In computing, a newline, also known as a line break or end-of-line (EOL) character, is a special character or sequence of characters signifying the end of a line of text. The name comes from the fact that the next character after the newline will appear on a new line—that is, on the next line below the text immediately preceding the newline. The actual codes representing a newline vary across operating systems, which can be a problem when exchanging data between systems with different representations.

There is also some confusion whether newlines terminate or separate lines. If a newline is considered a separator, there will be no newline after the last line of a file. The general convention on most systems is to add a newline even after the last line, i.e. to treat newline as a line terminator. Some programs have problems processing the last line of a file if it is not newline terminated. Conversely, programs that expect newline to be used as a separator will interpret a final newline as starting a new (empty) line.

In text intended primarily to be read by humans using software which implements the word wrap feature, a newline character typically only needs to be stored if a line break is required independent of whether the next word would fit on the same line, such as between paragraphs and in vertical lists. See hard return and soft return.

Representations

Software applications and operating systems usually represent a newline with one or two control characters:

Systems based on ASCII or a compatible character set use either LF (Line feed, '\n', 0x0A, 10 in decimal) or CR (Carriage return, '\r', 0x0D, 13 in decimal) individually, or CR followed by LF (CR+LF, '\r\n', 0x0D 0x0A). These characters are based on printer commands: The line feed indicated that one line of paper should feed out of the printer, and a carriage return indicated that the printer carriage should return to the beginning of the current line. Some rare systems, such as QNX before version 4, used the ASCII RS (record separator, 0x1E, 30 in decimal) character as the newline character.

* LF:    Multics, Unix and Unix-like systems (GNU/Linux, AIX, Xenix, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, etc.), BeOS, Amiga, RISC OS, and others. However, in tty 'raw mode', CR+LF is used for output and CR is used for input.

* CR+LF: DEC TOPS-10, RT-11 and most other early non-Unix, non-IBM OSes, CP/M, MP/M, DOS (MS-DOS, PC-DOS, etc.), Atari TOS, OS/2, Microsoft Windows, Symbian OS, Palm OS

* CR:    Commodore 8-bit machines, TRS-80, Apple II family, Mac OS up to version 9 and OS-9

* RS:    QNX pre-POSIX implementation.

EBCDIC systems—mainly IBM mainframe systems, including z/OS (OS/390) and i5/OS (OS/400)—use NEL (Next Line, 0x15) as the newline character. Note that EBCDIC also has control characters called CR and LF, but the numerical value of LF (0x25) differs from the one used by ASCII (0x0A). Additionally, there are some EBCDIC variants that also use NEL but assign a different numeric code to the character.

Operating systems for the CDC 6000 series defined a newline as two or more zero-valued six-bit characters at the end of a 60-bit word. Some configurations also defined a zero-valued character as a colon character, with the result that multiple colons could be interpreted as a newline depending on position.

ZX80 and ZX81, home computers from Sinclair Research Ltd used a specific non-ASCII character set with code NEWLINE (0x76, 118 decimal) as the newline character.

Many older systems stored the characters for each line in a separate "record". There was thus no line terminator character.

* Many old mainframe operating systems added a carriage control character to the start of the next record, this could indicate if the next record was a continuation of the line started by the previous record, or a new line, or should overprint the previous line (similar to a CR). Often this was a normal printing character such as '#' that thus could not be used as the first character in a line. Some early line printers interpreted these characters directly in the records sent to them.

* OpenVMS uses a record-based file system, which stores text files as one record per line. In most file formats, no line terminators are actually stored, but the Record Management Services facility can transparently add a terminator to each line when it is retrieved by an application.

* Fixed line length was used by some early mainframe operating systems. In such a system, an implicit end-of-line was assumed every 80 characters, for example. No newline character was stored. If a file was imported from the outside world, lines shorter than the line length had to be padded with spaces, while lines longer than the line length had to be truncated. This mimicked the use of punched cards, on which each line was stored on a separate card, usually with 80 columns on each card.

Most textual Internet protocols (including HTTP, SMTP, , IRC and many others) mandate the use of ASCII CR+LF (0x0D 0x0A) on the protocol level, but recommend that tolerant applications recognize lone LF as well. In practice, there are many applications that erroneously use the C newline character '\n' instead (see section Newline in programming languages below). This leads to problems when trying to communicate with systems adhering to a stricter interpretation of the standards; one such system is the qmail MTA that actively refuses to accept messages from systems that send bare LF instead of the required CR+LF.

FTP has a feature to transform newlines between CR+LF and LF only when transferring text files. This must not be used on binary files. Usually binary files and text files are recognised by checking their filename extension.

Unicode

The Unicode standard defines a large number of characters that conforming applications should recognize as line terminators:

 LF:    Line Feed, U+000A  FF:    Form Feed, U+000C  CR:    Carriage Return, U+000D  CR+LF: CR (U+000D) followed by LF (U+000A)  NEL:   Next Line, U+0085  LS:    Line Separator, U+2028  PS:    Paragraph Separator, U+2029

This may seem overly complicated compared to an approach such as converting all line terminators to a single character, for example LF. However Unicode was designed to preserve all information when converting a text file from any existing encoding to Unicode and back. Therefore Unicode should contain characters included in existing encodings. NEL is included in ISO-8859-1 and EBCDIC. The approach taken in the Unicode standard allows round-trip transformation to be information-preserving while still enabling applications to recognize all possible types of line terminators.

Recognizing and using the newline codes greater than 0x7F is not often done. They are multiple bytes in UTF-8 and the code for NEL has been used as the ellipsis ('…') character in Windows-1252. For instance:

YAML no longer recognizes them as special in order to be compatible with JSON. ECMAScript accepts LS and PS as line breaks, but consider U+0085 (NEL) as white spaces, not a line break.

Microsoft Windows 2000 does not treat any of NEL, LS or PS as line-break in the default text editor Notepad

As of Linux, the typical editor gedit in Ubuntu 10.04 treat LS and PS as newlines but not NEL.

History

ASCII was developed simultaneously by the ISO and the ASA, the predecessor organization to ANSI. During the period of 1963–1968, the ISO draft standards supported the use of either CR+LF or LF alone as a newline, while the ASA drafts supported only CR+LF.

The sequence CR+LF was in common use on many early computer systems that had adopted teletype machines, typically an ASR33, as a console device, because this sequence was required to position those printers at the start of a new line. On these systems, text was often routinely composed to be compatible with these printers, since the concept of device drivers hiding such hardware details from the application was not yet well developed; applications had to talk directly to the teletype machine and follow its conventions.

The separation of the two functions concealed the fact that the print head could not return from the far right to the beginning of the next line in one-character time. That is why the sequence was always sent with the CR first. In fact, it was often necessary to send extra characters (extraneous CRs or NULs, which are ignored) to give the print head time to move to the left margin.

Even after teletypes were replaced by computer terminals with higher baud rates, many operating systems still supported automatic sending of these fill characters, for compatibility with cheaper terminals that required multiple character times to scroll the display.

MS-DOS (1981) adopted CP/M's CR+LF; CP/M's use of CR+LF made sense for using computer terminals via serial lines. This convention was inherited by Microsoft's later Windows operating system.

The Multics operating system began development in 1964 and used LF alone as its newline. Unix followed the Multics practice, and later systems followed Unix.

In programming languages

To facilitate the creation of portable programs, programming languages provide some abstractions to deal with the different types of newline sequences used in different environments.

The C programming language provides the escape sequences '\n' (newline) and '\r' (carriage return). However, these are not required to be equivalent to the ASCII LF and CR control characters. The C standard only guarantees two things: # Each of these escape sequences maps to a unique implementation-defined number that can be stored in a single char value. # When writing a file in text mode, '\n' is transparently translated to the native newline sequence used by the system, which may be longer than one character. When reading in text mode, the native newline sequence is translated back to '\n'. In binary mode no translation is performed, and the internal representation produced by '\n' is output directly.

On Unix platforms, where C originated, the native newline sequence is ASCII LF (0x0A), so '\n' was simply defined to be that value. With the internal and external representation being identical, the translation performed in text mode is a no-op, and text mode and binary mode behave the same. This has caused many programmers who developed their software on Unix systems simply to ignore the distinction completely, resulting in code that is not portable to different platforms.

The C Library function fgets() is best avoided in binary mode because any file not written with the UNIX newline convention will be misread. Also, in text mode, any file not written with the system's native newline sequence (such as a file created on an UNIX system, then copied to a Windows system) will be misread as well.

Another common problem is the use of '\n' when communicating using an Internet protocol that mandates the use of ASCII CR+LF for ending lines. Writing '\n' to a text mode stream works correctly on Windows systems, but produces only LF on Unix, and something completely different on more exotic systems. Using "\r\n" in binary mode is slightly better, as it works on many ASCII-compatible systems, but still fails in the general case. One approach is to use binary mode and specify the numeric values of the control sequence directly, "\x0D\x0A".

Many languages, such as C++, Perl, and Haskell provide the same interpretation of '\n' as C.

Java, PHP, and Python also provide '\n' and '\r' escape sequences. In contrast to C, these are guaranteed to represent the values U+000A and U+000D, respectively.

The Java I/O libraries do not transparently translate these into platform-dependent newline sequences on input or output. Instead, they provide functions for writing a full line that automatically add the native newline sequence, and functions for reading lines that accept any of CR, LF, or CR+LF as a line terminator (see BufferedReader.readLine()). The System.getProperties() method can be used to retrieve the underlying line separator.

Example: String eol = System.getProperty( "line.separator" ); String lineColor = "Color: Red" + eol;

Python permits "Universal Newline Support" when opening a file for reading, when importing modules, and when executing a file.

Some languages have created special variables, constants, and subroutines to facilitate newlines during program execution.

Common problems

The different newline conventions often cause text files that have been transferred between systems of different types to be displayed incorrectly. For example, files originating on Unix or Apple Macintosh systems may appear as a single long line on some Windows programs. Conversely, when viewing a file originating from a Windows computer on a Unix system, the extra CR may be displayed as ^M at the end of each line or as a second line break.

The problem can be hard to spot if some programs handle the foreign newlines properly while others do not. For example, a compiler may fail with obscure syntax errors even though the source file looks correct when displayed on the console or in an editor. On a Unix system, the command cat -v myfile.txt will send the file to stdout (normally the terminal) and make the ^M visible, which can be useful for debugging. Modern text editors generally recognize all flavours of CR / LF newlines and allow the user to convert between the different standards. Web browsers are usually also capable of displaying text files and websites which use different types of newlines.

The can automatically convert newlines in files being transferred between systems with different newline representations when the transfer is done in "ASCII mode". However, transferring binary files in this mode usually has disastrous results: Any occurrence of the newline byte sequence—which does not have line terminator semantics in this context, but is just part of a normal sequence of bytes—will be translated to whatever newline representation the other system uses, effectively corrupting the file. FTP clients often employ some heuristics (for example, inspection of filename extensions) to automatically select either binary or ASCII mode, but in the end it is up to the user to make sure his or her files are transferred in the correct mode. If there is any doubt as to the correct mode, binary mode should be used, as then no files will be altered by FTP, though they may display incorrectly.

Microsoft products

Windows Live Mail, Version 2009 (Build 14.0.8089.0726)

When reading email messages encoded in quoted-printable(not Base64) with LF only, the first english character after LF character(0x0a, not 0x0d+0x0a=LF+CR) disappears or can not be displayed properly if the next characters are 2-byte Asian characters since Windows Live Mail seems to have an operating bug in translating quoted-printable codes at the end of the line with LF only. This is the case for UNIX text format. (For example, quoted-printable codes "=BB=E7=BC=AD" are decoded and displayed as "사서", meaning "librarian"). A couple of Hexadecimal digits(ie, 0xBB + 0xE7) build up each Korean charactor in euc-kr encoding. But if LF(0x0a) appears only before "=BB=E7=BC=AD", Windows Live Mail displays broken characters "=BB煐" instead of "사서".) If the words are in English, the 1st character after LF does not appear in screen but replaced by "=" character. (ie, "Hello" > "=ello") Even more, sometimes file attachment is also affected erroneously. Once .eml file with LF format gets converted into LF+CR(from 0x0a to 0x0d+0x0a) by the 3rd util such as Editplus, it displays properly without any problem. If you give up one between quoted-printable and UNIX format(LF, not CR/LF), this problem doesn't occur.

Broken characters can be displayed properly in Hotmail web interface (http://www.hotmail.com). And once replied or forwarded in web-mail, LF gets converted into CR/LF automatically. But Windows Live Mail's reply and forward can not correct the broken words automatically. Moreover, it will make the broken words unrepairable by merging them into the unbroken words.

Outlook Express 6, up to version 6.00.2900.5512, had no such a problem. Since Microsoft dropped support for Outlook Express for the accessing of Hotmail IMAP accounts, instead forcing users to move to Windows Live Mail, the issue has continued.

Conversion utilities

Text editors are often used for converting a text file between different newline formats; most modern editors can read and write files using at least the different ASCII CR/LF conventions. The standard Windows editor Notepad is not one of them (although Wordpad is).

On Windows systems without a better editor, the old MS-DOS editor EDIT that still ships with 32-bit modern Windows versions is often used to convert a Unix text file to DOS/Windows newlines. This is done by creating a shortcut to EDIT on the desktop (context menu / New / Shortcut / "edit" / Next / Finish), dragging the text file in question onto it, and then saving the file again (File / Save).

Editors are often unsuitable for converting larger files. For larger files (on Windows NT/2000/XP) the following command is often used: TYPE unix_file | FIND "" /V > dos_file

On many Unix systems, the dos2unix (sometimes named fromdos or d2u) and unix2dos (sometimes named todos or u2d) utilities are used to translate between ASCII CR+LF (DOS/Windows) and LF (Unix) newlines. Different versions of these commands vary slightly in their syntax. However, the tr command is available on virtually every Unix-like system and is used to perform arbitrary replacement operations on single characters. A DOS/Windows text file can be converted to Unix format by simply removing all ASCII CR characters with tr -d '\r' < inputfile > outputfile or, if the text has only CR newlines, by converting all CR newlines to LF with tr '\r' '\n' < inputfile > outputfile

The same tasks are sometimes performed with sed, or in Perl if the platform has a Perl interpreter: sed -e 's/$/\r/' inputfile > outputfile # UNIX to DOS (adding CRs) sed -e 's/\r$//' inputfile > outputfile # DOS to UNIX (removing CRs) perl -pe 's/\r\n|\n|\r/\r\n/g' inputfile > outputfile # Convert to DOS perl -pe 's/\r\n|\n|\r/\n/g' inputfile > outputfile # Convert to UNIX perl -pe 's/\r\n|\n|\r/\r/g' inputfile > outputfile # Convert to old Mac

To identify what type of line breaks a text file contains, the command can be used. Moreover, the editor vim can be convenient to make a file compatible with the Windows notepad text editor. For example: [prompt] > file myfile.txt myfile.txt: ASCII English text [prompt] > vim myfile.txt within vim :set fileformat=dos :wq [prompt] > file myfile.txt myfile.txt: ASCII English text, with CRLF line terminators

The following grep commands echo the filename (in this case myfile.txt) to the command line if the file is of the specified style:

grep -PL $'\r\n' myfile.txt # show UNIX style file (LF terminated) grep -Pl $'\r\n' myfile.txt # show DOS style file (CRLF terminated)

For Debian-based systems, these commands are used:

egrep -L $'\r\n' myfile.txt # show UNIX style file (LF terminated) egrep -l $'\r\n' myfile.txt # show DOS style file (CRLF terminated)

The above grep commands work under Unix systems or in Cygwin under Windows. Note that these commands make some assumptions about the kinds of files that exist on the system (specifically it's assuming only UNIX and DOS-style files—no Mac OS 9-style files). Check the -P, -L, and -l options to understand how it works.

This technique is often combined with find to list files recursively. For instance, the following command checks all "regular files" (e.g. it will exclude directories, symbolic links, etc.) to find all UNIX-style files in a directory tree, starting from the current directory (.), and saves the results in file unix_files.txt, overwriting it if the file already exists:

find . -type f -exec grep -PL '\r\n' {} \; > unix_files.txt

This example will find C files and convert them to LF style line endings:

find -name '*.[ch]' -exec fromdos {} \;

The file command also detects the type of EOL used: file myfile.txt > myfile.txt: ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators

Other tools permit the user to visualise the EOL characters: od -a myfile.txt cat -e myfile.txt hexdump -c myfile.txt

dos2unix, unix2dos, mac2unix, unix2mac, mac2dos, dos2mac can perform conversions. The flip command is often used.

See also

ASA carriage control characters

C0 and C1 control codes

Page break

References

External links

The Unicode reference, see paragraph 5.8 in Chapter 5 of the Unicode 4.0 standard (PDF)

"The End-of-Line Story"

The [NEL] Newline Character

The End of Line Puzzle

Tofrodos - software for Unix that converts to and from DOS newlines

ToFroWin: a Windows shell extension that is able to convert multiple files from DOS to UNIX (and vice-versa) line endings right from the context menu.

"Understanding Newlines" on O'Reilly-Net - an article by Xavier Noria.

Category:Control characters Category:Whitespace

Width	235px
Caption	James with the Heat
Position	Small forward/Guard
Height ft	6
Height in	8
Weight lb	250
Team	Miami Heat
Number	6
Nationality	American
Birth date	December 30, 1984
Birth place	Akron, Ohio, United States
Draft round	1
Draft pick	1
Draft year	2003
Draft team	Cleveland Cavaliers
Career start	2003
High school	St. Vincent – St. Mary High School
Profile	lebron_james
Teams
Highlights

LeBron Raymone James (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he was a three-time "Mr. Basketball" of Ohio in high school, and was highly promoted in the national media as a future NBA superstar while a sophomore at St. Vincent – St. Mary High School. At just 18, he was selected with the number one pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers and signed a shoe contract with Nike before his professional debut. Listed as a small forward, James has set numerous youngest player records since joining the league. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2003–04, NBA Most Valuable Player in 2008–09 and 2009–10, and has been both All-NBA selection and an All-Star every season since 2005. In 2010, a much-publicized free agency process ended with James going to the Miami Heat. He became the third reigning NBA MVP to change teams and the first since Moses Malone in 1982.

The focal point of the Cleveland offense, James led the team to consecutive playoff appearances from 2006 through 2010. In 2007, the Cavaliers advanced to the Conference Finals for the first time since 1992 and to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. James has been a member of the USA national team, winning a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics and gold at the 2008 Olympics.

Off the court

James was born on December 30, 1984 in Akron, Ohio, to a 16-year-old mother, Gloria. His biological father, Anthony McClelland, was an ex-convict who left Gloria and forced her to raise LeBron by herself.

James has two children with his high school sweetheart, Savannah Brinson. The first, LeBron James Jr., was born on October 6, 2004,

Endorsements

James has endorsement contracts with Nike, Sprite, Glacéau, Bubblicious, Upper Deck, McDonald's and State Farm. With Nike, James has released six signature shoe styles, and four additional shoes (20–5–5, Soldier, Soldier 2, Ambassador). He has acted in a 2007 series of commercials called "The LeBrons", as well as had his likeness voiced by Kenan Thompson in a 2009 commercial series titled "MVPuppets". In December 2007, James was ranked at #1 in the Forbes Top 20 Earners Under 25 with annual earnings of $27 million.

.]] James and Ice Cube have paired up to pitch a one-hour special to ABC based on James' life. James will act as executive producer if the show is greenlighted. James appeared on the cover of the February 2009 edition of GQ magazine. He stars in the Lions Gate film, More Than a Game (2009).

Public image

During the 2007 NBA Playoffs, James drew criticism when he declined to sign a petition started by his teammate, Ira Newble, regarding the Chinese government's alleged involvement in the ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, stating that he did not know enough about the issue. A year later, James did talk publicly about the issue, saying, "At the end of the day we're talking about human rights. And people should understand that human rights and people's lives are in jeopardy. We're not talking about contracts here. We're not talking about money. We're talking about people's lives being lost and that means a lot more to me than some money or a contract."

James has received criticism from Cleveland fans and critics for attending Cleveland Indians games against the New York Yankees dressed in a Yankees hat. James said, "As individuals I want every Indian to succeed. I love all these fans for coming out and supporting us. But team-wise I want the Yankees to win." Despite residing in Ohio for all of his childhood, James added that he grew up as a Yankees fan, a Dallas Cowboys fan and a Chicago Bulls fan. In January 2008, Nike released the Air Zoom V LeBron shoe, which featured a Yankees-type motif and was made available only in New York City.

In March 2008, James became the first black man to appear on the cover of Vogue, posing with Gisele Bündchen. He was the third man to appear on the cover of Vogue, after Richard Gere and George Clooney. Some sports bloggers and columnist considered the cover offensive, describing the demeanor of James and his holding Bündchen as a reference to classic imagery of the movie monster King Kong, a dark savage capturing his light-skinned love interest.

In June 2008, James donated $20,000 to a committee to elect Barack Obama. On October 29, 2008, James gathered almost 20,000 people at the Quicken Loans Arena for a viewing of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's 30-minute American Stories, American Solutions television advertisement. It was shown on a large screen above the stage, where Jay-Z later held a free concert.

In August 2008, a source close to James said he would strongly consider playing in Europe for Olympiacos if given a $50-million annual salary. James later said he may sign a contract extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers at the conclusion of the 2008–2009 NBA season.

On July 6, 2009, James courted controversy when he ordered organizers to confiscate CBS video tape of him being dunked on by Xavier University guard Jordan Crawford at the Nike LeBron James Skills Academy.

On July 23 in an interview for his upcoming book "Shooting Stars", James admitted to smoking marijuana at one point during his high school career to help cope with all the stress resulting from constant media attention he was receiving at the time.

James, with comedian Jimmy Kimmel, co-hosted the 2007 ESPY Awards. James himself was nominated for three ESPYs: Best Male Athlete, Best NBA Player (winner), and Best Record Breaking Performance. The performance for which he was nominated was when he scored 48 points in Game 5 of the 2007 NBA Eastern Conference Finals against the Detroit Pistons, including 29 of the last 30 points and all of the team's 25 points in overtime.

In September, 2010, The Q Score Company ranked James as the sixth most disliked sports personality behind Michael Vick, Tiger Woods, Terrell Owens, Chad Ochocinco and Kobe Bryant. James bought a home in Coconut Grove, a Miami, Florida suburb, on November 12, 2010 for $9 million.

Tattoos

James has a number of tattoos on his body. Across his back is an emblazoned banner, "Chosen 1," a name he received from the cover of Sports Illustrated while in high school. On his right leg vertically, "Witness." On his right arm, a lion with a crown and "Gloria" for his mother. On his upper left arm, the word "Beast" and "Hold my own." On his lower left arm, a rendition of the face of his first son, and the words, "Prince James" for his first son, and "Maximus Bryce" for his second son. On his lower right arm, "Akron", and "330" the telephone area code for Akron, Ohio, James' hometown. Additionally on his lower right forearm, the slogan, "No one can see through what I am except for the one that made me." On his chest, the words, "Gifted Child" and a large animal across his pectorals resembling a "lion-dragon."

High school career

James attended St. Vincent–St. Mary High School in Akron, where he became a starter during his freshman year for the Fighting Irish. He averaged 21 points and 6.2 rebounds, and led the team to a 23–1 record, en route to the Division III state title. Keith Dambrot, now head coach at the University of Akron, was the head coach at St. Vincent–St. Mary. Coach Dambrot started working with James doing $1 clinics at a local recreation center.

In James' junior year his stats improved again. He averaged 29.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 3.3 steals and was again named Mr. Basketball of Ohio. The petition was unsuccessful, but it ensured him an unprecedented level of nation-wide attention as he entered his senior year. By then, James had already appeared on the covers of Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine. His popularity forced his team to move their practices from the school gym to the nearby James A. Rhodes Arena at the University of Akron. NBA stars such as Shaquille O'Neal attended the games, and a few of James' high school games were even televised nationally on ESPN2 and regionally on pay-per-view.

In 2003, James' mother, Gloria James, got approval of a loan to buy a Hummer H2 for her son's 18th birthday. Under the OHSAA guidelines, no amateur may accept any gift valued over $100 as a reward for athletic performance. James appealed and a judge blocked the ruling, reducing the penalty to a two-game suspension and allowing him to play the remainder of the season. James' team was forced to forfeit one of their wins as a result. That forfeit was the team's only official loss that season.

Despite the distractions, the Irish won a third state title, with James averaging 31.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.4 steals on the season. James finished his high school career with 2,657 points, 892 rebounds and 523 assists.

NBA career

Cleveland Cavaliers (2003-2010)

Rookie season

James was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. Facing the Sacramento Kings in his first NBA game, James recorded 25 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals and shot 60% from the floor. After recording a season-high 41 points against the New Jersey Nets, James became the youngest player in league history to score at least 40 points in a game. He was scheduled to compete in the 2004 Slam Dunk Contest during the All-Star weekend, although due to an ankle injury he suffered in January 2004, he was unable to participate in the contest. James averaged 20.9 points, 5.9 assists, and 5.5 rebounds per game for the season, and was named 2003–04 NBA Rookie of the Year; becoming the first Cavalier and youngest NBA player to ever receive the award. The Cavaliers improved by 18 wins and concluded the regular season with a 35–47 record, but failed to make the playoffs.

2004–05 season

In the 2004–05 season, James was selected to his first NBA All-Star Game and recorded 13 points, 6 assists, and 8 rebounds, as the Eastern All-Stars defeated the Western All-Stars 125–115. During the season, James became the youngest player in league history to record a triple-double and make the All-NBA Team.

2005–06 season

In the 2005–06 season, James was elected to his second straight All-Star Game appearance and led the Eastern All-Stars to a 122–120 victory, with 29 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists. He became the youngest All-Star MVP at 21 years, 51 days. He was named NBA Player of the Week for an unprecedented three consecutive weeks and concluded the season with five honors. He scored 35 or more points in nine consecutive games, joining Jordan and Kobe Bryant as the only players since 1970 to accomplish the feat. The Cavaliers made the playoffs for the first time since 1998, and improved from a record of 17–65 in 2002–03 to 50–32 in 2005–06.

Following the regular season, James was named as one of the candidates for the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. Although he finished second to Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns in MVP voting, he was awarded co-MVP honors with Nash by The Sporting News; an award given by the publication that is based on the voting of thirty NBA general managers.

James made his playoff debut against the Washington Wizards in 2006. He recorded a triple-double with 32 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds, as the Cavaliers defeated the Wizards 97–86. He joined Johnny McCarthy and Magic Johnson as the only players in NBA history to register a triple-double in their playoff debut. In the process, James set a new record for turnovers in a 6-game series, with 34. In the second round of the playoffs, James and the Cavaliers lost in seven games to the defending Eastern Conference champion and divisional rival Detroit Pistons. James averaged 30.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 5.8 assists in the playoffs. Although it is for fewer years and less money than the maximum he could sign, it allows him the option of seeking a new contract worth more money as an unrestricted free agent following the 2010 season.

2006–07 season

against the Dallas Mavericks]] James was elected to his third consecutive All-Star game appearance during the 2006–07 season. He played a game high 32 minutes and finished with 28 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. In the regular season, the Cavaliers tied the previous season's record with 50 wins and clinched the second seed of the Eastern Conference on the last day of the season. For the season, James averaged 27.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 1.6 steals per game.

In the first round of the 2007 NBA Playoffs, James led the Cavaliers to their first sweep in franchise history over the Washington Wizards in four games. It was the first time the franchise had won consecutive road playoff games.

In the Eastern Conference Finals, James led the Cavaliers from an 0–2 deficit against the Detroit Pistons to win the series in six games. His performance in Game 5 was especially memorable. James recorded a franchise-record 48 points on 54.5% field goal shooting, to go with 9 rebounds and 7 assists. In addition, James scored 29 of Cleveland's last 30 points, including the team's final 25 points in a double-overtime victory. He concluded the night with a game-winning lay-up with 2 seconds left. NBA analyst Marv Albert referred to James' performance as "one of the greatest moments in postseason history," while color commentator Steve Kerr called it "Jordan-esque."

In the 2007 NBA Finals, James averaged 22.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 6.8 assists, as the Cavaliers were swept by the San Antonio Spurs, losing 4 consecutive games. and once again positioning himself as one of the front runners for the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. He won the 2008 All-Star Game MVP with 27 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals as the Eastern Conference All-Stars defeated their Western counterparts, 134–128.

On February 19, 2008, James recorded his fifth triple-double of the 2007–08 season by putting up 26 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists against the Houston Rockets. It was the fifteenth triple-double of his career. He is the third youngest player to post 15 triple-doubles, behind Robertson and Johnson. He scored his sixth triple-double of the season and sixteenth of his career against the Indiana Pacers the very next game. It was the second time during the season that he had a triple-double in back-to-back games. The last player to accomplish that feat was Johnson in 1988. James finished the season with seven triple-doubles, breaking his personal and team records for triple-doubles in a season and 17 career triple-doubles broke his team record as well.

On February 27, 2008, against the Boston Celtics, James became the youngest person to score 10,000 points in his career at 23 years and 59 days, achieving the feat in style with a slam-dunk over 11-time All-Star Kevin Garnett, eclipsing the old mark by more than a year. James did so in 368 games, the ninth fastest in league history. On March 5, 2008, James scored 50 points with 8 rebounds and 10 assists on the New York Knicks, becoming only the third player since the ABA-NBA merger to record a 50-point 10-assist game. On March 21, 2008, James scored 29 points against the Toronto Raptors, taking him past Brad Daugherty's all-time Cavaliers scoring record of 10,389 points. Daugherty achieved this record over the course of 548 games, while James took only 380 games to score 10,414 points.

All told, James propelled Cleveland to a 45–37 record, good for second place in the Central Division and the 4th seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Prior to Cleveland's first-round series versus the Washington Wizards, Wizards guard Deshawn Stevenson said James was "overrated," prompting James to say that he would not return the insult, as that would be "almost like Jay-Z [responding to a negative comment] made by Soulja Boy." In response, Soulja Boy himself made an appearance at Game 3 of the series (played in Washington) in support of the Wizards, and his music was played over the PA system. James would later say that he meant no disrespect to Soulja Boy with his comment, and that his young son is a big fan of the rapper. Jay-Z responded by producing a freestyle version of the Too Short single "Blow the Whistle", named "Playoff", in which he "disses" Stevenson and Soulja Boy on James' behalf. The Cavaliers won the series against the Wizards in 6 games (4–2). The Cavaliers were eliminated by the Boston Celtics in the next round (4–3). During the decisive seventh game, which was played in Boston, James scored 45 points, but opponent Paul Pierce's 41 led the Celtics to a narrow victory.

2008–09 season

In the 2008–09 season James continued to improve facets of his game while setting new career highs. He had 23 chase-down blocks (93 blocks in total, a career-high) and improved his free-throw shooting (78.0%, a career-high, with league-leading 594 free-throws made). He was the NBA Player of the Month four times, making him the second player in NBA history to do that after Kevin Garnett did so in his 2003–04 MVP season. In addition, he became the fourth player in NBA history to lead his team in all five major statistical categories (total points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks) in one season. of the Boston Celtics in October 2008]] After a win on March 25 against the New Jersey Nets the Cleveland Cavaliers improved their record to 58–13 exceeding their previous franchise best of 57–25 set in the 1988–89 and 1991–92 NBA seasons. They ended the regular season with a league best of 66–16 after losing their final home game to the Philadelphia 76ers in overtime. The Cavaliers had a chance to tie the 1985–86 Boston Celtics for the all-time best NBA home record but ended at 39–2 after home losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and 76ers. In the playoffs, the Cavaliers swept the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the 2009 NBA Playoffs. James averaged 32.0 points, 11.3 rebounds and 7.5 assists in the series and became just the third player in NBA history to average at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in a postseason series. At the end of the last game, in which he tallied 36 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists on 16–17 free throw shooting, there were MVP chants for him in The Palace of Auburn Hills. On May 4, he was announced as the NBA Most Valuable Player. He became the first Cavaliers player in history to win the award.

He was named to the NBA All-Defensive Team for the first time in his career.

In the next series in the playoffs, James once again led his team to a sweep against the Atlanta Hawks.

On May 22, during Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Orlando Magic's Hedo Türkoğlu shot a 12-foot jumper to give the Magic a 2-point lead with 1 second left. Following a Cleveland timeout, Williams inbounded the ball to James, but heavy defense by Türkoğlu denied James a chance at a tying layup. James then attempted and successfully made a three-point shot over Türkoğlu, giving the Cavs a 96–95 victory to tie the series 1–1. Following a Game 3 loss, James missed a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer in Game 4 and the Cavaliers were down 3-1. After a Game 5 home win, he scored a playoff low 25 points in Game 6 and Cleveland lost the series to Orlando. James' postgame behavior incited some controversy when he left the game floor without shaking hands with his opponents. Jalen Rose, a former NBA player and current ESPN commentator, said James' actions were "immature and ingracious." James later told reporters: }}

2009–10 season

.]] Before the 2009–10 season, Cleveland traded for four-time NBA champion Shaquille O'Neal to address an inside presence that was missing against Orlando. O'Neal's goal was to "Win a Ring for the King." James was selected to his sixth consecutive All-Star game appearance. James recorded 25 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals as the Eastern Conference All-Stars defeated the Western Conference All-Stars 141–139. In a 118–116 loss to the Denver Nuggets, James tallied 43 points, 13 rebounds, 15 assists, two steals and four blocks in a game. All-Star Antawn Jamison was acquired by the Cavs on February 17, 2010. On March 13, 2010, James became the youngest player in NBA history to score 15,000 regular season points during a 92–85 win over the Chicago Bulls.

At the end of the regular season, Cleveland finished with the best regular season record for the second year consecutive year. James won the Most Valuable Player for the second time in his career, becoming the tenth NBA player in history to do so. James received 116 of a possible 122 first-place votes to win. James was criticized for not playing well, especially in Game 5 of the series, in which he shot only 3 for 14 and scored 15 points. He walked off the court in that game, his final home game as a Cavalier, "to a smattering of boos and rows of empty seats" and Cleveland lost 88-120 in their worst home playoff loss in team history. Cleveland was eliminated in Game 6, James' last playing for Cleveland, as he recorded 27 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists, but also 9 turnovers. He filed papers to formally change his jersey number 23 to 6 for the season. James was courted by several teams, including the Knicks, Nets, Heat, Bulls, Mavericks, Clippers, and his hometown Cavaliers.

On July 8, 2010, James announced on a live ESPN special, The Decision, that he will be playing for the Miami Heat for the 2010–11 season and teaming with Miami's other All-Star free agent signees Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The Decision was broadcast from the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich, Connecticut.

|Lebron James}}

The Cavaliers were informed of James' decision minutes before the show began. The television program drew high ratings as well as criticism for the prolonged wait until James' actual decision and the spectacle of the show itself.

In Cleveland, fans considered James' departure a betrayal that ranks second to Art Modell's efforts to relocate the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore. Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert almost immediately published an open letter to fans, denouncing James' decision as a "selfish", "heartless", "callous", and "cowardly betrayal", while guaranteeing that the Cavs would win an NBA title before the "self-declared former King." Gilbert's sports-memorabilia company Fathead also lowered the price of wall graphics depicting James from $99.99 to $17.41, the birth year of Benedict Arnold. William Rhoden of The New York Times defended James by stating that Gilbert's "venomous, face-saving personal attack", along with the ensuing "wrath of jersey-burning fans", only validated James’ decision to leave Cleveland. Reverend Jesse Jackson, American civil rights activist, said Gilbert's feelings "personify a slave master mentality", and he was treating James as "a runaway slave". J. A. Adande of ESPN said, however, that James chose to promote the drama of his decision in an hour-long television special instead of showing "common courtesy" to notify Cleveland and other teams of his plans. On July 12, 2010, NBA Commissioner David Stern fined Gilbert $100,000 for the letter's contents, while also criticizing the way James handled free agency. On July 14, James told J.R. Moehringer for a GQ article that there was "nothing at all" he would change about his handling of free agency.

Former NBA players criticized his decision to not stay with Cleveland and continuing to try to win a championship as "the guy". Michael Jordan stated that he would not have contacted his rivals from other teams like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to play on one team together, as "I wanted to defeat those guys." Jordan added that "...things are different [now]. I can't say that's a bad thing. It's an opportunity these kids have today." Johnson echoed Jordan's sentiments on teaming with rivals.

On September 29, 2010, asked by Soledad O'Brien of CNN if race was a factor in the fallout from The Decision, James said, "I think so, at times. There's always -- you know, a race factor. James had previously stayed clear of racial issues. When the earlier controversy over his cover on Vogue became a national debate, James had no comment. Adande, however, said James "didn't claim to be a victim of racial persecution" and "caused us to examine the bias that's always lurking".

Miami Heat (2010–present)

On July 9, James officially completed a sign-and-trade deal with the Heat. On the same day, the Heat threw a welcome party and introduced James, Wade and Bosh to the 13,000 Heat fans at American Airlines Arena. The rock concert atmosphere featured the trio arriving to plumes of smoke with Bosh and Wade pointing to the crowd and James strutting around. Howard Beck of The New York Times described the national fan reaction to the party: "Everyone saw something: greatness, arrogance, self-indulgence, boldness, cowardice, pride, friendship, collusion, joy, cynicism, heroes, mercenaries."

In New Jersey on October 31, he was booed by Nets' fans as expected. Boos came when James’ name was called during the pregame introductions, and continued whenever he touched the ball. When James was running the point, fans had more time to notice and the booing was more intense. On November 2, James had a game-high 12 assists in a 129-97 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Heat public relations announced that James's 12 assists was the highest in franchise history by a forward. On November 9 in a 116-114 loss to the Utah Jazz, James finished with 20 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds, his first triple-double with the Heat. It was his 29th career triple-double, the seventh that came in a loss. In a well publicized arrival after spurning the franchise, LeBron James had his second triple double of the season with 32 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in a blowout victory.

International career

in the Group B men's Olympic basketball game between the U.S. and China on August 10, 2008, at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.]] }} After his rookie season, James played on the 2004 U.S. Olympic basketball team in Athens, where the United States won the bronze medal in men's basketball. It was the first time a U.S. Olympic team with NBA players failed to win the gold medal. Limited to 14.6 minutes per game, James averaged just 5.8 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. James competed in the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan and averaged 13.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game. The team finished with an 8–1 record, and was again awarded the bronze medal. After failing to win the 2006 World Championships, the team competed at the 2007 Tournament of Americas Olympic qualifiers to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. During the gold medal game against Argentina, James recorded 31 points, the most by an American in an Olympic qualifier, as the United States captured gold medal honors. He averaged 18.1 points (on tournament-high field-goal percentage (76%) and three-point percentage (62.2%), 4.7 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 22.2 minutes per game.

James, along with the rest of Team USA reclaimed the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, defeating Spain 118 to 107. He finished the gold medal game with 14 points along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists as the U.S. went unbeaten, winning their first Gold Medal since the 2000 Olympics. It was later reported that James' "immaturity and downright disrespectfulness" were a risk to his being included on the Beijing Olympic team as Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski and managing director Jerry Colangelo believed that Bryant joining the national team could allow the team to win the gold medal with or without James. with 28 in the regular season and six in the postseason. James' skills have led to many comparisons to NBA legends Robertson, Johnson, and Jordan. James was not named to the NBA All-Defensive Team until the 2008–09 season, when he finished second in voting for Defensive Player of the Year.

James started a petition saying that no one should be allowed to wear the #23 in the NBA to honor Jordan. On March 1, 2010, James filed an application to the NBA to wear the #6 starting the 2010/2011 season.

Salaries

{| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Season !! Team !! Salary |- | 2003–04 || Cleveland || $4,018,920 |- | 2004–05 || Cleveland || $4,320,360 |- | 2005–06 || Cleveland || $4,621,800 |- | 2006–07 || Cleveland || $5,828,090 |- | 2007–08 || Cleveland || $13,041,250 |- | 2008–09 || Cleveland || $14,410,581 |- | 2009–10 || Cleveland || $15,779,912 |- | 2010–11 || Miami || $14,500,000 |}

NBA career statistics

Regular season

|- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 79 || 79 || 39.5 || .417 || .290 || .754 || 5.5 || 5.9 || 1.6 || .7 || 20.9 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 80 || 80 || 42.4 || .472 || .351 || .750 || 7.4 || 7.2 || 2.2 || .6 || 27.2 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 79 || 79 || 42.5 || .480 || .335 || .738 || 7.0 || 6.6 || 1.6 || .8 || 31.4 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 78 || 78 || 40.9 || .476 || .319 || .698 || 6.7 || 6.0 || 1.6 || .7 || 27.3 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 75 || 74 || 40.4 || .484 || .315 || .712 || 7.9 || 7.2 || 1.8 || 1.1 || 30.0 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 81 || 81 || 37.7 || .489 || .344 || .780 || 7.6 || 7.2 || 1.7 || 1.1 || 28.4 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 76 || 76 || 39.0 || .503 || .333 || .767 || 7.3 || 8.6 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 29.7 |- | style="text-align:left;"| Career | style="text-align:left;"| | 548 || 547 || 40.3 || .475 || .329 || .742 || 7.0 || 7.0 || 1.7 || .9 || 27.8 |- | style="text-align:left;"| All-Star | style="text-align:left;"| | 6 || 6 || 25.3 || .504 || .350 || .667 || 6.3 || 5.3 || 1.8 || .3 || 23.7 |}

Playoffs

|- | style="text-align:left;"| 2005–06 | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 13 || 13 || 46.5 || .476 || .333 || .737 || 8.1 || 5.8 || 1.4 || .7 || 30.8 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2006–07 | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 20 || 20 || 44.7 || .416 || .280 || .755 || 8.1 || 8.0 || 1.7 || .5 || 25.1 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2007–08 | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 13 || 13 || 42.5 || .411 || .257 || .731 || 7.8 || 7.6 || 1.8 || 1.3 || 28.2 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2008–09 | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 14 || 14 || 41.4 || .510 || .333 || .749 || 9.1 || 7.3 || 1.6 || .9 || 35.3 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2009–10 | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | 11 || 11 || 41.8 || .502 || .400 || .733 || 9.3 || 7.6 || 1.7 || 1.8 || 29.1 |- | style="text-align:left;"| Career | style="text-align:left;"| | 71 || 71 || 43.5 || .459 || .316 || .743 || 8.4 || 7.3 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 29.3 |}

Awards and honors

2× NBA Most Valuable Player: 2009, 2010

NBA Rookie of the Year: 2004

NBA Scoring Champion: 2008

2× NBA All-Star Game MVP: 2006, 2008

6× NBA All-Star: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

6× All-NBA:

* First Team: 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010

* Second Team: 2005, 2007

2× NBA All-Defensive:

* First Team: 2009, 2010

NBA All-Rookie First Team: 2004

'''Bronze medal with Team USA, 2004 Summer Olympic Games

'''Bronze medal with Team USA, 2006 FIBA World Championship

'''Gold medal with Team USA, 2007 FIBA Americas Championship

'''Gold medal with Team USA, 2008 Summer Olympic Games

References

External links

Official website

LeBron: The Moment

U.S. National Team Bio

LeBron James: NBA.com Draft Profile

"LeBron James", n°1 on Times list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch"

LeBron James: Monster Dunks – slideshow by Life magazine

LeBron James on ESPN Video Archive

LeBron James on FoxSports Video Archive

Category:1984 births Category:American basketball players Category:African American basketball players Category:Basketball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Category:Basketball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:Basketball players from Ohio Category:Cleveland Cavaliers draft picks Category:Cleveland Cavaliers players Category:Miami Heat players Category:Gatorade National Basketball Player of the Year Category:Living people Category:McDonald's High School All-Americans Category:National Basketball Association high school draftees Category:Olympic basketball players of the United States Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States Category:Olympic bronze medalists for the United States Category:Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Category:People from Akron, Ohio Category:People from Cleveland, Ohio Category:Small forwards Category:United States men's national basketball team members

Name	Wes Craven
Caption	Craven on the set of Scream 2, 1997
Birth name	Wesley Earl Craven
Birth date	August 02, 1939
Birth place	Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation	Film director, writer, producer and actor
Spouse	Bonnie Broecker(1964–1969) Mimi Craven (1984–1987)Iya Labunka (2004-present)
Website	http://www.wescraven.com

Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven (born August 2, 1939) is an American film director and writer, perhaps best known as the creator of many horror films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the Scream films alongside The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The People Under the Stairs, Vampire in Brooklyn, Red Eye and My Soul to Take.

Early life

Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Caroline (née Miller) and Paul Craven. He had a strict Baptist upbringing. Craven earned an undergraduate degree in English and Psychology from Wheaton College in Illinois, and a masters degree in Philosophy and Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to landing his first job in the film industry as a sound editor for a post-production company in New York, Craven briefly taught English at Westminster College and was a humanities professor at Clarkson College of Technology (now Clarkson University) in Potsdam, NY.

Directing and writing career

Craven's works tend to share a common exploration of the nature of reality. A Nightmare on Elm Street, for example, dealt with the consequences of dreams in real life. New Nightmare "brushes against" (but does not quite break) the fourth wall by having actress Heather Langenkamp play herself as she is haunted by the villain of the film in which she once starred. At one point in the film, we see on Wes Craven's word processor a script he has written, which includes the exact conversation he just had with Heather — as if the script was being written as the action unfolded. The Serpent and the Rainbow portrays a man who cannot distinguish between nightmarish visions and reality. In Scream, the characters frequently reference horror films similar to their situations, and at one point Billy Loomis tells his girlfriend that life is just a big movie. This concept was emphasized in the sequels, as copycat stalkers reenact the events of a new film about the Woodsboro killings occurring in Scream. Scream included a scene mentioning the well-known Richard Gere gerbil urban legend. Craven stated in interviews that he received calls from agents telling him that if he left that scene in, he would never work again. He is currently directing Scream 4. Craven was also set to direct Beetlejuice but dropped out to co-write and executive produce the third outing for Freddy Krueger. The "Elm Street" is located in Potsdam, NY (a small town just south of the Canadian border).

Craven also frequently collaborates with Sean S. Cunningham in his filmography. In Craven's debut feature, The Last House on the Left, Cunningham served as producer. Later, in Craven's most famous film, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Cunningham directed one of the chase scenes, although uncredited. Their infamous characters, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, appeared together in the 2003 slasher film Freddy vs. Jason with Cunningham acting as producer, while screenwriter Victor Miller is credited as "Character Creator". Later, in The Last House on the Left remake, both Cunningham and Craven share production credits. Craven announced on 22 March 2010 via Twitter his return to the Scream franchise.

Awards and nominations

During his career, Wes Craven won nine cinematic awards and received three nominations.

In 1977, he won the 'Prize of the International Critics' Jury' in the "Sitges – Catalonian International Film Festival" for his film The Hills Have Eyes.

In 1985, his horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street won the 'Critic's Award' at the "Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival".

In 1992, the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film presented him the Pegasus Audience Award for the thriller The People Under the Stairs. His Fantasporto won the International Fantasy Film Award for Best Screenplay while the Best Film award went to his film Wes Craven's New Nightmare, the final A Nightmare on Elm Street film he directed. His Shocker was also nominated for Best Film in 1990.

The Gérardmer Film Festival granted him the Grand Prize in '97 for Scream.

He was nominated for Best Director for Scream at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, in 1997.

In 2006, he was honored at Spike TV's Scream with the Mastermind Award (the tribute was presented to him by Neve Campbell).

Other work

Craven designed the Halloween 2008 logo for Google, and was the second celebrity personality to take over the YouTube homepage on Halloween.

Craven had a letter published in the July 19, 1968 edition of Life magazine, praising that periodical's coverage of contemporary rock music, in particular Frank Zappa.

Personal life

Craven's first marriage to Bonnie Broecker produced two children, Jonathan Craven (born 1965) and Jessica Craven (born 1968). Jonathan is a writer and director with a few credits to his name. Jessica was a singer/songwriter in the group the Chapin Sisters. The marriage ended in 1970. In 1982, Craven married Millicent Eleanor Meyer. However, the two divorced, according to Joe Eszterhas's book American Rhapsody, after she began an affair with actress Sharon Stone. Also according to the book, on the day the divorce was finalized, Stone sent Craven a dozen black roses. Although Craven has never publicly commented on his wife's lesbian affair, he has stated in interviews that the marriage dissolved after he discovered it "was no longer anything but a sham."

Books

Filmography

Wes Craven Presents

They (2002)

The Breed (2006)

Director

Producer

Actor

References

External links

Wes Craven interview

Official Youtube

Category:1939 births Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American film producers Category:American screenwriters Category:English-language film directors Category:Horror film directors Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni Category:Living people Category:People from Cleveland, Ohio Category:Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni

Name	Herschel Walker
Position	Running back
Number	34
Birthdate	March 03, 1962
Birthplace	Wrightsville, Georgia
Heightft	6
Heightin	1
Weight	225
College	Georgia
Draftyear	1985
Draftround	5
Draftpick	114
Debutyear	1986
Debutteam	Dallas Cowboys
Finalyear	1997
Finalteam	Dallas Cowboys
Pastteams
Highlights
Statseason	1997
Statlabel1	Rushing yards
Statvalue1	8,225
Statlabel2	Rushing average
Statvalue2	4.2
Statlabel3	Touchdowns
Statvalue3	61
Nfl	WAL191664

Herschel Junior Walker (born March 3, 1962) is an American mixed martial artist and a former American football player. He played college football for the University of Georgia Bulldogs, and earned the 1982 Heisman Trophy. He began his professional career with the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League (USFL) before entering the National Football League (NFL). In the NFL he played for the Dallas Cowboys, the Minnesota Vikings, the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.

Early life

Walker was born in Augusta, Georgia to John Willis and Christine Walker. He was raised as one of seven children in a blue collar family.

High school (1975–1979)

Walker played for the Johnson County High School Trojans in Wrightsville, Georgia from 1975–1979. In 1979, he rushed for 3,167 yards, helping the Trojans to their only state championship. He was awarded the first Dial Award for the national high school scholar-athlete of the year in 1979.

College career (1980–1982)

Walker played running back for the University of Georgia, where he was a 3 time All-American and winner of the 1982 Heisman Trophy. He is the only player in NCAA history to finish in the top 3 in Heisman voting every season he played football. During his freshman season in 1980, Walker set the NCAA freshman rushing record and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting. He played a major role in helping Georgia go undefeated that year, and win the National Championship with a victory over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. He would go on to win the Heisman in his junior year. In 1999, Walker was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame and is commonly considered one of the greatest players in college football history.

College football statistics

{|class="wikitable" |- !| ! colspan="5" style="background:#e7e3e7;"| Rushing ! colspan="4" style="background:#e7e3e7;"| Receiving |- !|YEAR !|ATT !|YDS !|AVG !|LP !|TD !|NO. !|YDS !|TD |- |1980||274||1616||5.9||76||15||7||70||0 |- |1981||385||1891||4.9||30||18||14||84||2 |- |1982||335||1752||5.2||59||16||5||89||1 |}

Professional football career (1983–1997)

United States Football League (1983–1985)

In the formation of the United States Football League, Walker saw an opportunity to do something then forbidden by NFL rules, namely, to turn professional after the end of his junior season rather than wait for his collegiate class to graduate the next year. He also sought to choose where he would play professionally, as he felt he could make considerable money from product endorsements; as he was quoted on one occasion: "I don't know if I would want to play in the NFL unless it was for the two New York teams or the Dallas Cowboys."

With endorsement considerations in mind, Walker signed with the New Jersey Generals in 1983, owned by Oklahoma oilman J. Walter Duncan, who after the 1983 season sold the team to real-estate mogul Donald Trump. (As it turned out, however, Walker attracted only one major advertising deal, in a joint promotion by McDonald's and athletic-shoe manufacturer Adidas; in the ad, Walker's line was, "First the Big Mac meal—then the Adidas deal," referring to discount coupons on Adidas merchandise that accompanied the purchase of a Big Mac at McDonald's.) In order to circumvent the league-mandated $1.8-million salary cap, Walker signed a personal services contract with Duncan (later compensated by Trump) to the protest of no one, as the other owners appreciated Walker's name value to the league. Similar arrangements were made later when other big-name college stars signed with the league. Although this move was challenged in court, Walker and the USFL prevailed, and Walker began play with the Generals.

He went on to win the USFL rushing title in 1983 and 1985 and in the latter year also gaining over 4,000 yards in total offense. He holds the professional football record for single-season rushing yards with 2,411 yards in 1985, averaging 5.50 yards per attempt in 18 games. In his USFL career, Walker had 5,562 yards rushing in 1,143 carries, averaging 4.87 yards per carry, during his three seasons with the Generals. In 1983, he rushed for 1,812 yards in 18 games. In his second pro season, his rushing yardage dropped to 1,339, but he caught passes for more than 800 yards giving him over 2,100 yards in total offense.

National Football League (1986–1997)

The Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League, suspecting that the USFL was not going to last, acquired Walker's NFL rights by drafting him in the fifth round of the 1985 NFL Draft. When the USFL in fact succumbed after its technically successful, but financially fruitless antitrust suit against the NFL in 1986, Walker went to play for the Cowboys, eventually establishing himself as a premier NFL running back with two consecutive Pro-Bowl seasons (1987 and 1988).

In 1989, at the height of his NFL career, the Cowboys traded Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for a total of five players (LB Jesse Solomon, DB Issiac Holt, RB Darrin Nelson, LB David Howard, DE Alex Stewart) and six draft picks (which led to Emmitt Smith, Russell Maryland, Kevin Smith, and Darren Woodson). This was judged to be one of the turning points in the rise of the Cowboys to the top echelon of the NFL. Nicknamed the "HWT" (Herschel Walker Trade), Walker's trade was widely perceived as an exceptionally poor move considering what the Vikings had to give up in order to get him, and remains one of the most frequently vilified roster moves of the team's history. The Vikings coaches reluctantly accepted Walker after the trade and never totally used the tool they had been given. Scout.com says, "Walker was never used properly by the coaching brain trust." "Herschel the Turkey", a mock honor given out by the Star Tribune newspaper to particularly inept or disgraceful Minnesota sports personalities, is named for him.

Walker played for the Vikings for two and a half years, never amassing 1,000 rushing yards in a season. His rights were then acquired by the Philadelphia Eagles, and, subsequently, the New York Giants. Eventually, he was re-acquired by the Cowboys, where he was used not only as a running back but as a wide receiver and other offensive positions as well. In addition to running and catching passes, Walker was also often used to return kickoffs throughout his career.

Career overview

Walker rushed for 5,562 yards in his USFL career. His combined rushing numbers for the USFL and the NFL (13,787 yards) would place him 5th All-Time on the NFL's career rushing list.

In 12 NFL seasons, Walker gained 8,225 rushing yards, 4,859 receiving yards, and 5,084 kickoff-return yards. This gave him 18,168 total combined net yards, ranking him second among the NFL's all-time leaders in total yardage at the time of his retirement; as of the start of the 2007 NFL season, ten years after his retirement, he still ranks eighth. He also scored 84 touchdowns: 61 rushing, 21 receiving and two kick off returns for touchdowns. On the Fox Sports Net show Sports List, Walker was named the best college football running back of all time, and was selected as the third greatest player in college football history by ESPN. Walker had his jersey number "34" retired from his alma mater, The University of Georgia.

In 2003 Johnson County High School named its football field in his honor.

Walker was a highly popular and visible personality, even in his college days, as evidenced by the fact that both a thoroughbred and a standardbred race horse were named after him, the former while he was still in college. He also made several appearances in the sports documentary (2004).

Outside football

Walker married his college sweetheart, Cindy DeAngelis Grossman in 1983. After eighteen years of marriage they divorced in 2001. They have one son together, Christian.

He is a born-again Christian who frequently talked about his faith during his USFL interviews. Since his retirement he has attracted little publicity, although he made a guest appearance on The Hour of Power, hosted by noted televangelist Robert Schuller.

He has a fifth-degree black belt in tae kwon do and he nearly made the Olympic team in the sprint relay. He competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics in two-man bobsled, finishing seventh. He ran the 100 meters in 10.22 seconds and the 100 yards in 9.3 seconds. He also won back-to-back American Superstars competitions in 1987 and 1988. Walker stated in an in-studio interview during BaD Radio on August 23, 2010 that he still performs 3,500 sit-ups and 1,000 push ups every day. He has been going through this same routine since high school.

In 1988, while still a player for the Dallas Cowboys, he danced with the Fort Worth Ballet for a single performance.

In his 2008 autobiography Breaking Free, Walker revealed that he suffers from dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as "multiple personality disorder". He claimed that due to his disorder, he cannot remember the season he won the Heisman Trophy, let alone the moment. He also claimed that during one episode, he had held a gun to his own head. He stated he did not ever remember doing this. He is getting help for this disorder, and feels he has recovered by gaining back control.

He was a contestant in the third season of the Donald Trump reality television show Celebrity Apprentice. Although he owns a food service company, he was fired during the 8th episode for failing as Project Manager on a task to create a new meal for Schwan's LiveSmart frozen food line. Throughout the season, each celebrity raised money for a charity of his or her choice; Walker selected the "Alternative Community Development Services (dba Project Turnaround)".

Mixed martial arts career

Name	Herschel Walker
Mma
Height
Weight
Weight class	Heavyweight
Reach
Style	Kickboxing, Taekwondo
Stance	Orthodox
Team	American Kickboxing Academy
Rank	5th-degree black belt in Taekwondo
Years active	2009–present
Mma win	1
Mma kowin	1
Mma loss	0
Sherdog	53594

In November 2007, Walker appeared on the HDNet show Inside MMA as a guest. He indicated that he would take part in a mixed martial arts reality show in the near future (along with José Canseco) and that he would have an official MMA fight at the conclusion of the show.

In September 2009, it was announced that Herschel had been signed by MMA promotion Strikeforce to compete in their heavyweight division. He began a 12-week training camp with trainer "Crazy" Bob Cook at the American Kickboxing Academy in October 2009 in San Jose, California.

In his professional MMA debut on January 30, 2010, Walker defeated Greg Nagy via TKO due to strikes at . According to Scott Coker, the Strikeforce CEO, Walker pledged to donate his fight purse to charity.

Scott Coker announced Walker would be fighting again on Dec 4, 2010 in St. Louis, Mo. Strikeforce confirmed that Walker would face former WEC fighter Scott Carson when he made his second appearance in the Strikeforce cage.

Walker was forced off the Strikeforce card on December 4 due to a cut suffered in training that required seven stitches. Herschel Walker will make his second Strikeforce appearance at Strikeforce 30 against original opponent Scott Carson.

MMA record

{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1" style="font-size:85%; text-align:left; width:100%;" |- !style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|Result !style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|Record !style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|Opponent !style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|Method !style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|Event !style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|Date !style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|Round !style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|Time !style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|Location |- | | |align='left'| Scott Carson | |align="left"| |January 29, 2011 | | |align='left'| San Jose, California |- |Win |align=center| 1-0 |align='left'| Greg Nagy |TKO (Strikes) |align="left"| |January 30, 2010 |align="center"|3 |align="center"|2:17 |align='left'| Sunrise, Florida |}

References

External links

Entry in New Georgia Encyclopedia

Career statistics including Kick Return statisitics

Category:Heisman Trophy winners Category:Maxwell Award winners Category:American football running backs Category:American football return specialists Category:Dallas Cowboys players Category:Minnesota Vikings players Category:Philadelphia Eagles players Category:New York Giants players Category:American Christians Category:American taekwondo practitioners Category:American bobsledders Category:American mixed martial artists Category:African-American mixed martial artists Category:Heavyweight mixed martial artists Category:National Conference Pro Bowl players Category:Georgia Bulldogs football players Category:Georgia Bulldogs athletes Category:College Football Hall of Fame inductees Category:Sportspeople of multiple sports Category:Bobsledders at the 1992 Winter Olympics Category:Olympic bobsledders of the United States Category:Participants in American reality television series Category:The Apprentice (U.S. TV series) contestants Category:New Jersey Generals players Category:African American players of American football Category:All-American college football players Category:Parade High School All-Americans (football) Category:People from Johnson County, Georgia Category:Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:1962 births Category:Living people Category:People diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder

Name	Robert Shaye
Birth date	March 03, 1939
Birth place	Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	CEO, chairman of New Line Cinema, film producer, film director, writer and actor
Website	http://www.newline.com/
Active	1980's - present

Robert Kenneth Shaye (born March 3, 1939), often referred to as Bob Shaye, is an American businessman, film producer, director and actor.

Biography

Early life

Shaye was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Dorothy and Max Mendle Shaye, a supermarket owner and artist. Robert Shaye is the brother of actress Lin Shaye.

He is a graduate of Detroit's Mumford High School, the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School.

Movie career

He is the founder of the film production and distribution company New Line Cinema. He produced the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, and contributed a number of his own ideas to the film, including the sticky staircase. He has directed two films for New Line, 1990's Book of Love and 2007's The Last Mimzy.

He held the position of chairman and CEO until February 28, 2008, when he and CEO Michael Lynne resigned after New Line Cinema was absorbed into Warner Bros. Pictures. Under Shaye, New Line released the franchises such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the Austin Powers series, the Rush Hour series and the Final Destination series, as well as individual releases such as American History X, The Mask, Seven, and Snakes on a Plane.

In June 2008, Shaye announced that he and Michael Lynne had formed Unique Features, a new production company. He produced currently alongside Lynne the film adaption of the Maggie Stiefvater novel Shiver. Shaye will produce with Lynne the film adaption of the PlayStation 3 game Heavy Rain.

See also

New Line Cinema

References

External links

Official New Line Cinema site

Interview (along with Michael Lynne) on Charlie Rose

Category:1939 births Category:Actors from Michigan Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American film producers Category:Columbia Law School alumni Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:Living people Category:People from Detroit, Michigan

Name	Amy Grant
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Amy Lee Grant
Birth date	November 25, 1960
Birth place	Augusta, Georgia, USA
Genre	Contemporary Christian, Gospel, Adult Contemporary, Pop
Voice type	Mezzo-soprano
Years active	1976–present
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano/keyboard
Label	Myrrh (1977–1999) Word (1977–2007) A&M; (1985–2004)Warner/Curb (2005–2007)EMI/Sparrow (2007–present)
Url	www.amygrant.com
Associated act(s)	Vince Gill
Religion	Churches of Christ

Amy Lee Grant (born November 25, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, media personality and occasional actress, best known for her Christian music. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christian Pop". As of 2009, Grant remains the best-selling contemporary Christian music singer ever, having sold over 30 million units worldwide.

Grant made her debut as a teenager, and gained fame in Christian music during the 1980s with such hits as "Father's Eyes," "El Shaddai", and "Angels". During the 1980s and 1990s, she became one of the first gospel artists to cross over into mainstream pop on the heels of her successful albums Unguarded and Heart in Motion, the latter of which included the number-one single "Baby Baby."

Grant has won six Grammy Awards, 25 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and had the first Christian album ever to go Platinum. Heart in Motion is her highest selling album, with over five million copies sold in the United States alone. She was honored with a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005 for her contributions to the entertainment industry.

Biography

Early years

Born Amy Lee Grant, the youngest of four sisters, in Augusta, Georgia, Amy and her family would settle in Nashville, Tennessee in 1967.

During 1976, Grant wrote her first song ("Mountain Man"), performed in public for the first time—at Harpeth Hall School—the all-girls school she attended, recorded a demo tape for her parents with church youth-leader Brown Bannister, then later when Bannister was dubbing a copy of the tape, Chris Christian, the owner of the recording studio, heard the demo and called Word Records. He played it over the phone, and she was offered a recording contract, five weeks before her sixteenth birthday. In 1977, she recorded her first album titled Amy Grant, produced by Brown Bannister (who would also produce her next eleven albums). It was released in the Spring of 1978, one month before her high school graduation. That fall she performed her first ticketed concert—in Fort Worth, Texas—after beginning her freshman year at Furman University. In May 1979, while at the album release party for her second album, My Father's Eyes, Grant met Gary Chapman, writer of the title track (and future husband). Grant & Chapman toured together the summer of 1979. In the fall of 1980, she transferred to Vanderbilt University, where she was a member of the sorority Kappa Alpha Theta.

Grant followed up this album with the first of her Christmas albums - albums that later would be the basis for her trademark holiday shows. In 1984, she released another pop-oriented Christian hit, Straight Ahead, earning Grant her first appearance at the Grammy Awards show in 1985. The head of NBC took notice of Grant's performance and called her manager to book her for her own Christmas special. Unguarded (1985) surprised some fans for its very mainstream sound (and Grant's leopard-print jacket, in four poses for four different covers). "Find a Way", from Unguarded, became the first Christian song to hit Billboard's Top 40 list, also reaching #7 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Amy Grant scored her first Billboard Number One hit in 1986 with "The Next Time I Fall", a duet with former Chicago singer/bassist Peter Cetera. That year, she also recorded a duet with singer Randy Stonehill for his Love Beyond Reason album, entitled "I Could Never Say Goodbye", and recorded The Animals' Christmas with Art Garfunkel.

Lead Me On (1988) contained many songs that were about Christianity and love relationships, but some interpreted it as not being an obviously "Christian" record. Years later, Lead Me On would be chosen as the greatest Contemporary Christian album of all time by CCM Magazine. The mainstream song "Saved by Love" was a minor hit, receiving airplay on radio stations featuring the newly emerging Adult Contemporary format. The album's title song received some pop radio airplay and crossed over to #96 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "1974 (We Were Young)" and "Saved By Love" also charted as Adult Contemporary songs. In 1989 she appeared in a Target ad campaign, performing songs off the album.

In the mainstream

When Heart in Motion was released in 1991, many fans were surprised that the album was so clearly one of contemporary pop music. Grant's desire to widen her audience was frowned upon by the confines of the popular definitions of ministry at the time. The track "Baby Baby" (written for Grant's newborn daughter, Millie, whose "six-week-old face was my inspiration,") became a pop hit (hitting number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100), and Grant was established as a name in the mainstream music world. "Baby Baby" received Grammy nominations for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Record and Song of the Year (although it failed to win in any of those categories). Four other hits from the album made the Pop top 20: "Every Heartbeat" (#2), "That's What Love Is For" (#7), "Good For Me" (#8), and "I Will Remember You" (#20). On the Adult Contemporary chart, all five songs were top 10 hits, with two of the five ("Baby Baby" and "That's What Love Is For") reaching #1. Many Christian fans remained loyal, putting the album atop Billboard's Contemporary Christian Chart for 32 weeks. Heart in Motion is Grant's best-selling album, having sold over 5 million copies according to the RIAA. Grant followed the album with her second Christmas album, Home For Christmas in 1992, which included the song "Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)", written by Chris Eaton and Grant, and would later be covered by many artists, including Donna Summer, Jessica Simpson (who acknowledged Grant as one of her favorite artists), Vince Gill, Sara Groves, Point of Grace, and Broadway star Barbara Cook.

House of Love in 1994 continued in the same vein, boasting catchy pop songs mingled with spiritual lyrics. The album was a multi-platinum success and produced the pop hit "Lucky One" (#18 pop and #2 AC; #1 on Radio & Records) as well as the title track (a duet with country music star and future husband Vince Gill) (#37 pop) and a cover of Joni Mitchell's frequently covered "Big Yellow Taxi" (#67 pop) (in which she changed the line "And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see em" to "And then they charged the people 25 bucks just to see em").

Grant participated in Lifetime's 1st Annual "Girls & Guitars" benefit, singing numerous songs, including a duet with Melissa Etheridge on "You Can Sleep While I Drive".

After she covered the 10cc song "The Things We Do For Love" for the Mr. Wrong soundtrack, Behind the Eyes was released in September 1997. The album struck a much darker note, leaning more towards downtempo, acoustic soft-rock songs, with more mature (yet still optimistic) lyrics. She called it her "razor blades and Prozac" album. Although "Takes A Little Time" was a moderate hit single, the album failed to sell like the previous two albums, which had both gone multi-platinum. Behind The Eyes was eventually certified Gold by the RIAA. The video for "Takes A Little Time" was a new direction for Grant; with a blue light filter, acoustic guitar, the streets and characters of New York City, and a plot, Grant was re-cast as an adult light rocker. She followed up "Behind The Eyes" with A Christmas To Remember, her third Christmas album, in 1999. The album was certified Gold in 2000.

Return to gospel

Grant returned to her gospel music roots with the 2002 release of Legacy... Hymns and Faith. The album featured a Vince Gill-influenced mix of bluegrass and gospel and marked Grant's 25th anniversary in the music industry. Grant followed this up with the pop release Simple Things in 2003. The album did not have the success of her previous pop or gospel efforts. However, soon after Simple Things, Grant and Interscope/A&M; parted ways. The same year, Grant was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame by the Gospel Music Association, an industry trade organization of which she is a longstanding member, in her first year of eligibility. Grant released a sequel to her hymns collection in 2005 titled Rock of Ages... Hymns & Faith.

Looking ahead

Although neither of her latest hymn releases have captured the popularity of her previous gospel career, Grant still remains a popular concert draw and enjoys popularity amongst both fan bases. For years in the 1990s and early 2000s, she toured in November and December for her Christmas and holiday tours. Often her husband and many special guests performed along with her on stage.

Grant joined the reality television phenomenon by hosting Three Wishes, a show in which she and a team of helpers make wishes come true for small-town residents. The show debuted on NBC in the fall of 2005 and was canceled at the end of its first season because of high production costs. After Three Wishes was canceled, Grant won her 6th Grammy Award for Rock of Ages... Hymns & Faith. In a February 2006 webchat, Amy stated she believes her "best music is still ahead".

In April 2006, a live CD/DVD entitled Time Again...Amy Grant Live was recorded in Fort Worth, Texas, at Bass Performance Hall. (Grant's first paid public performance was at the Will Rogers Auditorium in Fort Worth, TX.) The concert was released on September 26, 2006. In addition to receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, media appearances included write-ups in CCM Magazine, and a performance on The View.

In a February 2007 web chat on her web site, Amy discussed a book she was working on entitled : "It's not an autobiography, but more a collection of memories, song lyrics, poetry and a few pictures." The book was released on October 16, 2007. In November, it debuted at #35 on the New York Times Best Seller list. In the same web chat, Amy noted that she is "anxious to get back in the studio after the book is finished, and reinvent myself as an almost-50 performing woman."

2007 was Grant's 30th year in music. She left Word/Warner, and contracted with EMI CMG who re-released her regular studio albums as remastered versions on August 14, 2007. Marking the start of Grant's new contract is a career-spanning greatest hits album, with all the songs digitally remastered. The album was released as both a single-disc CD edition, and a 2-Disc CD/DVD Special Edition, the DVD featuring music videos and interviews.

Grant appeared with Gill on The Oprah Winfrey Show for a holiday special in December 2007. Grant has plans to appear on CMT, a Food Network special, the Gospel Music Channel, and The Hour of Power.

In February 2008, Grant joined the writing team from Compassionart as a guest vocalist at the Abbey Road studios, London, to record a song called "Highly Favoured", which was included on the album CompassionArt.

On June 24, 2008, Grant re-released her 1988 album, Lead Me On, in honor of its 20th anniversary. The two-disc release includes the original album and a second disc with new acoustic recordings, live performances from 1989, and interviews with Amy. Grant recreated the Lead Me On tour in the fall of 2008.

On June 27, 2008, Grant surprised everyone at the Creation Northeast Festival by being the special guest. She performed "Lead Me On" and a few other songs backed with the Hawk Nelson band. At the end of the concert, Grant returned to the stage and sang "Thy Word". She appeared on the 2008 album singing "Could I Have This Dance".

In May 2009 for Mother's Day, Amy released an EP on iTunes containing two new songs, "She Colors My Day," and "Unafraid," as well as the older songs "Baby Baby" and "Oh How The Years Go By."

During Disney's D23 Expo in September 2009, Imagineer Steven Davison announced Amy Grant as the "signature voice" for the World of Color hydrotechnic show at Disney's California Adventure theme park.

In 2010, Grant released Somewhere Down the Road, featuring the hit single "Better Than a Hallelujah", which peaked at No. 8 on Billboard's Top Christian Songs chart. When asked about the new album during an interview with CBN.com, Grant says, "...my hope is just for those songs to provide companionship, remind myself and whoever else is listening what’s important. I feel like songs have the ability to connect us to ourselves and to each other, and to our faith, to the love of Jesus, in a way that conversation doesn’t do. Songs kind of slip in and move you before you realize it."

Personal life

Grant married fellow Christian musician Gary Chapman on June 19, 1982. Their marriage produced three children: Matthew Garrison Chapman (born 1987), Gloria Mills Chapman (called "Millie", born 1989), and Sarah Cannon Chapman (born 1992), who was named after country legend Minnie Pearl, a family friend. (Pearl's real name was Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon.) Citing "irreconcilable differences", Grant filed for divorce from Chapman in March 1999, and the divorce was final in June 1999. Grant and Gill have a daughter together, Corinna Grant Gill, born March 12, 2001.

In the December 1999 Baptist Standard, Grant explained why she left Chapman and married Gill:

"I didn't get a divorce because I had a great marriage and then along came Vince Gill. Gary and I had a rocky road from day one. I think what was so hard—and this is (what) one of our counselors said—sometimes an innocent party can come into a situation, and they're like a big spotlight. What they do is reveal, by comparison, the painful dynamics that are already in existence."

Public views and perception

Among praise for her contributions to the Contemporary Christian genre, Amy Grant has also generated controversy within the Christian community, from "complaints that she was too worldly and too sexy" to a "barrage of condemnation" following her divorce and remarriage.

In an interview early in her career, Grant stated "I have a healthy sense of right and wrong, but sometimes, for example, using foul, exclamation-point words among friends can be good for a laugh." Within the same article, Grant expressed an opinion that those most opposed to premarital sex and rock music often base their views in part on having experienced emotional distress. "'It seems to me,' she says as an after-thought, 'that people who are most adamantly against premarital sex have experienced some kind of pain in their own lives. Like the people who say absolutely no to rock 'n' roll. Chances are it has something to do with a past sadness.'"

Discography

:For a complete discography list, see Amy Grant discography.

Albums

1977 Amy Grant

1979 My Father's Eyes

1980 Never Alone

1981 Amy Grant in Concert

1981 In Concert Volume Two

1982 Age to Age

1983 A Christmas Album

1984 Straight Ahead

1985 Unguarded

1988 Lead Me On

1991 Heart in Motion

1992 Home for Christmas

1994 House of Love

1994 Music of the Spirit-Pax Christi Ceremony

1997 Behind the Eyes

1999 A Christmas to Remember

2002 Legacy...Hymns and Faith

2003 Simple Things

2005 Rock of Ages...Hymns and Faith

2006 Time Again...Amy Grant Live (CD/DVD)

2010 Somewhere Down The Road

Compilations

1986 The Collection

1993 Songs from the Loft

2004 Greatest Hits 1986–2004 (limited edition)

2005 ''My Best Christmas

2007 Greatest Hits

2008 The Christmas Collection

Bibliography

Grant is the author of several books, including a memoir, , and a book based on the popular Christmas song Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song).

Popular culture

The cover for the comic book Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #15 (March 1990) featured an unauthorized image of Grant, leading to a lawsuit against publisher Marvel Comics.

In 2001, Grant sang God Bless America in front of a sellout crowd at the Owen County Fair Grounds in Spencer, Indiana. She dedicated her performance to the victims of 9/11, and officially started the Demolition Derby.

Following the 9/11 attacks, Grant's "I Will Remember You" saw a resurgence in popularity as many radio DJs mixed a special tribute version of the song.

In 2001, Grant won $125,000 for charity on the "Rock Star Edition" of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire".

Propagandhi's song "Back To The Motor League" refers to Grant in its lyrics, saying, "Take back your Amy Grant mosh crews, your fair weather politics."

Awards and achievements

Grammy Awards

Wins

1982 – Best Gospel Performance, Contemporary or Inspirational Age to Age

1983 – Best Gospel Performance, Female "Ageless Medley"

1984 – Best Gospel Performance, Female "Angels"

1985 – Best Gospel Performance, Female Unguarded

1988 – Best Gospel Performance, Female Lead Me On

2006 – Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album Rock of Ages…Hymns & Faith

Nominations

1992 – Album of the Year Heart in Motion (lost to Unforgettable... with Love by Natalie Cole) 1992 – Song of the Year "Baby Baby"

GMA Dove Awards

*Inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2003

1983 Artist of the Year

1983 Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year Age to Age

1983 Recorded Music Packaging Age to Age

1984 Recorded Music Packaging A Christmas Album

1985 Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year Straight Ahead

1986 Artist of the Year

1986 Recorded Music Packaging Unguarded

1988 Short Form Music Video of the Year "Stay For a While"

1989 Artist of the Year

1989 Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year Lead Me On

1989 Short Form Music Video of the Year "Lead Me On"

1990 Country Song of the Year "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus"

1992 Song of the Year "Place in This World"

1992 Artist of the Year

1994 Praise and Worship Album of the Year Songs from the Loft

1996 Special Event Album of the Year My Utmost for His Highest

1998 Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year Behind the Eyes

2000 Special Event Album of the Year Streams

2003 Inspirational Album of the Year Legacy...Hymns & Faith

2003 Song of the Year "The River's Gonna Keep On Rolling"

2006 Inspirational Album of the Year Rock of Ages...Hymns & Faith

2007 Long Form Music Video of the Year Time Again...Amy Grant Live

Special awards and recognitions

1992 Young Tennessean of the Year — Junior Chamber of Commerce

1994 Pax Christi Award — St. John University

1994 Harmony Award – Nashville Symphony

1996 Sarah Cannon Humanitarian Award – TNN Awards

1996 Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award – Columbia Hospital

1996 Voice of America Award – ASCAP

1996 Golden Plate Award – Academy of Achievement

1999 “An Evening with the Arts” Honor — The Nashville Chamber of Commerce, Nashville Symphony and Tennessee Performing Arts Center

1999 The Amy Grant Room for Music and Entertainment — The Target House at St. Jude's Children's Hospital

2001 Nashvillian of the Year — Easter Seals

2003 Summit Award — Seminar in the Rockies

2005 Inducted in the Hollywood walk of fame

2006 Amy Grant Performance Platform — Nashville Schermerhorn Symphony Center

2007 Charter member of Tiffany Circle — Red Cross

2007 Inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame

References

External links

Official Amy Grant website

Amy Grant Media Gallery

Amy Grant Partners with Compassion International

German/English Amy Grant archive website

Billboard's '6 Questions with Amy Grant'

Amy Grant, "Somewhere Down the Road" by Billboard

Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:Christian songwriters Category:American members of the Churches of Christ Category:American female singers Category:American mezzo-sopranos Category:American pop singers Category:People from Augusta, Georgia Category:Musicians from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:American Christians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee Category:Contemporary Christian music Category:Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Furman University alumni Category:American child singers Category:American performers of Christian music

Name	Albert Hammond
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Albert Hammond
Born	May 18, 1944London, England
Origin	Gibraltar
Instrument	Guitar, piano
Genre	Popular music
Occupation	Singer, musician, songwriter, producer
Years active	1960–present
Associated acts	The Family Dogg, Duffy
Url	alberthammond.net

Albert Hammond OBE (born 18 May 1944) is a British-Gibraltarian singer, songwriter and music producer.

Birth and early success

Hammond was born in London, England, where his family had been evacuated from Gibraltar during World War II. His family returned to Gibraltar shortly after his birth, where he grew up.

He then moved to the United States, where he continued his professional career as a musician. He is known for his hits of the 1970s, released on Columbia subsidiary Mums Records, such as: # "It Never Rains in Southern California" # "The Free Electric Band" (the only single of his to chart in the UK) # "I Don't Wanna Die in an Air Disaster" # "I'm a Train" # "Down by the River"

Written with Carole Bayer Sager, "When I Need You" was first recorded by Hammond on his 1976 album When I Need You. Produced by Richard Perry, Leo Sayer's version made #1 on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in February 1977, after three of his earlier singles had stalled at #2. A hit worldwide, it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a week in May 1977. Leapy Lee has released a new version of When I Need You on his first recording since 1970.

Hammond had tremendous success as a singer-songwriter with his Spanish recordings. His releases on Epic Records allowed him to successfully tour every region of Latin America. It was during this period that he met Manuel Montoya, CBS Mexico executive, who later became his personal manager in 1985, leading to Grammy Award winning production of Lani Hall, "Es Facil Amar", producer and writer of "Cantaré, Cantarás" (the Latin American equivalent of "We Are The World"), and collaborations with Roberto Livi on recordings by Raphael, Eydie Gorme and others.

Hammond also collaborated with Diane Warren on "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" a No. 1 in 1987 for Starship and "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love," a hit for Chicago, which peaked at No. 3 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1988. Hammond also wrote "One Moment in Time," the theme song to the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, as performed by Whitney Houston. With Hal David, Hammond co-wrote "To All The Girls I've Loved Before", a hit in 1984 for Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson.

He wrote several hits for Tina Turner, (including "I Don't Wanna Lose You," "Be Tender With Me Baby," "Way of the World" and "Love Thing") and who also recorded the original version of Hammond/Warren's "Don't Turn Around," a UK No. 1 for Aswad in 1988, and a hit for Ace of Base five years later.

In 2005 he released his first album in many years, Revolution of the Heart (where Todd Sharpville was his music director), and the single "This Side of Midnight."

Present day

In 2008, Hammond met Kasaan Steigen of Los-Angeles based Trigger Management who became his personal manager, leading to Hammond's collaborations with British singer Duffy and others. Duffy's resulting album, Endlessly, co-written and co-produced by Hammond, was released in November 2010.

In 2010, Hammond was also working on Legend, a new recording of duets of his greatest hits, featuring such artists as Elena Paparizou and Bonnie Tyler, to be released on Sony Spain on November 23.

His son, Albert Hammond, Jr. is a successful solo musician and also a member of The Strokes.

Awards and accolades

In 1987, Hammond's composition with Diane Warren "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" (recorded by Starship) was nominated for an Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy. In 1988, Hammond won an Emmy Award for the song "One Moment in Time" (recorded by Whitney Houston) a song he wrote along with John Bettis, as the theme song for the Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea.

In 2000, he received an OBE. On the 19 June 2008, Hammond was inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Hammond was immortalised in song by Half Man Half Biscuit in their 1986 track "Albert Hammond Bootleg".

Other songwriting credits

"When You Tell Me That You Love Me"

"It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be"

"Through the Storm" - a duet with Aretha Franklin and Elton John

"Careless Heart" - written with Roy Orbison and Diane Warren

"Once in a Lifetime" - written with Antonia Armato and Dennis Morgan

"Just Walk Away"

"Moonlight Lady"

"Smokey Factory Blues" - written by Hammond and Hazelwood, and recorded by Johnny Cash on his John R. Cash album. Also recorded by Steppenwolf on the Slow Flux album

Discography

1972 - ''It Never Rains in Southern California

1973 - ''The Free Electric Band

1974 - Albert Hammond

1975 - ''99 Miles from L.A.

1976 - ''Canta Sus Grandes Éxitos en Español e Inglés

1976 - ''My Spanish Album

1977 - ''Mi Album de Recuerdos

1977 - ''When I Need You

1978 - ''Albert Louis Hammond

1978 - ''Greatest Hits

1979 - ''Al Otro Lado del Sol

1981 - ''Comprenderte

1981 - ''Your World and My World

1982 - ''Somewhere in America

1986 - Hammond and West (Dutch edition)

1987 - Hammond and West (German edition)

1988 - The Very Best Of (CBS)

1989 - Best of Me

1991 - Songsmith

1992 - Exitos

1995 - Greatest Hits

1996 - It Never Rains in Southern California (Golden Classics album)

1996 - Coplas & Songs

1997 - El Nuevo Mundo de los Gnomos (soundtrack) (Various artists)

1998 - Todas Sus Grabaciones en Espanol para Discos (Epic) (1975–1978)

1999 - It Never Rains in Southern California

1999 - The Very Best Of (Sony)

2004 - It Never Rains in Southern California / The Free Electric Band

2005 - Revolution of the Heart

See also

List of Gibraltarians

Music of Gibraltar

Inductees of the Songwriters Hall of Fame

References

External links

Official website

A Profile on Albert Hammond

Albert Hammond - 5 Minute Interview with John Matthew Hall of The Independent

Category:English singer-songwriters Category:People from London Category:1944 births Category:Living people Category:English male singers Category:Gibraltarian musicians Category:English record producers Category:English songwriters Category:Gibraltarian immigrants to the United States Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire