name	Kenneth Branagh
birth name	Kenneth Charles Branagh
birth date	December 10, 1960
birth place	Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
years active	1981–present
occupation	Actor, film director
spouse	Emma Thompson (1989–95; divorced)Lindsay Brunnock (2003–present) }}

Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a Northern Irish-born English actor and film director. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays, but has also directed and appeared in a number of other films and television series.

Early life

Branagh, the middle of three children, was born and brought up in Belfast, the son of working-class Protestant parents Frances (née Harper) and William Branagh, a plumber and joiner who ran a company that specialised in fitting partitions and suspended ceilings. At the age of nine, he relocated with his family to Reading, Berkshire to escape the Troubles. He was educated at Grove Primary School, Whiteknights Primary School, then Meadway School, Tilehurst, where he appeared in school productions such as ''Toad of Toad Hall''" and ''Oh, What a Lovely War!''. At school, he acquired an English accent to avoid bullying. On his identity today he has said, "I feel Irish. I don't think you can take Belfast out of the boy," and he attributes his "love of words" to his Irish heritage.

Branagh went on to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a B.A. Fine Arts Degree.

Career

Stage work

Branagh achieved some early measure of success in his native Northern Ireland for his role as the title character in the BBC's ''Play for Today'' trilogy known as the ''Billy Plays'' (1982–84), written by Graham Reid and set in Belfast.

He received acclaim in the UK for his stage performances, first winning the 1982 SWET Award for Best Newcomer, for his role as Judd in Julian Mitchell's ''Another Country'', immediately after leaving RADA. Branagh was part of the 'new wave’ of actors to emerge from the Academy. Others included Jonathan Pryce, Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Bruce Payne and Fiona Shaw. In 1984 he appeared in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Henry V, directed by Adrian Noble. The production played to full houses, especially at the Barbican in London. It was this production that he adapted for the film version of the play in 1989. He and David Parfitt founded the Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987, following success with several productions on the London 'Fringe', including Branagh's full-scale production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' at the Lyric Studio, co-starring with Samantha Bond. The first major Renaissance production was Branagh's Christmas 1987 staging of ''Twelfth Night'' at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, starring Richard Briers as Malvolio and Frances Barber as Viola, and with an original score by actor, musician and composer Patrick Doyle, who two years later was to compose the music for Branagh's film adaptation of ''Henry V''. This ''Twelfth Night'' was later adapted for television.

Branagh became a major presence in the media and on the British stage when Renaissance collaborated with Birmingham Rep for a 1988 touring season of three Shakespeare plays under the umbrella title of ''Renaissance Shakespeare on the Road'', which also played a repertory season at the Phoenix Theatre in London. It featured directorial debuts for Judi Dench with ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (starring Branagh and Emma Thompson as Benedick and Beatrice), Geraldine McEwan with ''As You Like It'', and Derek Jacobi directing Branagh in the title role in ''Hamlet'', with Sophie Thompson as Ophelia. Critic Milton Shulman of the London ''Evening Standard'' wrote: "On the positive side Branagh has the vitality of Olivier, the passion of Gielgud, the assurance of Guinness, to mention but three famous actors who have essayed the role. On the negative side, he has not got the magnetism of Olivier, nor the mellifluous voice quality of Gielgud nor the intelligence of Guinness."

A year later in 1989 Branagh co-starred with Emma Thompson in the Renaissance revival of ''Look Back in Anger''. Judi Dench directed both the theatre and television productions, presented first in Belfast then at the London Coliseum and Lyric Theatre.

In 2002, Branagh starred at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield as Richard III. In 2003 he starred in the Royal National Theatre's production of David Mamet's ''Edmond''. Branagh directed ''The Play What I Wrote'' in England in 2001 and directed a Broadway production in 2003. From September to November 2008, Branagh appeared at Wyndham's Theatre as the title character in the Donmar West End revival of Anton Chekhov's ''Ivanov'' in a new version by Tom Stoppard. His performance was lauded as the "performance of the year" by several critics. It won him the Critics' Circle Award for Best Male Performance but did not get him a Laurence Olivier Award nomination, to the surprise of critics.

Film work

Branagh is known for his film adaptations of William Shakespeare, beginning with ''Henry V'' (1989), followed by ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1993), ''Hamlet'' (1996), ''Love's Labour's Lost'' (2000) and ''As You Like It'' (2006). ''As You Like It'' premiered in theatres in Europe, but was sent directly to television in the U.S., where it aired on HBO in August 2007. Branagh was also in Oliver Parker-directed the 1995 film version of "Othello" where he played Iago.

Notable non-Shakespeare films in which Branagh has appeared include ''Dead Again'' (1991) and ''Mary Shelley's Frankenstein'' (1994), both of which he also directed, ''Wild Wild West'' (1999), ''Rabbit-Proof Fence'' (2002) and ''Valkyrie'' (2008). He starred as Gilderoy Lockhart in ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' (2002). He also played the Minister, Dormandy, (a parody of PMG Tony Benn) in the film ''The Boat That Rocked'' (2009). From 1989 to 1996 Branagh mostly directed his own films, but the commercial and critical failure of ''Love's Labour's Lost'' ended his directorial career for a time. In 2006, the same year that Branagh's film version of ''As You Like It'' was released, he also directed a film version of Mozart's opera ''The Magic Flute''. Branagh has also directed the thriller ''Sleuth'' (2007), a remake of the 1972 film. At a film promotion for ''Valkyrie'' in 2008, Branagh confirmed that he would be directing ''Thor'', a film based on the Marvel superhero. ''Thor'', Branagh's return to big-budget directing, released on 6 May 2011.

Television

Branagh has also been involved in several made-for-TV films. Among his most acclaimed portrayals is that of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the film ''Warm Springs'' (2005), for which he received an Emmy Award nomination. Though the film received 16 Emmy nominations, winning five (including Best Made-For-Television Film), Branagh did not win the award for his portrayal. He did, though, receive an Emmy for his portrayal of SS leader Reinhard Heydrich in the TV film ''Conspiracy'' (2001), a depiction of the Wannsee Conference, where Nazi officials decided on the Final Solution. In 2002 Branagh starred in the two-part television movie ''Shackleton'', a dramatization of the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition's battle for survival, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA award and an Emmy. Branagh also narrated the BBC documentaries ''Walking With Dinosaurs'', ''World War 1 in Colour'', ''Walking With Beasts'' and ''Walking With Monsters'', and the BBC miniseries ''Great Composers''.

Branagh is the star of the ''Wallander'' television series, adaptations of Henning Mankell's best-selling ''Wallander'' crime novels. Branagh plays the eponymous Inspector Kurt Wallander and also serves as the executive producer of the series. The first three films were broadcast on BBC One in November and December 2008. Branagh won the award for best actor at the 35th Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio Awards (2009). It was his first major television award win in the UK. He received his first BAFTA TV on 26 April 2009 for the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series. For his performance in the episode ''One Step Behind'', he was nominated in the Outstanding Actor, Miniseries or Movie category of the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards. The role also gained him a nomination for Best Actor at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards. The second season of three episodes were filmed in 2009 and aired in January 2010 on the BBC and October/November 2010 on PBS in the US. Plans have been announced for a third season of six episodes—the last three Mankell novels, as well as three original Wallander stories.

Radio

Branagh has also played the title role in BBC radio broadcasts of ''Hamlet'' and ''Cyrano de Bergerac''.

Other work

Branagh has narrated several audio books, such as ''The Magician's Nephew'' by C. S. Lewis.

Personal life

Branagh was married to actress Emma Thompson from 20 August 1989 until 1995. After their divorce, he was in a well-publicised relationship for several years with actress Helena Bonham Carter, whom he directed and starred with in ''Mary Shelley's Frankenstein''. In 2003, he married film art director Lindsay Brunnock, to whom he was introduced by Bonham Carter in 1997.

He speaks Italian and is a lifelong supporter of Belfast football team Linfield, as well as Tottenham Hotspur.

Honours

Branagh has been nominated for four Academy Awards. His first two nominations were for ''Henry V'' (one each for directing and acting). He also received similar BAFTA Award nominations for his film work, winning one for his direction. His first BAFTA TV award came in April 2009, for Best Drama Series (Wallander). Branagh's two other Academy Award nominations were for the 1992 film short subject ''Swan Song'' and for his work on the screenplay of ''Hamlet'' in 1996. Branagh has co-starred several times with actress Emma Thompson, to whom he was married from 1989 to 1995. They appeared together in ''Look Back In Anger'', ''Henry V'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Dead Again'', and ''Peter's Friends''. More recently, they both appeared in ''The Boat That Rocked'', though with no shared scenes.

He is Honorary President of NICVA (the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action). He received an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Queen's University of Belfast in 1990. He is also a patron for the charity Over The Wall.

In 1994, Branagh declined an appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Branagh was the youngest actor to receive the Golden Quill (also known as the Gielgud Award) in 2000.

Alongside Roberto Benigni, he is one of only two non-American actors to be nominated for Oscars for acting, writing, and directing, and one of nine actors to have achieved this honour. The other seven are Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, George Clooney, John Huston and John Cassavetes.

On 10 July 2009, Branagh was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the RomaFictionFest.

Filmography

Actor

! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1981	''Chariots of Fire''	Artist	Uncredited
1983		Charles Tansley	Television series
1985	''Coming Through''	D.H. Lawrence	Television
1987		Guy Pringle
1987	''''	James Moon
1987		Rick
1988	''Thompson''	Various roles	Television series: 6 episodes
1988	''Strange Interlude''	Gordan Evans	Television
1989	''Look Back In Anger''	Jimmy Porter
1989
1991	''Dead Again''
1992	''Peter's Friends''	Andrew Benson
1993		Benedick
1993		Herr Knopp, Gestapo	Uncredited
1994		Victor Frankenstein	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor
1995		Iago	Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
1996			San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
1998	''''	Rick Magruder
1998	''''	Richard
1998		Lee Simon
1998	''''	Father Michael McKinnon
1998	''''	Col. Evans	Short film
1999	''''	Periwig-maker	Short film; voice only
1999	''Wild Wild West''	Dr. Arliss Loveless	Nominated — Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor
1999	''Alien Love Triangle''	Steve Chesterman	Short film
2000	''''	Miguel	Voice only
2000		Berowne
2000	''How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog''	Peter McGowan
2001		Reinhard Heydrich
2001	''Schneider's 2nd Stage''	Joseph Barnett	Short film
2002		A. O. Neville
2002		Ernest Henry Shackleton
2002		Professor Gilderoy Lockhart
2004		Uncle Albert
2005		Franklin D. Roosevelt
2007		Other Man on TV	Uncredited
2008		Henning von Tresckow
2008	''10 Days to War''		Television series: 1 episode
2008–present		Kurt Wallander
2009	''''	Minister Dormandy
2011	''My Week with Marilyn''	Laurence Olivier

Director

! Year	! Title	Notes
1989
1991	''Dead Again''	Nominated — Golden Bear, 42nd Berlin International Film Festival
1992	''Swan Song''
1992	''Peter's Friends''	Also producer
1993
1994		Also co-producer
1995	''''
1996
2000		Also writer and producer
2003	''Listening''	Short film; also writer
2006	''''	Also writer
2006		Also writer and executive producer
2007
2011

Narrator

''Anne Frank Remembered'' (Documentary) (1995)

''Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood'' (Six-part TV special) (1996)

''Great Composers'' (TV mini-series) (1997)

''Cold War'' (CNN TV series) (1998)

''The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs'' (UK version) (TV series) (1999)

''Walking with Dinosaurs'' (UK version) (TV series) (1999)

''The Science of Walking with Beasts'' (Australia) (Two-part TV special) (2001)

''The Ballad of Big Al'' (UK version) (TV special) (2001)

''Walking with Beasts'' (UK version) (TV series) (2001)

''The Tramp and the Dictator'' (Documentary) (2002)

''Walking with Monsters: Life Before Dinosaurs'' (TV series) (2005)

''Goebbels-Experiment, Das'' (Documentary) (2005)

''IMAX: Galapagos'' (Documentary)

''World War 1 in Colour'' (Documentary) (2005)

Discography and audiobooks

Shakespeare's ''Richard III'' (complete) for Naxos Audiobooks

''In the Ravine & Other Short Stories'' by Anton Chekhov (unabridged) for Naxos Audiobooks

Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music for ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (speaker) live recording for Sony Classical, conducted by Claudio Abbado

''The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1660–1669'' (abridged) for Hodder Headline Audio Classics

''The Magician's Nephew'' by C.S Lewis for Harper Books

Shakespeare's "Sonnet 30" for the 2002 compilation album, ''When Love Speaks'' (EMI Classics)

Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein'' [Abridged]

Joseph Conrad's ''The Heart of Darkness'' for Audible.com.

Further reading

Kenneth Branagh (1990 [1989]) ''Beginning'', London: Chatto and Windus, ISBN 0-7011-3388-0; New York: W W Norton & Co, ISBN 0-393-02862-3

Ian Shuttleworth (1994) ''Ken & Em'', London: Headline. ISBN 0-7472-4718-8

Mark White (2005) ''Kenneth Branagh'', London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-22068-1

Theatre Record and its annual Indexes

References

External links

Biography on Tiscali film section

Kenneth Branagh interview from Premiere (1996)

Branagh Collection at Queen's University, Belfast

Category:1960 births Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category:European Film Awards winners (people) Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Emmy Award winners Category:English-language film directors Category:Film actors from Northern Ireland Category:Living people Category:Northern Ireland stage actors Category:Protestants from Northern Ireland Category:People from Belfast Category:People from Reading, Berkshire Category:People of the Year Awards winners Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members Category:Screenwriters from Northern Ireland Category:Shakespearean actors Category:Television actors from Northern Ireland Category:Venice Best Director Silver Lion winners

an:Kenneth Branagh ca:Kenneth Branagh cs:Kenneth Branagh cy:Kenneth Branagh da:Kenneth Branagh de:Kenneth Branagh es:Kenneth Branagh eu:Kenneth Branagh fr:Kenneth Branagh id:Kenneth Branagh it:Kenneth Branagh he:קנת בראנה la:Kinadius Branagh hu:Kenneth Branagh nl:Kenneth Branagh ja:ケネス・ブラナー no:Kenneth Branagh pl:Kenneth Branagh pt:Kenneth Branagh ro:Kenneth Branagh ru:Брана, Кеннет simple:Kenneth Branagh sk:Kenneth Branagh sr:Кенет Брана fi:Kenneth Branagh sv:Kenneth Branagh tl:Kenneth Branagh tr:Kenneth Branagh zh:簡尼夫·班納

name	Kenneth Anger
birth name	Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer
birth date	February 03, 1927
birth place	Santa Monica, California
occupation	filmmaker, actor, author
years active	1941 – present
awards	Maya Deren Independent Film and Video Artists Award (1996) Spirit of Silver Lake Award (2000)Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award (2001)Independent/Experimental Film and Video Award (2002)
imdb id	0001910 }}

Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemeyer; February 3, 1927) is an American underground experimental filmmaker, occasional actor and author. Working exclusively in short films, he has produced almost forty works since 1937, nine of which in particular have been grouped together as the "Magick Lantern Cycle," and form the basis of Anger's reputation as one of the most influential independent filmmakers in cinema history. His films variously merge surrealism with homoeroticism and the occult, and have been described as containing "elements of erotica, documentary, psychodrama, and spectacle." Anger himself has been described as "one of America's first openly gay filmmakers, and certainly the first whose work addressed homosexuality in an undisguised, self-implicating manner," and his "role in rendering gay culture visible within American cinema, commercial or otherwise, is impossible to overestimate", with several being released prior to the legalisation of homosexuality in the United States. He has also focused upon occult themes in many of his films, being fascinated by the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley, and is a follower of Crowley's religion, Thelema.

Born to an upper working-lower middle class family in Santa Monica, California, Anger would later claim to have been a child actor who appeared in the film ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1935), although the accuracy of this claim has come under dispute. He began making short films when he was ten years old, although his first film to gain any recognition, the homoerotic ''Fireworks'' (1947), would only be produced a decade later. The controversial nature of the work led to him being put on trial on obscenity charges, but he was acquitted, subsequently beginning a friendship and working relationship with pioneering sexologist Alfred Kinsey. Moving to Europe, he produced a number of other shorts inspired by the artistic scene on the continent, such as ''Rabbit's Moon'' (released 1970) and ''Eaux d'Artifice'' (1953).

Returning to the United States in 1953, he set about working on several new projects, including the films ''Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome'' (1954), ''Scorpio Rising'' (1964), ''Kustom Kar Kommandos'' (1965), and the gossip book ''Hollywood Babylon'' (1965). Getting to know several notable countercultural figures around at the time, including Tennessee Williams, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Marianne Faithfull and Anton LaVey, Anger got them involved in his subsequent Thelemite-themed works, ''Invocation of My Demon Brother'' (1969) and ''Lucifer Rising'' (1972). Following his failure to produce a sequel to ''Lucifer Rising'', Anger retired from filmmaking in the early 1980s, instead publishing the book ''Hollywood Babylon II'' (1982). At the dawn of the 21st century he once more returned to filmmaking, producing shorts for various film festivals and events.

Anger has described filmmakers such as Auguste and Louis Lumière and Georges Méliès as influences, and has been cited as an important influence on later film directors like Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and John Waters. He has also been described as having "a profound impact on the work of many other filmmakers and artists, as well as on music video as an emergent art form using dream sequence, dance, fantasy, and narrative."

Biography

Early Life (1927–1935)

Anger was born in Santa Monica, California, as Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer on February 3, 1927. His father, Wilbur Anglemyer, was of German ancestry, had been born in Troy, Ohio, while his disabled mother, Lillian Coler, who was the older of the two, claimed English ancestry. The pair had met at Ohio State College and after marrying had produced their first child, Jean Anglemyer, in 1918, followed by a second, Robert "Bob" Anglemyer, in 1921. That year they moved to Santa Monica in order to be near Lillian's mother, Bertha Coler, who herself had recently moved there. It was here that Wilbur got a job working as an electrical engineer at Douglas Aircraft, bringing in enough money so that they could live comfortably as a middle class family.

Kenneth, their third and final child, was born in 1927, but growing up he would fail to get along with either his parents or his siblings. His brother Bob later claimed that being the youngest child, Kenneth had been spoilt by his mother and grandmother, and as such had become somewhat "bratty". His grandmother, Bertha, was a big influence on the young Kenneth, and indeed helped to maintain the family financially during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was she who first took Kenneth to the cinema, to see a double bill of ''The Singing Fool'' and ''Thunder Over Mexico'' and also encouraged his artistic interests. She herself later moved into a house in Hollywood with another woman, Miss Diggy, who equally encouraged Kenneth. He developed an early interest in film, and enjoyed reading the movie tie-in Big Little books. He would later relate that "I was a child prodigy who never got smarter." He retrospected his attendance at the Santa Monica Cotillon where child stars were encouraged to mix with ordinary children and through this met Shirley Temple, whom he danced with on one occasion.

It was in 1935, he would later claim, that he actually had the chance to appear in a Hollywood film, taking the role of the Changeling Prince in the 1935 Warner Brothers film ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, a film that certainly influenced him, particularly in his later production of ''Rabbit's Moon''. Set photographs and studio production reports (on file in the Warner Brothers collection at University of Southern California, and the Warner Bros. collection of studio key books at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York) in fact contradict Anger's claims, stating that the character was played by a girl named Sheila Brown. Reports have subsequently emerged that have been attributed to the actor Mickey Rooney, who played the character of Puck in the film, claiming that Sheila Brown was in fact Anger dressed up as a girl by his mother. Rooney supposedly had befriended Anglemyer on set, and Anger himself would later fondly remark of him in his book ''Hollywood Babylon II'', describing him as "Puck Forever". Anger's unofficial biographer, Bill Landis, remarked in 1995 that the Changeling Prince was definitely "Anger as a child; visually, he's immediately recognizable".

First Films (1937–1946)

Anger's first film was created in 1937, when he was only ten years old. The short, entitled ''Ferdinand the Bull'', had been shot on the ends of 16mm film that had been left unused after the Anglemyer's family vacation to Yosemite National Park, where they had been making home movies with it. In the ''Ferdinand the Bull'', which has never been made publicly available, Kenneth dressed as a matador, wearing a cape, while two of his friends from the Boy Scouts played the bull. His second work, ''Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat'', which Anger himself often considers to be his first proper film, was made up of footage of children playing during the summer, accompanied with popular songs by bands like the Ink Spots. Anger had created ''Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat'' in 1941, when he was fourteen, shortly before the Attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent entering of the United States into the Second World War, adding to the poignancy of this early work. The following year he produced another amateur film, ''Prisoner of Mars'', which was heavily influenced by ''Flash Gordon'', a series that he was a fan of. In this science fiction-inspired feature, he added elements taken from the Greek mythological myth of the Minotaur and himself played the protagonist, as well as constructed a small volcano in his back yard to create a form of home-made special effect. }}

In 1944, the Anglemyers moved to Hollywood to live with their grandmother, and Kenneth began attending Beverly Hills High School. It was here that he met Maxine Peterson, who had once been the stand-in for Shirley Temple, and he asked her, alongside another classmate and an old woman, to appear in his next film project, which he initially called ''Demigods'' but which was later retitled ''Escape Episode''. Revolving partially around the occult, it was filmed in a "spooky old castle" in Hollywood and was subsequently screened at the Coronet Theatre on North La Cienega Blvd. in Los Angeles. Around this time, Anger also began attending the screenings of silent films held at Clara Grossman's art gallery, through which he met a fellow filmmaker, Curtis Harrington, and together they formed Creative Film Associates (CFA). CFA was founded to distribute experimental films or "underground films" such as those of Maya Deren, John and James Whitney, as well as Anger's and Harrington's.

It was while at high school that he began to get interested in the occult, which he had first indirectly encountered through reading Frank L. Baum's ''Oz'' books as a child, with their accompanying Rosicrucian philosophies. Kenneth was very interested in the works of the French ceremonial magician Eliphas Levi, as well as Sir James Frazer's ''The Golden Bough'', although his favorite was the writings of the English occultist Aleister Crowley. Crowley had founded a religion known as Thelema based upon a religious experience that he had in Egypt in 1904, in which he claimed a being known as Aiwass had contacted him and recited to him ''The Book of the Law''. Kenneth subsequently became a great fan of Crowley's work and converted to Thelema.

''Fireworks'' and Early Career (1947–1949)

As Anger discovered his homosexuality, at a time when homosexual acts were still illegal in the United States, he began associating with the underground gay scene. At some point in the mid 1940s, he was arrested by the police in a "homosexual entrapment," after which he decided to move out of his parents' home, gaining his own sparse apartment largely financed by his grandmother, and abandoning the name Anglemyer in favor of Anger. He started attending the University of Southern California, where he studied cinema, and also began experimenting with the use of mind-altering drugs like cannabis and peyote. It was then that he decided to produce a film that would deal with his sexuality, just as other gay avant-garde film makers like Willard Maas were doing in that decade. The result was the short film ''Fireworks'', which was created in 1947 but only exhibited publicly in 1948.

Upon release of the work, Anger was arrested on obscenity charges. He was acquitted, after the case went to the Supreme Court of California, which deemed it to be art rather than pornography. Anger made the claim to have been seventeen years old when he made it, despite the fact that he was actually twenty, presumably to present himself as more of an ''enfant terrible''. A homoerotic work lasting only 14 minutes, ''Fireworks'' revolves around a young man (played by Anger himself) associating with various navy sailors, who eventually turn on him, stripping him naked and beating him to death, ripping open his chest to find a clock ticking inside. Several fireworks then explode, accompanied by a burning Christmas tree and the final shot shows the young man lying in bed next to another topless man. Of this film, Anger would later state in 1966 that "This flick is all I have to say about being 17, the United States Navy, American Christmas and the fourth of July." He would continuously alter and adapt the film up until 1980, with it finally being distributed on VHS in 1986.

One of the first people to buy a copy of ''Fireworks'' was the sexologist Dr. Alfred Kinsey of the Institute for Sex Research. He and Anger struck up a friendship that would last until the doctor's death, during which time Anger aided Kinsey in his research. According to Anger's unofficial biographer Bill Landis, Kinsey became a "father figure" whom Anger "could both interact with and emulate." Meanwhile, in 1949 Anger began work on a film called ''Puce Women'', which unlike ''Fireworks'' was filmed in color. It starred Yvonne Marquis as a glamorous woman going about her daily life; Anger would later state that "''Puce Women'' was my love affair with Hollywood... with all the great goddesses of the silent screen. They were to be filmed in their homes; I was, in effect, filming ghosts." A lack of funding meant that only one scene was ever produced, which was eventually released under the title ''Puce Moment''. That same year, Anger directed ''The Love That Whirls'', a film based upon Aztec human sacrifice but, because of the nudity that it contained, it was destroyed by technicians at the film lab, who deemed it to be obscene.

France, ''Rabbit's Moon'' and ''Eaux d'Artifice'' (1950–1953)

In 1950 Anger moved to Paris, France, where he initially stayed with friends of his (who themselves had been forced to leave Hollywood after being blacklisted for formerly having belonged to trade union organisations). He would later remark that he travelled to the country after receiving a letter from the French director Jean Cocteau in which he told Anger of his admiration for ''Fireworks''. Upon arrival, Anger and Cocteau became friends, with the Frenchman giving the young protege his permission to make a movie of his ballet ''The Young Man and Death'', although at the time there were no financial backers for the project. It was while in Paris that he continued producing short films; in 1950 he started filming on ''Rabbit's Moon'', which was also known as ''La Lune des Lapins'' and revolved around a clown who was staring up at the moon, in which a rabbit lived, something found within Japanese mythology. Anger produced 20 minutes of footage at the Films du Pantheon Studio in the city before he was rushed out of the studio, leaving the film uncompleted. He stored the footage in the disorganized archives of the Cinémathèque Française, and only collected it again in 1970, when he finally finished and released ''Rabbit's Moon''. It was at the Cinémathèque Française that he befriended the head, Henri Langlois (later claiming that he worked for Langlois for twelve years) and was allowed to rummage through the Cinémathèque's archives, in which he found prints of Sergei Eisenstein's ''Que Viva Mexico!'', which he attempted to put into Eisenstein's original order.

In 1953, he travelled to Rome, Italy where he planned to make a film about the sixteenth century occultist Cardinal d'Este. To do so, he began filming at the garden of the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, in which a lady in eighteenth century dress walked through the gardens, which featured many waterfalls (an allusion to the fact that d'Este allegedly sexually enjoyed urination), This was supposedly going to be only the first of four scenes, but the others were not made; the resulting one-scene film was entitled ''Eaux d'Artifice''. As Anger's biographer Bill Landis remarked, "It's one of Anger's most tranquil works; his editing makes it soft, lush, and inviting. ''Eaux d'Artifice'' remains a secretive romp through a private garden, all for the masked figure's and the viewer-voyeur's pleasure."

''Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome'' and ''Hollywood Babylon'' (1953–1960)

In 1953, soon after the production of ''Eaux d'Artifice'', Anger's mother died and he temporarily returned to the United States in order to take part in the distribution of her will. It was during this return that he began to once more immerse himself in the artistic scene of California, befriending the film maker Stan Brakhage, who had been inspired by ''Fireworks'', and the two collaborated on producing a film, but it was confiscated at the film lab for obscenity and presumably destroyed. Around this time, two of Anger's friends, the couple Renate Druks and Paul Mathiesin held a party based upon the theme of 'Come As Your Madness'; Anger himself attended dressed in drag as the ancient Greek goddess Hekate. The party and its many costumes inspired Anger, who produced a painting of it, and asked several of those who attended to appear in a new film that he was creating – ''Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome''. ''Inauguration'', which was created in 1954, was a 38 minute surrealist work featuring many Crowleyan and Thelemite themes, with many of the various different characters personifying various pagan gods such as Isis, Osiris and Pan. One of the actresses in the film was Marjorie Cameron, the widow of Jack Parsons, the influential American Thelemite who had died a few years previously, while Anger himself played Hecate. He would subsequently exhibit the film at various European film festivals, winning the Prix du Ciné-Club Belge and the Prix de l'Age d'Or as well as screening it in the form of a projected triptych at Expo 58, the World Fair held in Brussels in 1958.

In 1955, Anger and his friend Alfred Kinsey travelled to the derelict Abbey of Thelema in Cefalù, Sicily in order to film a short documentary entitled ''Thelema Abbey''. The abbey itself had been used by Aleister Crowley for his commune during the 1920s, and Anger restored many of the erotic wallpaintings that were found there as well as performing certain Crowleyan rituals at the site. The documentary was made for the British television series ''Omnibus'', who later lost it. The following year Kinsey died, and Anger decided to return to Paris, and was described at this time as being "extremely remote and lonely".

In desperate need of money, Anger wrote a book titled ''Hollywood Babylon'' in which he revealed much of the illicit gossip regarding celebrities that he had been told. This included claiming (with no corroboration or citing of sources) that Rudolph Valentino liked to play a sexually submissive role to dominant women, that Walt Disney was a drug-user, addicted to opiates (reflected in the character of Goofy, who's perpetually stoned on cannabis), as well as describing the nature of the deaths of Peg Entwistle and Lupe Velez. The work was initially not published in the United States, instead the publisher was the French Jean Jacques Pauvert. A pirated (and incomplete) version was first published in the U.S. in 1965, with the official American version not being published until 1974. Now with some financial backing from the publication of ''Hollywood Babylon'', his next film project was ''The Story of O''; essentially a piece of erotica featuring a heterosexual couple engaged in sadomasochistic sexual activities, although it refrained from showing any explicit sexual images.

''Scorpio Rising'' and ''Kustom Kar Kommandos'' (1961–1965)

thumb|right|250px|Anger made use of homoerotic images of bikers in his ''Scorpio Rising'', here portrayed by [[Bruce Byron (American actor)|Bruce Byron.]]In 1961, Anger once more returned to America, where he lived for a time with Marjorie Cameron. Meanwhile he began work on a new feature, a film about the emerging biker subculture, which he titled ''Scorpio Rising''. For this, he employed a biker named Richard McAuley, and filmed him and some of his friends messing around, adding to it scenes of McAuley, or "Scorpio" as he became known, desecrating a derelict church. Anger incorporated more controversial visuals into the piece, including Nazi iconography, nudity, and clips of the life of Jesus Christ taken from Family Films' ''The Road to Jerusalem''. In ''Scorpio Rising'', Anger intercuts images of Christ from the cheap religious film with those of Scorpio. The whole film has a soundtrack made up of popular 1950s songs, including "Blue Velvet" by Bobby Vinton, "Torture" by Kris Jensen and "I Will Follow Him" by Little Peggy March. Anger himself described the film as "a death mirror held up to American culture... Thanatos in chrome, black leather, and bursting jeans." It immediately became popular on the underground cinema scene although was soon brought to court with complaints claiming that it was obscene. The all-female jury ruled in favor of the prosecutors, and ''Scorpio Rising'' was banned, although this ban was subsequently overturned on appeal to the California State Supreme Court.

With ''Scorpio Rising'' finished and Anger now living in San Francisco, he went to the Ford Foundation, which had just started a program of giving out grants to filmmakers. He showed them his ideas for a new artistic short, entitled ''Kustom Kar Kommandos'', which they approved of, and gave him a grant of $10,000. However, Anger spent much of the money on living expenses and making alterations to some of his earlier films, meaning that by the time he actually created ''Kustom Kar Kommandos'', it was only one scene long. This homoerotic film involved various shots of a young man polishing a drag strip racing car, accompanied with a pink background and the song "Dream Lover" by The Paris Sisters. Soon after, Anger struck a deal that allowed ''Hollywood Babylon'' to be officially published in the United States for the first time, where it proved a success, selling two million copies during the 1960s, and around the same time Anger also translated Lo Duca's ''History of Eroticism'' into English for American publication.

The Hippie Movement and ''Invocation of My Demon Brother'' (1966–1969)

The mid 1960s saw the emergence of the hippie scene and the increasing use of the mind-altering drugs that Anger himself had been using for many years. In particular, the hallucinogen LSD, which at the time was still legal in the United States, was very popular, and in 1966 Anger released a version of his earlier film, ''Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome'' entitled the "Sacred Mushroom Edition" which was screened to people while taking LSD, thereby heightening their sensory experience. By this time, Anger had become well known throughout the underground scene in the United States, and several cinemas across the country screened his better known films all in one event. With this growing fame, Anger began to react to publicity in much the same way as his idol Aleister Crowley had done, for instance describing himself as "the most monstrous moviemaker in the underground," a pun on the fact that Crowley had been labelled "the wickedest man in the world" by the British tabloids in the 1920s. Anger's fame on the underground circuit allowed him to increasingly associate with other celebrities, including Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan; despite their differing philosophies, the two became good friends and would remain so for many years. However, Anger also held a resentment towards certain celebrities, namely Andy Warhol, who at the time was achieving success not only in the art world but also in the underground film scene. In 1980 Anger threw paint over the front door of a house that Warhol had recently moved out of.

In 1966, Anger moved into the ground floor of a large nineteenth century Victorian house in San Francisco known as the Russian Embassy. Around this time he began planning for a new film, which he planned to title ''Lucifer Rising'' and which would echo his Thelemite beliefs about the emerging Aeon of Horus. He had the name of Lucifer tattooed upon his chest and began searching for a young man who could symbolically become Lucifer, "the Crowned and Conquering Child" of the new Aeon, for ''Lucifer Rising''. He met various young men who could fit the position, inviting each to live with him at the Russian Embassy, although eventually he settled upon a man named Bobby Beausoleil. Beausoleil also formed a band, the Magic Powerhouse of Oz, in order to record the music for the film. Then, in 1967, Anger claimed that the footage which he had been filming for ''Lucifer Rising'' had been stolen, and he placed the blame upon Beausoleil, who would deny the claims, later telling Anger's unofficial biographer Bill Landis that "what had happened was that Kenneth had spent all the money that was invested in ''Lucifer Rising''" and that he therefore invented the story to satisfy the film's creditors. Beausoleil and Anger fell out, with the former getting involved with Charles Manson and his cult, the Family, eventually carrying out Manson's bidding by torturing and murdering Gary Hinman.

Anger subsequently decided to publicly reinvent himself. In the October 26, 1967 issue of ''Village Voice'' he placed a full-page advert declaring "In Memoriam. Kenneth Anger. Filmmaker 1947–1967". He soon publicly reappeared, this time to claim that he had burned all of his early work. The following year he travelled to London where he first met J. Paul Getty, who would subsequently become Anger's patron, and where he also met and befriended Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, members of The Rolling Stones, as well as Richards' drug addicted girlfriend Anita Pallenberg. Anger then decided to use much of the footage created for ''Lucifer Rising'' in a new film of his, ''Invocation of My Demon Brother'', which starred Beausoleil, LaVey, Jagger and Richards, as well as Anger himself, and the music for which had been composed by Jagger. It was released in 1969, and explored many of the Thelemic themes that Anger had originally intended for ''Lucifer Rising''. The story of the film, its making, and the people involved are the inspiration for the novel "Sway," by Zachary Lazar.

''Lucifer Rising'' (1970–1981)

With ''Invocation of My Demon Brother'' having used up much of the footage originally intended for ''Lucifer Rising'', Anger once more set about to create this film, which was designed to be a symbolic analogy of the coming Aeon of Horus as prophesied in the Thelemic sacred text, ''The Book of the Law''. Anger persuaded the singer and actress Marianne Faithfull to appear in it, and tried to convince his friend Mick Jagger to play the part of Lucifer in the film, although he refused, and instead offered his brother Chris for the part, something Anger accepted, but was not happy about. Anger subsequently filmed eight minutes of the film, and showed them to the British National Film Finance Corporation who agreed to provide £15,000 in order for Anger to complete it – something that caused a level of outrage in the British press. With this money, he could afford to fly the cast and crew to both Germany and Egypt for filming. Anger befriended Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page around this time, with the two having a great mutual interest in Crowley. At Page's invitation, Anger would travel to Boleskine House on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland, where Crowley had once lived and which Page had purchased, and helped the musician to exorcise the building of what Page believed to be a headless man's ghost. Page subsequently agreed to produce the soundtrack for ''Lucifer Rising'', and used the editing suite which was in the basement of his London home to shape the music which he produced. Anger later fell out with Page's wife Charlotte, who kicked him out of the house. In retaliation, he called a press conference in which he ridiculed Page and threatened to "throw a Kenneth Anger curse" on him. Page's music was dumped from the film and replaced in 1979 by music written and recorded by the imprisoned Bobby Beausoleil, with whom Anger had made up.

Meanwhile, Anger, who moved to an apartment in New York City, took the footage that he had filmed for ''Rabbit's Moon'' in the 1950s, finally releasing the film in 1972, and again in a shorter version in 1979. Around the same time he also added a new soundtrack to ''Puce Moment'' and re-released it. It was also around this time that the publisher Marvin Miller produced a low budget documentary film based on ''Hollywood Babylon'' without Anger's permission, greatly angering him and leading him to sue. He also created a short film entitled ''Senators in Bondage'' which was only available to private collectors and which has never been made publicly available, and had plans to make a film about Aleister Crowley entitled ''The Wickedest Man in the World'', but this project never got off the ground. In 1980, he holidayed with his friend, the playwright Tennessee Williams.

It was in 1981, a decade after starting the project, that he finally finished and released the 30-minute long ''Lucifer Rising''. Based upon the Thelemite concept that mankind had entered a new period known as the Aeon of Horus, ''Lucifer Rising'' was full of occult symbolism, starring Miriam Gibril as the Ancient Egyptian goddess Isis and Donald Cammell as her consort Osiris, as well as Marianne Faithfull as the Biblical figure of Lilith and Leslie Huggins as Lucifer himself. Anger once again appeared in the film, starring as the Magus, the same role that he played in ''Invocation to My Demon Brother''. He had surrealistically combined the roles that these characters played with footage of volcanoes, various ancient Egyptian temples and a Crowleyan adept reading from the man's texts.

Retirement (1982–1999)

Soon after the release of ''Lucifer Rising'', a PBS documentary of Anger and his films was made, entitled ''Kenneth Anger's Magick'', which was directed by Kit Fitzgerald, who later recalled interviewing him in his New York flat on a very hot July evening, during which Anger revealed that he was so broke that he had been forced to sell his air conditioner. Anger himself considered producing other films that would continue on from ''Lucifer Rising'' in a series, and he began referring to his finished film as "Part I: Sign Language," to be followed by two further parts. In 1984, a notorious incident occurred when Anger was invited to appear on ''The Coca Crystal Show'', however upon arriving at the studio he demanded that somebody pay for his taxi ride there, and when they refused, he attacked the talent coordinator Maurice Ivice and tried to drag her into his taxi, before she was rescued by other members of staff – Anger reportedly escaped the scene by flinging a $100 bill at the cab-driver and screaming "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

In 1986, he sold the video rights to his films, which finally appeared on VHS, allowing them to have greater publicity. The following year he attended the Avignon Film Festival in France where his work was being celebrated in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of ''Fireworks''. Soon after this, he appeared in ''Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon'', a BBC documentary for the ''Arena'' series directed by Nigel Finch. In 1991, Anger moved to West Arenas Boulevard in Palm Springs, where the British Film Institute sent Rebecca Wood to assist him in writing an autobiography, which was never actually produced. Instead, in 1995, Bill Landis, who had been an associate of Anger's in the early 1980s, wrote an unofficial biography of him, which Anger himself condemned, describing Landis as "an avowed enemy".

Return to Filmmaking (2000–)

For twenty years from the early 1980s, Anger released no new material. In 2000, at the dawn of the new millennium, Anger began screening a new short film, the anti-smoking ''Don't Smoke That Cigarette'', followed a year later by ''The Man We Want To Hang'', which comprised images of Aleister Crowley's paintings that had been exhibited at a temporary exhibition in Bloomsbury, London. In 2004, he began showing ''Anger Sees Red'', a short surrealistic film starring himself, and the same year also began showing another work, ''Patriotic Penis''. He soon followed this with a flurry of other shorts, including ''Mouse Heaven'', which consisted of images of Mickey Mouse memorabilia, ''Ich Will!'' and ''Uniform Attraction'', all of which he showed at various public appearances. Anger's most recent project has been the ''Technicolor Skull'' with musician Brian Butler, described as a "magick ritual of light and sound in the context of a live performance," in which Anger plays the theremin, and Butler plays the guitar and other electronic instruments, behind a psychedelic backdrop of colors and skulls.

Anger makes an appearance in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine entitled ''FLicKeR''. In 2009 his work was featured in a retrospective exhibition at the MoMA PS1 in New York City, and the following year a similar exhibition took place in London.

Anger has finished writing ''Hollywood Babylon III'', but has not yet published it, fearing severe legal repercussions if he did so. Of this he has stated that "The main reason I didn't bring it out was that I had a whole section on Tom Cruise and the Scientologists. I'm not a friend of the Scientologists." The Church of Scientology has been known on several occasions to heavily sue those making accusations against them.

Themes

Several recurring themes can be seen within Anger’s cinematic work. One of the most notable of these is homoeroticism; this was first seen in ''Fireworks'' (1947), which was based around Anger’s own homosexual awakening, and featured various navy officers flexing their muscles, and a white liquid (often thought of as symbolising semen), pouring over the protagonist’s body. Similar homoerotic imagery is found in ''Scorpio Rising'' (1963), which stars a muscled, topless, leather-clad biker, and ''Kustom Kar Kommandos'' (1965), where a young man sensually polishes a car, with close up shots of his tight-fitting jeans and crotch. Images of naked men also appear in ''Invocation of My Demon Brother'' (1969), where they are eventually filmed wrestling, and in ''Anger Sees Red'' (2004), in which a muscled, topless man performs press-ups.

Another recurring theme in Anger’s films is that of the occult, particularly the symbolism of his own esoteric religion, Thelema. This is visible in ''Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome'', ''Invocation of My Demon Brother'' and ''Lucifer Rising'', all of which are based around the Thelemite concept of the Aeon of Horus and feature actors portraying various pagan gods. Anger himself linked the creation of film to the occult, particularly the practice of ceremonial magic, something that Aleister Crowley had been a noted practitioner of, and Anger once stated that "making a movie is casting a spell."

One of the central recurring images found in Anger's work is the concept of flames and light; in ''Fireworks'' there are various examples of this, including a burning Christmas tree, and it subsequently appears in many of his other works as well. This relates to the concept of Lucifer, a deity whom Anger devoted one of his films to, and whose name is Latin for "light bearer".

In many of his films, heavy use is made of music, both classical and pop, to accompany the visual imagery. For instance, in ''Scorpio Rising'' he makes use of the 1950s pop songs "Torture" by Kris Jensen, "I Will Follow Him" by Little Peggy March and "Blue Velvet" by Bobby Vinton, something that he believed was later copied by David Lynch in his 1986 movie ''Blue Velvet''. He first used music to accompany visuals in the 1941 work ''Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat?'', where he used tracks by the Mills Brothers. His use of popular music to accompany his films has been cited as a key influence on the development of music videos and of MTV, although he has stated his dislike for the whole music video industry. On one occasion the band Combustible Edison asked him if he would direct a video to accompany their song "Bluebeard" but he declined the offer, believing that while music could be used to accompany film, it was pointless to do it the other way around.

Personal life

Anger has always been an "extremely private individual," In such interviews, he refuses to disclose information on his name change from Anglemeyer to Anger, telling an interviewer who brought the topic up in 2004 that "You're being impertinent. It says Anger on my passport, that's all you need to know. I would stay away from that subject if I was you." He once joked that he was "somewhat to the right of the KKK" in his views about black people, opening him up to criticism for racism. He is a passionate supporter of the Tibetan independence movement.

Anger is a Thelemite and after many years joined the Thelemic organisation, the Ordo Templi Orientis. He viewed many of the men he associated with as living embodiments of Lucifer, a symbol of the Aeon of Horus in Thelemic philosophy, and had the name of Lucifer tattooed onto his chest, which he identifies as being his own. Despite being a Thelemite, Anger has shown an interest in various other religious movements, particularly those that are in some way occult. For instance, he was a lifelong friend of Anton LaVey, both before and after the founding of the Church of Satan in the 1960s, and lived with LaVey and his family during the 1980s. LaVey also made an appearance in one of Anger's films, ''Invocation to My Demon Brother'' (1969) while Anger wrote forewords to two of LaVey's books, ''The Devil's Notebook'' (1992) and ''Satan Speaks!'' (1998). He describes himself as a "pagan" and refuses to consider himself to be a Satanist. He also claims Wicca to be a "lunar," feminine religion, contrasted with the "solar" masculinity of Thelema.

Filmography

''Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat '' ''Tinsel Tree'' ''Prisoner of Mars'' ''The Nest'' ''Demigods (Escape Episode)'' ''Drastic Demise'' ''The Love That Whirls'' ''Eaux d'Artifice'' ''Le Jeune Homme et la Mort'' ''Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome'' ''Thelema Abbey'' ''Scorpio Rising (film) ''Kustom Kar Kommandos'' ''Invocation of My Demon Brother'' ''Lucifer Rising (film) ''Senators in Bondage'' ''Matelots en Menottes'' ''Denunciation of Stan Brakhage'' ''Don't Smoke That Cigarette!'' ''The Man We Want to Hang'' ''Anger Sees Red'' ''Patriotic Penis'' ''Mouse Heaven'' ''Elliott's Suicide'' ''I'll Be Watching You'' ''My Surfing Lucifer'' ''Death'' ''Foreplay'' ''Ich Will!'' ''Uniform Attraction'' ''Missoni''

Year !! Title !! Length !! Other Information
1937	''Ferdinand the Bull''
1941	|	7 mins.	A silent black-and-white film in which Anger filmed twelve other children in Santa Monica, California, interspersed with images of war and destruction, which ends when a fog fills their playground and they all fall down, apparently dead.
1941–42	|	3 mins.	A silent black-and-white film that Anger personally hand tinted with gold-scarlet over the flames. It featured a Christmas tree being dressed in decorations, before being shown stripped and bare and set on fire.
1942	|	11 mins.	A silent black-and-white film that mixes futuristic science fiction with the ancient Greek myth of the Minotaur. The plot revolves around a character, The Boy Elect from Earth, played by Anger himself, who is sent in a rocket to Mars where he finds himself in a labyrinth filled with the bones of other adolescents sent there in the past.
1943	|	20 mins.	A silent black-and-white film in which a brother (played by Bob Jones) and sister (Jo Whittaker) are examining mirrors when a third figure (Dare Harris), causes them to act violently against one another, before a magical rite takes place in which the sister's binding spell is destroyed by the brother.
1944	|	35 mins.	Andromeda (mythology)>Andromeda, in which a girl (Marilyn Granas) is imprisoned within a seaside crumbling Neo-Gothic church guarded by a religious fanatic (Nora Watson), till she is saved by a boy representing Perseus (Bob Jones).
1945	|	5 mins.	A silent black-and-white work filmed by Anger in Hollywood on V-J Day. Consisting of footage of a celebratory crowd, it ends with an image of a nuclear mushroom cloud.
1949	|	Unknown	Influenced by James Frazer's anthropological text ''The Golden Bough'', it was set in the Aztec civilisation, and featured a youth who was chosen to be king for a year before being ritually sacrificed. The film was subsequently destroyed at the Eastman-Kodac developing plant, who objected to its theme and nudity.
1953	|	12 mins.	A short, monochromatic film appearing in dark blue, with only one moment of color - a woman opens a fan that glows in bright green. The woman appears in a gown stretching from neck to toe, wearing dark glasses and a feathered headdress. Water flows throughout, from fountains, and suggestively through the mouths and over the faces of statuary. Fluids pulse perhaps orgasmicly in arching streams, reminiscent of sexual climax. In the end the woman steps from a door seemingly from the side of a fountain, and is herself transformed into water. The film is set to the music of Vivaldi's Winter Movement from the Four Seasons.
1953	|	Unknown	Based upon the ballet by Jean Cocteau, this silent black-and-white film starred Jean Babilee as a young man and Nathalie Philipart as Death. It was a 16mm pilot designed to be used to raise funds to produce a 35mm Technicolor version, but the funding for this never materialized.
1954	|	38 mins.
1955	|	10 mins.	A short, black-and-white documentary on Aleister Crowley’s Abbey of Thelema in Sicily, which examined many of the exotic frescoes, a study in which Anger was assisted by sexologist Alfred Kinsey.
1963	Scorpio Rising'' ||	29 mins.
1965	|	3 mins.	In color, set to the tones of "Dream Lover" by The Paris Sisters, several handsome young men stand admiringly over the chasis of a suped up hotrod. A young man slowly works the chamois over the chrome and paint of the machine. The young man now smartly dressed in matching pastel blue gets behind the wheel and begins to work the controls. Finally the engine revs and the car rolls away.
1969	|	12 mins.
1970–1980	Lucifer Rising'' ||	29 mins.
1976	|		Lost film.
1977	|		Lost film.
1979	|	7 mins.	Lost film.
2000	|
2002	|	12 mins.
2004	|	4 mins.	Comprises footage of a muscled man, who identifies himself only as "Red," walking through a park and sunbathing, at which he is seen by Anger himself, who is also in the park, before subsequently returning home.
2004	|
2005	|	11 mins.	montage (filmmaking)>montage of Mickey Mouse memorabilia from the 1920s and 30s, accompanied by contemporary jazz music.
2007	|	15 mins.
2007	|	5 mins.
2007	|	4 mins.	Color with no sound. "A Tribute to my Surfing Pal Adolph Bunker Spreckels III" "BUNKY". A young man with a white mercedes, the rolling waves breaking on the beach, the surfers riding them in. The film ends with a closeup of the skinned elbow of the surfer, presumably abraded during a wipeout.
2008	|	42 secs.
2008	|	7 mins.
2008	|	35 mins.
2008	|	21 mins.
2010	|	2 mins. 32 secs.

Bibliography

Year !! Title !! Other
1959	''Hollywood Babylon''
1961	''A History of Eroticism''
1970	''Atlantis: The Lost Continent''
1986	''Hollywood Babylon II''
1992	''The Devil's Notebook''
1998	''Satan Speaks!''
2001	''Suicide in the Entertainment Industry''

References

;Notes

;Footnotes

;Bibliography

Hutchinson, Alice L. (ed). 2004. ''Kenneth Anger''. Black Dog Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-904772-03-3

Hunter, Jack (ed). 2002. ''Moonchild. The Films Of Kenneth Anger: Persistence of Vision Volume 1''. London: Creation Books. ISBN 978-1-84068-029-4

Pilling, Jayne and O'Pray, Michael. 1989. ''Into The Pleasure Dome: The Films Of Kenneth Anger''. London: BFI.

Landis, Bill. 1995. ''Anger: The Unauthorized Biography of Kenneth Anger''. ISBN 978-0-06-016700-4

Lazar, Zachary, ''Sway'', Little, Brown (2008), ISBN 0-316-11309-3

External links

The Official Kenneth Anger Website

''Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon'' (BBC documentary on YouTube)

Bhattacharya Sanjiv, ''Look back at Anger'' 22 August 2004. ''The Observer''.

Claiborne K.H. Smith, ''Kustom Film Kommando'' November 17, 1997. ''The Austin Chronicle''.

Interview (Quicktime) on Arte, May 5, 2004.

Magick Lantern Cycle: Images & Synopses

bentclouds.com. Essay on Kustom Kar Kommandos ''Non-Normative Sex in Kustom Kar Kommandos''.

''The Film Journal''. Review of Alice Hutchison's book on Anger

NNDb profile

Category:1927 births Category:Living people Category:American actors Category:American people of German descent Category:American child actors Category:American experimental filmmakers Category:American film directors Category:American neopagans Category:American non-fiction writers Category:American people of English descent Category:American Thelemites Category:Censorship in the arts Category:Gay actors Category:Gay artists Category:Gay writers Category:LGBT directors Category:LGBT screenwriters Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:Ordo Templi Orientis Category:People from Santa Monica, California Category:Thelema

ca:Kenneth Anger de:Kenneth Anger es:Kenneth Anger fr:Kenneth Anger it:Kenneth Anger he:קנת אנגר ja:ケネス・アンガー pl:Kenneth Anger pt:Kenneth Anger ru:Энгер, Кеннет fi:Kenneth Anger sv:Kenneth Anger

name	Kenneth Copeland
residence	Fort Worth, Texas
birth date	December 06, 1936
birth place	Lubbock, Texas, United States
occupation	Author Speaker Televangelist
nationality	American
religion	Word of Faith, Pentecostal
spouse	Gloria Copeland
children	John Copeland, Kellie Copeland, Terri Pearsons
website	www.kcm.org
weight	}}

Kenneth Copeland (born December 6, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas) is an American author, public speaker, and televangelist. He is the founder of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, which preaches a “prosperity gospel”: "Prosperity gospel assures followers that the more they give, including in the form of tithes to the church, the more they will receive from God."

Early life and education

Prior to his conversion to Christianity in November 1962, Copeland was a recording artist on the Imperial Records label, having one ''Billboard'' Top 40 hit ("Pledge of Love", which charted in the Top 40 on April 20, 1957, stayed on the charts for eight weeks, and peaked at #12).

Following his religious conversion, Copeland turned the rest of his life over to the gospel and ministry work. In the 1960s, he was a pilot and chauffeur for Oral Roberts. In the fall of 1967, he enrolled in Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Kenneth is married to Gloria Copeland. His children are John Copeland, Kellie Copeland and Terri Pearsons.

He was a member of the Oral Roberts University Board of Regents until it was replaced in 2008 with a new board that promised to hold to higher standards of financial accountability. In October 2007 a lawsuit against the university was presented for financial and political wrong doing. Copeland's oldest daughter, Terri, is married to pastor George Pearsons, who served until January 2008 as the ORU Board chairman.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, programming and theology

In late November 2007, Mike Huckabee, a 2008 Republican presidential primary candidate, made six appearances on Copeland's daily television program ''Believer's Voice of Victory'', discussing "Integrity of Character". Subsequently, in January 2008, the Huckabee campaign paid for use of Kenneth Copeland Ministries' facilities for a fundraiser. Copeland also claimed that he had had a phone call with Huckabee in which Huckabee allegedly vowed support despite a pending investigation by the U.S. Senate into Copeland's finances if he was elected. The fundraising at the church was criticized by the Trinity Foundation.

In September 2010, the Ten Network in Australia dropped the ''Believer's Voice of Victory'' program from their capital city stations after the network claimed that the 2 June 2010 broadcast contained material relating to homosexuals that breached the Australian Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice. Some of Kenneth Copeland’s prophecies can be read online.

Airport and ministry jets

The Kenneth Copeland Airport is a private airport established by Kenneth Copeland Ministries to serve the area of Fort Worth, Texas.

In 2007 Copeland was accused of using his $20 million Cessna Citation X jet for personal vacations and friends. The Copelands' financial records are not publicly available, and a list of the Board of Directors is not accessible as these details are protected and known confidentially by the Internal Revenue Service. Responding to media questions, Copeland pointed to an accounting firm's declaration that all jet travel complies with federal tax laws.

In December 2008, Copeland's 1998 Cessna Bravo 550, his second jet, valued at $3.6 million, was denied tax exemption after Copeland refused to submit to disclosure laws for the state of Texas.

Senate investigation

On November 6, 2007, United States Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, announced an investigation of Copeland's ministry by the United States Senate Committee on Finance. The Associated Press reported that Grassley said the investigation was a response to complaints from the public and news media. Grassley stated, "The allegations involve governing boards that aren't independent and allow generous salaries and housing allowances and amenities such as private jets and Rolls Royces." IRS guidelines require that pastors' compensation be "reasonable" and net earnings may not benefit any private individual. Grassley asked for the ministry to divulge financial information (Grassley's letter) to the committee to determine if Copeland made any personal profit from financial donations, and requested that Copeland's ministry make the information available by December 6, 2007. The Copelands responded with a "Financial report from Kenneth Copeland Ministries." KCM created a website to help explain their side of the inquiry.

Publications

''Load Up Pocket Devotional: 31 Devotions to Revolutionize Your Future'' (Harrison House, July 2004) ISBN 1577943996 ISBN 978-1577943990

''You Are Healed'' (Kenneth Copeland Publications, July 1999) ISBN 0881147338 ISBN 978-0881147339

''A Ceremony of Marriage'' (Kenneth Copeland Publications, December 1996) ISBN 0938458159 ISBN 978-0938458159

''Prayer: Your Foundation for Success'' (Kenneth Copeland Publications, June 1999) ISBN 1577941551 ISBN 978-1577941552

''Kenneth Copeland Reference Bible – Leather Bound'' (Kenneth Copeland Publications, December 1996) ISBN 0881142964 ISBN 978-0881142969

''Becoming Subject to the Authority of Jesus'' (Kenneth Copeland Publications, 2001) ISBN 0881149721 ISBN 978-0881149722

''How to Discipline Your Flesh'' (Kenneth Copeland Publications, June 1999) ISBN 1575621169 ISBN 978-1575621166

''From Faith to Faith: A Daily Guide to Victory'' (Harrison House, May 2000) ISBN 1577942256 ISBN 978-1577942252

''Pursuit of His Presence: Daily Devotional'' (Harrison House, September 1998) ISBN 1577941373 ISBN 978-1577941378

''The Wake-up Call'' (Kenneth Copeland Publications, 2002) ISBN 1575627922 ISBN 978-1575627922

''Classic Redemption'' (Kenneth Copeland Publications, 2001) ISBN 0938458582 ISBN 978-0938458586

''The Laws of Prosperity'' (Kenneth Copeland Publications, December 1995) ISBN 0881149527 ISBN 978-0881149524

''Prosperity: The Choice Is Yours'' (Kenneth Copeland Publications, June 1992) ISBN 0881147281 ISBN 978-0881147285

''Healing Promises'' (Kenneth Copeland Publications, August 1994) ISBN 0881149497 ISBN 978-0881149494

''Over the Edge: Youth Devotional'' (Harrison House, September 1998) ISBN 1577941381 ISBN 978-1577941385

''Big Band Gospel'' (KCP Records, 2003) ASIN B000A7WLEQ

See also

Glossolalia

Pentecostalism

Charismatic movement

Word of Faith

Prosperity Gospel

Notes and references

External links

Kenneth Copeland Ministries USA

Eagle Mountain International Church AKA Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Believer's Voice of Victory Live Stream and On Demand website

Believers Stand United for Religious Freedom in America

Trinity Foundation (Opposing Viewpoint)

MinistryWatch.com's Kenneth Copeland Ministries Profile

Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:American Pentecostals Category:American television evangelists Category:Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity Category:Imperial Records artists Category:Oral Roberts University people Category:People from Fort Worth, Texas Category:People from Lubbock, Texas Category:Pentecostal writers Category:Oral Roberts University alumni Category:Converts to Christianity from Judaism

es:Kenneth Copeland ko:케네스 코플랜드 pt:Kenneth Copeland fi:Kenneth Copeland sv:Kenneth Copeland

name	Leehom Wang
chinesename	王力宏
pinyinchinesename	Wáng Lìhóng
jyutpingchinesename	Wong4 Lik6 Wang4
birth name	Alexander Leehom Wang
ancestry	Yiwu, Zhejiang, China
origin	Republic of China (Taiwan)
birth date	May 17, 1976
birth place	Rochester, New York, USA
occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, film director, actor, record producer, music arranger, composer
genre	Pop, R&B;, rap, hip hop, rock, jazz, Broadway
instrument	Violin, piano, drums, guitar, bass/electric guitar, erhu, vibraphone, harmonica, chinese flutes, guzheng, zhongruan, etc.
voicetype	Tenor
label	Sony MusicDecca (1996–1997)BMG (1995–1996)
yearsactive	1995–present
influences	Stevie Wonder, Prince, Alicia Keys, Outkast, Missy Elliott, R. Kelly, The Neptunes
website	www.wangleehom.com
mtvasiaawards	Favorite Artist, Taiwan2006
goldenmelodyawards	Best Mandarin Male Singer1999 ''Revolution''2006 ''Heroes of Earth''Best Album Producer1999 ''Revolution''2004 ''Unbelievable''
awards	}}

Leehom Wang (born May 17, 1976) is an American-born singer-songwriter, record producer, actor and film director of Chinese descent based in Taiwan. Formally trained at the Eastman School of Music, Williams College and Berklee College of Music, his musical style is known for fusing Chinese elements (such as Beijing opera, traditional styles of ethnic minorities, Chinese classical orchestra) with hip-hop and R&B.; Wang has been active since 1995 and contributed in 25 albums. He is also a four-time winner of Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards, the "Grammys" of Taiwanese music.

In addition to his music, Wang also acted in several films, including Ang Lee's ''Lust, Caution'' and Jackie Chan's film ''Little Big Soldier''. He is an environmental activist, and his album ''Change Me'' was dedicated to raising eco-awareness among Chinese youth. Wang was one of the first torchbearers for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, and performed in the Olympics' closing ceremony in Beijing. He was listed as one of Goldsea's "The 100 Most Inspiring Asian Americans of All Time".

Life and music career

Childhood and early beginnings

Born in Rochester, New York, Wang is the second of three sons of immigrants from Taiwan of waishengren heritage. His father, a pediatrician, and his mother moved to the United States to further their college studies in the early 1960s. Influenced by his older brother, Leo Wang, who had been taking violin lessons since he was seven, Wang began to develop a curious interest towards the violin and its musical counterparts when he was three. He begged his mother to put him in violin lessons with his brother but his mother was against it, reasoning that he was too young. When Wang turned six, his mother enrolled him in violin classes, performing along with his brother. As he became a teenager, he began taking piano lessons, also teaching himself the guitar. He also worked several jobs to earn money to buy a second hand drum kit.

He attended Jefferson Road Elementary School, Pittsford Middle School, and Pittsford Sutherland High School in Pittsford, New York. He graduated from Pittsford Sutherland. Passionate for a career in music, he chose to attend Williams College double majoring in music and Asian studies. He joined an all-male a cappella group, The Springstreeters, and the group recorded several demo tracks.

In the summer of 1995, while Wang was visiting his grandparents in Taiwan, he was offered a professional recording contract by Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) after he participated in a talent competition hosted by the label. Not wanting to lose the opportunity, he immediately began preparing for his debut, and released his debut album ''Love Rival, Beethoven'' that December. The record received little limelight, forcing him to leave the label. He signed with Decca Records the following year, a label then famous for producing "powerful singers" (實力派歌手) in Taiwan. Wanting to also have control in the idol market, the label initially planned to market Wang as the mainstream "romantic idol", like with their previous artist Mavis Fan. However, after discovering Wang's talent in music-making, Decca began promoting him as Taiwan's "quality idol" (優質偶像) instead. Wang released his second album ''If You Heard My Song'' in 1996, which included some of his own compositions. He co-wrote the album's eponymous title song, which earned positive responses from the audience. The album drew moderately successful sales, and he became a rising star in the idol market, also finding similar successes with his third and fourth albums. During this time, Wang was asked to leave his college studies to pursue a full time singing career, but he insisted on finishing school first.

Rise to prominence (1998–2000)

Wang's contract with Decca records was terminated after the release of his fourth album ''White Paper'' in the summer of 1997. After graduating with honors at Williams College, He released his first award-winning album ''Revolution'' under Sony Music Entertainment in August 1998. The album became his breakthrough album, immediately selling over 10,000 domestic units in the first week of release. Critics rated the album highly, and it won Wang two Golden Melody Awards—Best Producer and Best Mandarin Male Singer. He was the youngest artist to win in either of the two categories. Wang has been nominated the Best Mandarin Male Singer at the awards every year since the success of ''Revolution''. The singles of ''Revolution'' also achieved similar success–"Revolution" became Wang Leehom's first #1 single, becoming one of the top 20 songs of the year on Channel V Taiwan.

He continued his studies by attending Berklee College of Music's Professional Music program, with voice as his principal instrument. In 1999, Wang released his sixth album ''Impossible to Miss You'', which combined the catchy pop melodies of ''Revolution'' with a quirky style of new-found dance pop. It became his then best-selling album, selling over 1 million copies. All of the album's promotional singles topped KTV charts and yearly music charts, notably the upbeat "Julia" and the ballad "Crying Palm".His album also attracted international attention–Wang won three Best Male Vocalist awards at three different award ceremonies and was also awarded for his musical merit in the album at the 1st annual Asia Chinese Music Awards.

At the beginning of the millennium, Wang began filming for several Cantonese-language Hong Kong blockbusters, which inspired him to study the Cantonese language. He included a Cantonese track, "Love My Song," in the Hong Kong release of ''Forever's First Day'' (2000), his seventh album. Unlike his previous two albums, ''Forever's First Day'' consisted mainly of melodic R&B; tunes. The album's eponymous single is a tragic romantic ballad, speaking of a separation of two individuals. Although raised in New York for most of his life, living in Taiwan made Wang realize the deep roots of his Chinese heritage. ''Forever's First Day'' yielded a cover of his uncle's signature song "Descendants of the Dragon"; Wang re-arranged the song with heavier rock and dance elements. The song also included a rap bridge that summarized experiences of his parents living as a Chinese American in New York.

International success (2001–03)

Wang's next album, ''The One and Only'' (2001) received phenomenal international success. Selling over 1 million units in Asia, the rock-inspired album won him over seven different prestigious awards throughout 2001 and 2002. The album's title single "The One and Only" peaked #1 in almost all available music charts of Taiwan and was on the Ringback Tone #1 Download Charts for over a year, becoming his signature song. ''The One and Only'' also found success in Japan, opting him to release his first full-length Japanese album ''The Only One'' on May 9, 2003. The album only promoted one single, a Japanese version of "The One and Only", but it did not meet success on Japan's Oricon Charts. Wang also began filming several Japanese films, establishing his rising star status in Japan.

Eager to experience and perform different musical genres, Wang embarked on his first Asia-wide concert tour ''The Unbelievable Tour'' a few months before the release of his ninth album ''Unbelievable'' (2003). His concert tour received great reviews from both fans and music critics; they were impressed and shocked with his new-found hip hop image. His R&B;/hip hop-inspired album ''Unbelievable'' involved new urban pop numbers, drawing hip hop influences from different styles of popular music, such as Indipop and urban pop. The album marked a milestone in his musical career; his new image received international critical acclaim and the album a chart-topping success, selling over 1.5 million units by 2004. A celebratory version of the album was released three months later, also becoming a chart-topping album. The album's singles, notably the ballad number "You're Not Here" also experienced international success, ranking #1 on several music charts for over 10 weeks. ''Unbelievable'' yielded his second win for Best Producer of the Year at the Golden Melody Awards in 2004.

Chinked-out (2004–06)

Having established himself as one of the most important, influential, and prolific artists in Chinese music, Wang continued to invent and experiment with new sounds and voices. For most of 2004, he traveled to remote villages in China, collecting often unheard tribal sounds of aboriginal Chinese music, Tibetan music, and Mongolian music. With his younger brother Leekai as his assistant, they carried 15 kg of music equipment as he recorded these sounds, recording and producing his album on the way. He incorporated these sounds into R&B; and hip hop music, coining the style as "chinked-out." Despite the derogatory nature of the term "chink," Wang had wanted to repossess the term and "make it cool." ''Shangri-La'' was released on the last day of 2004, selling an 40,000 copies within the first ten days of release. ''Shangri-La'' became an international music sensation, especially catching the attention of many youths in Asia. Within a month, the album sold over 300,000 copies, ultimately selling over 1.5 million units.

Wang continued to infuse chinked-out elements into his next album ''Heroes of Earth'' (2005). Unlike the aboriginal tribal music heard in ''Shangri-La'', ''Heroes of Earth'' contained mixes of Beijing opera and Kunqu. Following the concept of "heroes," he collaborated with Ashin of Mayday ("Beside the Plum Blossoms"), Chinese American rapper Jin and opera master Li Yan ("Heroes of Earth"), and also K-pop artists Rain and Lim Jeong-hee ("Perfect Interaction"). ''Heroes of Earth'' was the fastest-selling album of both 2005 and 2006, selling over 1 million copies ten days after its release. Subsequently, the album stayed as #1 in the charts for six weeks, and remained in the charts for 23 weeks, ultimately becoming 2006's third best-selling album. By 2007, about 3 million units were sold, and has since been Wang's most commercially and critically successful album. The album earned Wang a Golden Melody Award for Best Mandarin Male Singer for the second time.

Three months after the release of ''Heroes of Earth'', he began the ''Heroes of Earth Tour'', his first major world tour. The concert commenced with two shows per night in the Taipei Dome in March 2006, breaking Taiwan's concert attendance records.

Professional breakthrough (2007–present)

Wang took a break in working on his music to film ''Lust, Caution'' (2007), an espionage thriller film directed by Ang Lee. He released a promotional single "Falling Leaves Return to Roots" on June 20, 2007 through Hito Radio, a month before the release of his twelfth studio album, ''Change Me''. "Falling Leaves Return to Roots" incorporated Broadway-influenced musical elements, with classical instrumental accompaniments, such as the violin and piano. When asked about the sudden change of music style, Wang explained that the inspiration behind the song was due to the influence of his portrayal of Kuang Yumin in ''Lust, Caution''. "In the past, I have only been releasing mainstream pop and chinked-out related hip hop. ''Lust, Caution'' made me return to 1930's Shanghai, re-living the moment."

''Change Me'' was released on Friday, July 13, despite the superstition generally attached to Friday the 13th. Unlike his previous albums, ''Change Me'' mainly concentrates on pop rock, including influences of Broadway ("Falling Leaves Return to Roots") and old-school Taiwanese pop ("You Are a Song in My Heart"). Through this album, he promoted the issue of global warming and raised environmental awareness. The packaging of the album used only recycled paper and contained no plastic. He believed that small changes by each person can change the world. "To change the world, you start with changing yourself." Reviews of the album were generally positive, defining the album as "mature." An online album poll organized by China's Sohu, however, suggested that Wang's album did not meet expectations. Netizens remarked that his chinked-out productions were more impressive, although that genre itself has also been criticized. Nonetheless, over 1 million units were shipped on the first day of release. The album broke past 2 million sales, becoming one of Wang's best-selling albums.

In August 2008, Wang sought US$320,000 in damages for plagiarism by Pritam, an Indian composer. The lead song for the movie ''Race'' (2008), composed by Pritam, was allegedly copied from "In the Depths of the Bamboo Forest," a single taken off from Wang Leehom's ''Shangri-La'' album. In November 2008, Wang was selected to conduct the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for their 2008 annual grand finale, being the first Asian pop musician to conduct the orchestra. The concert ''Hong Kong Music, Leehom Wang'' (港樂‧王力宏) was held in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre for three nights, with four shows, receiving CNN International coverage throughout.

Wang embarked on his second world tour, the ''Music-Man Tour'', in the latter months of 2008. The tour commenced with two shows per night in the Taipei Dome in September 2008, three months before the release of Wang's thirteenth studio album, ''Heart Beat''. ''Heart Beat'' was released on December 26, debuting at #3 on the weekly G-Music charts. The album peaked at #1 on its seventh week of release, ultimately staying on the charts for 17 weeks. Like Wang's previous album, ''Heart Beat'' showed a similar emphasis of rock influences. The album largely focused on guitar and electric guitar solos, which Wang also used for performances in most of the album's music videos. Wanting to continue a similar "chinked-out" element, the album's first single, "What's Up with Rock?!" incorporated rock influences with Chinese flavor. For the track, he worked with pipa artist Liu Fang, and the two concentrated on mixing both electric guitar elements and pipa strings into the song.

On April 15, 2011, Wang Lee Hom took home the Best Male Singer (Hong Kong and Taiwan region), Best Album for ''The 18 Martial Arts'', and Best Newcomer Director Award for his directorial debut, Love in Disguise at the Global Chinese Music Awards.

Musical style

Wang's music ranges greatly from album to album. Although he is classified as an R&B; artist, Wang Leehom demonstrates competence with many styles of music ranging from traditional Mandopop, Broadway, jazz, rock, R&B;, gospel, acoustic, Indipop, hip-hop, to rap. Many of the styles are infused with a Chinese flavor.

When he first debuted, he sang old school pop and acoustic R&B; ballads. Starting from ''Revolution'' (公轉自轉), Wang began to test out R&B; pop music, but quickly jumped to a quirky style of dance pop for ''Impossible to Miss You'' (不可能錯過你). Starting from ''Forever's First Day'' (永遠的第一天), he began composing rock songs with heavy electric guitar melodies and less emphasis on dance pop. Nonetheless, he still concentrated in light R&B; music. ''The One and Only'' (唯一) became his only fully produced rock album.

''Unbelievable'' began a new road of music for Wang. Aside from the usual R&B; grove, he contributed hip hop and rap that was not clearly emphasized in his past albums. "Not Your Average Thug" was a newly composed R&B; style with a huge amount of American influence. "Can You Feel My World" was a different style of R&B;, and the song contained great uses of the piano and violin as the accompaniment. Fast dance songs like "Ya Birthday" and "Girlfriend" () incorporated rapid rap and heavy drum rhythms. "Girlfriend" included a heavily emphasised chinese flute and a music style that is influenced by Indipop.

''Shangri-La'' was the first chapter of Wang's new style, chinked-out. Chinked-out is a new kind of musical style developed by Wang that involves modern "west" music of R&B;, Hip Hop, rap, and Dance, along with "east" music of heavy Chinese instrument influences, more notably the koudi, tuhu, and ijac. "Deep Within the Bamboo Grove" () which emphasized samples of Tibetan Opera, and different minority tribes in Yunnan and other remote areas of China.

}}

''Heroes of Earth'' displayed a different side to chinked out. Instead of ethnic minority music, Wang focused on Beijing opera and Kunqu. He used instruments such as the erhu, guqin, and guzheng to infuse his new album with another side of traditional Chinese sound. "Beside the Plum Blossoms" () dealt with fast kunqu melodies. In the last 50 seconds of the song, Wang rapped over 250 words, increasing in speed towards the middle and then slowed down. This was to emphasize the accelerating and descending beats of traditional Chinese opera.

In addition to his chinked-out style of music, he is also noted for writing modern love ballads like "Forever Love", "Kiss Goodbye", "The One and Only" and most recently, "All the Things You Never Knew" (你不知道的事） which are sung with piano and string instrument accompaniments.

Acting career

Wang had displayed interest in acting when he starred in several musical plays when he was in high school and college. In 2000, he made his feature film debut in the Hong Kong action crime thriller, ''China Strike Force'', starring alongside Aaron Kwok, Norika Fujiwara, and Ruby Lin. Hong Kong critics had remarked Wang for giving a well-toned performance as his first film. His next starring role was the 2001 Hong Kong science fiction film ''The Avenging Fist'' as the main character Nova. He then starred in two Japanese films ''Moon Child'' (2003) and ''Starlit High Noon'' (2005).

The major breakthrough in his film career was in ''Lust, Caution'', directed and produced by Academy Award winner Ang Lee. The film is based on a novella written by Eileen Chang and revolves around a plot to assassinate a high-ranking Chinese official in the Wang Jingwei Government using a beautiful young woman as bait. Wang plays Kuang Yumin, a patriotic college student who persuades Wong Chia-chi (Tang Wei) to seduce Mr. Yee (Tony Leung). The film was released in the U.S. cinemas on 28 September 2007. ''Lust, Caution'' was produced on a budget of approximately $15 million and grossed $64,574,876 worldwide.

In 2009, Wang was selected to star with Jackie Chan in ''Little Big Soldier''.

In 2010, Wang stepped behind the camera to direct and star in, ''Love in Disguise'' (), also starring Liu Yifei and Joan Chen. ''Love in Disguise'' went on to become the highest grossing film for a first-time director in Chinese history grossing over 60,000,000 RMB domestically.

Endorsements

Wang is one of the most highly visible celebrities in Asia due in no small part to his many product endorsements including: Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Sony Ericsson, Bausch & Lomb, Bosideng MAN, Garnier, Lay's Chips, Nikon, Brand's, Hyundai and also Wahaha purified drinking water, which he has endorsed since 1999.

Wang's Bausch & Lomb print advertisements and TV commercials featured prominently in the popular 2008-2010 TV series ''Chou Nu Wu Di''. The series, which took place at an advertising agency, was an adaptation of the 1999 Colombian telenovela ''Yo soy Betty, la fea''.

Charitable events

Wang is also recognized for his effort and financial contributions to charity. He is active with Worldvision and has visited Laos and Sierra Leone in the last couple of years to raise awareness about the state of poverty in those countries. He personally sponsors over 20 underprivileged children throughout the world with NGO World Vision and frequently participates in the much needed fund-raising campaigns for disaster relief such as the massive earthquake at Sichuan (2008) and Typhoon Marakot in Taiwan (2009). In 2003, he and David Tao composed a song titled Hand in Hand (sung by over 80 celebrities in Taiwan) to promote support and courage to those affected by SARS.

Participation in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Wang was chosen as one of the torchbearers to run in Greece. He was torchbearer number 17 on March 24, the first day of the torch relay. He also attended the torch lighting ceremony before his run. Wang took the torch from Liu Hongliang, son of the first Chinese to attend the Olympic games, Liu Changchun. He represented the newest generation of singers from Taiwan and China. He was chosen mainly because he is devoted to helping save the environment, as shown in his latest album ''Change Me''.

Another reason he was chosen is due to Wang's enthusiasm in the 2008 Olympic Games Theme Songs Competition. His single One World One Dream was chosen as a Olympic Games participation song. The single was written, sung, produced, and scored entirely by himself. He sang along with Jackie Chan, Stephanie Sun, and Han Hong in the song for "The One Man Olympics" which was about the first Chinese to be in the Olympics. He also sang in the 100 days countdown theme song Beijing Welcomes You. He also sang alongside Stefanie Sun, Wang Feng, and Jane Zhang in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Torch Relay Theme Song, Light The Passion, Share The Dream. He is also one of the candidates on vote for performer of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Theme Song. In the closing ceremony, he sang "Beijing Beijing, I Love Beijing" alongside Hong Kong singer Kelly Chen and Korean singer Rain.

Discography

Filmography

+ Film and television
! Year	! Title	! Role	! Notes
1999	''''	Dean McCoppin
2000	''China Strike Force''	Alex Cheung
2000	''Ashes to Ashes: Against Smoking''	Dave
2001	''''	Nova
2003		Son
2005	''Starlit High Noon''	Lian Song
2007		Kuang Yumin
2010	''Little Big Soldier''	Big General
2010	''Love In Disguise''	Du Minghan	also director
2011	''''	Luo Jialun

Awards

Bibliography

December 18, 2001: ''The One and Only - The Official Piano and Vocal Score'' (唯一樂譜書) (Piano and Vocal Score)

March 20, 2003: ''Accidental Biography'' (純屬意外) (Biography; Piano and Vocal Score)

October 15, 2003: ''Portrait of a Love Song'' (Photobook; Prose and Biography) [Japan Release]

November 15, 2005: ''Shangri-La - The Official Piano and Vocal Score'' (心中的日月樂譜書) (Piano and Vocal Score)

June 9, 2006: "Heroes Of TOKYO" (Photobook) [Japan Release]

July 21, 2010: "Love In Disguise: photo collection" (Photobook)

July 21, 2010: "Wang Leehom, the practice of first-time director"

References

Further reading

External links

Leehom Wang official website

Sony Music: Taiwan Japan

Category:1976 births Category:American people of Chinese descent Category:American people of Taiwanese descent Category:Berklee College of Music alumni Category:English-language singers Category:Japanese-language singers Category:Living people Category:Musicians from New York Category:People from Rochester, New York Category:Taiwanese film actors Category:American musicians of Chinese descent Category:American musicians of Taiwanese descent Category:Taiwanese Mandopop singer-songwriters Category:Taiwanese male singers Category:Williams College alumni

bg:Уан Лийхом ca:Lee-Hom Wang de:Lee-Hom Wang es:Lee-Hom Wang fr:Wang Lee-hom ko:왕력굉 it:Leehom Wang jv:Wang Lee Hom kk:Уаң Ли Хоң hu:Wang Lee-hom nl:Wang Lee-Hom ja:ワン・リーホン th:หวัง ลี่หง vi:Vương Lực Hoành wuu:王力宏 zh:王力宏

name	Kenneth Williams
birth name	Kenneth Charles Williams
birth date	February 22, 1926
birth place	Islington, London, England
death date	April 15, 1988
death place	Camden, London, England
death cause	Barbiturate overdose
occupation	Actor, comedian, broadcaster, raconteur
years active	1952–1988 }}

Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the ''Carry On'' films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.

Life and career

Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February 1926 in Bingfield Street, King's Cross, London, the son of Louisa ("Lou" or "Louie") and Charles Williams (a barber). Williams had a half-sister, Alice Patricia, born before Louie had met Charlie Williams. He was educated at Lyulph Stanley School, later becoming apprenticed as a draughtsman to a mapmaker. He joined the Army in 1944 at 18. As part of the Royal Engineers survey section in Bombay, he first performed on stage in the Combined Services Entertainment alongside Stanley Baxter and Peter Nichols. He was a voracious reader able to quote poems or literary extracts from memory. Excerpts from the diaries he kept as an adult show he adored his supportive, theatrical mother but despised his homophobic, morose and selfish father.

Comic performer

His professional career began in 1948 in repertory theatre. Failure to become a serious dramatic actor disappointed him, but his potential as a comic performer gave him his break when he was spotted playing the Dauphin in George Bernard Shaw's ''St Joan'' in 1954 by radio producer Dennis Main Wilson. Main Wilson was casting ''Hancock's Half Hour'', a radio series starring Tony Hancock. Playing mostly funny voice roles, Williams stayed in the series almost to the end, five years later. His nasal, whiny, camp-cockney inflections (epitomised in his "Stop messing about...!" catchphrase) became popular with listeners. Despite the success and recognition the show brought him, Williams thought theatre, film and television were superior forms of entertainment.

When Hancock moved the show away from what he considered gimmicks and silly voices, Williams had less to do on the programme. Tiring of his reduced status, he joined Kenneth Horne in ''Beyond Our Ken'' (1958–1964), and its sequel, ''Round the Horne'' (1965–1968). His roles in ''Round the Horne'' included Rambling Syd Rumpo, the eccentric folk singer; Dr Chou En Ginsberg, MA (failed), Oriental criminal mastermind; J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock, telephone heavy breather and dirty old man; and Sandy of the camp couple Julian and Sandy (Julian was played by Hugh Paddick). Their double act was notable for double entendres and Polari, the homosexual slang.

Williams appeared in West End revues including ''Share My Lettuce'' with Maggie Smith, written by Bamber Gascoigne, and ''Pieces of Eight'' with Fenella Fielding. The latter included material written by Peter Cook, then a student at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Cook's ''One Leg Too Few'' and ''Interesting Facts'' were part of the show and became routines in Cook's own performances. Williams's last revue was ''One over the Eight'', with Sheila Hancock. In 1972, Williams starred opposite Jennie Linden in ''My Fat Friend''. He also appeared with Ingrid Bergman in a stage production of George Bernard Shaw's ''Captain Brassbound's Conversion'' in 1971.

''Carry On''

Williams worked regularly in British film during the 1960s and 1970s, mainly in the ''Carry On'' series (1958–1978) with its British double entendre-laced humour. He appeared in the series more than any other actor. The films were commercially successful but Williams and the rest of the cast were poorly paid. In his diaries, Williams wrote that he earned more in a British Gas commercial than for any ''Carry On'' film. He often criticised ''Carry On'' films, his own performances and those of others, considering them beneath him. This was the case with many of the films, television programmes, stage plays and radio shows in which he appeared. He was quick to find fault with his own work. Despite this, he spoke fondly of the ''Carry On'' films in interviews. Peter Rogers, producer of the series, recollected, "Kenneth was worth taking care of because, while he cost very little – £5,000 a film, he made a great deal of money for the franchise."

Radio and television shows

Williams was a regular on the BBC radio panel game ''Just a Minute'' from its second season in 1968 until his death. From 1972, when he felt he wasn't being appreciated, he would scream, "I've come all the way from Great Portland Street." (It was a short distance to the studio from his home.) He also talked for almost a minute about a supposed Austrian psychiatrist called Heinrich Swartzberg, guessing that show creator Ian Messiter had just made the name up.

On television he was a frequent contributor to the 1973-1974 revival of ''What's My Line?'', hosted the weekly entertainment show ''International Cabaret'' and was a reader for the children's story-reading series ''Jackanory'' on BBC1. He appeared on Michael Parkinson's chat show on eight occasions, during which he told anecdotes from his career. Williams was a stand-in host on the ''Wogan'' talk show in 1986.

Personal life and death

On 14 October 1962, Williams's father, Charlie, was taken to hospital after drinking carbon tetrachloride that had been stored in a cough mixture bottle. Williams refused to visit him, and the following day went out for lunch and then to the cinema. Charlie died that afternoon and, an hour after being informed, Williams went on stage in the West End. The coroner's court recorded a verdict of accidental death due to corrosive poisoning by carbon tetrachloride.

Several years later Williams turned down work with Orson Welles in America because he did not like the country and had no desire to work there. Many years after his death, ''The Mail on Sunday'', quoting Wes Butters, co-writer of the book ''Kenneth Williams Unseen: The Private Notes, Scripts And Photographs'', claimed Williams had been denied a visa because Scotland Yard considered him a suspect in his father's death.

Williams insisted that he was celibate, and his diaries substantiate his claims – at least from his early 40s onwards. He lived alone all his adult life and had few close companions apart from his mother, and no romantic relationships of significance. It has been suggested that Williams was a repressed homosexual. His diaries contain references to unconsummated or barely consummated dalliances, which he describes as "traditional matters" or "tradiola" (since male homosexual activity was a criminal offence in the UK before 1967, outright admission would be held against him if anyone had read the diaries). He befriended gay playwright Joe Orton, who wrote the role of Inspector Truscott in ''Loot'' (1966) for him, and had holidays with Orton and his lover, Kenneth Halliwell, in Morocco. Other friends included Stanley Baxter, Gordon Jackson and his wife Rona Anderson, Sheila Hancock, Maggie Smith and her playwright husband, Beverley Cross. A psychoanalytical examination of Williams's diaries suggests that the underlying cause of his repressed sexuality could be his life-long struggle with depression and feelings of worthlessness.

Williams lived in a succession of small rented flats in north London from the mid-1950s. After his father died, his mother, Louisa, lived close by him and, finally, in the flat next to his. His last home was a flat on Osnaburgh Street, now demolished. Williams was fond of fellow ''Carry On'' regulars Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Connor, Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims and Bernard Bresslaw.

Williams rarely revealed details of his private life, though he spoke openly to Owen Spencer-Thomas about his loneliness, despondency and sense of underachievement in two half-hour documentary programmes entitled ''Carry On Kenneth'' on BBC Radio London. In later years his health declined, along with that of his elderly mother, and his depression deepened. He died on 15 April 1988 in his flat; the cause of death was an overdose of barbiturates. An inquest recorded an open verdict, as it was not possible to establish whether his death was a suicide or an accident. His diaries reveal he had often had suicidal thoughts and as far back as his earliest diaries he noted there were times when he could not see any point in existence. His authorised biography argues that Williams did not take his own life but died of an accidental overdose. His death was due to heart failure from the interaction between pain killers and sleeping pills. The actor had doubled his dosage of antacid without discussing this with his doctor, which, combined with the aforementioned mixture of medication, is the widely accepted cause of death. He had a stock of painkilling tablets and it is argued that he would have taken more of them if he had been contemplating suicide.

His mother died in July 1991 and his half-sister, Pat, died in 1994.

Legacy

Diaries and biographies

Posthumous publication of his diaries and letters, edited by Russell Davies, caused controversy—particularly Williams's caustic remarks about fellow professionals—and revealed bouts of despair, often primed by feelings of personal isolation and professional failure. Williams wrote his diaries from the age of 14 in 1940 until his death 48 years later, although the earliest to survive to publication was for 1942 when he reached 16. Williams kept pocket-sized diaries for 1942 and 1947 (he kept no diaries for 1943 to 1946 as he was touring the Far East in the army); a desk diary for 1948; pocket-sized diaries for 1949 and 1950; desk diaries for 1951 to 1965; standard edition desk diaries for 1966 to 1971, and finally A4-sized executive desk diaries for 1972 to 1988. He claimed that writing in his diaries eased the loneliness he often felt.

In April 2008, BBC Radio 4 broadcast the two-part ''The Pain of Laughter: The Last Days of Kenneth Williams''. The programmes were researched and written by Wes Butters and narrated by Rob Brydon. Butters purchased a collection of Williams's personal belongings from the actor's godson, Robert Chidell, to whom they had been bequeathed.

The first of the programmes said that, towards the end of his life and struggling with depression and ill health, Williams abandoned Christian faith following discussions with the poet Philip Larkin. Williams had been a Methodist, though he spent much of his life struggling with Christianity's teachings on homosexuality.

''Kenneth Williams Unseen'' by Wes Butters and Russell Davies, the first Williams biography in 15 years, was published in October 2008.

An authorised biography, ''Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams'', by Christopher Stevens, was published in October 2010. This drew for the first time on the full Williams archive of diaries and letters, which had been stored in a London bank for 15 years following publication of edited extracts. The biography said Williams used a variety of handwriting styles and colours in his journals, switching between different hands on the page.

Portrayals

Williams has been portrayed in two made-for-television films. In 2000, Adam Godley played him in the story of Sid James and Barbara Windsor's love affair, ''Cor, Blimey!'' (Godley had originated the role in the 1998 National Theatre play ''Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick'' on which ''Cor Blimey!'' was based). Subsequently in 2006, Michael Sheen played him in the BBC Four drama ''Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!''.

David Benson's 1996 Edinburgh Fringe show, ''Think No Evil of Us: My Life with Kenneth Williams'', saw Benson playing Williams; after touring, the show ran in London's West End. Benson reprised his performance at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe and continues to tour.

From 2003 to 2005, Robin Sebastian took on Williams in the West End stage show ''Round the Horne... Revisited'', recreating his performance in 2008 for a production called ''Round the Horne: Unseen and Uncut''.

Recognition

The flat Williams had lived in on Osnaburgh Street from 1972 until his death was bought by Rob Brydon and Julia Davis for the writing of their comedy series ''Human Remains''. The building was demolished in May 2007.

Williams is commemorated by a blue plaque at the address of his father's barber shop in Marchmont Street, London, where he lived from 1935 to 1956. The plaque was unveiled on 11 October 2009 by Bill Pertwee and Nicholas Parsons, with whom Williams performed.

In September 2010, a plaque commissioned by the British Comedy Society was unveiled in the foyer of the New Diorama Theatre by the Mayor of Camden accompanied by David Benson, the actor known for his performances of his own work dedicated to Williams, ''Think No Evil of Us - My Life With Kenneth Williams''. The theatre stands in the Regents Place development, site of the demolished Osnaburgh Street.

Performances

Films

''Trent's Last Case'' (1952)

''The Beggar's Opera'' (1953)

''Valley of Song'' (1953)

''Innocents in Paris'' (1953)

''The Seekers'' (1954)

''Carry On Sergeant'' (1958)

''Carry On Nurse'' (1958)

''Carry On Teacher'' (1959)

''Tommy the Toreador'' (1959)

''Make Mine Mink'' (1960)

''Carry On Constable'' (1960)

''His and Hers'' (1961)

''Raising the Wind'' (1961)

''Carry On Regardless'' (1961)

''Twice Round the Daffodils'' (1962)

''Carry On Cruising'' (1962)

''Carry On Jack'' (1963)

''Carry On Spying'' (1964)

''Carry On Cleo'' (1964)

''Carry On Cowboy'' (1965)

''Carry On Screaming'' (1966)

''Carry On Don't Lose Your Head'' (1966)

''Carry On Follow That Camel'' (1967)

''Carry On Doctor'' (1967)

''Carry On Up the Khyber'' (1968)

''Carry On Camping'' (1969)

''Carry On Again Doctor'' (1969)

''Carry On Loving'' (1970)

''Carry On Henry'' (1970)

''Carry On at Your Convenience'' (1971)

''Carry On Matron'' (1971)

''Carry On Abroad'' (1972)

''Carry On Dick'' (1974)

''Carry On Behind'' (1975)

''That's Carry On!'' (1977)

''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' (1978)

''Carry On Emmannuelle'' (1978)

''The Thief and the Cobbler'' (1993)

Television

''International Cabaret''

''The Kenneth Williams Show''

''Jackanory''

''Willo the Wisp''

''Galloping Galaxies''

''An Audience with Kenneth Williams''

''What's My Line?''

''Some You Win''

''Whizzkids Guide''

''Lets Make a Musical''

''Meanwhile on BBC2''

''Join Jim Dale''

''The Wednesday Play''

''BBC Sunday Night Theatre''

''Saint Joan''

''Sword of freedom''

''The School''

''Dick and the Duchess''

''The Armoured Car''

''Moby Dick Rehearsed''

''Misalliance''

''Countdown''

Stage

''Saint Joan''

''Moby Dick''

''The Buccaneer''

''Hotel Paradiso''

''Share My Lettuce'' (revue)

''Cinderella''

''Pieces of Eight'' (revue)

''One Over the Eight'' (revue)

''The Private Ear and The Public Eye''

''Gentle Jack''

''Loot''

''Captain Brassbound's Conversion''

''My Fat Friend''

''Signed and Sealed''

''The Undertaking''

''Loot'' (directed)

''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' (directed)

Radio

''Hancock's Half Hour''

''Beyond Our Ken''

''Round the Horne''

''Kenneth Williams Playhouse''

''Kenneth Williams Cabaret''

''The Secret Life Of Kenneth Williams''

''Oh Get On with It''

''Stop Messing About''

''Just a Minute''

''The Wind in the Willows''

''Post Mortem'' by Stuart Jackman

''Diary of a Madman'' by Nikolai Gogol

Books

''Acid Drops''

''Back Drops''

''Just Williams''

''I Only Have To Close My Eyes''

''The Kenneth Williams Diaries''

''The Kenneth Williams Letters''

Albums

''Kenneth Williams on Pleasure Bent'' 1967, Decca LK 4856. Arrangements and musical direction by Barry Booth, sound supervision by Roger Cameron.

''The World of Kenneth Williams'' 1970, Decca SPA 64. Stereo edition of recordings from the 1950s and 1960s.

Footnotes

References

Williams, Kenneth (1993), Russell Davies, ed. ''The Kenneth Williams Diaries''. London: HarperCollins.

External links

Category:1926 births Category:1988 deaths Category:Carry On films Category:Drug-related deaths in England Category:English comedians Category:English diarists Category:English film actors Category:English radio actors Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:English voice actors Category:Hypochondriacs Category:People from Kings Cross, London Category:Royal Engineers soldiers Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:People from Islington

cy:Kenneth Williams de:Kenneth Williams es:Kenneth Williams hu:Kenneth Williams pl:Kenneth Williams fi:Kenneth Williams