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| Name | Cameron Crowe |
|---|---|
| Caption | Crowe at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival promoting Elizabethtown |
| Birth name | Cameron Bruce Crowe |
| Birth date | July 13, 1957 |
| Birth place | Palm Springs, California |
| Spouse | Nancy Wilson (1986–2010) |
| Website | cameroncrowe.com |
Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American screenwriter and film director. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes.
Crowe has made his mark with character-driven, personal films that have been generally hailed as refreshingly original and devoid of cynicism. Michael Walker in the New York Times called Crowe "something of a cinematic spokesman for the post-baby boom generation" because his first few films focused on that specific age group, first as high schoolers and then as young adults making their way in the world.
Crowe's debut screenwriting effort, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, grew out of a book he wrote while posing for one year undercover as a student at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California, USA. Later, he wrote and directed one more high school saga, Say Anything, and then Singles, a story of Seattle twentysomethings that was woven together by a soundtrack centering on that city's burgeoning grunge music scene. Crowe landed his biggest hit, though, with Jerry Maguire. After this, he was given a green light to go ahead with a pet project, the autobiographical effort Almost Famous. Centering on a teenage music journalist on tour with an up-and-coming band, it gave insight to his life as a 15-year-old writer for Rolling Stone. Also, in late 1999, Crowe released his second book, Conversations with Billy Wilder, a question and answer session with the legendary director.
To compensate for his lack of social contacts, Crowe began writing for the school newspaper and by age 13 was contributing music reviews for an underground publication, The San Diego Door. He then began corresponding with Lester Bangs, who had left the Door to become editor at the national rock magazine Creem, and soon he was also submitting articles to Creem as well as Circus. Crowe graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1972 at age 15, and on a trip to Los Angeles, met Ben Fong-Torres, the editor of Rolling Stone, who hired him to write for the magazine. He also joined the Rolling Stone staff as a Contributing Editor and then became the Associate Editor. During this time Crowe interviewed Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, and the members of Led Zeppelin. Crowe was, and remains, Rolling Stone's youngest-ever contributor.
Because Crowe was a fan of the 1970s hard rock bands that the older writers did not like, he landed a lot of major interviews. He wrote predominantly about Yes and the band members, and also about Led Zeppelin, Eagles, King Crimson, Linda Ronstadt, Rory Gallagher, Todd Rundgren, and more. "He charmed a lot of people," Fong-Torres told Rachel Abramowitz in Premiere. "He was the aw-shucks guy. 'I'm glad to be backstage. I love this band.'" In an interview with Joel Selvin of the San Francisco Chronicle Fong-Torres remarked, "He was the guy we sent out after some difficult customers. He covered the bands that hated Rolling Stone."
At 22 and still boyish, Crowe came up with the idea to pose undercover as a high school student and write about his experiences. Simon & Schuster gave him a contract, and he moved back in with his parents and enrolled as Dave Cameron at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California. Reliving the senior year he never had, he made friends and began to fit in. Though he initially planned to include himself in the book, he realized that it would jeopardize his ability to truly capture the essence of the high school experience.
His book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story came out in 1981. Crowe focused on six main characters: a tough guy, a nerd, a surfer dude, a sexual sophisticate, and a middle-class brother and sister. He chronicled their activities in typical teenage settings—at school, at the beach, and at the mall, where many of them held afterschool jobs—and focused on details of their lives that probed into the heart of adolescence. This included scenes about homecoming and graduation as well as social cliques and sexual encounters.
Before the book was even released, Fast Times at Ridgemont High was optioned for a film. Released in 1982, the movie version lacked a specific plot and featured no major name stars, and the studio did not devote any marketing effort toward it. Nevertheless, it became a sleeper hit due to word of mouth.
Though reviews of Fast Times at Ridgemont High were mixed, the film ended up launching the careers of some of the previously unknown actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Eric Stoltz, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Anthony Edwards, and future Oscar-winners Nicolas Cage (appearing under his given name, Nicolas Coppola), Forest Whitaker, and Sean Penn.
By this point, Crowe was ready to leave teen angst behind and focus on his peers. His next project, 1992's Singles, centered on the romantic tangles among a group of six friends in their twenties in Seattle. The film starred Bridget Fonda as a coffee-bar waitress fawning over an aspiring musician (Matt Dillon) and Kyra Sedgwick and Campbell Scott as a couple wavering on whether to commit to each other. Music forms an integral backbone for the script, and the soundtrack became a best seller three months before the release of the film. Much of this was due to repeated delays while studio executives debated how to market it.
Singles successfully rode on the heels of Seattle's grunge music boom. During production, bands like Nirvana were not yet national stars, but by the time the soundtrack was released, their song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had to be cut because it was too costly to buy the rights. Also, before they got big, Crowe signed members of Pearl Jam to portray Dillon's fictional band Citizen Dick. Crowe also appeared in this project, appropriately, as a rock journalist at a club. Tim Appelo wrote in Entertainment Weekly, "With ... an ambling, naturalistic style, Crowe captures the eccentric appeal of a town where espresso carts sprout on every corner and kids in ratty flannel shirts can cut records that make them millionaires."
Crowe's mother figured prominently in the film as well (often admonishing, "Don't take drugs!"), and she even showed up at the film sets to keep an eye on him while he worked. Though he asked her not to bother Frances McDormand, who played her character, the two ended up getting along well. Also in the film he showed his sister (portrayed by Zooey Deschanel) rebelling and leaving home, and in real life, his mother and sister Cindy did not talk for a decade and were still estranged to a degree when he finished the film. The family reunited when the project was complete.
In addition, Crowe took a copy of the film to London for a special screening with Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, who provided some of the inspiration for the feuding bandmates. Additional inspiration for the inner band turmoil was provided by Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band from Cameron's travels with them. After the screening, Led Zeppelin granted Crowe the right to use one of their songs on the soundtrack—the first time they had ever consented to this since allowing Crowe to use "Kashmir" in Fast Times at Ridgemont High—and also gave him rights to four of their other songs in the movie itself, although they did not grant him the rights to "Stairway to Heaven" for an intended scene (on the special "Bootleg" edition DVD, the scene is included as an extra sans the song where the viewer is instructed by a watermark to begin playing it). Crowe and his wife, musician Nancy Wilson of Heart, co-wrote three of the five Stillwater songs in the film, and Frampton wrote the other two. Reviews were almost universally positive, and it was nominated for and won a host of film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Crowe. Crowe and co-producer Danny Bramson also won the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media Grammy Award for the soundtrack. Despite these accolades, box office returns for the film were disappointing.
Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:American bloggers Category:American film directors Category:American music critics Category:American music journalists Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners Category:English-language film directors Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from San Diego, California Category:American child writers
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| Name | Kirk Cameron |
|---|---|
| Caption | Cameron at Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan, May 5, 2007. |
| Birth name | Kirk Thomas Cameron |
| Birth date | October 12, 1970 |
| Birth place | Panorama City, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor/Evangelist |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Spouse | Chelsea Noble (1991–present) |
| Website | kirkcameron.com |
Recently, he portrayed Cameron "Buck" Williams in the Left Behind film series and Caleb Holt in the 2008 drama film, Fireproof. Cameron is also an active Christian evangelist, currently partnering with Ray Comfort in the evangelical ministry The Way of the Master, and has co-founded The Firefly Foundation with his wife, actress Chelsea Noble.
Cameron and his wife, fellow "Growing Pains" star Chelsea Noble, were married on July 21, 1991. They now have six children, four of whom were adopted: Jack (born 1996), Isabella (born 1997), Anna (born 1998), and Luke (born 2000); and two biological: Olivia Rose (born July 18, 2001) and James Thomas (born April 13, 2003).
Cameron also guest starred in "Just One of the Guys" a 1988 episode of Full House in which he played the cousin of D.J. Tanner, who was played by Cameron's sister, Candace.
Cameron went on to star in many films, including 1987's Like Father Like Son (a body-switch comedy with Dudley Moore), which was a box office success. His next theatrical film, 1989's Listen to Me, performed poorly at the box office. When Growing Pains ended in 1992, Cameron went on to star in The WB sitcom Kirk which premiered in 1995 and ended two years later. In Kirk, Cameron played Kirk Hartman, a 24-year-old who has to raise his siblings. Cameron and Noble also worked together on Kirk. in 2000, and another one, , in 2004. Cameron reunited with the cast of Growing Pains for a CNN Larry King Live interview which aired on February 7, 2006, in conjunction with the Warner Bros. release of the complete first season of Growing Pains on DVD. Aside from this, Cameron has often worked in Christian-themed productions, among them the post-Rapture films , , and , in which he plays Cameron "Buck" Williams. Cameron's wife Noble also starred in the film series, playing Hattie Durham. Cameron has worked with Cloud Ten Pictures, a company which produces Christian-themed films, and has starred in several of their films, including The Miracle of the Cards.
He also appeared in the 2008 drama film, Fireproof, which was produced by Sherwood Pictures. The film was created on a budget of $500,000, with Cameron as the lead actor, portraying Captain Caleb Holt. Though it was a low-budget film, the film grossed $33,415,129 and was a box office success. It was the highest grossing independent film of 2008.
Cameron currently partners with fellow evangelist Ray Comfort, training Christians in evangelism. Together, they founded the ministry of The Way of the Master, which is best known for the television show of the same name that Cameron co-hosts, and which won the National Religious Broadcasters’ Best Program Award for two consecutive years. It also formerly featured a radio show known as The Way of the Master Radio with talk show host Todd Friel. The radio show was later canceled, and replaced with Wretched Radio, hosted by Friel. Cameron, along with his wife, founded The Firefly Foundation, which runs Camp Firefly, a summer camp that gives terminally ill children and their families a free week's vacation.
Cameron and Comfort participated in a televised debate with atheists Brian Sapient and Kelly O'Conner of the Rational Response Squad, at Calvary Baptist Church, in Manhattan, on May 5, 2007. It was moderated by ABC's Martin Bashir and parts of it were aired on Nightline. At issue was the existence of God, which Comfort stated he could prove scientifically, without relying on faith or the Bible. The audience was composed of both theists and atheists. Points of discussion included atheism and evolutionary theory. While Sapient contended during his arguments that Comfort violated the rules by talking about the Ten Commandments, Cameron later stated on the Way of the Master radio show that the rules of the debate did not say that the Bible could never be referenced, but rather that Comfort simply had to come up with one argument that didn't reference the Bible or faith.
In November 2009 Cameron and others distributed free copies of an altered version of Darwin's On the Origin of Species on college campus in the United States. The book consisted of Darwin's text with chapters of the book removed, and with an added introduction by Ray Comfort reiterating common creationist assertions about Darwin and evolution. The book has been criticized by scientists and Darwin biographers for omitting key chapters of the book, and for its introduction containing misinformation about Darwin, employing logical fallacies and "a hopeless mess of long-ago-refuted creationist arguments, teeming with misinformation about the science of evolution". Comfort later said that the four chapters were chosen at random to be omitted in order to make the book small enough to be affordable as a giveaway, with the absent chapters available for download, but that the missing chapters were included in the second edition, which had a smaller text size that made printing the entire book as a giveaway affordable. The second edition still lacks Darwin's preface and glossary of terms. The National Center for Science Education arranged a campaign at colleges across the U.S. to distribute an analysis of the Comfort introduction and a banana bookmark, in reference to Comfort's argument that the structure of the banana is evidence for Intelligent Design, or God.
;Interviews
Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:American child actors Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American Christians Category:Actors from California Category:American evangelicals Category:Christian religious leaders Category:Christian ministers Category:Christian writers Category:Converts to Christianity from atheism or agnosticism Category:Christian creationists Category:People from the San Fernando Valley Category:Intelligent design advocates
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| Landscape | Yes |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Thomas Earl Petty |
| Birth date | October 20, 1950 |
| Origin | Gainesville, Florida, U.S. |
| Instrument | Guitar, vocals, harmonica, piano, percussion, bass, organ, harpsichord |
| Genre | Rock, heartland rock, blues-rock, country |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Label | Shelter, Backstreet, MCA, Warner Bros., American |
| Associated acts | Mudcrutch, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Traveling Wilburys, Stevie Nicks, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne |
| Url | |
| Notable instruments | Rickenbacker 660/12Vox Mark IIIGibson DoveGibson Firebird |
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty (born October 20, 1950) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr. and Muddy Wilbury.
He has recorded a number of hit singles with the Heartbreakers and as a solo artist, many of which remain heavily played on adult contemporary and classic rock radio. His music, notably his hits, have become popular among younger generations as he continues to host sold-out shows. Throughout his career, Petty and his collaborators have sold 60 million albums.
Petty and his band the Heartbreakers celebrated their 30th anniversary with a tour in 2006, though Petty has occasionally released solo work, such as 2006's Highway Companion, on which he performed most of the backing instrumentation. Members of the Heartbreakers have played on each of his solo albums and the band has always backed him when touring in support of those albums. He has also toured with Mudcrutch in order to promote their debut album.
Petty has been managed by Tony Dimitriades since 1976. On February 3, 2008, Petty and the Heartbreakers performed at the Super Bowl XLII Halftime show.
Petty also overcame a difficult relationship with his father, who found it hard to accept that his son was "a mild-mannered kid who was interested in the arts" and subjected him to verbal and physical abuse on a regular basis. Petty was extremely close to his mother, and remains close to his brother Bruce.
After Mudcrutch split up, Petty reluctantly agreed to pursue a solo career. Tench decided to form his own group, whose sound Petty appreciated. Eventually, Petty and Campbell collaborated with Tench and fellow members Ron Blair and Stan Lynch, resulting in the first line-up of the Heartbreakers. Their first album, simply titled Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, gained minute popularity amongst American audiences, achieving more success in Britain. The single "Breakdown" was re-released in 1977 and peaked at #40 in early 1978 after the band toured in the United Kingdom in support of Nils Lofgren. The debut album was released by Shelter Records, which at that time was distributed by ABC Records.
In September 1979, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed at a Musicians United for Safe Energy concert at Madison Square Garden in New York. Their rendition of "Cry To Me" was featured on the resulting No Nukes album.
1981's Hard Promises became a top-ten hit, going platinum and spawning the hit single "The Waiting". The album also featured Petty's first duet, "Insider" with Stevie Nicks.
Bass player Ron Blair quit the group, and was replaced on the fifth album (1982's Long After Dark) by Howie Epstein; the resulting line-up would last until 1994. In 1985, the band participated in Live Aid, playing four songs at Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium. Southern Accents was also released in 1985. This album included the hit single "Don't Come Around Here No More", which was produced by Dave Stewart. The song's video featured Petty dressed as the Mad Hatter, mocking and chasing Alice from the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, then cutting and eating her as if she were a cake. The ensuing tour led to the live album and to an invitation from Bob Dylan; Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers joined him on his True Confessions tour and also played some dates with the Grateful Dead in 1986 and 1987. Also in 1987, the group released Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) which includes "Jammin' Me" which Petty wrote with Dylan.
In 1989, Petty released Full Moon Fever, which featured hits "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'" and "Runnin' Down a Dream". It was nominally his first solo album, although several Heartbreakers and other well-known musicians participated: Mike Campbell co-produced the album with Petty and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, and backing musicians included Campbell, Lynne, and fellow Wilburys Roy Orbison and George Harrison (Ringo Starr appears on drums in the video for "I Won't Back Down", but they were actually performed by Phil Jones). Since all the original Traveling Wilburys except Bob Dylan participated on the album, it is sometimes considered the unofficial second Wilbury record.
Petty & the Heartbreakers reformed in 1991 and released Into the Great Wide Open, which was co-produced by Lynne and included the hit singles "Learning To Fly" and "Into The Great Wide Open", the latter featuring Johnny Depp, Gabrielle Anwar, Faye Dunaway, and Matt LeBlanc in the video.
Before leaving MCA Records, Tom and the Heartbreakers got together to record, live in the studio, two new songs for a "Greatest Hits" package. "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air". This was Stan Lynch's last recorded performance with The Heartbreakers. Tom commented "He left right after the session without really saying goodbye." The package went on to sell over ten million copies, therefore receiving diamond certification by the RIAA.
In 1996, Petty, with the Heartbreakers, released a soundtrack to the movie She's the One, starring Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston (see Songs and Music from "She's the One"). The album's singles were "Walls (Circus)" (featuring Lindsey Buckingham), "Climb that Hill" and a song written by Lucinda Williams, "Change the Locks." The album also included a cover of "Asshole," a song by Beck. The same year, the band accompanied Johnny Cash on Unchained, for which Cash would win a Grammy for Best Country Album (Cash would later cover Petty's "I Won't Back Down" on ).
In 1999, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers released their last album with Rubin at the helm, Echo. Two songs were released as singles in the U.S., "Room at the Top" and "Free Girl Now". The album reached number 10 in the U.S. album charts.
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers played "I Won't Back Down" at the benefit concert for victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The following year, they played "Taxman", "I Need You", and "Handle With Care" (joined for the last by Jeff Lynne, Dhani Harrison, and Jim Keltner) at the Concert for George in honor of Petty's friend and former bandmate George Harrison.
2002's The Last DJ included several attacks on the music industry, criticizing it for greed, watering down music, and releasing pop music made by scantily-clad young women and reached number 9 on the U.S. charts. Tom has commented though that he didn't like being called "bitter" by the media and that The Last DJ is full of hope, if you look for it.
In 2005, Petty began hosting his own show "Buried Treasure" on XM Radio, on which he shares selections from his personal record collection.
In February 2006, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers agreed to be the headline act at the fifth annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Following that announcement came the itinerary for Tom & the Heartbreakers' "30th Anniversary Tour". Special guests included Stevie Nicks, Pearl Jam, The Allman Brothers, Trey Anastasio, The Derek Trucks Band, and The Black Crowes (who also opened for Petty on their 2005 Summer Tour). Stevie Nicks would join Tom and the Heartbreakers on stage for renditions of "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and "Insider," and "I Need to Know" where Nicks took the lead vocal spot. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam also joined Tom and the Heartbreakers on stage at some shows where Vedder sang the lead on "The Waiting" (which is available on the Runnin' Down a Dream package: bonus features) and a verse in the concert-closer "American Girl".
In July 2006, Petty released a new solo album titled Highway Companion, which included the hit "Saving Grace". It debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200, becoming Petty's highest chart position since the introduction of the Nielsen SoundScan system for tracking album sales in 1991. Highway Companion was briefly promoted on the "30th Anniversary Tour" with the Heartbreakers in 2006 with performances of "Saving Grace", "Square One", "Down South," and "Flirting with Time".
In 2006, the American Broadcasting Company hired Petty to do the music for its National Basketball Association playoffs coverage.
During the summer of 2007, Petty reunited with his old bandmates Tom Leadon and Randall Marsh along with Heartbreakers Benmont Tench & Mike Campbell to reform his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch. The band originally formed in 1967 in Gainesville, Florida before relocating to California where they released one single in 1974 before breaking up. The quintet recorded this self titled new album of fourteen songs that was released on April 29, 2008 (on iTunes, an additional song "Special Place" was available if the album was pre-ordered). The band supported the album with a brief tour of California in the spring of 2008.
In 2007, artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz and Paul McCartney paid tribute to Fats Domino on the double-CD covers set Goin’ Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino. The album's sales helped buy instruments for students in New Orleans public schools and they contributed to the building of a community center in the city’s Hurricane Katrina-damaged Ninth Ward. Tom and the Heartbreakers’ contributed a critically acclaimed cover of “I'm Walkin'" to the package.
In January 2008, it was announced that the band would be embarking on a North American Tour which was set to start on May 30 following the appearance at Super Bowl XLII. Steve Winwood served as the opening act, who joined Petty and the Heartbreakers on stage at select shows, starting on June 6, 2008 in Philadelphia, PA. Winwood's Spencer Davis Group hit "Gimme Some Loving" was performed and occasionally his Blind Faith hit "Can't Find My Way Home" was performed before it.
On February 3, 2008, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers performed during the halftime-show of Super Bowl XLII at the University of Phoenix Stadium. During the halftime-show they played "American Girl", "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'", and "Runnin' Down a Dream", in that order. 'I Won't Back Down' was used in the closing credits of the coverage on BBC2.
The Live Anthology is the most-recently announced project of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Its announcement comes nearly a year after Petty's last record, Extended Play Live, by Mudcrutch.
In November 2009, Petty told Rolling Stone that he is working on a new album with the Heartbreakers, saying "It's blues-based. Some of the tunes are longer, more jam-y kind of music. A couple of tracks really sound like the Allman Brothers — not the songs but the atmosphere of the band." In February 2010, Petty announced a new Heartbreakers Album, Mojo to be released on June 15, 2010. This will be followed by a North American Summer Tour beginning on June 1, 2010. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers also appeared as musical guests on the season finale of Saturday Night Live on May 15, 2010.
Petty appeared in the 1997 movie The Postman, directed by and starring Kevin Costner, as The Bridge City Mayor (from the dialogue it is implied that he is playing a future version of himself).
In 2002, he appeared on The Simpsons in the episode "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation". In it, he spoofed himself as a "tutor" to Homer Simpson on the art of lyric writing, composing a brief song about a drunk girl driving down the road while concerned with the state of public schools. Later in the episode, he loses a toe during a riot.
Petty had a recurring role as the voice of Elroy "Lucky" Kleinschmidt in the animated show King of the Hill.
In 2008, Petty made a guest appearance as himself in the Comedy Central show Lil Bush's season 2 finale. He is asked to write a song for Bush and his cronies. At the end, he is shown riding off into the sunset in a flying car alongside Iggy Pop, who is a regular voice actor on the series. Petty thus joined various musical guest stars on the show, including Iggy, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, and Anthony Kiedis and Flea of The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
In April 1996, Petty received the UCLA's George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement. The next month, Petty won the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' Golden Note Award.
In 1999 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contribution to the recording industry.
In 2002, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On December 6, 2005, Petty received the Billboard Century Award for his lifetime achievements. The same year, Conversations with Tom Petty, an oral history/biography composed of interviews conducted in 2004 and 2005 with Petty by music journalist Paul Zollo, was published (ISBN 1-84449-815-8).
In 2004, Tom Petty won the prestigious "Greatest Resemblance to Craig Harper" Award. He accepted the accolade with great honour and modesty. He included a Harper appreciation line in his acceptance speech.
On September 21, 2006, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers received the keys to the city of Gainesville, Florida, where he and his bandmates either lived or grew up. From July 2006 until 2007 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio featured an exhibit of Tom Petty items. Much of the content was donated by Petty himself during a visit to his home by some of the Hall's curatorial staff.
Peter Bogdanovich's documentary film on Petty's career entitled Runnin' Down A Dream premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 14, 2007.
In early 1981, the upcoming Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album, which would become Hard Promises, was slated to be the next MCA release with the new list price of $9.98, following Steely Dan's Gaucho and the Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra Xanadu soundtrack. This so-called "superstar pricing" was $1.00 more than the usual list price of $8.98. Petty voiced his objections to the price hike in the press and the issue became a popular cause among music fans. Non-delivery of the album and naming it Eight Ninety-Eight were considered, but eventually MCA decided against the price increase.
In 1987, Petty sued tire company B.F. Goodrich for $1 million for using a song very similar to his song "Mary's New Car" in a TV commercial. The ad agency that produced the commercial had previously sought permission to use Petty's song but was refused. A judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting further use of the ad and the suit was later settled out of court.
Some have claimed that the Red Hot Chili Peppers single "Dani California", released in May 2006, is very similar to Petty's Mary Jane's Last Dance. Petty told Rolling Stone, "I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there. And a lot of rock 'n' roll songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry. The Strokes took 'American Girl'
In 1987, an arsonist set fire to Petty's house in Encino, California. The fire caused $1 million in damage but firefighters were able to salvage the basement recording studio and the original tapes stored there, as well as his Gibson Dove acoustic guitar. His signature gray top hat, however, was destroyed. Petty later rebuilt the house with fireproof materials.
For acoustic guitars, Petty has had a signature C.F. Martin HD-40, and has written virtually all of his songs on a Gibson Dove acoustic saved from his 1987 house fire. He currently uses a Gibson J-200 in a natural finish and a late '70s Guild 12-string acoustic.
Petty's current amplifer setup features 2 Fender Vibro-King 60 watt combos.
Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:American male singers Category:Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers members Category:Traveling Wilburys members Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Rhythm guitarists Category:Musicians from Florida Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musical groups from Gainesville, Florida
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| Birthname | |
|---|---|
| Birthdate | August 29, 1941 |
| Birthplace | London, England, UK |
| Yearsactive | 1982–present |
| Occupation | Writer |
Robin Douglas Leach (born 29 August 1941; London, England) is an English celebrity writer famous for hosting his first show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, in the mid-1980s and into the mid-1990s, which focused on profiling well-known celebrities and their lavish homes, cars and other materialistic endeavors. His voice is often parodied by other actors with his signature phrase, "champagne wishes and caviar dreams." During the final season, he was assisted by Shari Belafonte, and the show was renamed, Lifestyles with Robin Leach and Shari Belafonte.
Other television work includes reporting for People Tonight, on CNN and Entertainment Tonight and helping start Good Morning Australia, as well as the Food Network. Leach was also a guest at World Wrestling Entertainment's WrestleMania IV, where he read the rules for the championship tournament. In 1993, for the Fox network, Leach hosted an exposé documentary of Madonna titled "Madonna Xposed." The documentary was a biography of Madonna focusing on her career and publicity stunts. Before the documentary aired, he gave Madonna a cell phone number; he claimed that at any point during the airing Madonna could call Leach and argue any point. Madonna never called and the documentary continued without incident. He also hosted Lifestyles spinoff Fame, Fortune & Romance, along with future "Today Show" host Matt Lauer.
Leach hosted on VH1 in 2007. He also served as the public address announcer for the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
He currently resides in Las Vegas and writes the daily VegasDeluxe.com web-site.
Leach appeared in the documentary film Maxed Out in 2006, which chronicled the rise of the credit card industry in the U.S. along with increased personal debt among working class people and criticized that industry's practices. Leach remarks, "Nobody would watch Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown". The comment was highlighted by a review in the Baltimore Sun.
His name appeared in Fergie & Ludacris' song "Glamorous", along with Rich and famous' motto.
Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:British infotainers Category:People from London Category:I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! contestants
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Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Billy Wilder |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Samuel Wilder |
| Birth date | June 22, 1906 |
| Birth place | (now Sucha Beskidzka, Poland) |
| Death date | March 27, 2002 |
| Death place | Beverly Hills, California, United States |
| Years active | 1929-1995 |
| Occupation | Film director, producer and screenwriter |
| Spouse | Audrey Young (1949-2002) |
Billy Wilder (22 June 190627 March 2002) was an Austrian-born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. Wilder is one of only five people who have won Academy Awards as producer, director, and writer for the same film (The Apartment).
Wilder became a screenwriter in the late 1920s while living in Berlin. After the rise of Adolf Hitler, Wilder, who was Jewish, left for Paris, where he made his directorial debut. He relocated to Hollywood in 1933, and in 1939 he had a hit as a co-writer of the screenplay to the screwball comedy Ninotchka. Wilder established his directorial reputation after helming Double Indemnity (1944), a film noir he co-wrote with mystery novelist Raymond Chandler. Wilder earned the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation of a Charles R. Jackson story The Lost Weekend, about alcoholism. In 1950, Wilder co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Sunset Boulevard.
From the mid-1950s on, Wilder made mostly comedies. Among the classics Wilder created in this period are the farces The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Some Like It Hot (1959), satires such as The Apartment (1960), and the romantic comedy Sabrina (1954). He directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated performances. Wilder was recognized with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1986. In 1988, Wilder was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Wilder holds a significant place in the history of Hollywood censorship for expanding the range of acceptable subject matter.
After writing crime and sports stories as a stringer for local newspapers, he was eventually offered a regular job at a Berlin tabloid. Developing an interest in film, he began working as a screenwriter. He collaborated with several other tyros (with Fred Zinnemann and Robert Siodmak on the 1929 feature People on Sunday). After the rise of Adolf Hitler, Wilder, a Jew, left for Paris, where he made his directorial debut with the 1934 film Mauvaise Graine. He relocated to Hollywood prior to its release. His mother, grandmother, and stepfather perished in Auschwitz concentration camp.
He had a major impact his third film as director with Double Indemnity (1944), a film noir, nominated for Best Director and Screenplay, which was co-written with mystery novelist Raymond Chandler; the two men though did not get along. Double Indemnity not only set conventions for the noir genre (such as "venetian blind" lighting and voice-over narration), but was also a landmark in the battle against Hollywood censorship. The original James M. Cain novel Double Indemnity featured two love triangles and a murder plotted for insurance money. While the book was highly popular with the reading public, it had been considered unfilmable under the Hays Code, because adultery was central to its plot. Double Indemnity is credited by some as the first true film noir, combining the stylistic elements of Citizen Kane with the narrative elements of The Maltese Falcon (1941). Wilder was the Editors Supervisor in the 1945 US Army Signal Corps documentary/propaganda film Death Mills.
Two years later, Wilder earned the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation of a Charles R. Jackson story The Lost Weekend (1945), the first major American film to make a serious examination of alcoholism, another difficult theme under the Production Code. In 1950, Wilder co-wrote and directed the dark and cynical and critically acclaimed Sunset Boulevard, which paired rising star William Holden with Gloria Swanson. Swanson played Norma Desmond, a reclusive silent film star who dreams of a ; Holden is an aspiring screenwriter who becomes a kept man.
In 1951, Wilder followed Sunset Boulevard with Ace in the Hole (aka The Big Carnival), a tale of media exploitation of a caving accident. It was a critical and commercial failure at the time, but its reputation has grown over the years. In the fifties, Wilder also directed two adaptations of Broadway plays, the prisoner of war drama Stalag 17 (1953), which resulted in a Best Actor Oscar for William Holden, and the Agatha Christie mystery Witness for the Prosecution (1957). In the mid 1950s, Wilder became interested in doing a film with one of the classic slapstick comedy acts of the Hollywood Golden Age. He first considered, and rejected, a project to star Laurel and Hardy. He then held discussions with Groucho Marx concerning a new Marx Brothers comedy, tentatively titled "A Day at the U.N." This project was abandoned when Chico Marx died in 1961.
From the mid-1950s onwards, Wilder made mostly comedies. Wilder was skilled at working with actors, coaxing silent era legends Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim out of retirement for roles in Sunset Boulevard. For Stalag 17, Wilder squeezed an Oscar-winning performance out of a reluctant William Holden (Holden wanted to make his character more likeable; Wilder refused). Wilder sometimes cast against type for major parts such as Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity and The Apartment. Many today know MacMurray as a wholesome family man from the television series My Three Sons, but he played a womanizing schemer in Wilder's films. Humphrey Bogart shed his tough guy image to give one of his warmest performances in Sabrina. James Cagney, not usually known for comedy, was memorable in a high-octane comic role for Wilder's One, Two, Three. Wilder coaxed a very effective, and in some ways memorable performance out of Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot.
In total, he directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity, Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend, William Holden in Sunset Boulevard and Stalag 17, Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, Erich von Stroheim in Sunset Boulevard, Nancy Olson in Sunset Boulevard, Robert Strauss in Stalag 17, Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina, Charles Laughton in Witness for the Prosecution, Elsa Lanchester in Witness for the Prosecution, Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, Jack Kruschen in The Apartment, Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment and Irma la Douce and Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie. Milland, Holden and Matthau won Oscars for their performances in Wilder films. Wilder mentored Jack Lemmon and was the first director to pair him with Walter Matthau, in The Fortune Cookie (1966). Wilder had great respect for Lemmon, calling him the hardest working actor he had ever met. Lemmon starred in seven of Wilder's films.
Wilder's work has had to meet some critical challenges. Although he is admired by many critics and filmgoers, he has not won approval from noted critic David Thomson, author of A Biographical Dictionary of Film, and other works. Thomson summarizes his attitude toward Wilder by saying, "I remain skeptical." Thomson emphasizes that, although Wilder created some brilliant films, he also directed some poor ones, especially at the end of his career. Thomson notes that critic Andrew Sarris did not approve of Wilder for a long time but then changed his attitude much later.
Wilder's films often lacked any discernible political tone or sympathies, which was not unintentional. He was less interested in current political fashions than in human nature and the issues that confronted ordinary people. He was not affected by the Hollywood blacklist, and had little sympathy for those who were. Of the blacklisted 'Hollywood Ten' Wilder famously quipped, "Of the ten, two had talent, and the rest were just unfriendly". Wilder reveled in poking fun at those who took politics too seriously. In Ball of Fire, his burlesque queen 'Sugarpuss' points at her sore throat and complains "Pink? It's as red as the Daily Worker and twice as sore." Later, she gives the overbearing and unsmiling housemaid the name "Franco". Wilder is sometimes confused with director William Wyler; the confusion is understandable, as both were German-speaking Jews with similar backgrounds and names. However, their output as directors was quite different, with Wyler preferring to direct epics and heavy dramas and Wilder noted for his comedies and film noir type dramas.
Wilder’s artistic ambitions led him to create a series of works all his own. By the early 90’s, Wilder had amassed a beguiling assortment of plastic-artistic constructions, many of which were made in collaboration with artist Bruce Houston. In 1993, art dealer Louis Stern, a long time friend, helped organize an exhibition of Wilder’s work at his Beverly Hills gallery. The exhibition was entitled Billy Wilder’s Marché aux Puces and the Variations on the Theme of Queen Nefertete segment was an unqualified crowd pleaser. This series featured busts of the ravishing Egyptian queen wrapped a la Christo or splattered a la Jackson Pollock or sporting a Campbell’s soup can in homage to Warhol.
Wilder died in 2002 of pneumonia at the age of 95 after battling health problems, including cancer, in Los Angeles, California and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles, California near Jack Lemmon. Marilyn Monroe's crypt is located in the same cemetery. Wilder died the same day as two other comedy legends: Milton Berle and Dudley Moore. The next day, French top-ranking newspaper Le Monde titled its first-page obituary, "Billy Wilder is dead. Nobody is perfect." This was a reference to the famous closing line of his film Some Like it Hot spoken by Joe E. Brown after Jack Lemmon reveals he is not female.
Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba said in his acceptance speech for the 1993 Best Non-English Speaking Film Oscar: "I would like to believe in God in order to thank him. But I just believe in Billy Wilder... so, thank you Mr. Wilder." According to Trueba, Wilder called him the day after and told him: "Fernando, it's God." Wilder's 12 Academy Award nominations for screenwriting were a record until 1997 when Woody Allen received a 13th nomination for Deconstructing Harry.
Writers Guild of America west (WGAw) - Laurel Award, 1957 (with Charles Brackett) and 1980 (with I.A.L. Diamond)
Directors Guild of America (DGA) - D.W. Griffith Award, 1985 (renamed the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999)
WGAw/DGA - Preston Sturges Award, 1991
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