indian subject. I was tired of the promos on television. With semi-clad girls, they all looked the same. Of course Dhoom (2004) has them too. But I'd personally not make a film like that."

"Relationships interest me because man is one creature who is capable of sane as well as insane behaviour. It's this nature of human beings that inspires and gives room for innumerable plots. Like in _Daag (1973)_, Raakhee, who played the other woman, created all the drama, as did Rekha in Silsila (1981). In Aaina (1993) it was the jealous sister while in Darr (1993) it was the obsessive lover. So unlike other movies where a villain is added to create the problems, in my films villainy is substituted by a third angle."

Swami Ramdev

2009-10-26T06:29:00.001-07:00

Swami Ramdev (1965 - ), also known as Baba Ramdev, is an Indian, Hindu swami. He is particularly well-known for his efforts in popularizing Yoga. His yoga camps are attended by a large number of people. People follow his yoga camps through TV channels and video. He is also one of the founders of the Divya Yoga Mandir Trust that aims to popularize Yoga.

Ramdev was born as Ramkishan Yadav in 1965, in Alipur in the Mahendragarh district of Indian state of Haryana. He attended school till the eighth grade in Shahjadpur. He then joined a gurukul in Khanpur village to study Sanskrit and Yoga. Eventually, he renounced worldly life and entered into Sanyas (monastic living) - taking his present name.
He then went to Jind district and joined the Kalva gurukul and offered free Yoga training to villagers across Haryana.

Ramdev spent many years undertaking an study of ancient Indian scriptures. At the same time, he also practiced intense self-discipline and meditation.

In 1995, Ramdev established Divya Yoga Mandir Trust with Acharya Karamveer and Acharya Balkrishna. Acharya Karmaveer is well-versed in Yoga and Veda while Acharya Balkrishna is a physician with a degree in Ayurveda.

He has also founded the Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust, an institution for treatment and research in Yoga and Ayurveda, in Haridwar. The trust provides several free services to all visitors.

Ramdev has taught several aspects of traditional Indian scriptures such as Ashtadhyayee, Mahabhashya and Upanishads along with six systems of Indian Philosophy in various Gurukuls. He has helped establish Gurukuls in Kishangarh, Ghashera, and Mahendragarh in India.

His educational show is broadcast on the religious TV channel Aastha, as well as shows on Zee network, Sahara One and India TV.

He has been regularly conducting yoga camps all over India and even abroad.

Awards and recognitions

* In January 2007, KIIT University awarded Swami Ramdev with an Honorary Doctorate degree in recognition of his efforts at popularizing the Vedic science of Yoga. The degree was presented to him in a ceremony presided over by the respected scientist and Nobel laureate Richard Ernst.

Claims of curing AIDS

In December 2006, press reports claimed that Ramdev had made claims of being able to use Yoga to cure AIDS.

A website promoting his products states that the CD4 cell count in some AIDS patients has improved after practising Yoga. This statement was translated by certain journalists as claiming a cure for AIDS.

As a consequence of these press reports he was sent a cease and desist order by the Indian Union Health Ministry and threatened legal action from medical NGOs. Ramdev responded by saying that he had been misquoted. His position was that Yoga and Ayurveda together can alleviate the suffering from AIDS, not cure it. He also added that Yogic education was preferable over sex education in response to the AIDS crisis.

Claims of curing Cancer

Other press reports quoted him as claiming to have a cure for cancer of the breast, liver, prostate, uterus, pituitary gland, brain tumors and leukemia by practicing the seven breathing exercises. They also said that he claimed to have documented proof of his successes.

Swami Ramdev was born in 1965 as Ramkishan Yadav in Alipur, Mahendragarh district of Indian state of Haryana. He attended school through the 8th grade in Shahjadpur. Thereafter, he joined a yogic monastery (gurukul) in Khanpur village to study Sanskrit and Yoga. Eventually, he renounced worldly life and entered into Sanyas (monastic living) - taking the name Swami Ramdev.

Then he went to Jind district and joined the Kalva gurukul and later imparted free Yoga training to villagers across Haryana. It is said that he travelled the Himalayas for several years before he settled in Haridwar. He discovered several medicinal plants in the Himalayas which he uses in treating his patients. Swami Ramdev started relentless efforts to popularise Yoga in 1995 with the establishment of DYM Trust, along with Acharya Karamveer and Acharya Balkrishna.

In 1995, Baba Ramdev joined the order of swamis after being initiated into the ascetic order by Swami Shankerdevji Maharaj. While training to be a Swami, Baba Ramdev spent many years undertaking an intense and thorough study of ancient Indian scriptures. At the same time, he also practiced intense self-discipline and meditation.

He teaches that God resides in every human being and that the body is God's temple. He is a firm believer in the concept of Vasudaiv Kutambakam (the whole World is one family) and decries practices that discriminate on the basis of caste, creed or gender. His fundamental belief is that expressions of love, affection and compassion towards all living things are the true worship of the Creator.

Swami Ramdev has taught several aspects of traditional Indian scriptures such as Ashtadhyayee, Mahabhashya and Upanishads along with six systems of Indian Philosophy in various Gurukuls (traditional Indian systems of education). He has helped establish Gurukuls in Kishangarh, Ghashera, and Mahendragarh in India. He has also founded the PYP Trust which has built several institutions. In addition to helping people learn about Yoga and spirituality, these institutions also provide a comprehensive facility that promotes the practice of Ayurveda - the traditional system of holistic medicine developed in India.

He teaches Pranayama which is a series of techniques for breath control that were developed as a part of the ancient Indian system of Yoga. Heretofore, these techniques were often thought of as being esoteric and complex and portrayed as being unsuitable for lay people. Consequently, their use was often limited to advanced practitioners of Yoga and undertaken only under the strict supervision of an experienced teacher. Swamiji has worked diligently to break these barriers and help make the practice of Pranayama achievable by the ordinary layperson.

He has devised a set of six simple Pranayama breathing exercises as listed in the section below. These techniques have been readily embraced by the general public as evidenced by the following facts:

His educational show is broadcast on Indian TV channels from morning 6-8 am and evening 8-9 pm (IST) & also several times a day on different TV channels and he also has dedicated shows such as Total Tandurusti airing ona network, a show on another one at 9:00 am, Yoga Science on still another at 7:30 am & 1:30 pm. Total viewership is in millions. According to the synopsis that is available to Sky Digital viewers, Swami Ramdev "claims that he was a paralytic" prior to taking up yoga, but this claim has yet to be completely verified.

He has been conducting week long training camps in cities all over India. Total attendance in these camps exceeds tens of thousands. In 2006 Summer, the Swami spent almost a month in London teaching Pranayam & yoga.

Viewers of the TV show and attendees at the camp have reported significant improvements in their health - citing relief from many illnesses such as Diabetes, Heart Disease, Arthritis, Thyroid Problems, Hypertension, Stomach ailments and different types of cancer without the use of any medicines. But it should also be noted that most of these 'patients' speak on television for the first time and are over awed by the situation. Like most human beings in such situations, which may explain the miracles he is believed to perform.

More about Swami Ramdev

Ramdev was born as 'Ramkishan Yadav' in Alipur, in the Mahendragarh district of Indian state of Haryana. He attended school through the eighth grade in Shahjadpur. Thereafter, he joined a yogic monastery (gurukul) in Khanpur village to study Sanskrit and Yoga. Eventually, he renounced worldly life and entered into Sanyas (monastic living) - taking the name Swami Ramdev.

Then he went to Jind district and joined the Kalva gurukul and offered free Yoga training to villagers across Haryana. It is said that he travelled the Himalayas for several years before he settled in Haridwar. He claims to have discovered several medicinal plants in the Himalayas which he uses in treating his patients. Ramdev started relentless efforts to popularise Yoga in 1995 with the establishment of D Y M Trust along with Acharya Karamveer.

In 1995, Ramdev joined the order of Swamis after being initiated into the ascetic order by Swami Shankerdevji Maharaj. While training to be a Swami, Ramdev spent many years undertaking an intense and thorough study of ancient Indian scriptures. At the same time, he also practiced intense self-discipline and meditation.

He teaches that God resides in every human being and that the body is God's temple. He is a firm believer in the concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the whole World is one family) and decries practices that discriminate on the basis of caste, creed or gender. His fundamental belief is that expressions of love, affection and compassion towards all living things are the true worship of the Creator.

Work, Teaching and Honours

Swami Ramdev has taught several aspects of traditional Indian scriptures such as Ashtadhyayee, Mahabhashya and Upanishads along with six systems of Indian Philosophy in various Gurukuls (traditional Indian systems of education). He has helped establish Gurukuls in Kishangarh,Gharshera and Mahendragarh in India. He has also founded P Y P Trust, which has built several institutions. In addition to helping people learn about Yoga and spirituality, these institutions also provide a comprehensive facility that promotes the practice of Ayurveda -the traditional system of holistic medicine developed in India.

His Yoga Pranayama educational show is broadcast on numerous TV channels daily.

He has been conducting Yog science camp regularly all over the country, and sometimes abroad as well. In 2006, the Ramdev spent almost a month in London teaching Pranayam and Yoga.

KITT University, a well-respected teaching and research institute for Science and Technology, awarded Swami Ramdev with an Honorary Doctorate degree in recognition of his efforts at popularising the Vedic science of Yoga. The degree was presented to him in January 2007 during a ceremony presided over by the respected scientist and Nobel laureate Richard Ernst

Ravi Shankar

2009-10-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

Born: April 7, 1920
Achievement: Made a major contribution in popularizing Indian classical music in the West; Recipient of Padma Vibhushan, Magsaysay Award, AND two Grammy Awards.

Ravi Shankar is a legendary sitar player and one of India's most esteemed classical musicians. Pandit Ravi Shankar has made a major contribution in popularizing Indian classical music in the West through his association with The Beatles (especially George Harrison).

Pandit Ravi Shankar was born on April 7, 1920 at Varanasi, India. His elder brother Uday Shankar was a famous Indian classical dancer. In his early years Ravi Shankar joined his elder brother, Uday Shankar and his troupe and went to Paris in 1930 to experiment with the stage by playing small roles in ballets for the next three years.

In 1938, Ravi Shankar gave up a possible dance career and started learning sitar under Allauddin Khan, founder of the Maihar Gharana of Indian classical music. Ravi Shankar's formal training ended in 1944. Thereafter, Pandit Ravi Shankar joined the IPTA and composed music for several ballets, started Renaissance artistes in 1947 and was in charge of Vadya Vrinda at the All India Radio in 1949. Ravi Shankar first performed outside India in the Soviet Union in 1954. He also performed at major events such as the Edinburgh Festival as well as major venues such as Royal Festival Hall. In 1960s, Ravi Shankar's fusion with George Harrison, a member of The Beatles became very popular in the US and helped in popularizing Indian classical music in the West.

Pandit Ravi Shankar has won several honours and awards. These include: Padma Vibhushan, Magsaysay Award, two Grammy Awards, Fukuoka Grand Prize from Japan, and the Crystal Award from Davos. In 1999, Ravi Shankar was awarded with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. He was also a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, India's upper house of Parliament, from 1986 to 1992.

Dale Carnegie

2009-10-20T01:07:00.000-07:00

Born	24 November 1888(1888-11-24) Maryville, Missouri¹
Died	1 November 1955 (aged 66) Forest Hills, New York
Occupation	Writer, Lecturer
Notable work(s)	How to Win Friends and Influence People

Perhaps the most well-known author in the field of communication and public speaking, Dale Carnegie was born into poverty on a small farm in Maryville Missouri. Devoted to public speaking from his teen years, he was active in debate in high school. Carnegie attended Warrensburg (Mo.) State Teachers College, and became a salesman for Armour and Company in Nebraska. Moving to New York City in persuit of an acting career, he gave classes in public speaking at the Young Men's Christian Association. Soon he was developing courses on his own, and writing pamphlets that he would eventually publish as books. Carnegie believed that the quickest way to develop self-esteem is through public speaking.

In the early 1930s he was known for his books and a radio program. When he published How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1930, it enjoyed immediate success and would become one of the best-sellers of all time, selling more than 10 million copies in many languages. This led to demand for him as a lecturer and writer: he began a syndicated newspaper column and organized the Dale Carnegie Institute for Effective Speaking and Human Relations, with branches all over the world. He lived to see the day when his name became virtually synonymous with the very kind of self-help-to-success that he promoted.
Dale Carnegie loved to teach others how to become successful. His rock-solid, time-tested advice has helped many now-famous people to climb the ladder of success. How to Win Friends and Influence People remains one of the best-sellers of all time, because of its colorful illustrative stories and simple, well-phrased rules. Two of Dale Carnegie's most famous maxims are, "Believe that you will succeed, and you will," and "Learn to love, respect and enjoy other people." Dale Carnegie died in 1955 at the age of 67.

David Crocket

2009-10-20T01:04:00.000-07:00

Full Name: Mr. David Crockett
Place of Birth: Greene County, Tennessee, USA
Died: March 6, 1836
Place of Death: San Antonio, Texas, USA
Classification: Heroes & Icons

David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was a celebrated 19th-century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician; referred to in popular culture as Davy Crockett and often by the epithet “King of the Wild Frontier.” He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives, served in the Texas Revolution, and died at the Battle of the Alamo. His nickname was the stuff of legend, but in life he shunned the title “Davy” and referred to himself exclusively as “David

Embodied as the King of the Wild Frontier, Davy Crockett became an icon of a rough, tough, and savvy expanding nation. In his autobiography entitled The Narrative of the Life of Davy Crocket, he claims to have killed a bear at the age of three, quit school by age nine, traveled all of Tennessee and other States, become a hunter, trapper, and excellent marksmen, and returned home before he was fifteen.

Already known as a public figure who stood strong for the true spirit of American expansion into the frontier, Crockett says it was the freedom he had experienced in his early years that allowed him to become such a natural leader of an American people with passion, but no direction. During his time in Virginia, Davy Crockett worked for farmers, wagon makers, and as a trapper and hat maker. Upon returning home, he worked to pay off his father’s debts and often won local shooting competitions because of his amazing rifle skills. After saving money and buying his own clothes, horses, rifles, and a house, he married Polly Finlay at the age of twenty. The two bore two sons and Polly died some years later. Crockett then married Elizabeth Patton, who was a widow at the time.

While some of his story has gone down as legend or myth, it is known that Davy Crocket was a man who kept his word, worked hard, and became an eloquent speaker, member of the House of Representatives and a congressman. Before his political career took off, he served in the Second Regiment of the Volunteer Mounted Rifleman in Tennessee where he fought in Alabama and quickly became a lieutenant.

In his autobiography, Davy Crockett also says he told his constituents that if he were not re-elected into the House of Representatives again, “…they could all go to hell and I will go to Texas”. Davy kept his word and when he wasn’t re-elected he joined the Texas Revolution in 1835, where he would be granted several thousands of acres for his service. When he joined the revolution, he had only 139 men under his command. When the entire group was killed after a surprise attack by Mexican forces, he left and went to fight the Battle of the Alamo. His feat at the Texas Revolution went down in history because the 139 men held off thousands of Mexican soldiers for over eleven days. When Davy Crockett’s men were finally killed, over two thousand Mexicans had been slain. Legend, lore, and myth live on about what happened in those days of battle, but Davy Crockett is still considered a martyr for the cause and spirit of the United States.

Top 10 Inspirational Biographies

2009-10-19T18:01:00.001-07:00

A philosopher once claimed that “we can see the future better if we stand on the shoulders of giants.” We are not the first to walk this planet, and we can learn from past legends how to plan a more successful future.

Here’s a list of popular biographies that have meant something to me.

1. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin – Few persons throughout history have succeeded in so many fields. This printer-writer-inventor-scientist-philosopher-statesman takes us on an unforgettable tour of his early struggles and eventual successes.

2. Davy Crockett: His Own Story – Here’s another autobiography of a legendary pioneer, written only two years before he died. His growth and outlook parallels that of many explorers of 19th century America.

3. Mark Twain by Ron Powers – This recent work is my favorite on the life of Samuel L. Clemens, perhaps America’s finest writer. Twain’s books continue to live and sell well nearly 100 years after his death.

4. Lincoln by David Herbert Donald – There are many books about the celebrated 16h President, and this is a superb one.

5. No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

6. Truman by David McCullough – This amazing story of Harry Truman – a vice-president suddenly asked to assume the Presidency only 12 weeks after FDR began his fourth term – discusses the life of a good man who made some of the 20th century’s most critical decisions.

7. Dale Carnegie: The Man Who Influenced Millions by Giles Kemp – Mr. Carnegie wrote one of the best-selling books of all time: How to Win Friends and Influence People. This book tells the story of a writer who has influenced thousands of people in many industries.

8. Eisenhower by Stephen E. Ambrose – This is a great book about the Allied Supreme Commander in World War II and the American President during the 1950’s.

9. The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany by Stephen E. Ambrose – This book vividly describes the war years of 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern and his brave crew. It also discusses other flyers like the Tuskegee Airmen.

10. What Every American Should Know About American History by Dr. Alan Axelrod and Charles Phillips – This fascinating book offers a look at “200 events that shaped the nation.”

Daniel Radcliffe

2009-10-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

date of Birth
23 July 1989, Fulham, London, England, UK

Birth Name
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe

Nickname
Dan

Height
5' 6" (1.68 m)

Mini Biography
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe was born on July 23rd, 1989 to Alan Radcliffe and Marcia Gresham. He began performing in small school productions as a young boy. Soon enough, he landed a role in David Copperfield (1999) (TV), as the young David Copperfield. A couple of years later, he landed a role as Mark Pendel in The Tailor of Panama (2001), the son of Harry and Louisa Pendel (Geoffrey Rush and Jamie Lee Curtis). Lee Curtis had indeed pointed out to Daniel's mother that he could be Harry Potter himself. Soon afterwards, Daniel was cast as Harry Potter by director, Chris Columbus in the film that hit theatres in November 16, 2001, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001). He was recognized worldwide after this film was released. Pleasing audiences and critics everywhere, filming on its sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), commenced shortly afterwards. He appeared again as Harry in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) directed by Alfonso Cuarón, and then appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) directed by Mike Newell. Shortly afterwards, he finished filming December Boys (2007) in Adelaide, Australia, Kangaroo Island, and Geelong, Australia which began on the 14th of November, 2005 and ended sometime in December. On January 27th, 2006, he attended the South Bank Awards Show to present the award for "Breakthrough Artist of the Year" to Billie Piper. Dan reprised his famous character once again for the next installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). In February 2007 he took on his first stage role in the West End play Equus to worldwide praise from fans and critics alike. He has finished filming the TV movie My Boy Jack (2007) (TV), which will air on 11 November 2007 in the UK.

Now being one of the world's most recognizable people, Daniel leads a somewhat normal life. He has made friends working on the Harry Potter films, which include his co-stars Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.

IMDb Mini Biography By: The Icegirl

Trivia
Likes to play pranks. He took co-star Robbie Coltrane's cellular phone and changed it so all the messages were in Turkish.

Has two border terriers named Binka and Nugget.

Tried reading the first Harry Potter book when he was 8 years old, but was unable to finish it. Finally read the entire book when he was cast in the lead role of the film

Has never actually seen the film The Tailor of Panama (2001) in which he appeared.

His favorite book from the Harry Potter series so far is number three, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

In February 2002, he was nominated for, and won "Best Newcomer" at the Variety Club Award ceremonies.

Received the Sir James Carreras Award For Outstanding New Talent for his role in Harry Potter at The Variety Club Showbusiness Awards 2002.

Voted Person of the Year 2002 by Time Kids.

Has stated that 12 Angry Men (1957) is the first black & white film he ever saw and is also his favorite film.

He named Jane's Addiction, The Libertines, Rage Against the Machine and The Darkness among his favorite bands.

David Heyman, the producer for the Harry Potter films happened to be at a play that both Dan and Dan's father, Alan Radcliffe, were at. After Heyman spotted Radcliffe, since both men knew each other, he was introduced to his son and when Heyman saw Daniel he thought he looked perfect for the part. In fact, that night at the play, Heyman couldn't help just staring at Dan because he though he was perfect to play Harry. Daniel auditioned for, and got the part that he is now most recognized for, Harry Potter.

He enjoys listening to the music of Blur, Muse, The Music, Zwan and Brendan Benson.

A February 23, 2004 article in British newspaper 'The Sun' listed him as Britain's third richest teenager behind only Prince Harry Windsor and Charlotte Church. He is said to be worth 5 million pounds.

Has earned 6 million pounds so far portraying Harry Potter, making him the second richest teenage in Britain behind Prince Harry Windsor's 14 million pounds. [2004]

Can rotate his arm 360 degrees.

Is a big fan of Gary Oldman, his co-star in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).

Is a supporter of Fulham Football Club although he doesn't enjoy playing football himself.

He is a fan of Red Hot Chili Peppers and attended their London concert in June 2004.

Some of his favorite music groups are Stratovarius (Finland), Huey Lewis and The News (USA), and Tom Robinson (England).

Favorite actors include Aishwarya Rai, Christina Ricci, Cameron Diaz, Scarlett Johansson and Ben Stiller.

He originally disliked the "Harry Potter" books when he first read them.

Especially like the music group The Sex Pistols. He also plays the bass guitar.

He is a fan of indie rock. Some of his favorite bands include: The Zutons, Razorlight, The Libertines, Bloc Party, Hope of the States, The Futureheads and Kaiser Chiefs.

Delays between filming the second and third Harry Potter movies were caused because his parents wanted him to be able to attend normal school for a while.

Says he doesn't read any articles or reviews about himself or his movies.

He supports Demelza House Children's Hospice, which is a charity that cares for terminally-ill children in the Kent, East Sussex and South London areas of Britain. Dan always asks his fans to donate to the charity every Christmas and on his birthday instead of sending him gifts. In the book, 'Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince', the author J.K. Rowling named the character Demelza Robins after the charity.

He likes the music of The Strokes, The Clash and Pixies.

[May/June 2006] He sat his AS Levels in English Literature, History, and Religion and Philosophy for his AS levels (First year college exams).

Named Britain's richest teenager with an astounding 23 million pound fortune, after he signed on a 8 million pound deal to make the fifth movie of the Harry Potter series.

Dan scared the make-up department crew when he came on set with bloodied sticking plasters on his face claiming that he had been fighting the previous day (just for a laugh).

His parents are Alan Radcliffe, a literary agent, and Marcia Gresham, a casting director.

Is also a big fan of The Killers.

Before working with Brendan Gleeson in the Harry Potter series, he worked with him in The Tailor of Panama (2001).

23 July 2007 - Appeared on BBC Radio's Test Match Special, from Lords, London, on the final day of the England v. India test match. It was his 18th birthday and he was a guest on "View from the Boundary" hosted by Jonathan Agnew, the BBC's cricket correspondent. He talked about his career to date and love of cricket.

Is very close to actor Gary Oldman.

His agent Sue Latimer is the mother (and agent) to his friend and fellow actor Freddie Highmore.

He is a huge fan of John Wayne.

Was ranked #6 on Forbes List of The 20 Top-Earning Young Superstars.(2007).

Named #23 on Empire Magazine's 100 Sexiest Movie Stars. (2007).

Was ranked #10 on Yahoo! List of 10 Most Popular Stars of 2007 on Yahoo! Movies. (2007).

Was ranked #79 on Forbes List of The Celebrity 100. (2007).

In 2007, Forbes Magazine estimated his earnings for the year at $15 million.

Was ranked #29 on Entertainment Weekly's '30 Under 30' the actors list.(2008).

Was ranked #3 on TV Guide Top 10 Teen Star Countdown (2008).

Was ranked #8 on Moviefone's 'The 25 Hottest Actors Under 25'(2008).

Named as one of London's 1000 most influential people of 2008.

Ranked #11 on MSN's top searched for stars under age 25 in 2008.

Ranked #1 on MSN's top searched for male in 2007.

In the 2003 Comic Relief fundraiser, a lock of Dan's hair sold at auction for 751 British pounds, the highest amount raised.

In 2008, Dan and the cast of Equus raised $203,746 for the charity, BroadwayCares/EquityFightsAids 20th Gypsy of the Year competition, setting a record for the most ever raised by a Broadway play. They not only beat the amount raised by other Broadway musicals but also came runner up for the best presentation, again beating out every other musical with their own song and dance. (The winning presentation was the Lion King's). Dan wrote and sang the song. http://www.broadwaycares.org/events/gypsy.cfm.

Considers himself as an atheist and respects the work of Richard Dawkins.

The Guardian (UK) reported that Radcliffe has published some poetry under the pen name "Jacob Gershon." Jacob is his middle name, and Gershon is the original Yiddish name from which his mother's maiden name, Gresham, was derived.

In August 2009, The Trevor Project announced that Daniel Radcliffe had made a "major" donation to them and joined their "Circle of Hope," a group of their high-donating supporters. The Trevor Project operates a national (US) crisis and suicide prevention helpline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth (who are four times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual children and teens). The Trevor Project was inspired by the short film Trevor (1994), about a gay boy who attempts suicide; the organization was started by the film's creators in 1998.

Personal Quotes
After being cast as Harry Potter: "I think I'm a tiny bit like Harry 'cos I'd like to have an owl. Yeah, that's the tiny bit, actually."

I don't know. People tell me I look mournful. They say, "Cheer up, Dan, it's not that bad!" Sometimes I just look into space, which freaks people out. If I was ever required to do anything other than look haunted, I could. I'm a happy person. Though I don't, like, dot my "I's" with hearts or anything - that would be too happy.

I'm not much of a cake person.

But I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think I'll do all of them - I'll probably get too spotty or too tall or I'll shrink or something.

"Absolutely. 100 percent." [on believing in magic]

I was in the bath at the time, and my dad came running in and said, 'Guess who they want to play Harry Potter!?' and I started to cry. It was probably the best moment of my life.

I'm not clumsy, I'm just accident prone.

Upon seeing the movie: "I'm a bit nervous about whether people will like it, but I've seen it, and I'm sure they will. It's really good - it's quite scary, it's quite emotional. Even I cried and I don't cry easily! I cried at the end credits when my name came up, and I was, like, Oh my God! I can't believe that's my name! I've met so many people since we started filming and it's been wonderful. I've progressed so far and changed so much since the beginning. It's been like a real journey."

On considering himself as a heartthrob: "Personally I can't see it, but if other people can, fine. Cool!"

I would consider doing any part as long as the script is good and the film has an interesting director.

"I like them, but it's hard to concentrate when the bats fly about, and they pee while they fly." [about the bats on the set]

I've never been one of the cool people at school, but then again, I don't get the people who are cool. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that they don't interest me.

"Too many little numbers on one page!" - about math

Stage is much more intimidating than going before the cameras, because you can really screw up, and can't do a retake.

When I go back to school everyone asks a lot of questions. Then, after about a week, when I've answered everything, we get back to normal.

It's too far down the road to decide about a fifth movie. I'm still the same age Harry is, and I haven't actually grown that much.

Fans are really important for me. And if they take pains to write me, it's the minimum that I answer myself.

I think I'm highly normal. I'm attending school after acting, I'm going out with friends, going to the cinema - I'm just doing everything a normal teenager does. People think I can't leave the house without being in a crowd of fans - but that's not true. I'm able to do more things than people might think.

I'm thrilled of the acceptance I get abroad. The people are so hearty, warm and grateful and I feel privileged having seen so many countries and some of the greatest monuments.

When I get into trouble at school I'd like to take an invisibility cloak, drape it over me and sneak out the door. Or I'd like to have a 3-headed-dog because then no one would argue with me.

I played a trick on the make-up department where I put a fake blood capsule in my mouth, pretended to trip on the stairs and let the blood come out of my mouth. They really fell for it, then they chased after me with a water pistol.

Everyone on the set has a mobile phone, and I found by pushing a few buttons, they could be programmed into different languages. I fixed Robbie's (Coltrane) to speak in Turkish.

I don't understand girls, but I'm slowly learning.

[on saying that he'll do all of the Harry Potter movies] "Ultimately it comes down to whether we're still enjoying it. If we are then I think we would be sort of stupid not to do them. As long as I'm doing other stuff around the same time, I think it'll be fine. Also, I sort of try to read the books when they come out impartially and not make up my mind, but the fact is when I was reading the sixth, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, there were bits in there where I was going, 'God, I would love to do that because it's so good.'"

(on whether he is religious) "I'm not a religious person. My mom was of Jewish blood and my dad was Protestant... I'm very interested in religion as something to study, but I'm not a religious person in the slightest."

I didn't look at the nudity and go, oh great. But it's the same as doing a role with an accent or a particular affectation. You look at the character first. Lots of the actors that I've admired have at one stage or another taken their kit off. It's a rite of passage. That iconic scene is the physical and emotional climax of the play. So if I do that with pants on, it would be crap.

I feel OK about my body. Not totally, of course, no one my age does ... but I've gone to the gym to make sure. And many of the actors I admire, like Gary Oldman, have gone naked.

People will always remember Harry, but I think if I work hard enough other characters will stick in their minds as well.

[About the "Equus" paparazzi]: They were outside the theatre every single night, but we came up with a cunning ruse. I would wear the same outfit every time - a different T-shirt underneath, but I'd wear the same jacket and zip it up so they couldn't see what I was wearing underneath, and the same hat. So they could take pictures for six months, but it would look like the same day, so they (photos) became unpublishable. Which was hilarious, because there's nothing better than seeing paparazzi getting really frustrated.

What everybody would love to see is me having ditched school and then just going wild. That's what I'm determined not to give them.

It's not so much that they don't want me to grow up. It's that they're annoyed that I'm growing up adjusted. They'd much rather I was growing up and going wild and crashing cars.

I'm lucky enough to have a job that I love, and a relatively down-to-earth life.

(On being bullied in school) Some people did get very aggressive. People say it was just jealousy, but I don't think it is jealousy. I think it's just 'We can have a crack at the kid who plays Harry Potter.' As Eddie Izzard says, these people always hang about in fives, because people these have a fifth of a personality each.

I hate celebrity culture but I'm unavoidably part of it. These people are celebrities as a by-product of what they do. People read every little thing about Peter Andre and Jordan and I couldn't care less. They don't want to work, have no interests, no passions, nothing and yet they seem to be held up on pedestals. I don't think they should be trying to push themselves onto us. It does annoy me of course, but I'm part of it.

Salary
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) $14,000,000
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) $11,000,000
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) $3,000,000
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) £ 250,000

Where Are They Now
(May 2003) Currently filming in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).

(April 2004) Filming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

(March 2005) Completed filming of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

(November 2005) Working on December Boys (2007) in Adelaide, Australia.

(February 2006) Filming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).

(February 2007) Playing Alan Strang in the London West End production of Equus with Joanna Christie.

(December 2007) Filming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009).

(September 2008) Playing Alan Strang in the Broadway production of Equus

(February 2009) Filming Part 1 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Shah Jahan

2009-10-18T01:25:00.000-07:00

Name:	Shah Jahan
Birth Date:	January 5, 1592
Death Date:	June 22, 1666
Place of Birth:	Lahore, India
Place of Death:	Agra, India
Nationality:	Indian
Gender:	Male
Occupations:	emperor

Shah Jahan (1592-1666) was the fifth Mogul emperor of India. During his reign, from 1628 to 1658, the Mogul Empire reached its zenith in prosperity and luxury. He is remembered as the builder of the Taj Mahal.

The third son of Emperor Jahangir, Shah Jahan was born at Lahore on Jan. 5, 1592, and was given the name of Khurram. During his father's reign he distinguished himself in many military campaigns, especially in Mewar (1615), the Deccan (1617 and 1621), and Kangra (1618). During Jahangir's closing years, Shah Jahan came into open conflict with Empress Nur Jahan, but his rebellion against his father, in 1622, was unsuccessful. On the death of Jahangir on Oct. 29, 1627, disputes for the succession broke out, and Shah Jahan emerged successful. He was proclaimed emperor at Agra on Feb. 4, 1628.

Despite his Hindu mother, Shah Jahan did not follow the liberal religious policy instituted by his grandfather, Emperor Akbar. In 1632 he ordered all Hindu temples recently erected or in the process of erection to be torn down. Christian churches at Agra and Lahore were also demolished. In the same year the Portuguese settlement at Hooghly near Calcutta was also attacked. The Portuguese were accused of piracy and of kidnaping Mogul subjects, infecting them with Christian doctrines, and shipping them as slaves to Europe. The settlement was reduced, and several thousand Christians were killed.

Between 1630 and 1636 Shah Jahan reduced the independent kingdoms of the Deccan. Ahmadnagar was taken in 1632, Golkonda in 1635, and Bijapur in 1636. In the northwest, however, imperial armies were unsuccessful. The attempt in 1647 to annex Balkh and Badakshan, ancestral possessions of Babur, the founder of the Mogul Empire, failed.

Patron of the Arts

Shah Jahan had three wives. His second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, whom he had married in 1612, died in 1631. She had been the mother of 14 of his 16 children. It was to her memory that the Taj Mahal was built. In this most beautiful of the world's tombs, the minutest detail has been carefully thought out and executed with tireless precision. In inscribing texts from the Koran round the tall doorways, the artists have shown themselves such masters of perspective that the letters 30 feet or more above the line of the eye appear to be exactly of the same size as those a foot above the floor level. Onyx, jasper, cornelian, carbuncle, malachite, lapis lazuli, and other precious stones are studded in the mosaic. It has been described as "A Dream in Marble."

The Jama Mosque of Delhi and the Pearl Mosque of Agra are two other masterpieces. Near the city of Old Delhi, Shah Jahan built a new capital, Shahjahanabad, with its magnificent Red Fort. Within the fort is the Hall of Public Audience, and here Shah Jahan sat on the Peacock Throne, which consisted entirely of jewels and precious metals and stones. Four legs of gold supported the seat; 12 pillars of emeralds held up the emerald canopy; each pillar bore two peacocks encrusted with gems; and between each pair of peacocks rose a tree covered with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and pearls.

Under Shah Jahan's patronage jewelry reached a high degree of perfection, and jewelers from both Asia and Europe visited the Mogul court to sell their craft and gems. Yet in spite of all these lavish expenditures, the imperial treasury was never in debt; in fact, Shah Jahan ended his reign with more money in the treasury than he had at the beginning of his reign.

Patron of Letters

Hindi language was coming into vogue, and Shah Jahan himself spoke Hindi and patronized Hindi poets like Sundar Das and Chintamani and Hindi musicians like Jagan Nath, Sukh Sen, and Lal Khan. His reign also saw the rendering into Persian of several Sanskrit classics; some of these translations were patronized by his son Dara Shikoh.

Shah Jahan had begun his reign by killing his brothers and all male members of their families. His sons likewise recognized no kinship in their pursuit of kingship. In 1657, when the Emperor's health appeared to be failing, his four sons, Dara Shikoh, Shuja, Murad Baksh, and Aurangzeb, began to take steps to secure the succession. Eventually the contest resolved itself between Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb, and the latter proved successful. On June 8, 1658, Aurangzeb entered Agra, made a captive of his father, and assumed the throne. For 8 years Shah Jahan remained a prisoner in the Agra Fort, attended by his faithful daughter Jahanara and gazing, it is reported, most of the time upon the Taj Mahal, where he was to be laid to rest beside his favorite consort.

In some respects Shah Jahan is a paradox. He employed many non-Moslems at his court but nevertheless showed considerable intolerance to Hinduism and Christianity. His son Aurangzeb continued this illiberal policy to its worst extent. Shah Jahan's court was enormously rich, and he spent a vast sum on splendid buildings. His was an age of luxury. Yet he did nothing to arrest the decline in Mogul economy. The policy of reducing the Deccan and conquering the northwest, also continued by his successor, proved disastrous and shook public confidence in the Mogul imperium. Though he was a just man, he was also at times quite vengeful, and he set into motion wars of succession from which the Mogul polity never recovered. But as the builder of the Taj Mahal, he ensured himself a place in world history.

William Wordsworth

2009-10-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

Full Name:- William Wordsworth

Date of Birth:- 7 April 1770.

Place of Birth:- Cockermouth in Cumberland; The Lake District in northwest England.

Date of Death:- 23 April 1850.

Famous:- As an English romantic poet, one of the legendry Lake poets, who brought the romantic age in English Literature.

BIOGRAPHY:-

Early Life

William was second child to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson, and was born on 7April 1770, The Lake District of northwest England. He had 4 siblings as:- 1. Richard, the first child of the family and his elder brother who went on to become a lawyer. 2. Dorothy, a year younger than William and the third child who became a poet. 3. John, the fourth child of the family, who became a poet too. 4. Christopher, the fifth child, who became an academician.

William's father, James was a lawyer to James Lowther, first Earl of Lonsdale and lived in a mension at Cockermouth. William had very less contact with his father due to his long absences and in the little time they spent togeather, John taught him poetry by Milton, Shakespeare and Spencer.

William spent time reading in his fathers library at Cockermouth. It was however during his time at his mother's parents house in Penrith, Cumberland that he came closer to nature and was exposed to moors and got experience of landscape. The harsh treatment at the hands of his relatives at Penrith and his hostile interactions with them distressed him to the point of contemplating suicide.

Education

After death of his mother in 1778 at the age of 8 years, William was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School, by his father John Wordsworth. This was his first formal education, and it was here that he first met the Hutchinsons, including Mary who, later became his wife.

William joined St John's College, Cambridge in 1787, and received his B.A. degree in 1791. It was in 1787 that he made his debut as a writer and published a sonnet in "The European Magzine". During this time William loved spending holidays in the lap of nature on walking tours, visiting places that were famous for natural beauty. In 1790, he took another such tour of Europe, during which he toured the Alps extensively, and visited nearby countries of France, Switzerland and Italy.

Love Life

In November 1791, William Wordsworth visited Revolutionary France and became enthralled with the Republican movement. It was their that he fell in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon, who in 1792 gave birth to their child, Caroline. Because of lack of money and Britain's tensions with France, he returned alone to England the next year. He wished to marry Annette but due to some reasons could not; however in a later life William Wordsworth supported both mother and daughter properly, as was decided on his visit to france in 1802 with sister Dorothy.

Romantic Revolution

During this phase he wrote a few poems that showed his deep love for both Annette and his daughter Caroline, along with other poems that marked his formal debut as a poet and also embarked the Romantic revolution or Romantic movement of Englsih poetry.

In 1795, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset. The two poets quickly developed a close friendship. In 1797, William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, moved to Alfoxton House, Somerset, just a few miles away from Coleridge's home in Nether Stowey. Here in 1798, he togeather with Coleridge published the first Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems from both the authors, however it was published without any names. The first Lyrical Ballad had most of its poems written by Wordsworth and Coleridge contributed only four. The immediate effect of the Lyrical Ballad on critics was modest, but it became and remains a landmark, changing the course of English literature and poetry.

Second Lyrical Ballad was published in 1800, and had only William Wordsworth listed as author. In this he included a preface to the poems, where he discussed and explains the elements of new type of poetry avoiding the diction of much 18th century poets. Third Lyrical Ballads was published in 1802, in which the preface to the poems were further augmented. This edition contained the famous deinition of poetry by Wordsworth as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility". The final fourth edition to Lyrical Ballads was published in 1805.

Move to Lake District

In 1798, after the trip to Germany with his sister Dorothy and friend Coleridge, William Wordsworth was homesick and stressed. He and Dorothy then moved back to England, at Dove Cottage in Grasmere at Lake District near a Fellow poet Robert Southey. Togeather William Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey came to be known as "The Lake Poets". During this period his poems usually revolved around the themes of pain, sepration, death and endurance.

Marriage and Children

In 1802, after a visit to France with his sister Dorothy, William Wordsworth recieved some 4000 pounds, from first Earl of Lonsdale as repayment to debt. Later, in the same year he married his childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. Dorothy continued to live with the couple and soon grew close to Mary.

William had 5 children from Mary as:-

1. John Wordsworth (June 18, 1803 - 1875),
2. Dora Wordsworth (August 16, 1804 - July 9, 1847),
3. Thomas Wordsworth (June 15, 1806 - December 1, 1812).
4. Catherine Wordsworth (September 6, 1808 - June 4, 1812).
5. William "Willy" Wordsworth (May 12, 1810 - 1883).

Poetic Work

In 1807, his Poems in Two Volumes were published, including "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood". Up to this point Wordsworth was known publicly only for Lyrical Ballads, and he hoped this collection would cement his reputation. Its reception was lukewarm, however. For a time (starting in 1810), Wordsworth and Coleridge were estranged over the latter's opium addiction. Two of his children, Thomas and Catherine, died in 1812. The following year, he received an appointment as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, and the £400 per year income from the post made him financially secure. His family, including Dorothy, moved to Rydal Mount, Ambleside (between Grasmere and Rydal Water) in 1813, where he spent the rest of his life.

In 1814 he published The Excursion as the second part of the three-part The Recluse. He had not completed the first and third parts, and never would. He did, however, write a poetic Prospectus to "The Recluse" in which he lays out the structure and intent of the poem.

By 1820, he enjoyed the success that came from a reversal in the contemporary critical opinion of his earlier works. Following the death of his friend the painter William Green in 1823, Wordsworth tried to mend relations with Coleridge. The two were fully reconciled by 1828, when they toured the Rhineland together. Dorothy suffered from a severe illness in 1829 that rendered her an invalid for the remainder of her life. In 1835, Wordsworth gave Annette and Caroline the money they needed for support.

Awards and Honors

Wordsworth was awarded Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1838 from Durham University, and the same honor from Oxford University the next year, in 1839. In 1842 the government awarded him a civil list pension amounting to £300 a year. With the death of Robert Southey, in 1843, Wordsworth became the Poet Laureate of England. When his daughter, Dora, died in 1847, he was too broken to write poetry.

Death

William Wordsworth died due to infection of lungs, that caused inflammation of pleural cavity on April 23, 1850, and was buried at St. Oswald's church in Grasmere.

Masterpiece

His widow Mary published his lengthy autobiographical "poem to Coleridge" as "The Prelude", several months after his death. Though this failed to arouse great interest in 1850s, it has since come to be recognized as his masterpiece.

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Mr. Walter Elias Disney

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Full Name: Mr. Walter Elias Disney Date of Birth: December 5,

1901 Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Died: December 15, 1966

Place of Death: Los Angeles, California , USA

Classification: Heroes & Icons

Although he had one failing business venture after another in his lifetime, Walt Disney never gave up hope that his dreams would one day be realized. As a young lad, Walt was a dedicated paper delivery boy and would rise early in the morning to complete his route. Later, he worked at a train station where he became amazed with the technology and science behind it. All of this with an obsessive drawing habit would lead to the creation of some of the world’s most popular characters and stories – many of which are still known today, 80 years later.

As a child, Walt grew up on a farm in Missouri. There, he would play outside with his sister, Ruth. They were both gifted at drawing at a young age; Walt would draw pictures of the neighbors’ farm animals for extra money. After only a few years, the Disney’s were forced to move to Kansas City, Missouri where Walt graduated from grammar school. In 1915, Disney attended the Kansas City Art Institute. And, in 1917, Disney found himself attending the McKinley High School in Chicago, Illinois, where he became a cartoonist for the school’s newspaper. At age 16, he quit school and attempted to join the Army. When he couldn’t enlist due to his age, he forged his paperwork and was taken with the Red Cross to serve a short stint in Germany.

Upon returning to the United States, Disney knew he wanted to be an artist for the rest of his life. But, like his father, he was also always looking for a business opportunity. After starting a couple different art companies that eventually went under, Walt decided to venture off to Hollywood. Once there, he looked for work as a live director, but soon returned to doing his short animations, based on fairy tales, such as Alice in Wonderland. After a deal with a distributor in New York, Disney began making money with his work. But, that was short-lived as Mintz took his cartoonist crew away.

Upon losing his main star, a cartoon character named Oswald; Disney supposedly came up with a new star for his short animation projects – Mickey Mouse. The newly developed mouse quickly gained popularity, as Disney did the voice and some of the design work for the new star. His first film was Plane Crazy, a silent film that showed a strong potential.

When Disney created Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, he almost went under again financially. In fact, Disney had to borrow more money from the Bank of America and show why this film was going to dominate the industry – it was with sound and done in Technicolor, the first feature cartoon film of its time. Upon its release, with many claiming that it would be the end of Disney, the film grossed over 7 million dollars, or in today's figures, well over 95 million dollars profit.

With the later years of ups and downs for the animation industry, due to World War II, Disney began buying the land necessary in Florida to build Disneyland, which would later become Walt Disney World, EPCOT, and the Magic Kingdom. Over his lifetime, Disney would prove that those who have a dream, no matter how far-fetched, should always reach for the stars.

MARTHA DANDRIDGE CUSTIS WASHINGTON

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"I think I am more like a state prisoner than anything else, there is certain bounds set for me which I must not depart from..." So in one of her surviving letters, Martha Washington confided to a niece that she did not entirely enjoy her role as first of First Ladies. She once conceded that "many younger and gayer women would be extremely pleased" in her place; she would "much rather be at home."

But when George Washington took his oath of office in New York City on April 30, 1789, and assumed the new duties of President of the United States, his wife brought to their position a tact and discretion developed over 58 years of life in Tidewater Virginia society.

Oldest daughter of John and Frances Dandridge, she was born June 2, 1731, on a plantation near Williamsburg. Typical for a girl in an 18th-century family, her education was almost negligible except in domestic and social skills, but she learned all the arts of a well-ordered household and how to keep a family contented.

As a girl of 18--about five feet tall, dark-haired, gentle of manner--she married the wealthy Daniel Parke Custis. Two babies died; two were hardly past infancy when her husband died in 1757.

From the day Martha married George Washington in 1759, her great concern was the comfort and happiness of her husband and children. When his career led him to the battlegrounds of the Revolutionary War and finally to the Presidency, she followed him bravely. Her love of private life equaled her husband's; but, as she wrote to her friend Mercy Otis Warren, "I cannot blame him for having acted according to his ideas of duty in obeying the voice of his country." As for herself, "I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."

At the President's House in temporary capitals, New York and Philadelphia, the Washingtons chose to entertain in formal style, deliberately emphasizing the new republic's wish to be accepted as the equal of the established governments of Europe. Still, Martha's warm hospitality made her guests feel welcome and put strangers at ease. She took little satisfaction in " formal compliments and empty ceremonies" and declared that "I am fond of only what comes from the heart." Abigail Adams, who sat at her right during parties and receptions, praised her as "one of those unassuming characters which create Love and Esteem."

In 1797 the Washingtons said farewell to public life and returned to their beloved Mount Vernon, to live surrounded by kinfolk, friends, and a constant stream of guests eager to pay their respects to the celebrated couple. Martha's daughter Patsy had died, her son Jack at 26, but Jack's children figured in the household. After George Washington died in 1799, Martha assured a final privacy by burning their letters; she died of "severe fever" on May 22, 1802. Both lie buried at Mount Vernon, where Washington himself had planned an unpretentious tomb for them.

Hillary Rodham clicnton

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During the 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton observed, "Our lives are a mixture of different roles. Most of us are doing the best we can to find whatever the right balance is . . . For me, that balance is family, work, and service."

Hillary Diane Rodham, Dorothy and Hugh Rodham's first child, was born on October 26, 1947. Two brothers, Hugh and Tony, soon followed. Hillary's childhood in Park Ridge, Illinois, was happy and disciplined. She loved sports and her church, and was a member of the National Honor Society, and a student leader. Her parents encouraged her to study hard and to pursue any career that interested her.

As an undergraduate at Wellesley College, Hillary mixed academic excellence with school government. Speaking at graduation, she said, "The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible."

In 1969, Hillary entered Yale Law School, where she served on the Board of Editors of Yale Law Review and Social Action, interned with children's advocate Marian Wright Edelman, and met Bill Clinton. The President often recalls how they met in the library when she strode up to him and said, "If you're going to keep staring at me, I might as well introduce myself." The two were soon inseparable--partners in moot court, political campaigns, and matters of the heart.

After graduation, Hillary advised the Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge and joined the impeachment inquiry staff advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. After completing those responsibilities, she "followed her heart to Arkansas," where Bill had begun his political career.

They married in 1975. She joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas Law School in 1975 and the Rose Law Firm in 1976. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of the Legal Services Corporation, and Bill Clinton became governor of Arkansas. Their daughter, Chelsea, was born in 1980.

Hillary served as Arkansas's First Lady for 12 years, balancing family, law, and public service. She chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital, Legal Services, and the Children's Defense Fund.

As the nation's First Lady, Hillary continued to balance public service with private life. Her active role began in 1993 when the President asked her to chair the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. She continued to be a leading advocate for expanding health insurance coverage, ensuring children are properly immunized, and raising public awareness of health issues. She wrote a weekly newspaper column entitled "Talking It Over," which focused on her experiences as First Lady and her observations of women, children, and families she has met around the world. Her 1996 book It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us was a best seller, and she received a Grammy Award for her recording of it.

As First Lady, her public involvement with many activities sometimes led to controversy. Undeterred by critics, Hillary won many admirers for her staunch support for women around the world and her commitment to children's issues.

Hillary Clinton was elected United States Senator from New York on November 7, 2000. She is the first First Lady elected to the United States Senate and the first woman elected statewide in New York.

Senator Clinton is President Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of State.