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 | David Blaine |
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Birth name | David Blaine White |
Birth date | April 04, 1973 |
Birth place | Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Occupation | Illusionist & Endurance arntist |
Years active | 1997–present |
Website | David Blaine }} |
In Magic Man, Blaine is shown traveling across the country, entertaining unsuspecting pedestrians in New York City, Atlantic City, Dallas, San Francisco, Compton, and the Mojave Desert recorded by a small crew with handheld cameras. Jon Racherbaumer commented, "Make no mistake about it, the focus of this show, boys and girls, is not Blaine. It is really about theatrical proxemics; about the show-within-a-show and the spontaneous, visceral reactions of people being astonished." USA Today calls David “The hottest name in magic right now”.
On November 27, 2000, Blaine began a stunt called "Frozen in Time", which was covered on a TV special. Blaine stood encased in a massive block of ice located in Times Square, New York City. He was lightly dressed and seen to be shivering even before the blocks of ice were sealed around him. A tube supplied him with air and water while his urine was removed with another tube. He was encased in the box of ice for 63 hours, 42 minutes and 15 seconds before being removed with chain saws. The ice was transparent and resting on an elevated platform to show that he was actually inside the ice the entire time. CNN confirmed that "thousands of people braved the pouring rain Wednesday night to catch a glimpse of Blaine as workers cut away at the ice." He was removed from the ice in an obviously dazed and disoriented state, wrapped in blankets and taken to the hospital immediately because doctors feared he might be going into shock. The New York Times reported, "The magician who emerged from the increasingly unstable ice box seemed a shadow of the confident, robust, shirtless fellow who entered two days before." Blaine said in the documentary follow-up to this feat that it took a month before he was able to walk again and that he had no plans to ever again attempt a stunt of this difficulty.
On October 29, 2002, Random House published David Blaine's Mysterious Stranger: A Book of Magic. Part autobiography, part history of magic, and part armchair treasure hunt, the book also includes instructions on how to perform card tricks and illusions. Editing director, Bruce Tracy, explains “David Blaine is the most exciting and creative magician since Houdini, and now, readers have the opportunity to enjoy Blaine's unique book about magic, and they can participate by testing their own ability to discover and interpret clues.”
The treasure hunt, Blaine's $100,000 Challenge, was devised by game designer Cliff Johnson, creator of The Fool's Errand, and solved by Sherri Skanes on March 20, 2004, 16 months after the book's publication.
On September 5, 2003, Blaine began his 44-day endurance stunt sealed inside a transparent Plexiglas case suspended 9 metres (30 ft) in the air next to Potters Fields Park on the south bank of the River Thames, the area between City Hall and Tower Bridge in London. The case, measuring by by , had a webcam installed so that viewers could observe his progress. During the 44-day period, Blaine went without any food or nutrients and survived on just 4.5 litres of water per day.
The endurance stunt became the subject of much media attention. The Guardian wrote, "Blaine has created one of the most eloquent and telling visual images of our time." The Times reported that "1,614 articles in the British press have made reference to the exploit." Then U.S. President George W. Bush referred to Blaine’s stunt in a speech at the Whitehall Palace in London, saying “The last noted American to visit London stayed in a glass box dangling over the Thames. A few might have been happy to provide similar arrangements for me.”
A number of spectators were mischievous or hostile towards the endurance artist. The Times reported that eggs, lemons, sausages, bacon, water bottles, beer cans, paint-filled balloons and golf balls had all been thrown at the box. The Evening Standard reported that one man was arrested for attempting to spike the water supply to Blaine's box with monkey urine. According to BBC News, a hamburger was flown up to the box by a remote-controlled helicopter as a taunt.
On September 25, BBC News reported that Blaine announced via webcam that he was feeling the taste of pear drops on his tongue. Dr. Adam Carey, who performed a medical examination of Blaine before he entered the box, said that the taste was produced by ketones produced by the body burning fatty acids, which are themselves produced from fat reserves.
Blaine emerged on schedule on October 19, murmuring "I love you all!" and was quickly hospitalized. The New England Journal of Medicine published a paper that documented his 44 day fast and stated that his re-feeding was perhaps the most dangerous part of the stunt. The study reported, “He lost 24.5 kg (25 percent of his original body weight), and his body mass index dropped from 29.0 to 21.6. His appearance and body-mass index after his fast would not by themselves have alerted us to the risks of refeeding. Despite cautious management, he had hypophosphatemia and fluid retention, important elements of the refeeding syndrome.” The event was filmed by director, and close friend of Blaine, Harmony Korine.
On May 17, 2006, Blaine was submerged in an diameter, water-filled sphere (isotonic saline, 0.9% salt) in front of the Lincoln Center in New York City for a planned seven days and seven nights, using tubes for air and nutrition. During the stunt, doctors witnessed skin breakdown at the hands and feet, and liver failure. The New York Times' Kenneth Silverman wrote "his feat of endurance brought a diverse crowd of thousands of New Yorkers together, renewing for a while the city's waning spirit of democratic community."
He concluded this event by attempting to hold his breath underwater to break the then-current world record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds held by Tom Sietas for static apnea—holding one's breath without the aid of breathing 100% oxygen beforehand, although Blaine's attempt would not have qualified as static apnea under AIDA International rules. Due to his producers' request to make the show more exciting, Blaine attempted to free himself from handcuffs and chains put on him upon coming out after the week in the sphere. He seemed to have trouble escaping from the last of the handcuffs. Around the 7 minute mark, he showed some signs of distress. He was pulled up and out of the water by his support divers after 7 minutes and 12 seconds underwater—one minute and fifty seconds short of his goal. Although he did not take home the record for breath holding, he was called “an everyday hero for an everyday age,” by The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post stated, “Blaine represented an opportunity to see something unbelievable.”
Blaine did claim to succeed in setting a record for being fully submerged in water for 17 minutes and 4 seconds, and has since broken the record for holding one's breath using oxygen beforehand (as permitted by the Guinness book of records).
Blaine underwent multiple short hospital visits after the stunt ended and has entered an agreement with doctors from Yale University to monitor him in order to study the human physiological reaction to prolonged submersion. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show on Sirius satellite radio, Blaine spoke of the week-long fasting he did before the "drowning alive" stunt, to avoid having to be concerned with defecation.
The stunt began on November 21, 2006, with Blaine declaring, "This one's exciting for me. This one's a fun one." 52 hours later, without food or water, a dehydrated and weakened Blaine landed on a wooden platform below after jumping from the hanging gyroscope.
As a result of his success, Blaine led 100 children selected by The Salvation Army on a shopping spree at Target, after each child received a $500 gift certificate from the retailer. Blaine said the stunt was particularly important since The Salvation Army had provided him with clothing while he was growing up. "This challenge is close to my heart," Blaine said.
Before entering his eighteen-hundred gallon water tank, Blaine spent 23 minutes inhaling pure oxygen; up to 30 minutes of "oxygen hyperventilation" is allowed under guidelines. His heart rate remained above one hundred beats per minute during much of the attempt, rising to one hundred and twenty-four bpm in the fifteenth minute. This faster heart rate increases oxygen consumption leading to painful carbon dioxide buildup. In the final minute, his heart rate became erratic and Blaine became worried he might blackout. In order to assist the medics in case he would lose consciousness, he unhooked his feet from the sphere's bottom and floated closer to the surface ; however, he kept his head submerged for a half minute longer than the previous record. Ultimately, Blaine held his breath for 17 minutes 4½ seconds, surpassing Colat's previous mark of 16 minutes 32 seconds. This was Blaine's first Guinness record and it stood for almost four and a half months, until surpassed by Tom Sietas on September 19, 2008.
During the following interview, Blaine stated: "I really thought I was not going to make it," claiming that he did so by staying in a meditative state which was helped by the studio lights reflecting off the sphere. According to Blaine, besides the pressure of performing on television, the heart-rate monitor happened to be close enough to his ear so that he heard its beeping, and he had to keep his feet locked in holds at the bottom of the sphere — instead of just floating freely, as he did in the pool on Grand Cayman months earlier. Back then he said he was so relaxed he "wasn’t even there" during most of the breath-hold. But when he emerged from the sphere today, he told Oprah, "I was pretty much here the whole time."
When the "Dive of Death" took place, Blaine came down from the platform on a cable, and lightly touched the stage. He was then pulled back up into the air, and, in the words of the Daily News (New York), "hung in the air like a sack of potatoes with a goofy grin on his face, occasionally kicking his legs as though he were running." The plan had been for Blaine to be pulled up into the air by helium balloons and disappear into the atmosphere. Blaine attributed the problem to changes in weather conditions that occurred after the stunt was delayed due to an address by President Bush.
Blaine has performed for many other public and private entities, including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Woody Allen, Jack Nicholson, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and Muhammad Ali. Blaine has also performed magic alongside Michael Jackson and has performed during the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
Category:1973 births Category:American autobiographers Category:American buskers Category:American Jews Category:American magicians Category:American people of Puerto Rican descent Category:American people of Russian descent Category:American performance artists Category:Living people Category:Magician of the year Award winner Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from Passaic County, New Jersey Category:Professional magicians Category:Television magic shows
ar:ديفيد بلين de:David Blaine es:David Blaine fa:دیوید بلین fr:David Blaine it:David Blaine he:דייוויד בליין lt:David Blaine nl:David Blaine ja:デビッド・ブレイン pl:David Blaine pt:David Blaine ro:David Blaine ru:Блэйн, Дэвид fi:David Blaine sv:David Blaine uk:Девід БлейнThis 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 | Sam Worthington |
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birth name | Samuel Henry J. Worthington |
birth date | August 02, 1976 |
birth place | Godalming, Surrey, England, UK |
official website | | occupation Actor |
yearsactive | 2000–present |
domesticpartner | Maeve Dermody(2005–2008)Natalie Mark(2008–2011) }} |
Samuel Henry J. "Sam" Worthington (born 2 August 1976) is an English-born Australian actor. After almost a decade of roles in Australian TV shows and films, Worthington gained Hollywood's attention by playing the role of Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation (2009) and the lead role as Jake Sully in James Cameron's science fiction/fantasy film Avatar (2009).
In 2004, Worthington received Australia's highest film award for his lead performance in Somersault. He performed predominantly in leading roles in a variety of low-budget films before transitioning to major studio films, ranging from romantic drama and comedy-drama to science fiction and action.
Worthington went on to act in a number of Australian movies and TV series; including leading roles in Dirty Deeds (2002) and Gettin' Square (2003). He also appeared in Hart's War (2002). Dirty Deeds was a critical and financial success, earning A$5,034,142 at the box office in Australia.
Worthington's international film career began with a series of small roles in Hollywood production The Great Raid (2005), which was filmed in Australia. He auditioned for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale but lost the role to Daniel Craig.
Shot prior to the release of Terminator Salvation, the James Cameron-directed science-fiction film Avatar was Worthington's next project. In the film, he played Jake Sully, a paraplegic US marine who, assigned to control an alien body called an avatar through a neural link, finds himself at the center of a war between his own species and the indigenous Na'vi people of the moon Pandora. The film went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing more than US$2.730 billion ($}} billion adjusted for inflation) in box-office receipts worldwide. He has also signed on for two sequels in Avatar franchise.
He provided voice work for Captain Alex Mason, the most significant character in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops.
He was selected as one of the entrants to the Who's Who in Australia 2011 edition.
+ Films | Year | Notes | |
2000 | Bootmen | Mitchell Okden | |
2001 | A Matter of Life| | Our Hero | Short film |
2002 | Hart's War| | Cpl. B.J. "Depot" Guidry | |
2002 | Dirty Deeds (2002 film)Dirty Deeds || | Darcy | Nominated – Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Supporting Actor – Male |
2003 | Gettin' Square| | Barry "Wattsy" Wirth | |
2004 | Somersault (film)Somersault || | Joe | Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleNominated – Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor – MaleNominated – Inside Film Awards>Inside Film Award for Best Actor |
2004 | Thunderstruck (film)Thunderstruck || | Ronnie | |
2004 | Blue Poles| | Miles | Short film |
2005 | The Great Raid| | Pfc. Lucas | |
2005 | Fink!| | Able | |
2006 | A Fairytale of the City| | The Artist | Short film |
2006 | Macbeth (2006 film)Macbeth || | Macbeth | |
2007 | Rogue (film)Rogue || | Neil | |
2009 | Terminator Salvation| | Marcus Wright | Nominated – 2009 Scream Awards#Breakout Performance-Male |
2009 | [[Avatar (2009 film)Avatar || | Jake Sully/Tom Sully | 2010 Teen Choice Awards>2010 Teen Choice Award for Best Sci-Fi ActorSaturn Award for Best ActorNominated – 2010 Teen Choice Award for Best FightNominated – [[Empire Awards |
2010 | ''Covayatar (film)| | Hamster Suli | |
2010 | Clash of the Titans (2010 film)Clash of the Titans|| | Perseus | 2010 Teen Choice Awards>2010 Teen Choice Award for Best Fantasy Actor |
2010 | Last Night (2010 film)Last Night || | Michael Reed | |
2010 | Love & Distrust| | Miles | Segment: Blue Poles by Darcy Yuille |
2011 | The Debt| | Young David | |
2011 | Texas Killing Fields| | Jake Souder | |
2011 | The Drift| | Surf Photographer | Pre-production |
2012 | Man on a Ledge| | Nick Cassidy | Post-production |
2012 | Wrath of the Titans| | Perseus | post-production |
2014 | Avatar 2| | Jake Sully | Pre-production |
2015 | Avatar 3| | Jake Sully | Pre-production |
+ Television | Year | Notes | |
2000 | JAG (TV series)>JAG | Dunsmore | |
2000 | Water Rats (TV series)Water Rats || | Phillip Champion | Episode: "Able to Leap Tall Buildings" |
2000 | Blue Heelers| | Shane Donovan | Episode: "Bloodlines" |
2004 | Love My Way| | Howard Light | 2004–2005 (10 episodes) |
2005 | The Surgeon| | Dr. Sam Dash | 2005 (8 episodes) |
2006 | Two Twisted| | Gus Rogers | Episode: "Delivery Man" |
2012 | The Grass Crown| | Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus | In-production |
+ Video games | Year | Notes |
2010 | Call of Duty: Black Ops | Captain Alex Mason |
Notes | ||
2004 | Enzo |
Category:1976 births Category:Actors from Western Australia Category:Australian expatriate actors in the United States Category:Australian film actors Category:Australian people of English descent Category:English emigrants to Australia Category:People educated at the National Institute of Dramatic Art Category:Saturn Award winners Category:Living people Category:Naturalised citizens of Australia Category:People educated at John Curtin College of the Arts Category:People from Godalming Category:People from Perth, Western Australia Category:Australian television actors
am:ሳም ዎርቲንግተን ar:سام ورذينجتن be-x-old:Сэм Ўортынгтан bs:Sam Worthington bg:Сам Уортингтън ca:Sam Worthington cs:Sam Worthington co:Sam Worthington cy:Sam Worthington da:Sam Worthington de:Sam Worthington es:Sam Worthington fr:Sam Worthington ga:Sam Worthington gl:Sam Worthington hi:सैम वर्थटिंगटन hr:Sam Worthington id:Sam Worthington is:Sam Worthington it:Sam Worthington he:סאם וורת'ינגטון jv:Sam Worthington hu:Sam Worthington mk:Сем Вортингтон ms:Sam Worthington mn:Сэм Уортингтон nl:Sam Worthington ja:サム・ワーシントン no:Sam Worthington pl:Sam Worthington pt:Sam Worthington ru:Уортингтон, Сэм sk:Sam Worthington sr:Сем Вортингтон fi:Sam Worthington sv:Sam Worthington th:แซม เวิร์ธธิงตัน tr:Sam Worthington uk:Сем Уортінгтон vi:Sam Worthington zh:山姆·沃辛頓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.
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