Events

778 – The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, at which Roland is killed.

927 – The Saracens conquer and destroy Taranto.

982 – Holy Roman Emperor Otto II is defeated by the Saracens in the battle of Capo Colonna, in Calabria

1018 – Byzantine general Eustathios Daphnomeles blinds and captures Ibatzes of Bulgaria by a ruse, thereby ending Bulgarian resistance against Emperor Basil II's conquest of Bulgaria.

1040 – King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.

1057 – King Macbeth is killed at the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada.

1185 – The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia.

1248 – The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid. (Construction is eventually completed in 1880.)

1261 – Michael VIII Palaeologus is crowned Byzantine emperor in Constantinople.

1309 – The city of Rhodes surrenders to the forces of the Knights of St. John, completing their conquest of Rhodes. The knights establish their headquarters on the island and rename themselves the Knights of Rhodes.

1430 – Francesco Sforza, lord of Milan, conquers Lucca.

1461 – The Empire of Trebizond surrenders to the forces of Sultan Mehmet II. This is regarded by some historians as the real end of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor David is exiled and later murdered.

1483 – Pope Sixtus IV consecrates the Sistine Chapel.

1517 – Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernão Pires de Andrade meet Chinese officials at the Pearl River estuary.

1519 – Panama City, Panama, is founded.

1534 – Saint Ignatius of Loyola and six classmates take initial vows, leading to the creation of the Society of Jesus in September 1540.

1537 – Asunción, Paraguay, is founded.

1540 – Arequipa, Peru, is founded.

1549 – Jesuit priest Saint Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima (Traditional Japanese date: July 22, 1549).

1599 – Nine Years War: Battle of Curlew Pass – Irish forces led by Hugh Roe O'Donnell successfully ambush English forces, led by Sir Conyers Clifford, sent to relieve Collooney Castle.

1695 – French forces end the Bombardment of Brussels, leaving a third of the buildings in the city in ruins.

1760 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Liegnitz – Frederick the Great's victory over the Austrians under Ernst von Laudon.

1824 – Freed American slaves found Liberia.

1843 – The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.

1843 – Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1863 – The Anglo-Satsuma War begins between the Satsuma Domain of Japan and the United Kingdom (Traditional Japanese date: July 2, 1863).

1869 – The Meiji government in Japan establishes six new ministries, including one for Shinto.

1891 – San Sebastian Church in Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed.

1907 – Ordination in Constantinople of Fr. Raphael Morgan, first African-American Orthodox priest, "Priest-Apostolic" to America and the West Indies.

1909 – A group of mid-level Greek Army officers launches the Goudi coup, seeking wide-ranging reforms.

1914 – A male servant of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright sets fire to the living quarters of the architect's Wisconsin home, Taliesin, murders seven people and burns the living quarters to the ground.

1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship Ancon.

1914 – The First Russian Army, led by Pavel Rennenkampf, enters Eastern Prussia.

1920 – Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw – Poles defeat the Red Army.

1935 – Will Rogers and Wiley Post are killed after their aircraft develops engine problems during takeoff in Barrow, Alaska.

1939 – 13 Stukas dive into the ground during a disastrous air-practice at Neuhammer. No survivors.

1940 – An Italian submarine torpedoes and sinks the Greek cruiser Elli at Tinos harbour during peacetime, marking the most serious Italian provocation prior to the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War in October.

1941 – Corporal Josef Jakobs is executed by firing squad at the Tower of London at 7:12am, making him the last person to be executed at the Tower for treason.

1942 – World War II: Operation Pedestal – The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island's defenses.

1944 – World War II: Operation Dragoon – Allied forces land in southern France.

1945 – World War II: Victory over Japan Day – Japan surrenders.

1945 – World War II: Korean Liberation Day.

1947 – India gains Independence from the British Indian Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.

1947 – Founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah is sworn in as first Governor General of Pakistan in Karachi.

1948 – The Republic of Korea is established south of the 38th parallel north.

1950 – Srikakulam district is formed in Andhra Pradesh, India.

1952 – Devon, United Kingdom A flashflood drenches the town of Lynmouth, killing 34 people.

1954 – Alfredo Stroessner begins his dictatorship in Paraguay.

1960 – Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent from France.

1961 – Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany while on duty guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall.

1962 – James Joseph Dresnok defects to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea after running across the Korean DMZ. Dresnok still resides in the capital, Pyongyang.

1963 – Execution of Henry John Burnett, the last man to be hanged in Scotland.

1963 – President Fulbert Youlou is overthrown in the Republic of Congo, after a three-day uprising in the capital.

1965 – The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, in an event later seen as marking the birth of stadium rock.

1969 – The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens.

1971 – President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors.

1971 – Bahrain gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1973 – Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends.

1974 – Yuk Young-soo, First Lady of South Korea, is killed during an apparent assassination attempt upon President of South Korea, Park Chung-hee.

1975 – Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is killed along with most members of his family during a military coup.

1975 – Miki Takeo makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by an incumbent prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II.

1977 – The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "Wow! signal" from the notation made by a volunteer on the project.

1984 – The PKK in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks upon the Turkish military

1995 – In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet matriculated at The Citadel (she drops out less than a week later).

1998 – Omagh bomb in Northern Ireland, the worst terrorist incident of The Troubles

1999 – Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria; some 29 people are killed at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border, leading to temporary tensions with Morocco.

2007 – An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates Ica and various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring 1,090.

Births

1171 – King Alfonso IX of Leon (d. 1230)

1195 – Anthony of Padua, Portuguese saint (d. 1231)

1432 – Luigi Pulci, Italian poet (d. 1484)

1575 – Bartol Kašić, Croatian writer and linguist (d. 1650)

1613 – Gilles Ménage, French scholar (d. 1692)

1717 – Blind Jack, English roadbuilder (d. 1810)

1740 – Matthias Claudius, German poet (d. 1815)

1769 – Napoleon Bonaparte, Corsican-born French military officer and dictator (d. 1821)

1771 – Sir Walter Scott, Scottish novelist and poet (d. 1832)

1785 – Thomas De Quincey, English author (d. 1859)

1813 – Jules Grévy, French statesman (d. 1891)

1844 – Thomas-Alfred Bernier, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1908)

1856 – Ivan Franko, Ukrainian writer (d. 1916)

1857 – Albert Ballin, German shipping tycoon (d. 1918)

1858 – E. Nesbit, English author (d. 1924)

1859 – Charles Comiskey, American baseball owner (d. 1931)

1860 – Henrietta Vinton Davis, American elocutionist (d. 1941)

1860 – Florence Harding, American First Lady (d. 1924)

1863 – Alexei Krylov, Russian engineer and mathematician (d. 1945)

1865 – Mikao Usui, Japanese spiritual figure (d. 1926)

1872 – Sri Aurobindo, Indian writer and philosopher (d. 1950)

1875 – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English composer (d. 1912)

1876 – Stylianos Gonatas, Greek military officer and politician (d. 1966)

1877 – Tachiyama Mineemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 22^nd Yokozuna (d. 1941)

1878 – Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, Russian counter-revolutionary (d. 1928)

1879 – Ethel Barrymore, American actress (d. 1959)

1881 – Alfred Wagenknecht, German-born American activist (d. 1956)

1883 – Ivan Meštrović, Croatian sculptor (d. 1962)

1885 – Edna Ferber, American novelist (d. 1968)

1886 – Bill Whitty, Australian cricketer (d. 1974)

1890 – Elizabeth Bolden, American Supercentenarian (d. 2006)

1890 – Jacques Ibert, French composer (d. 1962)

1892 – Louis, 7th duc de Broglie, French physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1987)

1893 – Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and mechanical computation designer (d. 1950)

1896 – Gerty Cori, Austrian biochemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1957)

1896 – Catherine Doherty, Russian-born Canadian activist (d. 1985)

1896 – Paul Outerbridge, American photographer (d. 1958)

1896 – Leon Theremin, Russian inventor (d. 1993)

1898 – Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (d. 1966)

1900 – Estelle Brody, American actress (d. 1995)

1901 – Pyotr Novikov, Russian mathematician (d. 1975)

1904 – George Klein, Canadian inventor (d. 1992)

1905 – Emile St. Godard, Canadian dog sled racer (d. 1948)

1909 – Hugo Winterhalter, American composer and bandleader (d. 1973)

1910 – Signe Hasso, Swedish actress (d. 2002)

1912 – Julia Child, American cook and TV personality (d. 2004)

1912 – Dame Wendy Hiller, English actress (d. 2003)

1914 – Paul Rand, American graphic designer (d. 1996)

1916 – Aleks Çaçi, Albanian writer (d. 1989)

1917 – Jack Lynch, Irish politician (d. 1999)

1917 – Oscar Romero, El Salvadorian Roman Catholic priest (d. 1980)

1919 – Huntz Hall, American actor (d. 1999)

1919 – Benedict Kiely, Irish author (d. 2007)

1922 – Lukas Foss, German-born composer (d. 2009)

1922 – Leonard Baskin, American sculptor and graphic artist (d. 2000)

1922 – Giorgos Mouzakis, Greek songwriter and musician (d. 2005)

1923 – Rose Marie, American actress

1924 – Robert Bolt, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 1995)

1924 – Werner Abrolat, German actor (d. 1997)

1925 – Mike Connors, American actor

1925 – Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist (d. 2007)

1925 – Bill Pinkney, American baritone singer (d. 2007)

1926 – Sami Michael, Iraqi-born Israeli author

1926 – Costis Stephanopoulos, Greek politician

1927 – Eddie Leadbeater, England cricketer

1928 – Nicolas Roeg, English film director

1930 – Ageeda Paavel, Estonian freedom fighter

1933 – Bobby Helms, American pop singer (d. 1997)

1933 – Jim Lange, American game show host

1934 – Bobby Byrd, American soul/funk singer (d. 2007)

1934 – Nino Ferrer, French-Italian singer (d. 1998)

1934 – Reginald Scarlett, West Indian cricketer

1935 – Jim Dale, English actor

1935 – Vernon Jordan Jr., American presidential advisor

1935 – Lionel Taylor, American football player

1938 – Maxine Waters, American politician

1938 – Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer

1940 – Gudrun Ensslin, German terrorist (d. 1977)

1940 – Rita Shane, American soprano

1941 – Manolis Mavrommatis, Greek politician

1942 – Larry Hartsell, American martial arts instructor (d. 2007)

1943 – María Rojo, Mexican actress and politician

1944 – Linda Ellerbee, American journalist

1944 – Tom Murphy, American politician

1944 – Dimitris Sioufas, Greek lawyer and politician

1944 – Sylvie Vartan, Bulgarian pop singer

1945 – Gene Upshaw, American football player (d. 2008)

1945 – Begum Khaleda Zia, Bangladeshi politician

1946 – Tony Robinson, English actor and television presenter

1946 – Jimmy Webb, American musician and composer

1947 – Raakhee Gulzar, Indian actress

1947 – Jenny Hanley, British TV presenter

1948 – Uschi Digard, American pornographic actress and model

1948 – Patsy Gallant, Canadian pop singer

1948 – George Ryton, British engineer

1949 – Beverly Lynn Burns, American pilot

1949 – Richard Deacon, Welsh sculptor

1949 – Garry Disher, Australian author

1949 – Mark B. Rosenberg, American educator

1950 – Tommy Aldridge, American musician

1950 – Anne, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom

1950 – Tom Kelly, American baseball manager

1951 – Ann Biderman, American film and television writer

1951 – Bobby Caldwell, American singer and musician

1951 – John Childs, England cricketer

1951 – Daba Diawara, Malian politician

1951 – Ranjan Gunatilleke, Sri Lankan cricketer

1954 – Stieg Larsson, Swedish writer (d. 2004)

1954 – Mary Jo Salter, American poet

1956 – Lorraine Desmarais, French-Canadian jazz pianist and composer

1957 – Željko Ivanek, Slovenian-American actor

1958 – Simon Baron-Cohen, British psychiatrist and author

1958 – Craig MacTavish, Canadian ice hockey player/coach

1958 – Victor Shenderovich, Russian satirist

1958 – Rondell Sheridan, American actor and comedian

1958 – Laurie Bembenek, American convicted murderer and fugitive (d. 2010)

1961 – Ed Gillespie, American White House counsel to George W. Bush

1961 – Gary Kubiak, American football coach

1962 – Tom Colicchio, American chef

1963 – Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexican film director

1963 – Jack Russell, England cricketer

1963 – Valery Levaneuski, entrepreneur, politician, former political prisoner

1964 – Melinda French Gates, American wife of Bill Gates

1965 – Rob Thomas, American writer

1966 – Scott Brosius, American baseball player

1966 – Shirley Kwan, Hong Kong singer

1966 – Dimitris Papadopoulos, Greek basketball player

1967 – Peter Hermann American actor

1968 – Debra Messing, American actress

1969 – Kevin Cheng, Hong Kong actor and singer

1969 – Cris Judd, American actor/choreographer

1969 – Bernard Fanning, Australian singer/songwriter (Powderfinger)

1970 – Anthony Anderson, American comedian and actor

1970 – Maddie Corman, American actress

1970 – Ben Silverman, American TV executive

1972 – Ben Affleck, American actor

1972 – Chris Morrissey, American film director/actor

1972 – Matthew Wood, American actor and sound editor

1972 – Jennifer Alexander, Canadian ballet dancer (d. 2007)

1973 – Adnan Sami, British-born Pakastani music composer and singer

1973 – Adam Willard, American musician (The Offspring)

1974 – Natasha Henstridge, Canadian actress

1974 – Tomasz Suwary, Polish footballer

1975 – Bertrand Berry, American football player

1975 – Vijay Bharadwaj, Indian cricketer

1975 – Brendan Morrison, Canadian hockey player

1975 – Kara Wolters, American basketball player

1976 – Boudewijn Zenden, Dutch football player

1977 – Martin Biron, Canadian ice hockey goaltender

1977 – Igor Cassina, Italian gymnast

1977 – Nicole Paggi, American actress

1978 – Tim Foreman, American bassist (Switchfoot)

1978 – Lilia Podkopayeva, Ukrainian gymnast

1978 – Stavros Tziortziopoulos, Greek footballer

1978 – Kerri Walsh, American beach volleyball player

1979 – Carl Edwards, American NASCAR driver

1980 – Nathalie Press, English actress

1981 – Brendan Hansen, American swimmer

1981 – Song Ji-hyo, South Korean actress

1981 – Oliver Perez, American baseball player

1982 – Casey Burgener, American weightlifter

1988 – Tiffanie Anderson, American performer (Girlicious)

1989 – Belinda, Mexican singer

1989 – Carlos Pena Jr., American actor and singer

1989 – Joe Jonas, American actor and singer

Deaths

423 – Flavius Honorius, Roman Emperor (b. 384)

778 – Roland, Frankish commander

1038 – King Stephen I of Hungary

1057 – Macbeth, King of Scotland

1118 – Alexius I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1048)

1196 – Conrad II, Duke of Swabia (b. 1173)

1274 – Robert de Sorbon, French theologian and educator (b. 1201)

1369 – Philippa of Hainault, Queen consort of Edward III of England

1528 – Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, French military leader (b. 1485)

1552 – Hermann of Wied, German Catholic archbishop (b. 1477)

1621 – John Barclay, Scottish writer (b. 1582)

1666 – Johann Adam Schall von Bell, German Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)

1714 – Constantin Brâncoveanu, Prince of Wallachia (b. 1654)

1728 – Marin Marais, French composer and viol player (b. 1656)

1758 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician (b. 1698)

1799 – Giuseppe Parini, Italian poet (b. 1729)

1852 – Johan Gadolin, Finnish scientist (b. 1760)

1859 – Nathaniel Claiborne, American politician (b. 1777)

1880 – Adelaide Neilson, English actress (b. 1848)

1907 – Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist (b. 1831)

1909 – Euclides da Cunha, Brazilian writer and sociologist (b. 1866)

1917 – Thomas J. Higgins, American Union Army soldier (b. 1831)

1925 – Konrad Mägi, Estonian artist (b. 1878)

1931 – Nigar Shikhlinskaya, Azerbaijani WWI nurse (b. ca. 1878)

1935 – Wiley Post, American pilot (b. 1898)

1935 – Will Rogers, American humorist and actor (b. 1879)

1935 – Paul Signac, French painter (b. 1863)

1936 – Grazia Deledda, Italian writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1871)

1942 – Mahadev Desai, personal secretary of Mahatma Gandhi (b.1892)

1945 – Korechika Anami, Japanese War Minister (b. 1887)

1951 – Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (b. 1882)

1953 – Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (b. 1875)

1959 – Blind Willie McTell, American singer (b. 1901)

1962 – Lei Feng, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1940)

1967 – René Magritte, Belgian painter (b. 1898)

1971 – Paul Lukas, Hungarian-born actor (b. 1887)

1975 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladeshi statesman (b. 1920)

1975 – Clay Shaw, American lawyer and John F. Kennedy assassination investigator (b. 1913)

1982 – Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1903)

1989 – Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, Greek Army officer (b. 1897)

1990 – Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician (b. 1962)

1995 – John Cameron Swayze, American journalist (b. 1906)

1999 – Sir Hugh Casson, British architect and artist (b. 1910)

2001 – Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (b. 1972)

2003 – Gösta Sundqvist, Finnish songwriter and singer (heart attack) (b. 1957)

2004 – Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1916)

2004 – Semiha Berksoy, first Turkish opera singer (b. 1910)

2004 – Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician (b. 1941)

2005 – Bendapudi Venkata Satyanarayana, Indian dermatologist (b. 1927)

2006 – Te Atairangi Kaahu, Māori queen (b. 1931)

2006 – Rick Bourke, Australian rugby league player (b. c. 1955)

2006 – Coenraad Bron, Dutch computer scientist (b. 1937)

2006 – Faas Wilkes, Dutch international footballer (b. 1923)

2007 – Richard Bradshaw, British opera conductor, (b. 1944)

2007 – John Gofman, American Manhattan Project scientist and advocate (b. 1918)

2007 – Geoffrey Orbell, New Zealand bush walker (b. 1908)

2007 – Sam Pollock, Canadian sports executive (b. 1925)

2008 – Jerry Wexler, American music producer (b. 1917)

2008 – James Orthwein, American businessman (b. 1924)

2008 – Leroy Sievers, American journalist (b. 1955)

2008 – Vic Toweel, South African boxer (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances

Armed Forces Day (Poland)

Christian Feast Day:

*Stanislaus Kostka

*Tarcisius

*August 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Feast day of the Assumption of Mary, one of the Catholic Holy Day of Obligation. (Christianity, a public holiday in Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia, Burundi, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mauritius, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Seychelles, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Togo, and Vanuatu), and its related observances:

*Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches)

*Ferragosto (Italy)

*Mother's Day (Antwerp and Costa Rica)

*National Acadian Day (Acadians)

*Virgin of Candelaria, patron of the Canary Islands. (Tenerife, Spain)

Earliest day on which Day of Hearts can fall, while August 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Monday in August. (area around Haarlem and Amsterdam)

Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Republic of the Congo from France in 1960.

Independence Day, celebrates the independence of India from the United Kingdom in 1947.

Liberation Day, celebrates the independence of Korea from Japan in 1945:

*Gwangbokjeol, "Liberation Day" (South Korea)

*Jogukhaebangui nal, "Fatherland Liberation Day" (North Korea)

The first day of Flooding of the Nile, a commemoration of the belief that the star Sirius would appear when the Nile River flooded.(Egypt and Coptic Church)

The main day of Bon Festival (Japan)

Victory over Japan Day (United States)

External links

BBC: On This Day

On This Day in Canada

----

Category:Days of the year Category:August

Name	Lalu Alex
Birthname	Lalu Alex
Birth date	March 26, 1953
Birth place	Piravom, Muvattupuzha Taluk, Kerala
Occupation	Actor
Yearsactive	1978 - Present
Othername	Laluchayan
Total films	more than 200

Lalu Alex is a Malayali film actor.

Early life

Lalu Alex was born in a Knanaya Catholic family in Piravom near Muvattupuzha, Kerala.

Career

He started his career as a suppoting actor in early 1980s. He has started his career in supporting as well as in villanoeus roles in I. V. Sasi's movies like Thrishna, Thusharam, Kanamarayath, Alkootathil thaniye, John jaffer janardhanan, Mrugaya and Balachandra Menon's Karyam nissarm, Prasnam gurutharam etc. He has also acted with directors like K. Madhu in Adikkurippu, Chathuangam, Munnam Murra, Sathyan Anthikkad with kalikkalam oral mathram, Kamal with Manjupole oru penkutty, Niram. In 90's he has turned to comic roles.

Filmography

Shikkar (2010)

Mummy & Me (2010)

Ividam Swargamanu (2009) .... Aluva Chandy

Angel John (2009) .... Joseph

Pazhassi Raja(2009) .... Emman Nair

Hailesa (2009) .... Ganapathi Iyer

Love in Singapore (2009)

Vellathooval (2009)

Sulthan (2008)

(2008) .... DIG Krishnadas

Maya Bazar (2008)

Raudram (2008) .... SP Thomas Antony

Pachamarathanalil (2008) .... Alfie

Kangaroo (2007) .... Stephan

Chocolate (2007) .... Mathews

Nazrani (2007) .... K. Rajagopal

Mission 90 Days (2007) .... DIG Rajiv

Rakshakan (2007)

November Rain (2007)

Inspector Garud (2007) .... Rajan Joseph

Pathaka (2006) .... Chief Minister

Bharatchandran IPS (2005) .... Habeeb Basheer I.P.S.

Vacation (2005) .... Martin

Sathyam (2004) .... Police Officer

Manjupoloru Penkutti (2004) .... Immanuel

Njaan Salperu Raman Kutty (2004) .... Velayudhan

Sasneham Sumithra (2004)

Pulival Kalyanam (2003) .... Raghavendra Sett

Chronic Bachelor (2003) .... Balagangadharan/Shekharankutty

Mullavalliyum Thenmavum (2003) .... Dr. Alex

Kalyanaraman (2002) .... Thampi

Chathurangam (2002) .... Methikkalam Thommichan

Phantom (2002) .... 'Dhimdhi' Mathayi

Saivar Thirumeni (2001) .... Pappan

Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal (2000) .... Ashok

Aayiram Meni (1999) .... Varkey

Mazhavillu (1999) .... Varkeychan

Niram (1999) .... Dr. Sunny

Sidhartha (1998) .... Commissioner

Irattakuttikalude Achan (1997)

Oral Mathram (1997) .... Mathews

Siamese Irattakal (1997)

Mandrika Kuthira (1996)

Nirnayam (1995) .... Javed Khan

Sadaram (1995) .... Harichandra Menon

Vishnu (1994) .... Jailor

Kashmeeram (1994) .... Rajan

Manathe Vellitheru (1994) .... Thomas Jacob

Minnaram (1994)

Padheyam (1993) .... Harikumara Menon

Adayalam (1991)

Kankettu (1991) .... Jaffer

Ee Thanutha Veluppan Kalathu (1990) .... Joy

Oliyampukal (1990) .... Jameskutty

Kalikkalam (1990) .... Mathews

Appu (1990) .... Adv. Prabhakaran

Arhatha (1990) .... Sethu

Nammude Naade (1990)

Orukkam (1990) .... Narayanankutty

Varthamana Kalam (1990) .... George Thomas

Mrigaya (1989)

Nair Saab (1989)

Adikkurippu (1989) .... Captain

Puthiya Karukkal (1989) .... Dr. Thomas Kurien

Unnikrishnante Adyathe Christmas (1989) .... Dasan

Vadakkunokkiyantram (1989) .... Capt. Balan

Vicharana (1988) .... Johny

Moonnam Mura (1988) .... Charles

Simon Peter Ninakku Vendi (1988) .... Arjun

Aankiliyude Tharattu (1987) .... Rajesh

Nombarathi Poovu (1987) .... Sethu

Ithrayum Kalam (1987) .... Alex

Oru Sindoora Pottinte Ormaykku (1987) .... George Thomas

January Oru Orma (1987) .... Minnal Dineshan

Veendum (1986) .... Sukumaran

Nyayavidhi (1986) .... Kavil Johnie

Adukkan Entheluppam (1986) .... Nandakumar

Snehamulla Simham (1986) .... Venu

Shyama (1986) .... Chandran

Ente Entethu Mathram (1986) .... Gowthaman

Oppam Oppathinoppam (1986) .... Mathachan

Kandu Kandarinju (1985) .... Grasscourt Kumar

Karimpin Poovinakkare (1985) .... Vasu

Aa Neram Alppa Dooram (1985) .... Dinesh Varma

Ee Lokam Ivide Kure Manushyar (1985) .... Sreedharan

Oru Nokku Kanan (1985) .... Gopan

Muhurtham Pathnonnu Muppathinu (1985) .... Tony

Ambada Njane! (1985) .... Peethambaran

Aalkkoottathil Thaniye (1984) .... Padmanabhan

Athirathram (1984) .... Charley

Inakkilly (1984) .... Raju

Kanamarayathu (1984) .... Alex

Koottinilamkili (1984) .... Vikrama Kurup

Manase Ninakku Mangalam (1984) .... Soman

Swanthamevide Bandhamevide (1984) .... Balachandran

Thathamme Poocha Poocha (1984) .... Chanthu

Aa Rathri (1983) .... Babu

Belt Mathai (1983) .... Indrapalan

Bhookambam (1983) .... Michael

Iniyenkilum (1983) .... Alex

Karyam Nissaram (1983) .... Sarala's Husband

Prasnam Gurutharam (1983) .... Mohan

Innalenkil Nale (1982) .... Madhu

Ithiri Neram Othiri Karyam (1982)

John Jaffer Janardhanan (1982)

Ahimsa (1981) .... Raghu

Thrishna (1981) .... Ramakrishnan

Awards

Asianet Film Awards

2009:- Best Actor in a Villain Role - Evidam Swargamanu

Amrita Mathrubhumi Film Awards

2009 Best Villain - Lalu Alex for Evidam Swargamanu

Kerala State Film Award

2004 Best Supporting Actor in Manjupole oru penkutty

External links

References

Category:Malayali actors Category:Indian Christians Category:Living people Category:1953 births

Name	Meghana Raj
Birthname	Meghana Sunder Raj
Birthdate
Birthplace	Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Othername	Meghna
Occupation	Actress, model
Yearsactive	2009-present
Website	http://meghanaraj.com/

Meghana Raj (; born on 4 May) is an Indian film actress, who works in the South Indian film industries. She made her acting debut in the 2009 Telugu film Bendu Apparao R.M.P.

Early life

Meghana Raj was born in Bangalore, Karnataka as the only daughter to film actors Sundar Raj and Pramila Joshai. Her father Sundar Raj, a Tamilian, has acted in more than 180 films, predominantly in Kannada language, while her mother Pramila Joshai, a Kannadiga, is a noted Kannada film actress and film producer. Because of her mixed background, Meghana is fluent in both Kannada and Tamil, speaking Kannada at home and Tamil at her grandparents' house.

Career

Meghana Raj first debuted as a theater artist, when she was a child, acting alongside her father Sunder Raj in the play Jokumaraswamy. During the audio launch function of the Tamil film Poi in February 2006, she was invited by its director K. Balachander to pursue an acting career, starring in one of his forthcoming films. Accepting his offer, she was given the lead female role in the Tamil film Krishnaleelai, a Balachander production, directed by Selvan. However, despite continuing shooting throughout 2008, which was completed in early 2009, the film got stuck in production hell, and its release got delayed for various reasons.

Even before the release of that film, she commenced shooting for a Telugu film Bendu Apparao R.M.P, which would eventually be her first feature film release. She played the character of a school teacher in the comedy entertainer, starring Allari Naresh and Kamna Jethmalani as well, which released in October 2009 and went on to become highly successful at the box office. She is now set to debut in the Kannada film industry as well, enacting the female lead role in the Kannada film Punda, a remake of the 2007 Tamil film Polladhavan. She is now working on two more Tamil projects, the Boopathy Pandian-directed Kaadhal Solla Vandhen, which would be her first Tamil release, and Nandha Nandhitha, which is a remake of the 2008 Kannada film Nanda Loves Nanditha.

Filmography

{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;" |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! Year !! Film !! Role !! Language !! Notes |- | 2009 || Bendu Apparao R.M.P || Gayatri || Telugu || |- | rowspan="3" | 2010 || Punda || Meghana || Kannada || |- | Kaadhal Solla Vandhen || Sandhya || Tamil || |- | Yakshiyum Njanum || Aathira || Malayalam || |- | rowspan="7" | 2011 || August 15 || || Malayalam || Post-production |- | Krishnaleelai || || Tamil || Post-production |- | Nandha Nandhitha || Nandhitha || Tamil || Filming |- | Uyarthiru 420 || || Tamil || Filming |- | London Dreams || || Malayalam || Filming |- | Raghuvinte Swantham Rasiya || || Malayalam || Filming |- | Kalla Siripazhaga || || Tamil || Filming |}

References

External links

Category:Indian actors Category:Indian film actors Category:Kannada film actors Category:Tamil actors Category:Telugu actors Category:Living people Category:Kannada people Category:People from Bangalore

Name	Mammootty
Birth name	Muhammed Kutty
Birth date	September 07, 1953
Birth place	Chempu, Kottayam, Kochi, India
Other names	Mammookka, Mammoosse, Megastar
Occupation	Film actor, producer, film distributor, social worker
Spouse	Sulfath (1981 - present)
Years active	1971 – present
Website	http://www.mammootty.com

Mammootty () (born Muhammad Kutty on 7 September 1953) In a survey among its readers, Vanitha magazine selected Mammootty as the actor with the most sex appeal in Kerala. Mammootty has promoted humanitarian causes throughout Kerala and is the goodwill ambassador of the Akshaya project.

Family and early life

Mammootty was born and raised in Chempu near Vaikom in the Kottayam district of the state of Kerala, India in a middle class Muslim family. He was the eldest son of the family. His father Ismail was an agriculturist and his mother Fatima was a housewife. He did his high school (pre-degree) at Maharajas College, Kochi, and then studied law at Ernakulam Government Law College. He also practiced law for two years in Manjeri. He married Sulfath in 1980 and has a daughter, Surumi (b. 1982) and a son, Dulquar Salman (b. 1986). He was a student at the Maharajas College then. In 1973, he got another role in Kalachakram, a Prem Nazir movie directed by K. Narayanan. He acted under the screenname Sajin, but later dropped it.

His professional film career began in 1979, when he played his first lead role in Devalokam, His roles in Mela, directed by K. G. George, in which he played a circus artist, and Thrishna, directed by I.V. Sasi, got him noticed as a hero.

In 1982, his role of a police officer in the investigative thriller Yavanika (1982) directed by K. G. George was the beginning of a trend whereby Mammootty would play the role of a tough cop in many action and investigative thrillers in the coming years.

In 1981, he got his first state award in the Best Supporting Actor category for his performance in Ahimsa.

In the mid 1980's he appeared in Padmarajan’s Koodevide and Joshy’s Aa Raathri. His performances in films like Aalkootathil Thaniye and Adiyozhukkukal, scripted by M.T.Vasudevan Nair established him as an actor of substance.

In a period of five years from 1982 to 1986 Mammootty acted in more than 150 films as a hero.

Mammootty received his second national award for his performances in Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Vidheyan and TV Chandran's Ponthan Mada. He also received state award for his roles in both films. His performance in Valtsalyam directed by Cochin Haneefa was also considered for the State award. The film was sponsored by the National Film Development Corporation of India and the Ministry of Social Justice.

Current era, 2000–present

In the early 2000s, Mammootty acted in films such as Siddique's Chronic Bachelor, K Madhu's Sethurama Iyer CBI and Blessy's Kazhcha. In 2004, he won the state award for his portrayal of Operator Madhavan in Kazhcha. The year 2005 proved to be immensely successful for him with two major box office hits in Thommanum Makkalum and Rajamanikyam, the latter directed by debutant Anwar Rasheed; Rajamanikyam went on to become the biggest hit of Malayalam cinema at that time.

Other movies in the mid-2000s include Johny Antony's Thuruppu Gulan (2006), Shafi's Mayavi (2007), Amal Neerad's Big B (2007), Anwar Rasheed's Annan Thambi (2008) and Jayaraj's Loudspeaker (2009).

In October 2009, Pazhassi Raja, directed by T Hariharan and written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair, was released. It was touted as the highest grossing film in the history of Malayalam cinema.

In 2009, he won his fifth state award for Best Actor for his performance in Paleri Manikyam.

Mammootty was nominated for the National Award for Best Actor in 2009, but he lost the award in the final round of the competition to Amitabh Bachan. The jury's decision to give the award to Bachan was criticised by Shaji N Karun, director of Kutty Srank (the movie which won the award for best film of 2009) and Ranjith, director of Paleri Manikyam.

His latest release, Pranchiyettan and the Saint, was directed by Ranjith. It performed well at the box office.

Films in other languages

Mammootty has acted in a few non-Malayalam movies and these include some Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada and English films. In 1989, he made his Tamil debut in Maunam Sammatham, directed by K. Madhu. He has acted in Tamil films for directors including K. Balachander (Azhagan), Mani Ratnam (Thalapathy), and Rajiv Menon (Kandukondain Kandukondain). Kilippechu Kekkavaa (1993), directed by Fazil, had Mammootty as a romantic hero. He played the role of Anantha Sharma in K. Vishwanath's Telugu film Swathi Kiranam (1992).

He acted in the Kannada film Love in 2005.

He made his debut into Hindi films through Thriyathri which was released in 1989, though his first film as a hero was Dhartiputra. He starred in the biographical film Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar directed by Jabbar Patel which was in the English language. He also appeared in Sau Jhooth Ek Sach (2004).

During the 2006 IIFA Awards ceremony held at Dubai, he openly criticized the organizers of the IIFA Awards for completely ignoring South Indian film by stating that the Bollywood film industry should stand up to competition from the South Indian film industry before calling itself international.

Humanitarian works

Mammootty is involved in more than half a dozen philanthropic projects aimed at helping needy people.

Pain and Palliative Centre

Mammootty is the patron of the Pain and Palliative Care Society, a charitable organization in Kerala formed with the aim of improving the quality of life among patients with advanced cancer. He has been the fuel and the engine of the Pain and Palliative Care Centre situated in Kozhikode, India. Mammootty has now put forth a novel project to provide the pain and palliative care to those suffering from cancer throughout Kerala.

Jeevan Jothi

Mammootty is the ambassador of Jeevan Jothi, a social work project aimed at providing aid to people seeking treatment for any ophthalmic diseases, cardiac diseases, orthopedic diseases, liver diseases, renal dysfunctions, Haemophilia diseases, or ENT disorders.

Street India Movement

Mammootty is the goodwill ambassador of a charity project "Street India Movement", which is aimed at the eradication of child begging and child labor. He has promoted the activities of the movement, which networks with orphanages and institutions looking after the children.

Kazhcha- free eye care and treatment

Kazhcha is a venture to extend free eye care and treatment organized by Mammootty Fans Welfare Association and Mammootty Times, in association with Little Flower Hospital and Research Centre and the Eye Bank Association of Kerala. One of the major activities related to this is distribution of free spectacles to children. A special fund received from the office of the President of India will be utilized for this purpose. Free eye camps will also be conducted at various places in connection to this project.

Donating food and goods

During Onam 2007, Mammootty donated food items among thousand families in Parathodu near Kanjirappally in Kottayam district, a Kerala village which was hit by Chikungunya. The village which was worst hit by the disease claimed the most lives in the state. In a press conference Mammootty explained his motives for doing this:

Akshaya: information technology dissemination

Akshaya, the information technology dissemination project of the Government of Kerala, has Mammootty as its Goodwill Ambassador. He formally took over the role on 26 February 2006 at a video networked programme which was linked to all the district headquarters of the state. which runs some Malayalam TV channels such as Kairali TV, People TV and Channel We.

He formed a television production company, Megabytes, which has produced some television serials, the first being Jwalayay in the late 1990s, which was also his first project as a producer. Jwalayay created history in Malayalam television. He had started a distribution company named Mammootty Technotainment. It has distributed his Tamil film Karmegham in Kerala. It gets the first share from the distribution rights.

Other activities

Mammootty was appointed as the Global Brand ambassador of the Kerala-based South Indian Bank on 16 October 2006. He was also featured as the brand ambassador for Kerala Volleyball League.

Mammootty and Dubai-based businessman MA Yousuf Ali met with the officials of the Dubai Internet City (DIC) to lobby for the proposed Smart City project at Kochi.

Mammootty wrote his first book Kazhchapadu (roughly translated as "Perspective", a compilation of short essays he has written in various publications over the years).

Awards, honours and recognitions

Mammootty has won three National Film Awards, seven Kerala State Film Awards, ten Filmfare Awards, nine Kerala Film Critics Awards and five Asianet Film Awards (from fourteen nominations). In 1998, Government of India honored Mammootty, with its fourth highest civilian award, Padma Shri, awarded for his national service, including his contribution to the Indian film industry. He was conferred with Doctor of Letters degree by University of Calicut and University of Kerala in 2010.

Filmography

References

External links

Official website of Mammootty

Profile of Mammooty at mallumovies.org

Profile of Mammootty

Mammootty at MSI

Category:Filmfare Awards winners Category:Hindi film actors Category:Indian amateur radio operators Category:Indian humanitarians Category:Indian Muslims Category:Indian television producers Category:Kerala State Film Award winners Category:Living people Category:Malayali actors Category:National Film Award winners Category:People from Kerala Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri Category:Tamil actors Category:Telugu actors Category:1953 births Category:People from Kottayam

Name	Justin Bieber
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Justin Drew Bieber
Born	March 01, 1994
Origin	Stratford, Ontario, Canada
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, percussion,
Genre	Pop, R&B; ( , born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian pop-R&B; singer. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who happened to come across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with Usher in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher, and then to a recording contract with Island Records offered by L.A. Reid. His first full studio release, My World 2.0, was released on March 23, 2010 and has since received similar success; it debuted at number one and within the top ten of several countries and was certified platinum in the United States. It was preceded by the worldwide top-ten single, "Baby," in January 2010.
Name	Bieber, Justin
Short description	Canadian singer
Date of birth	March 1, 1994
Place of birth	Stratford, Ontario, Canada

Category:1994 births Category:Living people Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Canadian child singers Category:Canadian dance musicians Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Canadian Internet personalities Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian rhythm and blues singers Category:Hip hop singers Category:Island Records artists Category:Musicians from Atlanta, Georgia Category:Musicians from Ontario Category:People from Stratford, Ontario Category:Canadian people of German descent

Caption	Lynch at the Glee premiere party, May 11, 2009
Birth date	July 14, 1960
Birth place	Dolton, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, comedian, singer
Years active	1981–present
Spouse	She was raised in an Irish Catholic family and attended Thornridge High School. Since then, she has starred in a series of films including Role Models, , Alvin & the Chipmunks, , Space Chimps, The Rocker, The Hammer, Another Cinderella Story, , and Spring Breakdown.
Colwidth	30em

External links

PlanetOut interview

AfterEllen.com interview with Jane Lynch

Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from Illinois Category:American comedians Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:Cornell University alumni Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Illinois State University alumni Category:Lesbian actors Category:LGBT comedians Category:LGBT television personalities Category:LGBT people from the United States Category:LGBT Christians Category:Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Cook County, Illinois Category:Women comedians Category:Second City alumni

Name	Bruce Springsteen
Landscape	No
Background	solo_singer
Alias	The Boss
Born	September 23, 1949Long Branch, New JerseyUnited States
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano
Genre	Rock, heartland rock, folk rock, roots rock, Americana
Occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter
Years active	1972–present
Label	Columbia
Associated acts	E Street Band, Steel Mill, Miami Horns, The Sessions Band
Url	brucespringsteen.net
Notable instruments	Fender TelecasterFender EsquireTakamine GuitarsHohner Marine Band Harmonica

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss", is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of Heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.

Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more sombre folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A., showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and 120 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award.

Early life

Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Borough. Springsteen is a vegetarian. He lived on South Street in Freehold Borough and attended Freehold Borough High School. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was of Dutch and Irish ancestry and worked, among other vocations, as a bus driver; his surname is Dutch for jump stone. His mother, Adele Ann (née Zerilli), was a legal secretary and was of Italian ancestry. Overall, his heritage is 50% Italian, 37% Irish and 13% Dutch. His maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense, a city near Naples. He has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. Pamela had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue still photography full time; she took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.

Raised a Roman Catholic, Springsteen attended the St. Rose of Lima Catholic school in Freehold Borough, where he was at odds with the nuns and rejected the strictures imposed upon him, even though some of his later music reflects a Catholic ethos and included a few rock-influenced, traditional Irish-Catholic hymns.

In ninth grade, he transferred to the public Freehold Regional High School, but did not fit in there, either. Old teachers have said he was a "loner, who wanted nothing more than to play his guitar." He completed high school, but felt so uncomfortable that he skipped his own graduation ceremony. He briefly attended Ocean County College, but dropped out.

Called for induction when he was 18, Springsteen failed his physical examination and did not serve in Vietnam. In an interview in Rolling Stone magazine in 1984, he said, "When I got on the bus to go take my physical, I thought one thing: I ain't goin'." He had suffered a concussion in a motorcycle accident when he was 17, and this together with his "crazy" behaviour at induction and not taking the tests, was enough to get him a 4F.

, New Jersey inspired the themes of ordinary life in Bruce Springsteen's music.]]

In the late 1960s, Springsteen performed briefly in a power trio known as Earth, playing in clubs in New Jersey. Springsteen acquired the nickname "The Boss" during this period as when he played club gigs with a band he took on the task of collecting the band's nightly pay and distributing it amongst his bandmates. Springsteen is not fond of this nickname, due to his dislike of bosses, but seems to have since given it a tacit acceptance. Previously he had the nickname "Doctor". From 1969 through early 1971, Springsteen performed with Steel Mill, which also featured Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, Vinnie Roslin and later Steve Van Zandt and Robbin Thompson. They went on to play the mid-Atlantic college circuit, and also briefly in California. In January 1970 well-known San Francisco Examiner music critic Philip Elwood gave Springsteen credibility in his glowing assessment of Steel Mill: "I have never been so overwhelmed by totally unknown talent." Elwood went on to praise their "cohesive musicality" and, in particular, singled out Springsteen as "a most impressive composer." During this time Springsteen also performed regularly at small clubs in Canton, Massachusetts, Asbury Park and along the Jersey Shore, quickly gathering a cult following. Other acts followed over the next two years, as Springsteen sought to shape a unique and genuine musical and lyrical style: Dr Zoom & the Sonic Boom (early–mid 1971), Sundance Blues Band (mid 1971), and The Bruce Springsteen Band (mid 1971–mid 1972). With the addition of pianist David Sancious, the core of what would later become the E Street Band was formed, with occasional temporary additions such as horn sections, "The Zoomettes" (a group of female backing vocalists for "Dr. Zoom") and Southside Johnny Lyon on harmonica. Musical genres explored included blues, R&B;, jazz, church music, early rock'n'roll, and soul. His prolific songwriting ability, with "More words in some individual songs than other artists had in whole albums," as his future record label would describe it in early publicity campaigns, brought his skill to the attention of several people who were about to change his life: new managers Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, and legendary Columbia Records talent scout John Hammond, who, under Appel's pressure, auditioned Springsteen in May 1972.

Even after Springsteen gained international acclaim, his New Jersey roots showed through in his music, and he often praised "the great state of New Jersey" in his live shows. Drawing on his extensive local appeal, he routinely sold out consecutive nights in major New Jersey and Philadelphia venues. He also made many surprise appearances at The Stone Pony and other shore nightclubs over the years, becoming the foremost exponent of the Jersey Shore sound.

1972–1974: Initial struggle for success

Springsteen signed a record deal with Columbia Records in 1972, with the help of John Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan to the same label a decade earlier. Springsteen brought many of his New Jersey–based colleagues into the studio with him, thus forming the E Street Band (although it would not be formally named as such for several more years). His debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., released in January 1973, established him as a critical favorite, though sales were slow. Because of Springsteen's lyrical poeticism and folk rock–rooted music exemplified on tracks like "Blinded by the Light" and "For You", as well as the Columbia and Hammond connections, critics initially compared Springsteen to Bob Dylan. "He sings with a freshness and urgency I haven't heard since I was rocked by "Like a Rolling Stone"," wrote Crawdaddy magazine editor Peter Knobler in Springsteen's first interview/profile, in March 1973, on newsstands in February 1973. Crawdaddy discovered Springsteen in the rock press and was his earliest champion. (Springsteen and the E Street Band acknowledged by giving a private performance at the Crawdaddy 10th Anniversary Party in New York City in June 1976.) Music critic Lester Bangs wrote in Creem in 1975 that when Springsteen's first album was released "... many of us dismissed it: he wrote like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, sang like Van Morrison and Robbie Robertson, and led a band that sounded like Van Morrison's." The track "Spirit in the Night" especially showed Morrison's influence, while "Lost in the Flood" was the first of many portraits of Vietnam veterans and "Growin' Up", his first take on the recurring theme of adolescence.

In September 1973 his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, was released, again to critical acclaim but no commercial success. Springsteen's songs became grander in form and scope, with the E Street Band providing a less folky, more R&B; vibe and the lyrics often romanticized teenage street life. "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" and "Incident on 57th Street" would become fan favorites, and the long, rousing "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" continues to rank among Springsteen's most beloved concert numbers.

In the May 22, 1974, issue of Boston's The Real Paper, music critic Jon Landau wrote after seeing a performance at the Harvard Square Theater, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." Landau subsequently became Springsteen's manager and producer, helping to finish the epic new album, Born to Run. Given an enormous budget in a last-ditch effort at a commercially viable record, Springsteen became bogged down in the recording process while striving for a wall of sound production. But, fed by the release of an early mix of "Born to Run" to progressive rock radio, anticipation built toward the album's release. All in all the album took more than 14 months to record, with six months alone spent on the song "Born To Run." During this time Springsteen battled with anger and frustration over the album, saying he heard "sounds in [his] head" that he could not explain to the others in the studio. It was during these recording sessions that "Miami" Steve Van Zandt would stumble into the studio just in time to help Springsteen organize the horn section on "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (it is his only written contribution to the album), and eventually led to his joining the E Street Band. Van Zandt had been a long-time friend of Springsteen, as well as a collaborator on earlier musical projects, and understood where he was coming from, which helped him to translate some of the sounds Springsteen was hearing. Still, by the end of the grueling recording sessions, Springsteen was not satisfied, and, upon first hearing the finished album, threw the record into the alley and told Jon Landau he would rather just cut the album live at The Bottom Line, a place he often played.

1975–1983: Breakthrough

On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York's Bottom Line club. The engagement attracted major media attention, was broadcast live on WNEW-FM, and convinced many skeptics that Springsteen was for real. (Decades later, Rolling Stone magazine would name the stand as one of the 50 Moments That Changed Rock and Roll.) With the release of Born to Run on August 25, 1975, Springsteen finally found success. The album peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200, and while there were no hit singles, "Born to Run" (Billboard #23), "Thunder Road", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (Billboard #83), and "Jungleland" all received massive album-oriented rock airplay and remain perennial favorites on many classic rock stations. The songwriting and recording was more disciplined than before, while still maintaining an epic feel. With its panoramic imagery, thundering production and desperate optimism, Born to Run is considered by some fans to be among the best rock and roll albums of all time and Springsteen's finest work. It established him as a sincere and dynamic rock and roll personality who spoke for and in the voice of a large part of the rock audience. To cap off the triumph, Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek in the same week, on October 27 of that year. So great did the wave of publicity become that Springsteen eventually rebelled against it during his first venture overseas, tearing down promotional posters before a concert appearance in London.

A legal battle with former manager Mike Appel kept Springsteen out of the studio for nearly a year, during which time he kept the E Street Band together through extensive touring across the U.S. Despite the optimistic fervor with which he often performed, his new songs had taken a more somber tone than much of his previous work. Reaching settlement with Appel in 1977, Springsteen returned to the studio, and the subsequent sessions produced Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). Musically, this album was a turning point in Springsteen's career. Gone were the raw, rapid-fire lyrics, outsized characters and long, multi-part musical compositions of the first two albums; now the songs were leaner and more carefully drawn and began to reflect Springsteen's growing intellectual and political awareness. The cross-country 1978 tour to promote the album would become legendary for the intensity and length of its shows.

By the late 1970s, Springsteen had earned a reputation in the pop world as a songwriter whose material could provide hits for other bands. Manfred Mann's Earth Band had achieved a U.S. number one pop hit with a heavily rearranged version of Greetings' "Blinded by the Light" in early 1977. Patti Smith reached number 13 with her take on Springsteen's unreleased "Because the Night" (with revised lyrics by Smith) in 1978, while The Pointer Sisters hit number two in 1979 with Springsteen's also unreleased "Fire".

. Drammenshallen, Drammen, Norway, May 5, 1981.]] In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an abbreviated set while premiering two songs from his upcoming album. The subsequent No Nukes live album, as well as the following summer's No Nukes documentary film, represented the first official recordings and footage of Springsteen's fabled live act, as well as Springsteen's first tentative dip into political involvement.

Springsteen continued to consolidate his thematic focus on working-class life with the 20-song double album The River in 1980, which included an intentionally paradoxical range of material from good-time party rockers to emotionally intense ballads, and finally yielded his first hit Top Ten single as a performer, "Hungry Heart". This album marked a shift in Springsteen's music toward a pop-rock sound that was all but missing from any of his earlier work. This is apparent in the stylistic adoption of certain eighties pop-rock hallmarks like the reverberating-tenor drums, very basic percussion/guitar and repetitive lyrics apparent in many of the tracks. The title song pointed to Springsteen's intellectual direction, while a couple of the lesser-known tracks presaged his musical direction. The album sold well, becoming his first topper on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, and a long tour in 1980 and 1981 followed, featuring Springsteen's first extended playing of Europe and ending with a series of multi-night arena stands in major cities in the U.S.

The River was followed in 1982 by the stark solo acoustic Nebraska. Recording sessions had been held to expand on a demo tape Springsteen had made at his home on a simple, low-tech four-track tape deck. However during the recording process Springsteen and producer Landau realized the songs worked better as solo acoustic numbers than full band renditions and the original demo tape was released as the album. Although the recordings of the E Street Band were shelved, other songs from these sessions would later be released, including "Born in the U.S.A." and "Glory Days". According to the Marsh biographies, Springsteen was in a depressed state when he wrote this material, and the result is a brutal depiction of American life. While Nebraska did not sell well, it garnered widespread critical praise (including being named "Album of the Year" by Rolling Stone magazine's critics) and influenced later significant works by other major artists, including U2's album The Joshua Tree. It helped inspire the musical genre known as lo-fi music, becoming a cult favorite among indie-rockers. Springsteen did not tour in conjunction with Nebraska's release.

1984–1991: Commercial and popular phenomenon

Springsteen probably is best known for his album Born in the U.S.A. (1984), which sold 15 million copies in the U.S. and became one of the best-selling albums of all time, with seven singles hitting the Top 10, and the massively successful world tour that followed it. The title track was a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans, some of whom were Springsteen's friends and bandmates. The lyrics in the verses were entirely unambiguous when listened to, but the anthemic music and the title of the song made it hard for many, from politicians to the common person, to get the lyrics—except those in the chorus, which could be read many ways. The song was widely misinterpreted as jingoistic, and in connection with the 1984 presidential campaign became the subject of considerable folklore. Springsteen also turned down several million dollars offered by the Chrysler Corporation to use the song in a car commercial. (In later years, to eliminate the bombast and make the song's original meaning more explicitly clear, Springsteen performed the song accompanied only by acoustic guitar. An acoustic version also appeared on Tracks, a later album.) "Dancing in the Dark" was the biggest of seven hit singles from Born in the U.S.A., peaking at number 2 on the Billboard music charts. The music video for the song featured a young Courteney Cox dancing on stage with Springsteen, an appearance which helped kickstart the actress's career. The song "Cover Me" was written by Springsteen for Donna Summer, but his record company persuaded him to keep it for the new album. A big fan of Summer's work, Springsteen wrote another song for her, "Protection". Videos for the album were made by noted film directors Brian De Palma and John Sayles. Springsteen was featured on the "We Are the World" song and album in 1985.

During the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, Springsteen met actress Julianne Phillips, whom he would marry in 1985.

at the Radrennbahn Weißensee in East Berlin on July 19, 1988.]] The Born in the U.S.A. period represented the height of Springsteen's visibility in popular culture and the broadest audience demographic he would ever reach (aided by the release of Arthur Baker's dance mixes of three of the singles). Live/1975–85, a five-record box set (also on three cassettes or three CDs), was released near the end of 1986 and became the first box set to debut at number 1 on the U.S. album charts. It is one of the most commercially successful live albums of all time, ultimately selling 13 million units in the U.S. Live/1975–85 summed up Springsteen's career to that point and displayed some of the elements that made his shows so powerful to his fans: the switching from mournful dirges to party rockers and back; the communal sense of purpose between artist and audience; the long, intense spoken passages before songs, including those describing Springsteen's difficult relationship with his father; and the instrumental prowess of the E Street Band, such as in the long coda to "Racing in the Street". Despite its popularity, some fans and critics felt the album's song selection could have been better. Springsteen concerts are the subjects of frequent bootleg recording and trading among fans.

During the 1980s, several Springsteen fanzines were launched, including Backstreets magazine, which started in Seattle and continues today as a glossy publication, now in communication with Springsteen's management and official website.

After this commercial peak, Springsteen released the much more sedate and contemplative Tunnel of Love album (1987), a mature reflection on the many faces of love found, lost and squandered, which only selectively used the E Street Band. It presaged the breakup of his marriage to Julianne Phillips and described some of his unhappinesses in the relationship. Reflecting the challenges of love in "Brilliant Disguise", Springsteen sang:

The subsequent Tunnel of Love Express tour shook up fans with changes to the stage layout, favorites dropped from the set list, and horn-based arrangements. During the European leg in 1988, Springsteen's relationship with backup singer Patti Scialfa became public and Phillips and Springsteen filed for divorce in 1988. Later in 1988, Springsteen headlined the worldwide Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International. In the fall of 1989 he dissolved the E Street Band, and he and Scialfa relocated to California, marrying in 1991.

1992–2001: Artistic and commercial ups and downs

In 1992, after risking charges of "going Hollywood" by moving to Los Angeles (a radical move for someone so linked to the blue-collar life of the Jersey Shore) and working with session musicians, Springsteen released two albums at once. Human Touch and Lucky Town were even more introspective than any of his previous work and displayed a newly revealed confidence. As opposed to his first two albums, which dreamed of happiness, and his next four, which showed him growing to fear it, at points during the Lucky Town album, Springsteen actually claims happiness for himself.

An electric band appearance on the acoustic MTV Unplugged television program (later released as In Concert/MTV Plugged) was poorly received and further cemented fan dissatisfaction. Springsteen seemed to realize this a few years hence when he spoke humorously of his late father during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech: }}

A multiple Grammy Award winner, Springsteen also won an Academy Award in 1994 for his song "Streets of Philadelphia", which appeared on the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia. The song, along with the film, was applauded by many for its sympathetic portrayal of a gay man dying of AIDS. The music video for the song shows Springsteen's actual vocal performance, recorded using a hidden microphone, to a prerecorded instrumental track. This technique was developed on the "Brilliant Disguise" video.

In 1995, after temporarily re-organizing the E Street Band for a few new songs recorded for his first Greatest Hits album (a recording session that was chronicled in the documentary Blood Brothers), he released his second (mostly) solo guitar album, The Ghost of Tom Joad, inspired by John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass, a book by Pulitzer Prize-winners author Dale Maharidge and photographer Michael Williamson. This was generally less well-received than the similar Nebraska, due to the minimal melody, twangy vocals, and political nature of most of the songs, although some praised it for giving voice to immigrants and others who rarely have one in American culture. The lengthy, worldwide, small-venue solo acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad Tour that followed successfully featured many of his older songs in drastically reshaped acoustic form, although Springsteen had to explicitly remind his audiences to be quiet and not to clap during the performances. During the shows Bruce did occasional take request. Rejecting some "popular" songs by saying things like "Not that old thing."Another change from the usual Springsteen concert experience, no alcohol was served at the venues.

Following the tour, Springsteen moved back to New Jersey with his family. In 1998, Springsteen released the sprawling, four-disc box set of out-takes, Tracks. Subsequently, Springsteen would acknowledge that the 1990s were a "lost period" for him: "I didn't do a lot of work. Some people would say I didn't do my best work."

Springsteen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 by Bono of U2, a favor he returned in 2005.

In 1999, Springsteen and the E Street Band officially came together again and went on the extensive Reunion Tour, lasting over a year. Highlights included a record sold-out, 15-show run at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey and a ten-night, sold-out engagement at New York City's Madison Square Garden which ended the tour. The final two shows were recorded for an HBO Concert, with corresponding DVD and album releases as . A new song, "American Skin (41 Shots)", about the police shooting of Amadou Diallo which was played at these shows proved controversial.

2002–2007: Return to mainstream success

parking lot for banner-marked, record-setting, 10-night stand of The Rising Tour during July 2003.]] In 2002, Springsteen released his first studio effort with the full band in 18 years, The Rising, produced by Brendan O'Brien. The album, mostly a reflection on the September 11 attacks, was a critical and popular success. (Many of the songs were influenced by phone conversations Springsteen had with family members of victims of the attacks who in their obituaries had mentioned how his music touched their lives.) The title track gained airplay in several radio formats, and the record became Springsteen's best-selling album of new material in 15 years. Kicked off by an early-morning Asbury Park appearance on The Today Show, The Rising Tour commenced, barnstorming through a series of single-night arena stands in the U.S. and Europe to promote the album in 2002, then returning for large-scale, multiple-night stadium shows in 2003. While Springsteen had maintained a loyal hardcore fan base everywhere (and particularly in Europe), his general popularity had dipped over the years in some southern and midwestern regions of the U.S. But it was still strong in Europe and along the U.S. coasts, and he played an unprecedented 10 nights in Giants Stadium in New Jersey, a ticket-selling feat to which no other musical act has come close. During these shows Springsteen thanked those fans who were attending multiple shows and those who were coming from long distances or another country; the advent of robust Bruce-oriented online communities had made such practices more common. The Rising Tour came to a final conclusion with three nights in Shea Stadium, highlighted by renewed controversy over "American Skin" and a guest appearance by Bob Dylan.

During the early 2000s, Springsteen became a visible advocate for the revitalization of Asbury Park, and played an annual series of winter holiday concerts there to benefit various local businesses, organizations, and causes. These shows were explicitly intended for the devoted fans, featuring numbers such as the E Street Shuffle outtake "Thundercrack", a rollicking group-participation song that would mystify casual Springsteen fans. He also frequently rehearses for tours in Asbury Park; some of his most devoted followers even go so far as to stand outside the building to hear what fragments they can of the upcoming shows. The song "My City of Ruins" was originally written about Asbury Park, in honor of the attempts to revitalize the city. Looking for an appropriate song for a post-Sept. 11 benefit concert honoring New York City, he selected "My City of Ruins," which was immediately recognized as an emotional highlight of the concert, with its gospel themes and its heartfelt exhortations to "Rise up!" The song became associated with post-9/11 New York, and he chose it to close The Rising album and as an encore on the subsequent tour.

At the Grammy Awards of 2003, Springsteen performed The Clash's "London Calling" along with Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, and E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt and No Doubt's bassist, Tony Kanal, in tribute to Joe Strummer; Springsteen and the Clash had once been considered multiple-album-dueling rivals at the time of the double The River and the triple Sandinista!. In 2004, Springsteen and the E Street Band participated in the "Vote for Change" tour, along with John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Bright Eyes, the Dave Matthews Band, Jackson Browne, and other musicians. All concerts were to be held in swing states, to benefit the liberalism political organization group America Coming Together and to encourage people to register and vote. A finale was held in Washington, D.C., bringing many of the artists together. Several days later, Springsteen held one more such concert in New Jersey, when polls showed that state surprisingly close. While in past years Springsteen had played benefits for causes in which he believed – against nuclear energy, for Vietnam veterans, Amnesty International, and the Christic Institute – he had always refrained from explicitly endorsing candidates for political office (indeed he had rejected the efforts of Walter Mondale to attract an endorsement during the 1984 Reagan "Born in the U.S.A." flap). This new stance led to criticism and praise from the expected partisan sources. Springsteen's "No Surrender" became the main campaign theme song for John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign; in the last days of the campaign, he performed acoustic versions of the song and some of his other old songs at Kerry rallies.

performance at the Festhalle Frankfurt, June 15, 2005.]] Devils & Dust was released on April 26, 2005, and was recorded without the E Street Band. It is a low-key, mostly acoustic album, in the same vein as Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad although with a little more instrumentation. Some of the material was written almost 10 years earlier during, or shortly after, the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, a couple of them being performed then but never released. The title track concerns an ordinary soldier's feelings and fears during the Iraq War. Starbucks rejected a co-branding deal for the album, due in part to some sexually explicit content but also because of Springsteen's anti-corporate politics. The album entered the album charts at No. 1 in 10 countries (United States, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland). Springsteen began the solo Devils & Dust Tour at the same time as the album's release, playing both small and large venues. Attendance was disappointing in a few regions, and everywhere (other than in Europe) tickets were easier to get than in the past. Unlike his mid-1990s solo tour, he performed on piano, electric piano, pump organ, autoharp, ukulele, banjo, electric guitar, and stomping board, as well as acoustic guitar and harmonica, adding variety to the solo sound. (Offstage synthesizer, guitar, and percussion were also used for some songs.) Unearthly renditions of "Reason to Believe", "The Promised Land", and Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" jolted audiences to attention, while rarities, frequent set list changes, and a willingness to keep trying even through audible piano mistakes kept most of his loyal audiences happy.

In November 2005, Sirius Satellite Radio started a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week radio station on Channel 10 called E Street Radio. This channel featured commercial-free Bruce Springsteen music, including rare tracks, interviews, and daily concerts of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band recorded throughout their career.

performing on their tour at the Fila Forum, Milan, Italy on May 12, 2006.]] In April 2006, Springsteen released , an American roots music project focused around a big folk sound treatment of 15 songs popularized by the radical musical activism of Pete Seeger. It was recorded with a large ensemble of musicians including only Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell, and The Miami Horns from past efforts. In contrast to previous albums, this was recorded in only three one-day sessions, and frequently one can hear Springsteen calling out key changes live as the band explores its way through the tracks. The Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour began the same month, featuring the 18-strong ensemble of musicians dubbed The Seeger Sessions Band (and later shortened to The Sessions Band). Seeger Sessions material was heavily featured, as well as a handful of (usually drastically rearranged) Springsteen numbers. The tour proved very popular in Europe, selling out everywhere and receiving some excellent reviews, but newspapers reported that a number of U.S. shows suffered from sparse attendance. By the end of 2006, the Seeger Sessions tour toured Europe twice and toured America for only a short span. , containing selections from three nights of November 2006 shows at The Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, was released the following June.

behind him, on the Magic Tour stop at Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville, Florida, August 15, 2008.]] Springsteen's next album, titled Magic, was released on October 2, 2007. Recorded with the E Street Band, it featured 10 new Springsteen songs plus "Long Walk Home", performed once with the Sessions band, and a hidden track (the first included on a Springsteen studio release), "Terry's Song", a tribute to Springsteen's long-time assistant Terry Magovern, who died on July 30, 2007. The first single, "Radio Nowhere", was made available for a free download on August 28. On October 7, Magic debuted at number 1 in Ireland and the UK. Greatest Hits reentered the Irish charts at number 57, and Live in Dublin almost cracked the top 20 in Norway again. Sirius Satellite Radio also restarted E Street Radio on Channel 10 on September 27, 2007, in anticipation of Magic. Radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications was alleged to have sent an edict to its classic rock stations to not play any songs from the new album, while continuing to play older Springsteen material. However, Clear Channel Adult Alternative (or "AAA") station KBCO did play tracks from the album, undermining the allegations of a corporate blackout. The Springsteen and E Street Band Magic Tour began at the Hartford Civic Center with the album's release and was routed through North America and Europe. Springsteen and the band performed live on NBC's Today Show in advance of the opener. Longtime E Street Band organist Danny Federici left the tour in November 2007 to pursue treatment for melanoma from which he would die in 2008

2008–present: Recent events

Springsteen supported Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, announcing his endorsement in April 2008 and going on to appear at several Obama rallies as well as performing several solo acoustic performances in support of Obama's campaign throughout 2008, culminating with a November 2 rally where he debuted "Working On A Dream" in a duet with Scialfa. At an Ohio rally, Springsteen discussed the importance of "truth, transparency and integrity in government, the right of every American to have a job, a living wage, to be educated in a decent school, and a life filled with the dignity of work, the promise and the sanctity of home...But today those freedoms have been damaged and curtailed by eight years of a thoughtless, reckless and morally-adrift administration."

Following Obama's electoral victory on November 4, Springsteen's song "The Rising" was the first song played over the loudspeakers after Obama's victory speech in Chicago's Grant Park. Springsteen was the musical opener for the on January 18, 2009 which was attended by over 400,000. He performed "The Rising" with an all-female choir. Later he performed Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" with Pete Seeger.

On June 18, 2008, Springsteen appeared live from Europe at the Tim Russert tribute at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to play one of Russert's favorite songs, "Thunder Road." Springsteen dedicated the song to Russert, who was "one of Springsteen's biggest fans."

On January 11, 2009, Springsteen won the Golden Globe Award for Best Song for "The Wrestler", from the Mickey Rourke film by the same name. After receiving a heartfelt letter from Mickey Rourke, Springsteen supplied the song for the film for free.

Springsteen performed at the halftime show at Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009, agreeing to do it after many previous offers A few days before the game, Springsteen gave a rare press conference, where he promised a "twelve-minute party." His 12:45 set, with the E Street Band and the Miami Horns, included abbreviated renditions of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"", "Born to Run", "Working on a Dream, and "Glory Days", the latter complete with football references. The set of appearances and promotional activities led Springsteen to say, "This has probably been the busiest month of my life."

Springsteen's Working on a Dream album was released in late January 2009 and the supporting Working on a Dream Tour ran from April 2009 until November 2009. The tour featured few songs from the new album, with instead set lists dominated by classics and selections reflecting the ongoing late-2000s recession. The tour also featured Springsteen playing songs requested by audience members holding up signs as on the final stages of the Magic Tour. and Hard Rock Calling in the UK. Several shows on the tour featured full album presentations of Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, or Born in the U.S.A. The band performed a stretch of five final shows at his homestate Giants Stadium, opening with a new song highlighting the historic stadium, and his Jersey roots, named "Wrecking Ball". The tour ended as scheduled in Buffalo, NY in November 2009 amid speculation that it was the last performance ever by the E Street Band, but during the show Springsteen said it was goodbye “for a little while.” A DVD from the Working of a Dream Tour entitled was released in 2010.

In addition to his own touring, Springsteen made a number of appearances at tribute and benefit concerts during 2009, including The Clearwater Concert, a celebration of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th anniversary benefit concert, a benefit for the charity Autism Speaks at Carnegie Hall. On January 22, 2010, he joined many well-known artists to perform on , organized by George Clooney to raise money to help the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

.]]

In 2009, Springsteen performed in The People Speak a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States".

Springsteen was among the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, an annual award to figures from the world of arts for their contribution to American culture, in December 2009. President Obama gave a speech in which he talked about how Springsteen has incorporated the life of regular Americans in his expansive pallette of songs and how his concerts are beyond the typical rock-and-roll concerts, how, apart from being high-energy concerts, they are "communions". He ended the remark "while I am the president, he is The Boss". Tributes were paid by several well-known celebrities including Jon Stewart (who described Springsteen's "unprecedented combination of lyrical eloquence, musical mastery and sheer unbridled, unadulterated joy"). A musical tribute featured John Mellencamp Ben Harper and Jennifer Nettles, Rob Mathes band. Melissa Etheridge Eddie Vedder and Sting, The Joyce Garrett Choir

The 2000s ended with Springsteen being named one of eight Artists of the Decade by Rolling Stone magazine and with Springsteen's tours ranking him fourth among artists in total concert grosses for the decade.

In September 2010, a documentary about the making of his 1978 album "Darkness on The Edge of Town" was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, will be included in a box set reissue of the album, entitled The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story to be released in November 2010. The Documentary, "The Promise: The Making of ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town" aired on HBO on October 7th, 2010. The documentary explored Springsteen's making of the acclaimed album, and his role in the production and development of the tracks.

Musical style

Bruce Springsteen draws on many musical influences from the reservoir of traditional American popular music, folk, blues and country. From the beginning, rock and roll has been the dominant influence. On his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey, the folk-influence is clear to hear. An example of the influence of this music genre to Springsteen's music is his song "This Hard Land" which demonstrates a clear influence of the style of Woody Guthrie.

He expanded the range of his musical compositions on his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Elements of Latin American music, jazz, soul, and funk influences can be heard; the song "New York City Serenade" is even reminiscent of the music of George Gershwin. These two records prominently featured pianist David Sancious, who left the band shortly into the recording of Springsteen's third album, Born To Run. This album, however, also emphasized the piano, the responsibility now of Roy Bittan.

Later in his career, Springsteen has focused more on the rock elements of his music. He initially compressed the sound and developed Darkness On The Edge Of Town just as straightforward as concise musical idiom, for the simple riffs and clearly recognizable song structures are dominant. His music has been categorized as heartland rock, a style typified by Springsteen, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp. This music has a lyrical reference to the U.S. everyday and the music is kept rather simple and straightforward. This development culminated with Springsteen's hit album Born in the U.S.A., the title song of which has a constantly repeating, fanfare-like keyboard riff and a pounding drum beat. These sounds fit with Springsteen's voice: it cries to the listener the unsentimental story of a disenchanted angry figure. Even songs that can be argued to be album tracks proved to be singles that enjoyed some chart success, such as "My Hometown" and "I'm on Fire", in which the drum line is formed from subtle hi-hat and rim-clicks-shock (shock at the edge of the snare drum).

In recent years, Springsteen has changed his music further. There are more folk elements up to the gospel to be heard. His last solo album, Devils and Dust, drew rave reviews not only for Springsteen's complex songwriting, but also for his expressive and sensitive singing.

On the album Springsteen performs folk classics with a folk band, rather than his usual E Street Band. On his ensuing tour he also interpreted some of his own rock songs in a folk style.

The 2007 album Magic was a reflection on the old stadium rock attitude and with its lush arrangements was almost designed to be performed at large stadiums, which also succeeded on the corresponding tour.

Lyrical themes

}}

Often described as cinematographic in their scope, Springsteen's lyrics frequently explore highly personal themes such as individual committment, dissatisfaction and dismay with life in a context of every day situations.

It has been recognized that there was a shift in his lyrical approach starting with the album "Darkness on the Edge of Town", in which he focused on the emotional struggles of working class life.

Politics and activism

Springsteen's music has often contained political themes, and he has publicly campaigned for several causes, including his opposition to the Iraq War and support for the presidential campaigns of Senator John Kerry and President Barack Obama. He is also noted for his support of various relief and rebuilding efforts in New Jersey and elsewhere, and for his response to the September 11 attacks in 2001, on which his album The Rising reflects. A Democrat, his work has often stirred controversy and caused some to identify his music with modern American liberalism.

In 1988, Springsteen headlined the worldwide Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International.

Springsteen has been associated with various local food banks, particularly with the New Jersey Food bank for many years. During concerts, he usually breaks the routine to announce his support and later matches the total collection during the concert with his own money. During his Charlotte, North Carolina concert on November 3, 2009, he started with a $10,000 donation for the local food bank to start the collections process - which he again matched later.

He has made substantial financial contributions to various workers' unions both in America and in Europe.

Personal life

, in 2005.]] on November 2, 2008.]] Springsteen's girlfriend in 1975 was Karen Darvin, 20, a model living in New York City.

Springsteen married Julianne Phillips (born May 6, 1960) in Lake Oswego, Oregon on May 13, 1985. The marriage helped her acting career flourish, although the two were opposites in background, and his traveling took its toll on their relationship. The final blow came when Bruce began an affair with Patti Scialfa (born July 29, 1953), whom he had dated briefly in 1984 shortly after she joined the band. Phillips and Springsteen separated in the spring of 1988, and on August 30, 1988, Julianne filed for divorce. The Springsteen/Phillips divorce was finalized on March 1, 1989.

After his wife filed for divorce in 1988, Bruce began living with Scialfa. Springsteen received press criticism for the hastiness in which he and Scialfa took up their relationship. In a 1995 interview with The Advocate, Springsteen spoke about the negative publicity the couple subsequently received. "It's a strange society that assumes it has the right to tell people whom they should love and whom they shouldn't. But the truth is, I basically ignored the entire thing as much as I could. I said, "Well, all I know is, this feels real, and maybe I have got a mess going here in some fashion, but that's life." In 1990, Springsteen and Scialfa welcomed their first child, son Evan James. They were expecting their second child, daughter Jessica Rae (born December 30, 1991), when Bruce and Patti married on June 8, 1991. "I went through a divorce, and it was really difficult and painful and I was very frightened about getting married again. So part of me said, Hey, what does it matter? But it does matter. It's very different than just living together. First of all, stepping up publicly- which is what you do: You get your license, you do all the social rituals- is a part of your place in society and in some way part of society's acceptance of you...Patti and I both found that it did mean something."

They have three children: Evan James (b. 1990), Jessica Rae (b. 1991) and Sam Ryan (b. January 5, 1994). The family lives in Rumson, New Jersey, and owns a horse farm in nearby Colts Neck. Springsteen also owns two adjacent homes in Wellington, Florida, a wealthy horse community near West Palm Beach. His eldest son, Evan, atttends Boston College in Chestnut Hill, a village in Newton, Massachusetts. His daughter Jessica Springsteen is a nationally-ranked champion equestrian and attends Duke University.

In November 2000, Springsteen filed legal action against Jeff Burgar which accused him of registering the domain brucespringsteen.com (along with several other celebrity domains) in bad faith to funnel web users to his Celebrity 1000 portal site. Once the legal complaint was filed, Burgar pointed the domain to a Springsteen biography and message board. In February 2001, Springsteen lost his dispute with Burgar. A WIPO panel ruled 2 to 1 in favor of Burgar.

Springsteen has led a relatively quiet and private life for a well-known popular performer and artist. He moved from Los Angeles to New Jersey in the early 1990s specifically to raise a family in a non-paparazzi environment. It has been reported that the press conference regarding the 2009 Super Bowl XLIII half-time show was his first press conference for more than 25 years. However, he has appeared in a few radio interviews, most notably on NPR and BBC. 60 minutes aired his last extensive interview on TV before his tour to support his album, Magic.

Bands

Bruce Springsteen has been a member of, or has been backed by, several bands during his career, most notably The E Street Band.

Prior to signing his first record deal in 1972, Springsteen was a member of several bands including Steel Mill. In October 1972 he formed a new band for the recording of his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., which became known as The E Street Band, although the name was not officially introduced until September 1974. The E Street Band performed on all of Springsteen's recorded works from his debut until 1982's Nebraska, a solo album on which Springsteen himself played all the instruments. The full band returned for the next album Born in the USA, but there then followed a period from 1988 to 1999 in which albums were recorded with session musicians. The E Street band were briefly reunited in 1995 for new contributions to the Greatest Hits compilation, and on a more permanent basis from 1999, since which time they have recorded 3 albums together (The Rising, Magic and Working on a Dream) and performed a number of high profile tours.

The 2005 album Devils & Dust was largely a solo recording, with some contribution from session musicians and the 2006 folk rock album was recorded and toured with another band, known as The Sessions Band.

E Street Band

Current members:

Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano

Garry Tallent – bass guitar, tuba

Clarence "Big Man" Clemons – saxophone, percussion, backing vocals

Max Weinberg – drums, percussion

Roy Bittan – piano, keyboards

Steven Van Zandt – lead guitar, backing vocals, mandolin

Nils Lofgren – guitar, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals

Patti Scialfa – backing and duet vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion

Soozie Tyrell – violin, acoustic guitar, percussion, backing vocals Charles Giordano – organ, accordion, glockenspiel He also corroborated with Bjork in 2010 on a song called "I'm in love with you".

Film

Music used in films

Springsteen's music has been used in many films and he has also written and performed several works specifically for films, examples include Philadelphia, Dead Man Walking, and The Wrestler.

{| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Film !! Year of film release !! Song(s) !! Notes |- | Dead End Street || 1982 || "Point Blank", "Hungry Heart" and "Jungleland" || First use of Springsteen's music in film |- | Light of Day || 1987 || (Just Around the Corner to the) Light of Day || Song written for the film. |- | In Country || 1989 || I'm On Fire || Film also contained many Springsteen references |- | Baby, It's You || 1983 || "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City", "The E Street Shuffle", "She's The One" and "Adam Raised A Cain". || Film directed by John Sayles who later directed music videos for songs from Born in the U.S.A. and Tunnel of Love. |- | High Fidelity (film) || 2000 || "The River" and Blues Guitar Riff || Played by Springsteen, on-screen during his cameo appearance. |- | The Perfect Storm || 2000 || "Hungry Heart" || |- | The Wedding Singer || 1998 || "Hungry Heart" || |- | Risky Business || 1983 || "Hungry Heart" || |- | Thunderheart|| 1992 || "Badlands" (instrumental version) || |- | Reign Over Me || 2007 || "Drive All Night" and "Out In The Streets" || The album The River was also well mentioned in the movie. |- | Cop Land || 1997 || "Drive All Night" and "Stolen Car"|| Sylvester Stallone's character plays the songs on his turntable. |- | Jerry Maguire || 1996 || "Secret Garden" || |- | The Crossing Guard || 1995 || "Missing" || Song later was released in 2003 on The Essential Bruce Springsteen. |- | 25th Hour || 2002 || "The Fuse" || |- | Philadelphia || 1993 || "Streets of Philadelphia" || Song written for film. Won an Oscar. |- | Dead Man Walking || 1995 || "Dead Man Walkin'" || Song written for film. Nominated for a Oscar. |- | In the Land of Women || 2007 || "Iceman" || |- | The Wrestler || 2008 || "The Wrestler" || Written for film. The song was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and nominated for the MTV Movie Award as "Best Song From a Movie". |- | The Heartbreak Kid || 2007 || "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" || |- | Lucky You || 2007 || "Lucky Town" || |- | Big Daddy || 1999 || "Growin' Up" || Played over a montage near the end of the film. |- | Limbo || 1999 || "Lift Me Up" || A John Sayles film. |- | Honeymoon in Vegas || 1992 || "Viva Las Vegas" || A 1964 song recorded by Elvis Presley. |- | Food, Inc. || 2009 || This Land Is Your Land || Live version, Bruce Springsteen's performance of the Woody Guthrie song |}

Films inspired by music

In turn, films have been inspired by his music, including The Indian Runner, written and directed by Sean Penn, which Penn has specifically noted as being inspired by Springsteen's song "Highway Patrolman".

In September 2010, a documentary about the making of his 1978 album "Darkness of The Edge of Town" was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. and named his film Jersey Girl after the Tom Waits song which Springsteen made famous. The song was also used on the soundtrack.

Acting

Springsteen made his first on-screen appearance in a brief cameo as himself in High Fidelity in 2000 and it was voted "Best Cameo in a Movie" at the MTV Movie Awards.

Discography

in Ivory Coast during Amnesty International's 1988 Human Rights Now! Tour.]] Major studio albums (along with their chart positions in the U.S. Billboard 200 at the time of release):

1973: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (#60)

1973: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (#59)

1975: Born to Run (#3)

1978: Darkness on the Edge of Town (#5)

1980: The River (#1)

1982: Nebraska (#3)

1984: Born in the U.S.A. (#1)

1987: Tunnel of Love (#1)

1992: Human Touch (#2)

1992: Lucky Town (#3)

1995: The Ghost of Tom Joad (#11)

1998: Tracks (#64)

2002: The Rising (#1)

2005: Devils & Dust (#1)

2006: (#3)

2007: Magic (#1)

2009: Working on a Dream (#1)

2010: The Promise

Awards and recognition

Grammy Awards

:Springsteen has won 20 Grammy Awards, as follows (years shown are the year the award was given for, not the year in which the ceremony was held):

Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1984, "Dancing in the Dark"

Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1987, "Tunnel of Love"

Song of the Year, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"

Best Rock Song, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"

Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"

Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"

Best Contemporary Folk Album, 1996, The Ghost of Tom Joad

Best Rock Album, 2002, The Rising

Best Rock Song, 2002, "The Rising"

Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, 2002, "The Rising"

Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, 2003, "Disorder in the House" (with Warren Zevon)

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2004, "Code of Silence"

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2005, "Devils & Dust"

Best Traditional Folk Album, 2006,

Best Long Form Music Video, 2006,

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"

Best Rock Song, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"

Best Rock Instrumental Performance, 2007, "Once Upon a Time in the West"

Best Rock Song, 2008, "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2009, "Working on a Dream"

Only one of these awards has been one of the cross-genre "major" ones (Song, Record, or Album of the Year); he has been nominated a number of other times for the majors, but failed to win.

Golden Globe Awards

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "Streets of Philadelphia" in 1994.

Emmy Awards

The HBO special won two technical Emmy Awards in 2001.

Other recognition

October 27, 1975: Bruce Springsteen appears simultaneously on the covers of 'Newsweek' and 'Time'

Polar Music Prize in 1997. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1999. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 1999. Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, 2007. "Born to Run" named "The unofficial youth anthem of New Jersey" by the New Jersey state legislature; something Springsteen always found to be ironic, considering that the song "is about leaving New Jersey". The minor planet 23990, discovered Sept. 4, 1999, by I. P. Griffin at Auckland, New Zealand, was officially named in his honor. Ranked #23 on Rolling Stone magazines 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Ranked #36 on Rolling Stone magazines 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time. Made Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People Of The Year 2008 list. Won Critic's Choice Award for Best Song with "The Wrestler" in 2009.

Performed at the Super Bowl XLIII half time show.

Kennedy Center Honors, 2009.

Rolling Stone magazine also ranked 8 out of 16 Springsteen's studio albums in their 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Born to Run and Thunder Road in its 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time list, in 21st and 86th, respectively.

Forbes ranked him 6th in The Celebrity 100 in 2009

John Steinbeck Award

Influence

In addition to his noted influence on music in his native New Jersey, Springsteen is also cited as an influence by Bon Jovi, Arcade Fire, The Gaslight Anthem, The Constantines, The Hold Steady, The National, Kings of Leon, The Killers, U2, Willy DeVille, Johnny Cash in his later recordings, and countless others. His songs have been covered by diverse artists such as The Pointer Sisters, Melissa Etheridge, Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, McFly, Tegan and Sara, Damien Jurado, Vampire Weekend, Free Energy, Aimee Mann, Social Distortion, Rage Against The Machine, Ben Harper, Eric Bachmann, Josh Ritter, Frank Turner, Hank Williams III, and Adam Green, in addition to above-noted bands like Arcade Fire and The National.

For Springsteen's influence on academic writers, see "Library of Hope and Dreams":a comprehensive annotated bibliography of published Springsteen scholarship in English. Note, bibliography is indexed by song, album, author and subject keywords.

See also

List of best selling music artists

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart

Notes

References

Alterman, Eric. It Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive : The Promise of Bruce Springsteen. Little Brown, 1999. ISBN 0-316-03885-7.

Coles, Robert. Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, a Poet Singing. Random House, 2005. ISBN 0-375-50559-8.

Cross, Charles R. Backstreets: Springsteen – the man and his music Harmony Books, New York 1989/1992. ISBN 0-517-58929-X. Contains 15+ interviews and a complete list of all Springsteen songs including unreleased compositions. Complete lising of all concerts 1965–1990 – most of them with tracklists. Hundreds of previously unreleased high quality color pictures.

Cullen, Jim. Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition. 1997; Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005. New edition of 1997 study book places Springsteen's work in the broader context of American history and culture. ISBN 0-8195-6761-2

Eliot, Marc with Appel, Mike. Down Thunder Road. Simon & Schuster, 1992. ISBN 0-671-86898-5.

Graff, Gary. The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen A to E to Z. Visible Ink, 2005. ISBN 1-57859-151-1.

Guterman, Jimmy. Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen. Da Capo, 2005. ISBN 0-306-81397-1.

Hilburn, Robert. Springsteen. Rolling Stone Press, 1985. ISBN 0-684-18456-7.

Knobler, Peter with special assistance from Greg Mitchell. "Who Is Bruce Springsteen and Why Are We Saying All These Wonderful Things About Him?", Crawdaddy, March 1973.

Marsh, Dave. Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts : The Definitive Biography, 1972–2003. Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-96928-X. (Consolidation of two previous Marsh biographies, Born to Run (1981) and Glory Days (1987).)

Wolff, Daniel. 4 July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land. Bloomsbury, 2005. ISBN 1-58234-509-0.

Further reading

Greetings from E Street: The Story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Chronicle Books, 2006. ISBN 0-8118-5348-9.

Days of Hope and Dreams: An Intimate Portrait of Bruce Springsteen. Billboard Books, 2003. ISBN 0-8230-8387-X.

Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader. Penguin, 2004. ISBN 0-14-200354-9.

Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen. Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-306-81397-1.

The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen A to E to Z. Visible Ink Press, 2005. ISBN 1-57859-157-0.

Bruce Springsteen: "Talking". Omnibus Press, 2004. ISBN 1-84449-403-9.

For You: Original Stories and Photographs by Bruce Springsteen's Legendary Fans. LKC Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9784156-0-0.

Bruce Springsteen on Tour: 1968–2005. by Dave Marsh Bloomsbury USA, 2006. ISBN 978-1-59691-282-3.

The Gospel according to Bruce Springsteen: Rock and Redemption from Asbury Park to Magic. by Jeffrey B. Symynkywicz. Westminster John Knox Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-664-23169-9.

Magic in the Night: The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen by Rob Kirkpatrick. St. Martin's Griffin, 2009. ISBN 0-312-53380-2.

Land of Hope and Dreams: Celebrating 25 Years of Bruce Springsteen In Ireland by Greg Lewis and Moira Sharkey. Magic Rat Books. ISBN 978-0-9562722-0-1

External links

Bruce Springsteen – official website

Bruce Springsteen at Rolling Stone

Bruce Springsteen at Idiomag''

brucespringsteen.it database of setlists, discography, tour, bootlegs

Complete Bruce Springsteen Discography

in 2005

Gridskipper: Mapping Out Bruce Springsteen's Asbury Park

Highlights of Springsteen at Glastonbury 2009.

Bruce Springsteen at NPR Music

Bruce Springsteen – Asbury Park, New Jersey boardwalk history including Bruce Springsteen stories.

NewsDay

Bruce Springsteen at Wolfgangsvault.com

Bruce Springsteen Special Collection (research archives)

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/12/entertainment/la-et-people-speak12-2009dec12

iPhone Complete Bruce Springsteen Setlist Archive from 1971

Bruce Springsteen Concerts Setlist for iPhone

"Library of Hope and Dreams":bibliography of published Springsteen scholarship in English. Indexed by song, album, author and subject keywords.

Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:American baritones Category:American folk singers Category:American male singer-songwriters Category:American people of Dutch descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singers Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:Jersey Shore musicians Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:New Jersey Democrats Category:People from Monmouth County, New Jersey Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Sony/ATV Music Publishing artists Category:The E Street Band members