network name	CBC Television
network logo
country	Canada
network type	Broadcast television network
available	National (available in parts of northern U.S. and Caribbean, via cable or antenna)
owner	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
key people	Richard Stursberg, executive vice presidentJohn D. Cruickshank, editor in chief Kirstine Stewart, director of programming
launch date	September 6, 1952
website	CBC Television }}

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Overview

CBC Television provides a complete 24-hour network schedule of news, sports, entertainment and children's programming, in most cases feeding the same programming at the same local times nationwide, except to the Newfoundland Standard Time Zone, where programs air 30 minutes "late".

As of 6:00 a.m. on October 9, 2006, the network went to a 24-hour schedule, becoming one of the last major English-language broadcasters to do so. Previously, most CBC-owned stations actually signed off the airwaves during the early morning hours (typically 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.). Instead of the infomercials aired by most private stations, or a simulcast of CBC Newsworld in the style of BBC One's nightly simulcast of BBC News channel, CBC will use the time to air repeats, including local news, primetime series, movies, and other programming from the CBC library. However, its French counterpart, Télévision de Radio-Canada, still signs off every night.

While historically there has been room for regional differences in the schedule, as there is today (see "Stations", below), for CBC-owned stations, funding has decreased to the point that most of these stations only broadcast 30 to 60 minutes a day of local news, and usually no other local programming.

Until the mid-1990s, the network carried a variety of American programs in addition to its core Canadian programming, directly competing with private Canadian broadcasters such as CTV and Global. Since then, it has restricted itself to Canadian programs, a handful of British programs, and a few American movies and off-network repeats. Since this change, the CBC has sometimes struggled to maintain ratings comparable to those it achieved before 1995, although it has seen somewhat of a ratings resurgence in recent years. In the 2007-08 season, hit series such as ''Little Mosque on the Prairie'' and ''The Border'' helped the network achieve its strongest ratings performance in over half a decade. In 2002, CBC Television and CBC Newsworld became the first broadcasters in Canada (and very likely the first broadcasters worldwide) required to provide closed captioning for 100% of their programming. On those networks, only outside commercials need not be captioned, though a bare majority of them are aired with captions. All shows, bumpers, billboards, promos, and other internal programming must be captioned. The requirement stems from a human rights complaint filed by deaf lawyer Henry Vlug, which was settled in 2002.

Programming

News and current affairs

The CBC's flagship newscast, ''The National'', airs weeknights and Sundays at 10:00 PM. Until October 2006, CBC-owned and operated stations aired a second broadcast of the program at 11 p.m; this later broadcast included only the main news portion of the program, and excluded the analysis and documentary segment. This second airing was replaced in October 2006 with a rebroadcast of Newsworld's ''The Hour''. There is also a short news update, at most, late Saturday evening. During hockey season, this update is usually found during the first intermission of the second game of the doubleheader on ''Hockey Night in Canada''.

Early evenings are filled by local news in most markets, generally from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. ''Saturday Report'' airs at 6:00 p.m., while there is no early Sunday-evening newscast. Other newscasts include ''CBC News: Morning'', airing weekdays at 5:00 a.m., and ''CBC News: Today'', airing at noon. Weekly newsmagazine ''the fifth estate'' is also a CBC mainstay, as are documentary series such as ''The Passionate Eye''.

Sports

One of the most popular shows on CBC Television is the weekly Saturday night broadcast of NHL hockey games, ''Hockey Night in Canada''. It has been televised since 1952. During the NHL lockout and subsequent cancellation of the 2004-2005 hockey season, CBC instead aired various recent and classic movies, branded as ''Movie Night in Canada'', on Saturday nights. Many cultural groups criticized this and suggested the CBC air games from minor hockey leagues; the CBC responded that most such broadcast rights were already held by other groups, but it did base each ''Movie Night'' broadcast from a different Canadian hockey venue. Other than hockey, CBC Sports properties include Toronto Raptors basketball, Toronto FC Soccer, and various other amateur and professional events.

It was also the exclusive carrier of Canadian Curling Association events during the 2004–2005 season. Due to disappointing results and fan outrage over many draws being carried on ''CBC Country Canada'' (now called bold), the association tried to cancel its multiyear deal with the CBC signed in 2004. After the CBC threatened legal action, both sides eventually came to an agreement under which early-round rights reverted to TSN. On June 15, 2006, the CCA announced that TSN would obtain exclusive rights to curling broadcasts in Canada as of the 2008-09 season, shutting the CBC out of the championship weekend for the first time in 40-plus years.

CBC Sports suffered another major blow when it was announced that after the 2007 season, the CFL regular season games and the Grey Cup would be moving to TSN, ending CBC's tenure with the CFL. It has been stated that the CFL was not happy with the CBC's lackluster production during the CBC's 2005 union lockout, which forced the network to use CBC management to work the behind the scenes telecast and use stadium public address announcers in place of their regular announcer crew.

On June 23, 2007 the network aired the first game in a two-year deal to broadcast Toronto Blue Jays games; the contract ended at the end of the 2008 season, and was not renewed.

In August 2007, it was also announced that CBC would broadcast National Basketball Association games involving the Toronto Raptors, starting with the 2007–08 NBA season, through at least 2009-2010—the CBC would carry games for the 2007/2008 and 20 games for the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons.

Entertainment

Among CBC Television's best-known primetime series are comedy series ''Rick Mercer Report'', ''This Hour Has 22 Minutes'' and ''Little Mosque on the Prairie'', and dramas such as ''The Tudors'', ''Heartland'' and ''Intelligence''. In recent years, British series such as ''Coronation Street'' and ''Doctor Who'' have been given greater prominence. As noted above, it now carries very little American programming apart from some syndicated daytime shows.

In 2006, the CBC announced radical changes to its primetime lineup, including the following new series to premiere that fall:

''Dragons' Den'' (reality)

''Intelligence'' (drama)

''Rumours'' (comedy)

''Underdogs'' (a spinoff of ''Marketplace'')

''Jozi-H'' (medical drama; a Canadian-South African co-production)

''The One: Making a Music Star'' (a Canadian version of the American reality show simulcast by CBC in July 2006; Canadian series was not included on the schedule)

''72 Hours: True Crime'' (crime documentary series; already on schedule but will air in "core" of primetime for first time)

repeats of ''The Hour'' on the main CBC network

Many were surprised by these changes to the CBC schedule, which were apparently intended to attract a younger audience to the network; some suggested they might alienate the core CBC viewership. Another note of criticism was made when the network decided to move ''The National'' in some time zones to simulcast the American version of ''The One'' over the summer. This later became a moot point, as ''The One'' was taken off the air after two weeks after extremely low American and Canadian ratings, and the newscast resumed its regular schedule.

In 2006, daytime programming was also revamped. While there were still repeats of CBC and foreign series, new talk shows such as ''The Gill Deacon Show'' and the regional franchise ''Living'' were added. ''The Gill Deacon Show'' was cancelled after just seven months, and replaced with another talk show, ''Steven and Chris'', which is still on the air today; ''Living'' was cancelled in August 2009.

On January 9, 2007, CBC began airing a highly publicized new series called ''Little Mosque on the Prairie'', a comedy about a Muslim family living in rural Saskatchewan. The series garnered strong ratings as well as international media attention. It was also announced that Martha Stewart's daytime show would be added to the CBC daytime lineup, with the nighttime ''Wheel of Fortune'' and ''Jeopardy!'' following in on September 2008 (with a few edits to limit the amount of US advertising).

In January 2008, CBC television launched the drama series ''The Border'', ''MVP'' and ''jPod'', the reality series ''The Week The Women Went'' and the comedy ''Sophie''. Only ''The Border'' and ''Sophie'' were renewed for a second season in the fall of 2008. The new series ''Being Erica'' and ''Wild Roses'' began airing in January 2009.

Since 2005, the CBC has contributed production funds for the BBC Wales revival of ''Doctor Who'', for which it receives a special credit at the end of each episode; this arrangement has continued into the fourth season, scheduled for broadcast in 2008; the CBC similarly contributed to the first season of the spin-off series, ''Torchwood''.

Children's programming

Children's and youth programming, often marketed as "Kids' CBC" (for younger kids) or "The Outlet" (formerly The X/The Void) (for pre-teens), occupies most portion of the morning and much of weekend mornings. However, despite a number of revamps, its influence is in decline with the continued rise of various specialty services serving the market.

CBC HD

100px|rightOn March 5, 2005, CBC Television launched an HD simulcast of its Toronto (CBLT) and Montreal (CBMT) stations. Since that time they have also launched HD simulcasts in Vancouver (CBUT), Ottawa (CBOT), Edmonton (CBXT) and Calgary (CBRT). CBC HD is available nationally via satellite and on digital cable as well as for free via DTT using a regular TV antenna and a digital tuner (included in most new TVs) on the following channels:

Toronto: 20 (5.1), since March 5, 2005 Montreal: 20 (6.1), since February 21, 2005 Vancouver: 43 (2.1), since January 9, 2006 Ottawa: 25 (4.1), since September 13, 2006 Edmonton: 42 (5.1), since April 1, 2011 Calgary: 21 (9.1), since April 1, 2011

All HD channels map to their analog positions via the North American PSIP virtual channeling standard.

In fall 2007, CBC upgraded its Toronto facilities, becoming the second fully HD news broadcaster in Canada. ''The National'' and all its news programs originating from the same news studio in Toronto (including ''CBC News: Sunday Night'') are now available in HD.

On September 1st, 2011, as part of the analog television shutoff and digital conversion, all CBC over the air HD broadcasts switched from broadcasting in 1080i to 720p.

Stations

Most CBC television stations, including those in the major cities, are owned and operated by the CBC itself. CBC O&O; stations deviate very little from the main network schedule, although there are some regional differences from time to time. For on-air identification, most CBC stations use the CBC brand rather than their call letters, not identifying themselves specifically until sign-on or sign-off (though some, like Toronto's CBLT, don't ID themselves at all). All CBC O&O; stations have a standard call-letter naming convention, in that the first two letters are "CB" and the last letter is "T". Only the third letter varies from market to market; however, that letter is typically the same as the third letter of the CBC Radio One and CBC Radio 2 stations in the same market. An exception to this rule are the CBC North stations in Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Iqaluit, whose call signs begin with "CF" due to their historic association with the CBC's Frontier Coverage Package prior to the advent of microwave and satellite broadcasting.

Some stations that broadcast from smaller cities are private affiliates of the CBC, that is, stations which are owned by commercial broadcasters but air a predominantly CBC schedule. Such stations ''generally'' follow the CBC schedule, although they may opt out of some CBC programming in order to air locally-produced programs, syndicated series or programs purchased from other broadcasters, such as A, which do not have a broadcast outlet in the same market. In these cases, the CBC programming being displaced may be broadcast at a different time than the network, or may not be broadcast on the station at all. Most private affiliates generally opt out of CBC's afternoon schedule and Thursday night arts programming. Private affiliates carry the 10 p.m. broadcast of ''The National'' as a core part of the CBC schedule, but generally omitted the 11 p.m. repeat (which is no longer broadcast). Most private affiliates produce their own local newscasts for a duration of 35 minutes. Some of the private affiliates have begun adding CBC's overnight programming to their schedules since the network went to 24-hour broadcasting.

Private CBC affiliates are not as common as they were in the past, as many such stations have been purchased either by the CBC itself or by Canwest Global or CHUM Limited, respectively becoming E! or A-Channel (now A) stations. One private CBC affiliate, CHBC Kelowna, joined E! (then known as CH) on February 27, 2006. When a private CBC affiliate reaffiliates with another network, the CBC has normally added a retransmitter of its nearest O&O; station to ensure that CBC service is continued. However, due to an agreement between CHBC and CFJC in Kamloops, CFJC also disaffiliated from the CBC on February 27, 2006, but no retransmitters were installed in the licence area. Former private CBC affiliates CKPG Prince George and CHAT Medicine Hat disaffiliated on August 31, 2008 and joined E!, but the CBC announced it will not add new retransmitters to these areas. Incidentally, CFJC, CKPG and CHAT are all owned by The Jim Pattison Group as an independent media group. With the closure of E! and other changes in the media landscape, several former CBC affiliates have since joined Citytv or Global, or closed altogether.

According to filings to the CRTC by Thunder Bay Electronics (owner of CBC's Thunder Bay affiliate CKPR-TV) and Astral Media (owner of CBC affiliates CFTK-TV in Terrace and CJDC-TV in Dawson Creek), the CBC informed them that it will not extend its association with any of its private affiliates beyond August 31, 2011. Incidentally, that is also the date for analog shutoff in Canada. Given recent practice and the CBC's decision not to convert any re-transmitters to digital, even in markets with populations in the hundreds in thousands, it is not expected that the CBC will open new transmitters to replace its affiliates, and indeed may pare back its existing transmitter network.

CBC television stations in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon, branded as CBC North, tailor their programming mostly to the local native population, and broadcast in many native languages such as Inuktitut, Gwichʼin, and Dene.

CBC Television worldwide

Carriage of CBC News

From 1994 through July 2005, CBC news programming was aired in the United States on Newsworld International.

On September 11, 2001, several American broadcasters without their own news operations, including C-SPAN, carried the CBC's coverage of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.. In the days after September 11, C-SPAN carried CBC's nightly newscast, ''The National'', anchored by Peter Mansbridge.

C-SPAN has also carried CBC's coverage of major events affecting Canadians. Among them:

Canadian federal elections.

Six days in September 2000 that marked the death and state funeral of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

The war in Iraq. ''The National'' aired on C-SPAN each night for about 3 weeks following the attacks on Iraq.

* Peter Mansbridge signed off his broadcasts during that time, saying "I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks for watching, those of you here in Canada, and viewers across the United States watching us on C-SPAN."

The power outage crisis in summer 2003.

Key proceedings in Canadian Parliament, such as state openings.

U.S. presidential elections.

* In 2004, C-SPAN picked up ''The National'' the day after the election for the view from Canadians.

State and official visits of American presidents to Canada.

* During MSNBC's coverage of President George W. Bush's visit to Canada, CBC's senior parliamentary editor, Don Newman, appeared on MSNBC.

Several PBS stations also air some CBC programming, especially ''The Red Green Show'', although no CBC programming currently airs on the full network schedule.

For a number of years CBC co-produced a news programme, Hemispheres, with the ABC, Australia's national broadcaster, which was hosted from Sydney and Vancouver and included reports from both networks' foreign correspondents. It was broadcast in both Canada and Australia and across Asia and the Pacific on the Australia Network.

Border audiences

CBC Television stations can be received in many United States communities along the Canadian border over-the-air and have a significant audience. Such a phenomenon can also take place within Great Lakes communities such as Ashtabula, Ohio, which receives programming from CBC's London, Ontario transmitter, based upon prevailing atmospheric conditions over Lake Erie.

Southeastern Michigan (including Detroit), and Northern Ohio, (including Toledo and surrounding areas) receive local Windsor CBC-owned station CBET over the air, and on local cable systems, such as Bright House Networks, Wide Open West, Charter, Comcast, and Buckeye CableSystem. The station can also be seen as far as Cleveland, Ohio with a strong antenna.

Montreal CBC O&O; station CBMT can be seen on various cable systems in the northern parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, including Charter cable systems in Michigan cities like Alpena, Bay City, Midland, Mount Pleasant, Houghton and Marquette.

In Maine, Time Warner Cable (formerly Adelphia Cable) carries CBMT in Bangor; cable viewers along the border can receive CBAT-TV. ''The Bangor Daily News'' carries listings for CBAT (and CKLT-TV Saint John as well).

In northwest Washington state, CBC O&O; station CBUT is distributed to almost one million Comcast cable subscribers in Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Olympia, and Everett.

In the Champlain Valley of Northern Upstate New York and Vermont, local cable systems in Plattsburgh, New York and Burlington, Vermont (Charter and Comcast, respectively) carry the Montreal affiliate CBMT.

Many cable systems in northern Minnesota and northern North Dakota carry CBWT, CBC's Winnipeg affiliate.

The Buffalo, NY cable systems carry CBLT from Toronto. It is also easily receivable via antenna as far south as Cattaraugus County and some communities in Niagara County can receive the HD feed via an antenna.

The SUNY Oswego campus cable system carries CKWS-TV in Kingston, although it is an affiliate, not owned by the CBC. On public cable systems, Time Warner carries CKWS in Jefferson and western St. Lawrence counties, and as far south as Utica. In eastern St. Lawrence County, CBC O&O; CBOT from Ottawa is carried instead.

Some communities in the US, such as Alexandria, Minnesota, offer CBC North on low-powered repeaters, courtesy of the local TV association.

Many northern communities have high viewership of the CBC's ''Hockey Night in Canada''. The CBC's coverage of hockey events, including NHL finals, is generally considered more complete and consistent than coverage by other networks. The CBC's coverage of the Olympic Games has also found a significant audience in American border regions. The CBC is also the only non-cable network that consistently carries coverage of curling.

Caribbean and Bermuda

Several Caribbean nations carry feeds of CBC TV:

Bahamas, on the CoralWave (Cable Bahamas) TV system in the Northern Bahamas (Channel 8)

Barbados, on the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation Multi-Choice TV Cable system (Channel 703)

Bermuda, on the CableVision digital cable service's Variety Tier (Channel 138)

Trinidad and Tobago, on the Columbus Communications Trinidad Ltd. (CCTL) TV system

Turks and Caicos Islands, on WIV Channel 64

Slogans

1966: "Television is CBC"

1970 (ca.): "When you watch, watch the best"

1977: "Bringing Canadians Together"

1980: "We Are the CBC"

1984: "Look to us for good things" ''(general)'' / "Good To Know" ''(news and public affairs)''

1985: "Look again!"

1988–1989: "Best on the Box"

1990–1992: "CBC and You"

1992–1995: "Go Public" / "CBC: Public Broadcasting" ''(that season, the CBC emphasised the fact that they are a public broadcaster)''

1995–2001: "Television to Call Our Own"

2001–2006: "Canada's Own"

2006–2011: "Canada Lives Here"

2011: "The Power is Yours!!"

See also

List of CBC television stations

List of programs broadcast by CBC Television

Télévision de Radio-Canada

References

External links

CBC Television

CBC/Radio-Canada Corporate Site

Video montage of new (2006) CBC News graphic set

CBC Television on YouTube

CBC Television history at Canadian Communications Foundation

Category:CBC Television Category:Companies based in Toronto

de:CBC Television eo:CBC News fr:CBC Television it:CBC Television sv:CBC Television zh:加拿大國營頻道

name	Leonard Cohen
background	solo_singer
birth name	Leonard Norman Cohen
born	September 21, 1934Montreal, Quebec, Canada
instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, synthesizer
genre	Folk, folk rock, rock, spoken word
occupation	Musician, songwriter, poet, novelist
years active	1956 - present
label	Columbia
associated acts	}}

Leonard Norman Cohen, (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships. Famously reclusive, having once spent several years in a Zen Buddhist monastery, and possessing a persona frequently associated with mystique, he is extremely well regarded by critics for his literary accomplishments, for the richness of his lyrics, and for producing an output of work of high artistic quality over a five-decade career.

Musically, Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1967 album, ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'') were rooted in European folk music. In the 1970s, his material encompassed pop, cabaret and world music. Since the 1980s, his high baritone voice has dipped into lower registers (bass baritone and bass), with accompaniment from a wide variety of instruments and female backup singers.

Over 2,000 renditions of Cohen's songs have been recorded. Cohen has been inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. While giving the speech at Cohen's induction into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 10 March 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."

From May 2008 to December 2010, Cohen was on the major comeback world tour, the biggest in his musical career, giving 246 shows in Europe, Australia, Canada, Israel and United States. The highly successful tour was followed with two live albums, ''Live in London'' and ''Songs from the Road'' in both audio and DVD versions, and with many reissues, unauthorised releases of album compilations, DVDs, biographies and books reprints, and as well many international translations of his books and international awards and nominations (such as Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Meteor Music Awards in Ireland, Porin Award in Croatia, Songwriters Hall of Fame, Polaris Music Prize, and Mojo Honours Lists). In 2011 he received the Glenn Gould Prize and Spain's Prince of Asturias award. Currently he is working on a new album which will possibly be released in late 2011.

Early life

Cohen was born on 21 September 1934 in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec, into a middle-class Jewish family. His mother, of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, emigrated from Lithuania while his great-grandfather emigrated from Poland. He grew up in Westmount on the Island of Montreal. His grandfather was Lyon Cohen, founding president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His father, Nathan Cohen, who owned a substantial Montreal clothing store, died when Cohen was nine years old. On the topic of being a Kohen, Cohen has said that, "I had a very Messianic childhood." He told Richard Goldstein in 1967. "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest." Cohen attended Herzliah High School, where he studied with poet Irving Layton. As a teenager, he learned to play the guitar, and formed a country-folk group called the Buckskin Boys. His father's will provided him with a modest trust income, sufficient to allow him to pursue his literary ambitions, without having to worry about where his rent would come from.

Poetry and novels

In 1951, Cohen enrolled at McGill University, where he became president of the McGill Debating Union. His literary influences during this time included Yeats, Irving Layton, Whitman, Federico Garcia Lorca and Henry Miller. His first published book of poetry, ''Let Us Compare Mythologies'' (1956), was published under Louis Dudek as the first book in the McGill Poetry Series while Cohen was still an undergraduate student. Cohen's book, ''The Spice-Box of Earth'' (1961) made him well known in poetry circles, especially in his native Canada. After completing an undergraduate degree, Cohen spent a term in McGill's law school and then a year (1956-7) at Columbia University.

Cohen wrote poetry and fiction throughout much of the 1960s. He preferred to live in quasi-reclusive circumstances, at the time. After moving to Hydra, a Greek island, Cohen published the poetry collection ''Flowers for Hitler'' (1964), and the novels ''The Favourite Game'' (1963) and ''Beautiful Losers'' (1966). His novel ''The Favourite Game'' is an autobiographical ''bildungsroman'' about a young man who discovers his identity through writing.

Subsequently, Cohen published less, with major gaps, concentrating more on recording the songs. In 1978 he published his major book of poetry and prose ''Death of a Lady's Man'', and in 1984 ''Book of Mercy'', which won him Canadian Author's Association Literary Award for Poetry. The book contains 50 pieces of poetic prose, influenced by the Bible, Torah, and Zen-Buddhist writings. Although cited as "contemporary psalms", Cohen himself referred to the pieces as "prayers".

In 1993, Cohen published ''Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs'', and in 2006, after 10 years of delays, additions and rewritings, ''Book of Longing''. During late 1990s and 2000s, many of his poems were first published on his fan website The Leonard Cohen Files

Cohen's writing process, as he told an interviewer in 1998, is "...like a bear stumbling into a beehive or a honey cache: I'm stumbling right into it and getting stuck, and it's delicious and it's horrible and I'm in it and it's not very graceful and it's very awkward and it's very painful and yet there's something inevitable about it."

In 2011 Cohen was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for literature.

Recording career

1960s and 1970s

In 1967, Cohen moved to the United States to pursue a career as a folk music singer-songwriter. During the 1960s, he was a fringe figure in Andy Warhol's "Factory" crowd. Warhol speculated that Cohen had spent time listening to Nico in clubs and that this had influenced his musical style. His song "Suzanne" became a hit for Judy Collins and was for many years his most covered song. After performing at a few folk festivals, he came to the attention of Columbia Records representative John H. Hammond. At this time, Cohen recorded at least one demo acetate (for Asylum Records or some subsidiary of Polygram), supported by his close companion at the time, Joni Mitchell.

Cohen's first album was ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' (1967). He became a cult name in the U.S., as well as in the UK, where the album spent over a year on the album charts. Several of the songs on that first album were covered by other popular folk artists, including James Taylor, and Judy Collins. Cohen followed up that first album with ''Songs from a Room'' (1969) (featuring the often-recorded "Bird on the Wire") and ''Songs of Love and Hate'' (1970). John Simon produced Cohen's first album, ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'', but his second and third albums were produced in Nashville by famed producer Bob Johnston, who played a major role in achieving Cohen's spare early sound and also joined Cohen on two subsequent live tours (playing organ and piano).

In 1970, Cohen toured for the first time, with dates in the United States, Canada and Europe, and appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival. He toured again in Europe and Israel in 1972 with some of the same bandmates, including Charlie Daniels and his producer Bob Johnston. Both tours were represented on the ''Live Songs'' LP, while ''Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970'' was released in 2009. The 1972 tour was also filmed by Tony Palmer; the film ''Bird on a Wire'' (with which Cohen was unhappy) was shown re-cut under Cohen's guidance in 1974, but released only in 2010, reconstructed according to Palmer's original version.

In 1971, Cohen's music was used in the soundtrack to Robert Altman's film ''McCabe & Mrs. Miller''. When Cohen was on a stay in Nashville, Altman phoned to ask permission to use some tracks off ''Songs of Leonard Cohen''. Coincidentally, earlier that same day, Cohen had seen Altman's then-current film ''Brewster McCloud'' in a local theater. He hadn't paid attention to the credits so when Altman asked permission to use Cohen's songs in his new film, Cohen had to ask him who he was. Altman mentioned his hit film ''MASH'', but Cohen had never heard of it. When Altman mentioned his lesser-known ''Brewster McCloud'', Cohen replied, "Listen, I just came out of the theater. I saw it twice. You can have anything of mine you want!"

Beginning around 1974, Cohen's collaboration with pianist and arranger John Lissauer created a live sound praised by the critics. They toured together in 1974 in Europe, and in US and Canada in late 1974 and early 1975, in support of their record ''New Skin for the Old Ceremony''. In late 1975 Cohen performed a short series of show in the U.S. and Canada with new band, in support of his ''Best Of'' release, and also tried out the new songs from his and Lissauer's follow-up to ''New Skin for the Old Ceremony'', an abandoned album entitled "Songs for Rebecca". Songs from that project were later reworked for ''Death of a Ladies' Man'' and ''Recent Songs'' albums. None of the recordings from the three live tours with John Lissauer were ever officially released.

In 1976 Cohen, now without Lissauer, embarked on a new major European tour, with a new band and major changes in his sound and arrangements, again, in support of his ''The Best of Leonard Cohen'' release (in Europe retitled as ''Greatest Hits''). One of the band members was Laura Branigan, and the setlist included unreleased songs "Everybody's Child" (a.k.a. "Blessed Is the Memory") and "Storeroom" (both released as bonus tracks to 2007 reissue of ''Songs of Leonard Cohen''), and the new song "Do I Have to Dance All Night?", which remains unreleased. From April to July, Cohen gave 55 shows, including his first appearance at the famous Montreux Jazz Festival.

After the European tour of 1976, Cohen again attempted a new change in his style and arrangements - his new 1977 record, ''Death of a Ladies' Man'' (one year later, in 1978, Cohen also released a volume of poetry with the coyly revised title, ''Death of a Lady's Man''), was co-written and produced by Phil Spector, known as the inventor of the "wall of sound" technique, which backs up pop music with many layers of instrumentation, an approach very different from Cohen's usually minimalist instrumentation. The recording of the album was fraught with difficulty—Spector reportedly mixed the album in secret studio sessions, and Cohen said Spector once threatened him with a crossbow. Cohen thought the end result "grotesque," but also "semi-virtuous." The record was released by Spector's label, Warner, and was returned to Columbia's Cohen catalogue in late 1980s. Cohen did not take part in the album's promotion, but in his tours of 1979, 1980 and 1985, he performed two songs from the album, "Memories" and "Iodine". However, Cohen chose not to include any of the album's songs on his later compilations ''More Best of Leonard Cohen'' and ''The Essential Leonard Cohen''.

In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional ''Recent Songs'', which blended his acoustic style with jazz and Oriental and Mediterranean influences. Beginning with this record, praised in 2001 by Cohen as his favourite, Cohen began to co-produce his albums. Produced by Cohen and Henry Lewy (Joni Mitchell's sound engineer), ''Recent Songs'' included performances by Austin-based jazz-fusion band Passenger whom were introduced to Cohen by Mitchell. The band helped Cohen create a new sound by featuring instruments like the oud, the Gypsy violin and the mandolin. The album was supported by Cohen's major tour with the new band, and Jennifer Warnes and Sharon Robinson on the backing vocals, in Europe in late 1979, and again in Australia, Israel and Europe in 1980. The tour was filmed by Harry Rasky as ''The Song of Leonard Cohen'', and the film was broadcast on television in 1980. Cohen also gave couple of major TV appearances in 1979, including German's ZDF television. In 2000 Columbia released an album of live recordings of songs from the 1979 tour, entitled ''Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979''; the album (with different track list) was originally rejected by the label in 1980.

During 1970s, Cohen toured twice with Jennifer Warnes as a back-up singer (in 1972 and 1979). Warnes would become a fixture on Cohen's future albums, receiving full co-vocals credit on Cohen's 1985 album ''Various Positions'' (although the record was released under Cohen's name, the inside credits say "Vocals by Leonard Cohen and Jennifer Warnes"). In 1987, she recorded an album of Cohen songs, ''Famous Blue Raincoat''.

1980s

In early 1980s, Cohen co-wrote the rock musical film ''Night Magic'' with Lewis Furey, starring Carole Laure and Nick Mancuso (voice-over by Furey); the LP was released in 1985. At that time, Cohen also worked on an unfinished album of his poetry recitations with producer Henry Lewy, before turning back to John Lissauer. Lissauer produced Cohen's next record ''Various Positions,'' which was released in late 1984. The LP included "Dance Me to the End of Love", which was promoted by Cohen's first video clip, directed by French photographer Dominique Issermann, and the frequently covered "Hallelujah". Columbia declined to release the album in the United States. Cohen supported the release of the album with his biggest tour to date, in Europe and Australia, and with his first tour in Canada and United States since 1975. Anjani Thomas, who would become Cohen's partner, and a regular member of Cohen's recording team, joined his touring band. The band performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and the Roskilde Festival. They also gave a series of highly emotional and politically controversial concerts in Poland, which was under the martial law and Cohen's song "The Partisan" regarded as the hymn of Solidarity movement and Lech Wałęsa's favourite Cohen song. During the 80s, almost all Cohen's songs were performed in Polish language by Maciej Zembaty.

In 1986, Cohen appeared in the episode "French Twist" of the TV series ''Miami Vice.'' In 1987, Jennifer Warnes's tribute album ''Famous Blue Raincoat'' helped restore Cohen's career in the U.S. The following year he released ''I'm Your Man,'' which marked a drastic change in his music. Synthesizers ruled the album and Cohen's lyrics included more social commentary and dark humor. The album, self-produced by Cohen, remains one of Cohen's most acclaimed albums, and was promoted by iconic black and white video shot by Dominique Issermann at the beach of Normandy. Cohen supported the record with series of television interviews, and an extensive tour of Europe, Canada and US. Many shows were broadcast on European and US television and radio stations, while Cohen performed for the first time in his career on PBS's Austin City Limits show; he also performed at the Roskilde Festival again, among other dates. The tour gave the basic structure to typical Cohen's concert which he used in his tours in 1993, 2008–09 and 2010. The selection of performances from the late 1980s was released in 1994 on ''Cohen Live''. None of the concerts was released in its entirety, although some were bootlegged. Parts of one of three Royal Albert Hall concerts were used in BBC documentary ''The Songs from the Life of Leonard Cohen'', which was released on laser disc and video tape.

1990s

The use of the album track "Everybody Knows" (co-written by Sharon Robinson) in the 1990 film ''Pump Up the Volume'' helped expose Cohen's music to a younger audience. The song also featured prominently in fellow Canadian Atom Egoyan's 1994 film, ''Exotica''. In 1992, Cohen released ''The Future'', which urges (often in terms of biblical prophecy) perseverance, reformation, and hope in the face of grim prospects. Three tracks from the album - "Waiting for the Miracle", "The Future" and "Anthem" - were featured in the movie ''Natural Born Killers'', which helped Cohen to reach new US audience.

As with ''I'm Your Man'', the lyrics on the ''The Future'' were dark, and made references to political and social unrest. The title track is reportedly a response to the L.A. unrest of 1992. Cohen promoted the album with two music videos, for "Closing Time" and "The Future", and supported the release with the major tour through Europe, United States and Canada, with the same band as in his 1988 tour, including a second appearance at the PBS's Austin City Limits. Some of the Scandinavian shows were broadcast live on the radio. The selection of performances, mostly recorded on the Canadian leg of the tour, was released on 1994 ''Cohen Live'' album, but none of the new songs from the album itself were included in the live album.

In 1993 Cohen also published his book of selected poems and songs, ''Stranger Music'', on which he had worked since 1989. It includes a number of new poems from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1997, Cohen oversaw the selection and release of ''More Best of Leonard Cohen'' album, which included a previously unreleased track, "Never Any Good", and an experimental piece "The Great Event". The first was left over from Cohen's unfinished mid-1990s album, which was announced to include songs like "In My Secret Life" (already recited as song-in-progress in 1988) and "A Thousand Kisses Deep", both later re-worked with Sharon Robinson for 2001 album ''Ten New Songs''.

In 1994, Cohen retreated to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles, beginning what became five years of seclusion at the center. In 1996, Cohen was ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and took the Dharma name ''Jikan'', meaning "silence". He served as personal assistant to Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi. Japanese songwriter and poet Masato Tomobe stated he admires Cohen and this made him better recognized in Japan around this time.

Although around 2000 there was a public impression that Cohen would not resume recording or publishing, he returned to Los Angeles in May 1999. He began to contribute regularly to The Leonard Cohen Files fan website, emailing new poems and drawings from ''Book of Longing'' and early versions of new songs, like "A Thousand Kisses Deep" in September 1998 and Anjani Thomas's story sent on May 6, 1999, the day they were recording "Villanelle for our Time" (released on 2004 ''Dear Heather'' album). The section of The Leonard Cohen Files with Cohen's online writings has been titled "The Blackening Pages".

Cohen is mentioned in the Nirvana song "Pennyroyal Tea" from the band's 1993 release, ''In Utero''. Kurt Cobain wrote, "Give me Leonard Cohen afterworld/ So I can sigh eternally." Cohen, after Cobain's suicide, was quoted as saying "I'm sorry I couldn't have spoken to the young man. I see a lot of people at the Zen Centre, who have gone through drugs and found a way out that is not just Sunday school. There are always alternatives, and I might have been able to lay something on him."

2000s

Post-monastery records: ''Ten New Songs'', ''Dear Heather'' and Anjani's ''Blue Alert''

After two years of production, Cohen returned to music in 2001 with the release of ''Ten New Songs'', featuring a heavy influence from producer and co-composer Sharon Robinson. The album, recorded at Cohen's and Robinson's home studios, includes the song "Alexandra Leaving", a transformation of the poem "The God Abandons Antony", by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy. The album was a major hit for Cohen in Canada and Europe, and he supported it with the hit single "In My Secret Life" and accompanying video shot by Floria Sigismondi.

In October 2004, Cohen released ''Dear Heather'', largely a musical collaboration with jazz chanteuse (and current romantic partner) Anjani Thomas, although Sharon Robinson returned to collaborate on three tracks (including a duet). As light as the previous album was dark, ''Dear Heather'' reflects Cohen's own change of mood - he has said in a number of interviews that his depression has lifted in recent years, which he attributed to Zen Buddhism. In an interview following his induction into the Canadian Songwriters' Hall of Fame, Cohen explained that the album was intended to be a kind of notebook or scrapbook of themes, and that a more formal record had been planned for release shortly afterwards, but that this was put on ice by his legal battles with his ex-manager. He decided not to promote the album at all, but in 2005 he released a home video accompanying the song "Because Of", shot by his daughter Lorca Cohen, while there were no official album singles.

''Blue Alert'', an album of songs co-written by Anjani and Cohen, was released on 23 May 2006 to positive reviews. Sung by Anjani, who according to one reviewer "...sounds like Cohen reincarnated as woman...though Cohen doesn't sing a note on the album, his voice permeates it like smoke." The album includes a recent musical setting of Cohen's "As the mist leaves no scar", a poem originally published in ''The Spice-Box of Earth'' in 1961 and adapted by Phil Spector as "True Love Leaves No Traces" on ''Death of a Ladies' Man'' album. ''Blue Alert'' also included Anjani's own version of "Nightingale", performed by her and Cohen on his ''Dear Heather'', as well the country song "Never Got to Love You", apparently made after an early demo version of Cohen's own 1992 song "Closing Time". In his 2010 shows, Cohen closed the performances with performances of "Closing Time" which included the recitation of verses from "Never Got to Love You". The title song, "Blue Alert", and "Half the Perfect World" were covered by Madeleine Peyroux on her 2006 album ''Half the Perfect World'', while the third covered song, "Crazy To Love You", was included in the albums Japanese edition.

Before embarking on his 2008-2010 world tour, and without finishing the new album which has been in work since 2006 (new song, "The Street", was recited by Cohen in 2006 on KCRW radio, and he also played two new songs from demo tape, "Book of Longing" and "Puppets"), Cohen contributed few tracks to other artists' albums - new version of his own "Tower of Song" was performed by him, Anjani Thomas and U2 in 2006 tribute film ''Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man'' (the video and track were included on the film's soundtrack and released as B-side of U2's single "Window in the Skies", reaching No 1 in Canadian Singles Chart), in 2007 he recited "The Sound of Silence" on album ''Tribute to Paul Simon: Take Me to the Mardi Gras'' and "The Jungle Line" by Joni Mitchell, accompanied by Herbie Hancock on piano, on Hancock's Grammy-winning album ''River: The Joni Letters'', while in 2008 he recited the poem "Since You've Asked" on album ''Born to the Breed: A Tribute to Judy Collins''.

2005 bankruptcy

On 8 October 2005, Cohen alleged that his longtime former manager, Kelley Lynch, misappropriated over US $5 million from Cohen's retirement fund leaving only $150,000. Cohen was sued in turn by other former business associates. These events placed him in the public spotlight, including a cover feature on him with the headline "Devastated!" in Canada's ''Maclean's'' magazine. In March 2006, Cohen won the civil suit and was awarded US $9 million by a Los Angeles County superior court. Lynch, however, ignored the suit and did not respond to a subpoena issued for her financial records. As a result it has been widely reported that Cohen may never be able to collect the awarded amount. In 2007, U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock dismissed a claim by Cohen for more than US $4.5 million against Colorado investment firm Agile Group, and in 2008 he dismissed a defamation suit that Agile Group filed against Cohen. Cohen has been under new management since April 2005.

''Book of Longing''

Cohen's book of poetry and drawings, ''Book of Longing'', was published in May 2006; in March a Toronto-based retailer offered signed copies to the first 1500 orders placed online. All 1500 sold within hours. The book quickly topped bestseller lists in Canada. Around the time of the release, RJ Smith wrote an essay about Cohen in ''Poetry'' magazine, in which he noted, "The pieces in ''Book of Longing'' are casual, but never so casual that the old horndog doesn’t have muscle or bite." On 13 May 2006, Cohen made his first public appearance in thirteen years, at an in-store event at a bookstore in Toronto. Approximately 3000 people turned up for the event, causing the streets surrounding the bookstore to be closed. He sang two of his earliest and best-known songs: "So Long, Marianne" and "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye", accompanied by the Barenaked Ladies and Ron Sexsmith. Also appearing with him was Anjani, the two promoting her new CD along with his book.

In 2006, Philip Glass composed music to Cohen's 2006 book of poetry ''Book of Longing''. Following the series of live performances which included Glass on keyboards, Cohen's recorded spoken text, four voices (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and bass-baritone), and other instruments, and as well the screenings of Cohen's artworks and drawings, Glass' label Orange Mountain Music released a double CD with the recording of the work, entitled ''Book of Longing. A Song Cycle based on the Poetry and Artwork of Leonard Cohen''.

2008-2010 World Tour

2008 tour

13 January 2008, Cohen quietly announced a long-anticipated concert tour. The tour, Cohen's first in 15 years, began 11 May in Fredericton, NB to wide critical acclaim, and was extended until Winter of 2010. The schedule of the first leg in Summer of 2008 encompassed Canada and Europe, including performances at The Big Chill, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and on the Pyramid Stage at the 2008 Glastonbury Festival on 29 June 2008. His performance at Glastonbury was hailed by many as the highlight of the festival, and his performance of "Hallelujah" as the sun went down received a rapturous reception and a lengthy ovation from a packed Pyramid Stage field. He also played two shows in London's O2 Arena, and in Dublin he gave a "milestone concert", while in Dublin he was the first performer to play an open air concert at IMMA (Royal Hospital Kilmainham) ground, performing there on June 13, 14, and 15 2008. In 2009, the performances were awarded Ireland's Meteor Music Award as the best international performance of the year.

In September, October and November 2008, Cohen gave a marathon tour of Europe, including stops in Austria, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia. In London, he played two more shows at the O2 Arena and two additional shows at the Royal Albert Hall.

''Live in London''

On 21 March 2009, Cohen released ''Live in London'', recorded on 17 July 2008 at London's O2 Arena and released on DVD and as a two-CD set. The album contains 25 songs and is over two-and-a-half hours long. It was the first official DVD in Cohen's recording career. The quotation on the album referred to one hundred five-star reviews the tour gained in the international press in 2008.

2009 tour

The third leg of Cohen's World Tour 2008-2009 encompassed New Zealand and Australia from 20 January to 10 February 2009. In January 2009, The Pacific Tour first came to New Zealand. Simon Sweetman in The Dominion Post (Wellington) of 21 January wrote "It is hard work having to put this concert in to words so I'll just say something I have never said in a review before and will never say again: this was the best show I have ever seen." The Sydney Entertainment Centre show on 28 January sold out rapidly, which motivated promoters to announce a second show at the venue. The first performance was well-received, and the audience of 12,000 responded with five standing ovations. In response to hearing about the devastation to the Yarra Valley region of Victoria in Australia, Cohen donated $200,000 to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal in support of those affected by the extensive Black Saturday bushfires that razed the area just weeks after his performance at the Rochford Winery in the ''A Day on the Green'' concert. Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper reported: "Tour promoter Frontier Touring said $200,000 would be donated on behalf of Cohen, fellow performer Paul Kelly and Frontier to aid victims of the bushfires."

On 19 February 2009, Cohen played his first American concert in fifteen years at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. The show, showcased as the special performance for fans, Leonard Cohen Forum members and press, was the only show in the whole three-year tour which was broadcast on the radio (NPR) and available as the free podcast.

The North American Tour of 2009 opened on 1 April and included the performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday, 17 April 2009, in front of one of the largest outdoor theatre crowds in the history of the festival. His performance of ''Hallelujah'' was widely regarded as one of the highlights of the festival, thus repeating the major success of the 2008 Glastonbury appearance. The performance has been included on 2010 ''Songs from the Road'' live release. During this leg, Cohen regularly performed new song, "Lullaby".

On 1 July 2009, Cohen started his marathon European tour, his third in two years. The itinerary mostly included sport arenas and open air Summer festivals in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Ireland (the show at O2 in Dublin won him the second Meteor Music Award in a row), but also performances in Serbia in the Belgrade Arena, in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, and again in Romania. On 3 August, Cohen gave an open air show at the Piazza San Marco in Venice.

On 18 September 2009, on the stage at a concert in Valencia, Spain, Cohen suddenly fainted halfway through performing his song "Bird on the Wire", the fourth in the two-act set list; Cohen was brought down backstage by his band members and then admitted to local hospital, while the concert was suspended. It was reported that Cohen had stomach problems, and possibly food poisoning. Three days later, on September 21, on his 75th birthday, he performed in Barcelona. The show, last in Europe in 2009 and rumoured to be the last European concert ever, attracted many international fans, who lighted the green candles honouring Cohen's birthday, leading Cohen to give a special speech of thanks for the fans and Leonard Cohen Forum.

The most controversial concert during the whole tour was the last concert of this leg, held in Tel Aviv, Israel, on September 24, three days after Cohen's 75th birthday, at Ramat Gan Stadium. The event was surrounded by public discussion due to a cultural boycott of Israel proposed by a number of musicians. Nevertheless, tickets for the Tel Aviv concert, Cohen's first performance in Israel since 1980, sold out in less than 24 hours. It was announced that the proceeds from the sale of the 47,000 tickets would go into a charitable fund in partnership with Amnesty International and would be used by Israeli and Palestinian peace groups for projects providing health services to children and bringing together Israeli veterans and former Palestinian fighters and the families of those killed in the conflict. However, on 17 August 2009, Amnesty International released a statement saying they were withdrawing from any involvement with the concert and its proceeds. Amnesty International later stated that its withdrawal was not due to the boycott but "the lack of support from Israeli and Palestinian NGOs." The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) led the call for the boycott, claiming that Cohen was "intent on whitewashing Israel's colonial apartheid regime by performing in Israel." On 24 September at the Ramat Gan concert, Cohen was highly emotional about the Israeli-Palestinian NGO Bereaved Families for Peace. He mentioned the organization twice, saying "It was a while ago that I first heard of the work of the 'Bereaved Parents for Peace'. That there was this coalition of Palestinian and Israeli families who had lost so much in the conflict and whose depth of suffering had compelled them to reach across the border into the houses of the enemy. Into the houses of those, to locate them who had suffered as much as they had, and then to stand with them in aching confraternity, a witness to an understanding that is beyond peace and that is beyond confrontation. So, this is not about forgiving and forgetting, this is not about laying down one's arms in a time of war, this is not even about peace, although, God willing, it could be a beginning. This is about a response to human grief. A radical, unique and holy, holy, holy response to human suffering. Baruch Hashem, thank God, I bow my head in respect to the nobility of this enterprise." At the end of the show he blessed the crowd by the Priestly Blessing, a Jewish blessing offered by Kohanim. Cohen's surname derives from this Hebrew word for priest, thus identifying him as a Kohen.

The sixth leg of the 2008-2009 world tour went again to US, with fifteen shows in October and November, with the "final" show in San Jose. The final leg included two new songs, "Feels So Good" and "The Darkness". But at that point, Cohen's "World Tour 2010" was already announced with the European dates in March.

The 2009 world tour earned a reported $9.5 million, putting Cohen at number 39 on ''Billboard'' magazine's list of the year's top musical "money makers."

Live releases

On 14 September 2010, Sony Music released a live CD/DVD album, ''Songs from the Road'', showcasing Cohen's 2008 and 2009 live performances. The previous year, Cohen's performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Music Festival was released as a CD/DVD combo. The DVD version included interviews with Kris Kristofferson and others.

2010 tour

Cohen's 2008-2009 world tour was prolonged into 2010. Originally scheduled to start in March, the first dozen of the original European dates were postponed to September and October due to Cohen's lower-back injury. Officially billed as the "World Tour 2010", the tour started on 25 July 2010 in Arena Zagreb, Croatia, where in the week of the show 16 of Cohen's albums simultaneously entered the Croatian Top 40, while Cohen's work was presented by the translation of ''Book of Mercy'', two of Cohen's biographies, and with selection of poems in major literary magazine ''Quorum'', while there was also the translation of Linda Hutcheon's work on Cohen's literary output. In December 2010, the national daily newspaper ''Vjesnik'' ranked Cohen's show among the five most important cultural event in Croatia in 2010, in the poll among dozen of intellectuals and writers; it was the only event ranked which was not actually Croatian. The tour continued through August, with stops in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, and Ireland, where on 31 July 2010 Cohen performed at Lissadell House in County Sligo. It was Cohen’s eighth Irish concert in just two years after a hiatus of more than 20 years. On 12 August, Cohen played the 200th show of the tour in Scandinavium, Gothenburg, Sweden, where he had already played in October 2008; the show was four hours long.

The Fall leg of the European tour started in early September with an open-air show in Florence, Italy, and continued through Germany, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and Austria, where Cohen performed at the famous open-air opera stage of Römersteinbruch bei St. Margarethen im Burgenland, and then continued with dates in France, Poland, Russia (Moscow's State Kremlin Palace), Slovenia and Slovakia. In Slovenia's brand new Arena Stožice, Cohen accepted Croatia's Porin music award for best foreign live video programme, which he won for his ''Live in London'' DVD. Cohen's last European show was held in Sibamac Arena, in Bratislava, Slovakia. The shows in late September and October were performed without Sharon Robinson, who left this tour leg due to heavy illness; the setlist omitted songs co-written by her, but old Cohen standards were added instead.

The third leg of the 2010 tour started on 28 October in New Zealand and continued in Australia, including an open-air concert at Hanging Rock near Melbourne. It was the first show ever organised at the site. The tour finished with seven special dates added in Vancouver, Portland, Victoria and Oakland, with two final shows in Las Vegas' The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on 10 and 11 December. The very last concert on 11 December was the 246th show on the world tour which started on 11 May 2008.

The world tour 2010 was covered daily on the Flickr photo blog which was edited by Cohen's road manager, entitled Notes from the Road.

2010s

Currently Cohen is recording a new studio album with his touring band and his producer Ed Sanders. The album is expected in 2011 and is supposed to feature four songs performed during the 2009 and 2010 shows: "The Darkness", "Lullaby", "Born in Chains" , and "Feels So Good". Other songs to be included are "Amen" and "The Street". Some of these songs were co-written (and co-produced) with Sharon Robinson and Anjani Thomas. At least one more song has been tried out at the daily soundchecks ("My Oh My"). The first new songs were presented back in 2006, on KCRW radio, where Cohen played two demo tracks, "Book of Longing" and "Puppets".

''Hallelujah''

In 1991, John Cale's cover of this song first appeared on the Leonard Cohen tribute album ''I'm Your Fan''. In 1996, that version also appeared in the independent film ''Basquiat''. John Cale also performed this song in the 2001 Dreamworks movie ''Shrek''. The cover when watching the actual movie was by John Cale, but the original soundtrack for the movie had a Rufus Wainwright version. John Cale's version was also featured on the television series ''Scrubs''.

In 2004, fellow Canadian k.d. lang released the album Hymns of the 49th Parallel which featured Leonard's song Hallelujah. The critically acclaimed album rose to the number 2 position on the Canadian Albums Chart. She subsequently performed the song live, on 12 February 2010, at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.

Jeff Buckley recorded one of the best-known versions of "Hallelujah" for his debut album Grace in 1994, to critical acclaim. On 7 March 2008, Jeff Buckley's version of Cohen's "Hallelujah", went to number 1 on the iTunes chart after Jason Castro performed the song on the seventh season of the television series ''American Idol''. Another major boost for Cohen's song exposure came when singer-songwriter Kate Voegele released her version of "Hallelujah" from her 2007 album ''Don't Look Away'' and appeared as a regular character named Mia on season five of the teenage television show ''One Tree Hill''.

In December 2008, two versions of "Hallelujah" placed No. 1 and 2 in the UK Christmas singles chart, with ''X Factor'' winner Alexandra Burke at No. 1 and Jeff Buckley at No. 2, following a campaign by Buckley fans to get his version to no. 1 rather than the ''X Factor'' version. As a result, online downloads of Cohen's original version placed it at No. 36, 24 years after its initial release.

The song was performed on August 27, 2011, in Roy Thompson Hall, Toronto, by Stephen Page, former lead of the "Barenaked Ladies", at the state funeral of Jack Layton, leader of Her Majesty's Opposition in the Parliament of Canada.

Themes

Recurring themes in Cohen's work include love, sex, religion, depression, and music itself. He has also engaged with certain political themes, though sometimes ambiguously so. "Suzanne" mixes a wistful type of love song with a religious meditation, themes that are also mixed in "Joan of Arc". "Famous Blue Raincoat" is from the point of view of a man whose marriage has been broken by his wife's infidelity with his close friend, and is written in the form of a letter to that friend. "Everybody Knows" starts off with social inequality ("the poor stay poor/ And the rich get rich"), but this is just the laying of the foundation that leads up to the real issue: Infidelity and betrayal.

"Sisters of Mercy" depicts his encounter with two women in a hotel room in Edmonton, Canada. Claims that "Chelsea Hotel #2" treats his affair with Janis Joplin without sentimentality are countered by claims that the song reveals a more complicated set of feelings than straightforward love. Cohen confirmed, with some embarrassment, that the subject is Janis. "She wouldn't mind," he declares, "but my mother would be appalled." "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On" also deals with sexual themes.

Cohen is Jewish, and he has drawn from Jewish religious and cultural imagry throughout his career. Examples include "Story of Isaac", and "Who by Fire", the words and melody of which echo the Unetaneh Tokef, an 11th-century liturgical poem recited on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Broader Jewish themes sound throughout the album ''Various Positions''. "Hallelujah," which has music as a secondary theme, begins by evoking the biblical King David composing a song that "pleased the Lord" and continues with references to Bathsheba and Samson. The lyrics of "Whither Thou Goest", performed by him and released in his album ''Live in London'', are adapted from the Bible (Ruth 1:16-17, King James Version). "If It Be Your Will" also has a strong air of religious resignation. In his concert in Ramat Gan, Israel, on 24 September 2009, Cohen spoke Jewish prayers and blessings to the audience in Hebrew. He opened the show with the first sentence of Ma Tovu. At the middle he used Baruch Hashem, and he ended the concert reciting the blessing of Birkat Cohanim.

In his early career as a novelist, ''Beautiful Losers'' grappled with the mysticism of the Mohawk Catholic saint Kateri Tekakwitha. Cohen has also been involved with Buddhism since the 1970s and was ordained a Buddhist monk in 1996; however he is still religiously Jewish: "I'm not looking for a new religion. I'm quite happy with the old one, with Judaism."

He is described as an observant Jew in an article in ''The New York Times'':

Mr. Cohen is an observant Jew who keeps the Sabbath even while on tour and performed for Israeli troops during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. So how does he square that faith with his continued practice of Zen?

"Allen Ginsberg asked me the same question many years ago," he said. "Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I've practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity. So theologically there is no challenge to any Jewish belief."

Having suffered from depression during much of his life (although less so recently), Cohen has written much (especially in his early work) about depression and suicide. ''Beautiful Losers'' and "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" are about suicide; darkly comic "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" mentions suicide; "Dress Rehearsal Rag" is about a last-minute decision not to commit suicide. An atmosphere of depression pervades "Please Don't Pass Me By" and "Tonight Will Be Fine." As in the aforementioned "Hallelujah," music itself is the subject of "Tower of Song," "A Singer Must Die," and "Jazz Police."

Themes of political and social justice also recur in Cohen's work, especially in later albums. In "Democracy," he laments "the wars against disorder/ the sirens night and day/ the fires of the homeless/ the ashes of the gay." He concludes that the United States is actually not a democracy. He has made the observation in "Tower of Song" that "the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor/ And there's a mighty judgment coming." In the title track of ''The Future'' he recasts this prophecy on a pacifist note: "I've seen the nations rise and fall/ …/ But love's the only engine of survival." In "Anthem", he promises that "the killers in high places [who] say their prayers out loud/ [are] gonna hear from me."

War is an enduring theme of Cohen's work that—in his earlier songs and early life—he approached ambivalently. Challenged in 1974 over his serious demeanor in concerts and the military salutes he ended them with, Cohen remarked, "I sing serious songs, and I'm serious onstage because I couldn't do it any other way...I don't consider myself a civilian. I consider myself a soldier, and that's the way soldiers salute." In "Field Commander Cohen" he imagines himself as a soldier of sorts, socializing with Fidel Castro in Cuba—where he had actually lived at the height of US-Cuba tensions in 1961, allegedly sporting a Che Guevara-style beard and military fatigues. This song was written immediately following Cohen's front-line stint with the Israeli air force, the "fighting in Egypt" documented in a passage of "Night Comes On." In 1973, Cohen, who had traveled to Jerusalem to sign up on the Israeli side in the Yom Kippur War, had instead been assigned to a USO-style entertainer tour of front-line tank emplacements in the Sinai Desert, coming under fire. A poetic mention of then-General Ariel Sharon, delivered in the same mode as his Fidel Castro allusions, has given birth to the story that Cohen and Sharon shared cognac together during Cohen's term in the Sinai.

Deeply moved by encounters with Israeli and Arab soldiers, he left the country to write "Lover Lover Lover." This song has been interpreted as a personal renunciation of armed conflict, and ends with the hope his song will serve a listener as "a shield against the enemy." He would later remark, "'Lover, Lover, Lover' was born over there; the whole world has its eyes riveted on this tragic and complex conflict. Then again, I am faithful to certain ideas, inevitably. I hope that those of which I am in favour will gain." Asked which side he supported in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Cohen responded, "I don't want to speak of wars or sides ... Personal process is one thing, it's blood, it's the identification one feels with their roots and their origins. The militarism I practice as a person and a writer is another thing.... I don't wish to speak about war."

His recent politics continue a lifelong predilection for the underdog, the "beautiful loser." Whether recording "The Partisan", a French Resistance song by Anna Marly and Emmanuel d'Astier, or singing his own "The Old Revolution," written from the point of view of a defeated royalist, he has throughout his career expressed in his music sympathy and support for the oppressed. Although Cohen's fascination with war is often as a metaphor for more general cultural and personal issues, as in "New Skin for the Old Ceremony," by this measure his most militant album.

Cohen blends pessimism about political/cultural issues with humour and, especially in his later work, with gentle acceptance. His wit contends with his stark analysis as his songs are often verbally playful and cheerful. In "Tower of Song" the famously raw-voiced Cohen sings ironically that he was "born with the gift of a golden voice." The generally dark "Is This What You Wanted?" contains playful lines "You were the whore and the beast of Babylon/ I was Rin Tin Tin." In concert he often plays around with his lyrics ("If you want a doctor/ I'll examine every inch of you" from "I'm Your Man" sometimes becomes "If you want a Jewish doctor..."). He may introduce one song by using a phrase from another song or poem—for example, introducing "Leaving Green Sleeves" by paraphrasing his own "Queen Victoria," "This is a song for those who are not nourished by modern love."

Cohen has also recorded such love songs as Irving Berlin's "Always" or the more obscure soul number "Be for Real" (originally sung by Marlena Shaw).

Personal life

Cohen had a relationship with the Los Angeles artist Suzanne Elrod beginning in the 1970s, with whom he has two children: a son, Adam, born in 1972, and a daughter, Lorca, named after poet Federico García Lorca, born in 1974. Adam Cohen began a career as a singer-songwriter in the mid-1990s and fronts a band called Low Millions, while Lorca took the part in her father's tour team during the 2008-2010 world tour as photographer and videographer. She also shot Cohen's video for the song "Because Of" in 2004, while her "Backstage Sketch" was included on Cohen's 2010 DVD ''Songs from the Road''. She has directed and shot video clips for The Webb Sisters and Kamila Thompson. On February 2, 2011, Lorca gave birth to a daughter, Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen. The father of the child is Rufus Wainwright.

Cohen has downplayed marriage as an important relationship, and has said that "cowardice" and "fear" have prevented him from ever actually marrying Elrod. Elrod took the cover photograph on Cohen's ''Live Songs'' album and is pictured on the cover of the ''Death of a Ladies' Man'' album. She is also the "Dark Lady" of Cohen's 1978 book of poems, prose and diary entries ''Death of a Lady's Man'', the book which deals with the failed marriage (hence the cover, which shows medieval ''coniunctio spiritual'') and which was started as the novel about the spiritual and emotional failure of marriage, invariantly titled ''The Woman Being Born'', and ''My Life in Art''. Cohen and Elrod had split by 1979.

"Suzanne", one of his best-known songs, refers to Suzanne Verdal, the former wife of his friend, the Québécois sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, rather than Elrod. The 1979 song "The Gypsy Wife" is supposedly about Suzanne Elrod.

In the 1980s, Cohen was in a relationship with the French photographer Dominique Issermann, who shot his first two video clips, "Dance Me To The End Of Love" and "First We Take Manhattan." Issermann is today famous for her photo sessions with Carla Bruni and for her fashion photography for magazines like ''Elle''; in 2010 she was the official photographer of Cohen's world tour. Her photographs of Cohen are the canonical in Cohen's merchandise, and some of them were used for the covers of his 1993 book ''Stranger Music'' and his album ''More Best of Leonard Cohen'', and inside the booklet of Cohen's 1988 record ''I'm Your Man'', which is dedicated to Issermann with words: "All these songs are for you, D. I.".

In the 1990s, Cohen was romantically linked to actress Rebecca De Mornay. De Mornay co-produced Cohen's 1992 album ''The Future'', which is also supposedly dedicated to her with an inscription which quotes Rebecca's coming to the well from Book of Genesis, 24 and giving drink to Eliezer's camels, after he prayed for the help; Eliezer ("God is my help" in Hebrew) is Cohen's Hebrew name, and Cohen sometimes referred to himself as "Eliezer Cohen" or even "Jikan Eliezer."

In 2000s, Cohen has been romantically involved with Anjani Thomas. Together they wrote the album ''Blue Alert'' in 2006, produced by Cohen. Thomas co-produced and co-wrote some songs on Cohen's 2004 album ''Dear Heather'' and is currently involved in recording of Cohen's forthcoming record.

Since late 1970s, Cohen has been associated with Kyozan Joshu Sasaki, regularly visiting him at Mount Baldy Zen Center and serving him as personal assistant during Cohen's own reclusion into Mt. Baldy monastery in the 1990s. Roshi appears as regular motif or addressee in Cohen's poetry, especially in the ''Book of Longing'', and also took part in 1997 documentary about Cohen's monastery years, ''Leonard Cohen: Spring 1996''. Cohen's 2001 album ''Ten New Songs'' is dedicated to Joshu Sasaki.

Awards, titles and honours

1964 the Québec Literary Competition Prize (awarded 1923-70 by the Province of Québec) ''The Favourite Game'' (Cohen's first novel)

1968 Governor General's Award (English language poetry or drama) for ''Selected Poems 1956–1968''. (Refused)

1970 Honorary degree from Dalhousie University

1984 The Golden Rose, the main award at the international television festival Rose d'Or in Montreux, for ''I am a Hotel'', made-for-TV short musical film written by Cohen and based on his songs.

1985 Canadian Author's Association Literary Award for Poetry for ''Book of Mercy''

1986 Genie Award for Best Original Song for "Angel Eyes" from ''Night Magic'' (with Lewis Furey)

1988 Columbia Records Crystal Globe Award from CBS for ''I'm Your Man''. The award is for artists who sell more than five million copies of an album in foreign territories

1989 Nominated for Juno Awards for Canadian Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year

1991 Officer of the Order of Canada

1991 Induction into the Juno/Canadian Music Hall of Fame

1991 Nominated for a Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year.

1992 Honorary degree from McGill University, Montreal.

1993 Juno Award for Male Vocalist of the Year. The video for Closing Time, directed by Curtis Wehrfritz, won for Best Video. He was also nominated as Producer of the Year (with co-producer Leanne Ungar, for "Closing Time").

1993 Governor General's Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

1994 Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year and was nominated for the Juno Award for Album of the Year (for ''The Future''). The video for The Future, directed by Curtis Wehrfritz, was nominated for Juno Award for Best Video.

1996 Ordained a Rinzai Buddhist monk.

2001 Nagroda Muzyczna Fryderyk, the annual Polish music award, for best foreign album (''Ten New Songs'').

2002 Nominated for Juno Award as Best Songwriter Cohen (with Sharon Robinson) for "Boogie Street", "In My Secret Life", and "You Have Loved Enough").

2002 Nominated for the Juno Award for Best Video for "In My Secret Life", directed by Floria Sigismondi. ''Ten New Songs'' nominated for Best Pop Album, and he was nominated for Best Artist.

2002 SNEP Award Cohen for more than 100,000 copies sold of ''Ten New Songs'' in France.

2003 Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour.

2004 Inclusion in Canada Reads 2005 with ''Beautiful Losers''

2005 Induction into the Canadian Folk Music Walk of Fame.

2006 Induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

2007 Grammy for Album of the Year as a featured artist on Herbie Hancock's ''River: The Joni Letters''. 2008 Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 2008 Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec. 2009 Long Listed for the Polaris Music Prize for ''Live in London'' 2009 Nominated for Mojo Honours Lists for Best Live Act category.

2009 Meteor Music Award for Best International Live Performance for his 2008 show in Dublin's IMMA's Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

2010 A second Meteor Music Award for Best International Live Performance for his 2009 show in Dublin's O2.

2010 Porin Award in Croatia in category of foreign video programme, for his ''Live in London'' DVD.

2010 Induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

2011 Glenn Gould Prize

2011 Prince of Asturias Awards, Literature, Spain

Discography

Studio albums

!Title	!Release date
align=left
align=left

Poetry

''Six Montreal Poets''. New York: Folkways Records, 1957.

Tribute albums

!Title	!Release date

Many other cover albums have been recorded by many artists.

Publications

Collections: poems and songs

''Let Us Compare Mythologies''. Montreal: Contact Press [McGill Poetry Series], 1956. reissued 2007 ''The Spice-Box of Earth''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1961. ''Flowers for Hitler''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1964. ''Parasites of Heaven''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1966. ''Selected Poems 1956–1968''. New York, Toronto: Viking, McClelland & Stewart, 1968. ''The Energy of Slaves''. London,Toronto: Cape, McClelland and Stewart, 1972. ISBN 0771022042 ISBN 0771022034 New York: Viking, 1973. ''Selected Poetry of Leonard Cohen''. Penguin Classics, 1978. ''Death of a Lady's Man''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1978. ISBN 0771021771 London, New York: Viking, Penguin, 1979. - reissued 2010 ''Book of Mercy''.London: Cape, 1984. - reissued 2010 ''The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen''. London, Omnibus, 1998. ISBN 0711971412 2nd edition, 2009. ''God is Alive. Magic is Afoot.'' Sarah Perkins and Ian Jackson illus. Toronto: Stoddart, 2000. ISBN 0773761802 ''Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs''. London, New York, Toronto: Cape, Pantheon, McClelland & Stewart, 2003. ISBN 0771022301 ''Book of Longing''. London, New York, Toronto: Penguin, Ecco, McClelland & Stewart, 2006. (poetry, prose, drawings) ISBN 9780771022340

''Poems and Songs (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)'' 2011

Novels

''The Favorite Game''. London, New York, Toronto: Secker & Warburg, Viking P, McClelland & Stewart, 1963. Reissued as ''The Favourite Game.'' Toronto: McClelland & Stewart [New Canadian Library], 1994. ISBN 9780771099540 ''Beautiful Losers''. New York, Toronto: Viking Press, McClelland & Stewart, 1966. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart [New Canadian Library], 1991. ISBN 9780771098758 McClelland & Stewart [Emblem], 2003. ISBN 9780771022005

Film and television

Cohen was the subject of the 1965 documentary ''Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen'', directed by Donald Brittain and Don Owen and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. This film, which pre-dates Cohen's career as a songwriter, explores his career as a well-known Canadian poet. Cohen also appeared in Owen's 1967 film ''The Ernie Game'', which was entered into the 18th Berlin International Film Festival.

Cohen's music also appeared the following year in the 1966 NFB animated short ''Angel''.

In 1968 Cohen performed on the BBC, both on the Julie Felix Show and in his own special, split into two thirty minute shows. The first clip still exists, while the second is only available as a bootleg CD.

Cohen makes a cameo appearance performing "The Stranger Song" in the Canadian film ''The Ernie Game'' (1968), which is based on the stories of Bernard Cole Spencer.

Cohen's music was popular among the directors of the New German Cinema, and appeared in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's ''Beware of a Holy Whore'' (1971) and Werner Herzog's ''Stroszek'' (1977).

Cohen's 1970 performance at the Isle of Wight Festival was filmed by Murray Lerner, but remained unreleased until 2009 when it was released as ''Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970'', and included Lerner's 2009 documentary material.

Robert Altman's 1971 western ''McCabe and Mrs. Miller'' used three Cohen songs on its soundtrack, as well the instrumental parts of The Stranger Song performed by Cohen. Multiple record singles were released during the film's distribution. In 1972, Cohen's European tour was filmed by British director Tony Palmer; the re-edited material appeared in 1974 under the title ''Bird On a Wire'' and exists only as a bootleg VHS tape. Palmer's authorised and restored film was released in 2010. In October 1979, Cohen recorded a show for German TV show ''RockPop Special'', available only as a bootleg. The show is often rebroadcast by the German satellite TV channel 3Sat.

''The Song Of Leonard Cohen'', a 1980 documentary by Harry Rasky, featuring Irving Layton, includes highlights from Cohen's 1979 European tour and tracks from the LP ''Recent Songs''.

In 1983, Cohen wrote and starred in made-for-TV short musical film ''I am a Hotel'', based on his songs. It won the Golden Rose award at the Rose d'Or television festival in Montreux in 1984.

In 1985, Cohen co-wrote and co-composed ''Night Magic'' (starring Carole Laure) with fellow Quebecker, Lewis Furey.

Cohen is subject of the BBC documentary ''Songs from the Life of Leonard Cohen'', filmed during his 1988 tour.

Cohen appeared as villain Francois Zolan in the "French Twist" episode of the American television series ''Miami Vice'' (season 2, episode 17), originally broadcast on 21 February 1986.

In 1988, Spanish TV station RTE televised the full version of Cohen's show in San Sebastian, 20 May, later aired in number of European countries and still rerun on the Spanish TV. It remains the only completely televised Cohen show.

In 1989, Cohen gave his first major performance on US television on Austin City Limits (recorded in November 1988). He performed for the show again in July 1993. Both programs have been often rebroadcast by the PBS.

"Everybody Knows" and "If It Be Your Will" play prominent parts in the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume

Three of Cohen's songs from his album The Future ("Waiting for the Miracle", "Anthem", and "The Future") are used in Oliver Stone's 1994 film Natural Born Killers. Songs from this album have also appeared in the films ''Wonder Boys'' (2000), starring Michael Douglas and The Life of David Gale (2003), starring Kevin Spacey.

In 1994, Cohen narrated NFB-produced documentary ''The Tibetan Book of the Dead''.

Cohen's years at the Mt. Baldy Zen Centre were the subject of 1997 French documentary ''Leonard Cohen: Spring 96'' by Armelle Brusq, released on DVD in 2009.

In 2001, Cohen's song Hallelujah was used on the soundtrack of ''Shrek'', in a version by John Cale.

''The Favourite Game (Le Jeu de l'ange)'', based on his novel of the same title, was released in Canada in 2003.

''Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man'' was released in 2006. It features a 2005 tribute concert to Cohen, "Came So Far For Beauty", held at the Sydney Opera House and produced by Hal Willner. The film, directed by Lian Lunson, has appearances by Nick Cave, Beth Orton, Antony of Antony and the Johnsons, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, and a performance of "Tower of Song" by Cohen and U2. The film also features Cohen recalling significant parts of his life and career.

Cohen is the subject of a two-part documentary, ''Leonard Cohen: Under Review 1934-1977'' (2007) and ''Leonard Cohen: Under Review 1978-2006'' (2008), available separately on DVD.

See also

Music of Canada

List of Quebec musicians

Music of Quebec

Culture of Quebec

List of people with depression

References

Further reading

External links

Official website

The Leonard Cohen Files

''Bird on a Wire'' (1972) at TCM Movie Morlocks

''Canadian Poetry: Studies/Documents/Reviews'', Vol. 33 (Fall/Winter, 1993). The Proceedings of the Leonard Cohen Conference, Red Deer College, Oct. 22-24, 1993.

Category:1934 births Category:Anglophone Quebec people Category:Ashkenazi Jews Category:Canadian buskers Category:Canadian folk singers Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian Jews Category:Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Canadian novelists Category:Canadian people of Lithuanian descent Category:Canadian people of Polish descent Category:Canadian poets Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:Canadian Zen Buddhists Category:Companions of the Order of Canada Category:Genie Award winners Category:Governor General's Award winning poets Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grand Officers of the National Order of Quebec Category:Jewish Canadian culture Category:Jewish composers and songwriters Category:Jewish poets Category:Jewish singers Category:Jewish Canadian writers Category:Juno Award winners Category:Living people Category:McGill University alumni Category:Musicians from Montreal Category:People from Westmount, Quebec Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Western mystics Category:Writers from Quebec Category:Jewish Canadian musicians

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name	Richard Dawkins
birth name	Clinton Richard Dawkins
birth date	March 26, 1941
birth place	Nairobi, Kenya Colony
nationality	British
education	MA, DPhil (Oxon)
alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
doctoral advisor	Nikolaas Tinbergen
doctoral students	Alan Grafen, Mark Ridley
occupation	Ethologist
years active	1967–present
employer	University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of Oxford
organization	Fellow of the Royal SocietyFellow of the Royal Society of Literature
known for	Gene-centered view of evolution, concept of the meme, as well as advocacy of atheism and science.
notable works	''The Selfish Gene'' (1976)''The Extended Phenotype'' (1982)''The Blind Watchmaker'' (1986)''The God Delusion'' (2006)
influences	Charles Darwin, Ronald Fisher, George C. Williams, W. D. Hamilton, Daniel Dennett, Bertrand Russell
spouse	Marian Stamp Dawkins (m. 1967–1984)Eve Barham (m. 1984–?)Lalla Ward (m. 1992–present)
children	Juliet Emma Dawkins (born 1984)
parents	Clinton John DawkinsJean Mary Vyvyan (née Ladner)
awards	Faraday Award (1990)Kistler Prize (2001)
website	The Richard Dawkins Foundation
footnotes	}}

Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941), known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.

Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book ''The Selfish Gene'', which popularised the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term ''meme''. In 1982 he introduced an influential concept into evolutionary biology, presented in his book ''The Extended Phenotype'', that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment, including the bodies of other organisms.

Dawkins is an atheist and humanist, a Vice President of the British Humanist Association and supporter of the Brights movement. He is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book ''The Blind Watchmaker'', he argued against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he described evolutionary processes as analogous to a ''blind'' watchmaker. He has since written several popular science books, and makes regular television and radio appearances, predominantly discussing these topics. In his 2006 book ''The God Delusion'', Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion—a fixed false belief. As of January 2010 the English-language version has sold more than two million copies and had been translated into 31 languages, making it his most popular book to date.

Biography

Dawkins was born in Nairobi, Kenya. His father, Clinton John Dawkins (1915–2010), returning to England in 1949, when Dawkins was eight. His father had inherited Over Norton Park, which he turned from a country estate into a commercial farm. Both his parents were interested in natural sciences; they answered Dawkins' questions in scientific terms.

Dawkins describes his childhood as "a normal Anglican upbringing". Though he began having doubts about the existence of a god when he was about nine years old, he was persuaded by the argument from design, an argument for the existence of a god or a creator based on perceived evidence of order, purpose, or design in nature, and embraced Christianity.

He attended Oundle, a Church of England school, Dawkins' research in this period concerned models of animal decision-making.

From 1967 to 1969, he was an assistant professor of zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. During this period, the students and faculty at UC Berkeley were largely opposed to the ongoing Vietnam War, and Dawkins became heavily involved in the anti-war demonstrations and activities. He returned to the University of Oxford in 1970 taking a position as a lecturer, and in 1990, as a reader in zoology. In 1995 he was appointed Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, a position that had been endowed by Charles Simonyi with the express intention that the holder "be expected to make important contributions to the public understanding of some scientific field", and that its first holder should be Richard Dawkins.

Since 1970 he has been a fellow of New College. He has delivered a number of inaugural and other lectures, including the Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture (1989), first Erasmus Darwin Memorial Lecture (1990), Michael Faraday Lecture (1991), T.H. Huxley Memorial Lecture (1992), Irvine Memorial Lecture (1997), Sheldon Doyle Lecture (1999), Tinbergen Lecture (2004) and Tanner Lectures (2003). In 1991 he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children. He has also served as editor of a number of journals, and has acted as editorial advisor to the ''Encarta Encyclopedia'' and the ''Encyclopedia of Evolution''. He is a senior editor of the Council for Secular Humanism's ''Free Inquiry'' magazine, for which he also writes a column. He has been a member of the editorial board of ''Skeptic'' magazine since its foundation.

He has sat on judging panels for awards as diverse as the Royal Society's Faraday Award and the British Academy Television Awards, and has been president of the Biological Sciences section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2004 Balliol College, Oxford instituted the Dawkins Prize, awarded for "outstanding research into the ecology and behaviour of animals whose welfare and survival may be endangered by human activities". In September 2008, he retired from his professorship, announcing plans to "write a book aimed at youngsters in which he will warn them against believing in 'anti-scientific' fairytales."

Personal life

On 19 August 1967, Dawkins married fellow ethologist Marian Stamp in Annestown, County Waterford, Ireland; they divorced in 1984. Later that same year, on 1 June, he married Eve Barham (19 August 1951–28 February 1999) in Oxford. They had a daughter, Juliet Emma Dawkins (born 1984, Oxford). Dawkins and Barham divorced; she died of cancer. In 1992 he married actress Lalla Ward in Kensington and Chelsea, London. Dawkins met her through their mutual friend Douglas Adams, who had worked with her on the BBC's ''Doctor Who''.

Work

Evolutionary biology

In his scientific works, Dawkins is best known for his popularisation of the gene-centred view of evolution. This view is most clearly set out in his books ''The Selfish Gene'' (1976), where he notes that "all life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities", and ''The Extended Phenotype'' (1982), in which he describes natural selection as "the process whereby replicators out-propagate each other". In his role as an ethologist, interested in animal behaviour and its relation to natural selection, he advocates the idea that the gene is the principal unit of selection in evolution.

Dawkins has consistently been sceptical about non-adaptive processes in evolution (such as spandrels, described by Gould and Lewontin) and about selection at levels "above" that of the gene. He is particularly sceptical about the practical possibility or importance of group selection as a basis for understanding altruism. This behaviour appears at first to be an evolutionary paradox, since helping others costs precious resources and decreases one's own fitness. Previously, many had interpreted this as an aspect of group selection: individuals were doing what was best for the survival of the population or species as a whole, and not specifically for themselves. British evolutionary biologist W. D. Hamilton had used the gene-centred view to explain altruism in terms of inclusive fitness and kin selection − that individuals behave altruistically toward their close relatives, who share many of their own genes. Similarly, Robert Trivers, thinking in terms of the gene-centred model, developed the theory of reciprocal altruism, whereby one organism provides a benefit to another in the expectation of future reciprocation. Dawkins popularised these ideas in ''The Selfish Gene'', and developed them in his own work.

He has also been strongly critical of the Gaia philosophy theory of the independent scientist James Lovelock.

Critics of Dawkins' approach suggest that taking the gene as the unit of ''selection'' − of a single event in which an individual either succeeds or fails to reproduce − is misleading, but that the gene could be better described as a unit of ''evolution'' − of the long-term changes in allele frequencies in a population. In ''The Selfish Gene'', Dawkins explains that he is using George C. Williams' definition of the gene as "that which segregates and recombines with appreciable frequency." Another common objection is that genes cannot survive alone, but must cooperate to build an individual, and therefore cannot be an independent "unit". In ''The Extended Phenotype'', Dawkins suggests that because of genetic recombination and sexual reproduction, from an individual gene's viewpoint all other genes are part of the environment to which it is adapted.

Advocates for higher levels of selection such as Richard Lewontin, David Sloan Wilson, and Elliot Sober suggest that there are many phenomena (including altruism) that gene-based selection cannot satisfactorily explain. The philosopher Mary Midgley, with whom Dawkins clashed in print concerning ''The Selfish Gene'', has criticised gene selection, memetics and sociobiology as being excessively reductionist and suggests that the popularity of Dawkins' work is due to factors in the Zeitgeist such as the increased individualism of the Thatcher/Reagan decades.

In a set of controversies over the mechanisms and interpretation of evolution (the so-called 'Darwin Wars'), one faction was often named after Dawkins and its rival after the American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, reflecting the pre-eminence of each as a populariser of pertinent ideas. In particular, Dawkins and Gould have been prominent commentators in the controversy over sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, with Dawkins generally approving and Gould generally being critical. A typical example of Dawkins' position was his scathing review of ''Not in Our Genes'' by Steven Rose, Leon J. Kamin and Richard C. Lewontin. Two other thinkers on the subject often considered to be allied to Dawkins are Steven Pinker and Daniel Dennett; Dennett has promoted a gene-centred view of evolution and defended reductionism in biology. Despite their academic disagreements, Dawkins and Gould did not have a hostile personal relationship, and Dawkins dedicated a large portion of his 2003 book ''A Devil's Chaplain'' posthumously to Gould, who had died the previous year.

Dawkins' book ''The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution'' expounds the evidence for biological evolution. All of his previous works dealing with evolution had assumed its truth, and not explicitly provided the evidence to this effect. Dawkins felt that this represented a gap in his oeuvre, and decided to write the book to coincide with Darwin's bicentennial year.

Meme

Dawkins coined the word ''meme'' (the behavioral equivalent of a gene) to describe how Darwinian principles might be extended to explain the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. This has spawned the field of memetics. Dawkins' ''memes'' refer to any cultural entity that an observer might consider a replicator of a certain idea or a complex of ideas. He hypothesised that people could view many cultural entities as capable of such replication, generally through exposure to humans, who have evolved as efficient (although not perfect) copiers of information and behaviour. Memes are not always copied perfectly, and might indeed become refined, combined or otherwise modified with other ideas, resulting in new memes, which may themselves prove more, or less, efficient replicators than their predecessors, thus providing a framework for a hypothesis of cultural evolution, analogous to the theory of biological evolution based on genes. Since originally outlining the idea in his book ''The Selfish Gene'', Dawkins has largely left the task of expanding upon it to other authors such as Susan Blackmore.

Although Dawkins invented the specific term ''meme'' independently, he has not claimed that the idea itself was entirely novel, and there have been other expressions for similar ideas in the past. For instance, John Laurent has suggested that the term may have derived from the work of the little-known German biologist Richard Semon. In 1904 Semon published ''Die Mneme'' (which appeared in English in 1924 as ''The Mneme''). This book discussed the cultural transmission of experiences, with insights parallel to those of Dawkins. Laurent also found the term ''mneme'' used in Maurice Maeterlinck's ''The Life of the White Ant'' (1926), and has highlighted the similarities to Dawkins' concept.

Criticism of creationism

Dawkins is a prominent critic of creationism (the religious belief that humanity, life and the universe were created by a deity, without recourse to evolution). He has described the Young Earth creationist view that the Earth is only a few thousand years old as "a preposterous, mind-shrinking falsehood," and his 1986 book, ''The Blind Watchmaker'', contains a sustained critique of the argument from design, an important creationist argument. In the book, Dawkins argued against the watchmaker analogy made famous by the 18th-century English theologian William Paley in his book ''Natural Theology''. Paley argued that, just as a watch is too complicated and too functional to have sprung into existence merely by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Dawkins shares the view generally held by scientists that natural selection is sufficient to explain the apparent functionality and non-random complexity of the biological world, and can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, albeit as an automatic, nonintelligent, ''blind'' watchmaker.

thumb|left|Dawkins at the 34th annual conference of American Atheists, 2008In 1986 Dawkins participated in a Oxford Union debate, in which he and English biologist John Maynard Smith debated Young Earth creationist A. E. Wilder-Smith and Edgar Andrews, president of the Biblical Creation Society. In general, however, Dawkins has followed the advice of his late colleague Stephen Jay Gould and refused to participate in formal debates with creationists because "what they seek is the oxygen of respectability", and doing so would "give them this oxygen by the mere act of ''engaging'' with them at all." He suggests that creationists "don't mind being beaten in an argument. What matters is that we give them recognition by bothering to argue with them in public."

In a December 2004 interview with American journalist Bill Moyers, Dawkins said that "among the things that science does know, evolution is about as certain as anything we know". When Moyers questioned him on the use of the word ''theory'', Dawkins stated that "evolution has been observed. It's just that it hasn't been observed while it's happening." He added that "it is rather like a detective coming on a murder after the scene... the detective hasn't actually seen the murder take place, of course. But what you do see is a massive clue... Huge quantities of circumstantial evidence. It might as well be spelled out in words of English."

Dawkins has ardently opposed the inclusion of intelligent design in science education, describing it as "not a scientific argument at all, but a religious one". He has been referred to in the media as "Darwin's Rottweiler", a reference to English biologist T. H. Huxley, who was known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's evolutionary ideas. He has been a strong critic of the British organisation Truth in Science, which promotes the teaching of creationism in state schools, and he plans—through the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science—to subsidise the delivery of books, DVDs and pamphlets to schools, in order to counteract what he has described as an "educational scandal".

Advocacy of atheism

Dawkins is an outspoken atheist and a prominent critic of religion. In an interview with Thomas Bass for a book published in 1994 he described himself as a 'fairly militant atheist'. In 1996, when asked if he'd prefer to be known as a scientist or a militant atheist, he replied "Bertrand Russell called himself the Passionate Sceptic. It's aiming high, but I'll shoot for that." Dawkins is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society, a vice-president of the British Humanist Association (since 1996), a Distinguished Supporter of the Humanist Society of Scotland, a member of the Secular Coalition for America advisory board, a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism, and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. In 2003 he became a signatory of the humanist manifesto ''Humanism and Its Aspirations'', published by the American Humanist Association. As a result of his advocacy of atheism, Dawkins has sometimes been described as a vocal, militant rationalist, and as "the UK's Chief Atheist".

Dawkins believes that his own atheism is the logical extension of his understanding of evolution and that religion is incompatible with science. In his 1986 book ''The Blind Watchmaker'', Dawkins wrote:

{{blockquote| An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: "I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. }}

In his 1991 essay "Viruses of the Mind" (from which the term ''faith-sufferer'' originated), he suggested that memetic theory might analyse and explain the phenomenon of religious belief and some of the common characteristics of religions, such as the belief that punishment awaits non-believers. According to Dawkins, faith − belief that is not based on evidence − is one of the world's great evils. He claims it to be analogous to the smallpox virus, though more difficult to eradicate. Dawkins is well-known for his contempt for religious extremism, from Islamist terrorism to Christian fundamentalism; but he has also argued with liberal believers and religious scientists, from biologists Kenneth Miller and Francis Collins to theologians Alister McGrath and Richard Harries. Dawkins has stated that his opposition to religion is twofold, claiming it to be both a source of conflict and a justification for belief without evidence. However, he describes himself as a "cultural Christian", and proposed the slogan "Atheists for Jesus".

Following the 11 September 2001 attacks, when asked how the world might have changed, Dawkins responded:

{{blockquote| Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful! }}

Dawkins has especially risen to prominence in contemporary public debates relating science and religion since the publication of his 2006 book ''The God Delusion'', which has achieved greater sales figures worldwide than any of his other works to date. Its success has been seen by many as indicative of a change in the contemporary cultural zeitgeist, central to a recent rise in the popularity of atheistic literature. ''The God Delusion'' was praised by among others the Nobel laureates Sir Harold Kroto and James D. Watson and by psychologist Steven Pinker. In the book, Dawkins suggested that atheists should be proud, not apologetic, because atheism is evidence of a healthy, independent mind. He sees education and consciousness-raising as the primary tools in opposing what he considers to be religious dogma and indoctrination. These tools include the fight against certain stereotypes, and he has adopted the term ''Bright'' as a way of associating positive public connotations with those who possess a naturalistic worldview. Dawkins notes that feminists have succeeded in arousing widespread embarrassment at the routine use of "he" instead of "she". Similarly, he suggests, a phrase such as "Catholic child" or "Muslim child" should be considered just as socially absurd as, for instance, "Marxist child": children should not be classified based on their parents' ideological beliefs. According to Dawkins, there is no such thing as a Christian child or a Muslim child, as children have about as much capacity to make the decision to become Christians or Muslims as they do to become Marxists. Critics have said that the programme gave too much time to marginal figures and extremists, and that Dawkins' confrontational style did not help his cause and exhibited similarities with the approaches of religious fundamentalists more than with the approaches of the dispassionate, analytic approach of 'hard' science; Dawkins rejected these claims, citing the number of moderate religious broadcasts in everyday media as providing a suitable balance to the extremists in the programmes. He further remarked that someone who is deemed an "extremist" in a religiously moderate country may well be considered "mainstream" in a religiously conservative one. The unedited recordings of Dawkins' conversations with Alister McGrath and Richard Harries, including material unused in the broadcast version, have been made available online by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Dawkins' work has been controversial, and a number of Christian thinkers have responded to it. For example, Oxford theologian Alister McGrath (author of ''The Dawkins Delusion'' and ''Dawkins' God'') maintains that Dawkins is ignorant of Christian theology, and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently. In reply, Dawkins asks "do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?", and − in the paperback edition of ''The God Delusion'' − he refers to the American biologist PZ Myers, who has satirised this line of argument as "The Courtier's Reply". Dawkins had an extended debate with McGrath at the 2007 ''Sunday Times'' Literary Festival.

Dawkins argues that "the existence of God is a scientific hypothesis like any other". He disagrees with Stephen Jay Gould's principle of nonoverlapping magisteria. In an interview with ''Time'' magazine, Dawkins said:

I think that Gould's separate compartments was a purely political ploy to win middle-of-the-road religious people to the science camp. But it's a very empty idea. There are plenty of places where religion does not keep off the scientific turf. Any belief in miracles is flat contradictory not just to the facts of science but to the spirit of science.

Astrophysicist Martin Rees, who has described himself as an unbeliever who identifies with Christianity from a cultural perspective, has suggested that Dawkins' attack on mainstream religion is unhelpful. Regarding Rees' claim in his book ''Our Cosmic Habitat'' that "such questions lie beyond science", Dawkins asks "what expertise can theologians bring to deep cosmological questions that scientists cannot?" Elsewhere, Dawkins has written that "there's all the difference in the world between a belief that one is prepared to defend by quoting evidence and logic, and a belief that is supported by nothing more than tradition, authority or revelation." He has said that the publication of ''The God Delusion'' is "probably the culmination" of his campaign against religion.

In 2007 Dawkins founded the Out Campaign to encourage atheists worldwide to declare their stance publicly and proudly. Inspired by the gay rights movement, Dawkins hopes that atheists' identifying of themselves as such, and thereby increasing public awareness of how many people hold these views, will reduce the negative opinion of atheism among the religious majority.

In September 2008, following a complaint by Islamic creationist Adnan Oktar, a court in Turkey blocked access to Dawkins' website ''richarddawkins.net''. The court decision was made due to "insult to personality". As of 8 July 2011, ''richarddawkins.net'' is no longer blocked in Turkey.

In October 2008, Dawkins officially supported the UK's first atheist advertising initiative, the Atheist Bus Campaign. Created by Guardian journalist Ariane Sherine and administered by the British Humanist Association the campaign aimed to raise funds to place atheist adverts on buses in the London area, and Dawkins pledged to match the amount raised by atheists, up to a maximum of £5,500. However, the campaign was an unprecedented success, raising over £100,000 in its first four days, and generating global press coverage. The campaign, started in January 2009, features adverts across the UK with the slogan: "''There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.''" Dawkins said that "this campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think — and thinking is anathema to religion."

In 2010 Dawkins supported legal efforts to charge Pope Benedict XVI with crimes against humanity. Dawkins and fellow anti-religion campaigner Christopher Hitchens were believed to have explored the option of attempting to have the Pope arrested under the same legal principle that saw Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet arrested during a visit to Britain in 1998. Dawkins has given support to the idea of an atheists' "free thinking" school, that would teach children to "ask for evidence, to be sceptical, critical, open-minded".

On 15 September 2010, Dawkins, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in ''The Guardian'', stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI making a ''State'' visit to the United Kingdom.

Richard Dawkins Foundation

In 2006 Dawkins founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS), a non-profit organisation. The foundation is in developmental phase. It has been granted charitable status in the United Kingdom and the United States. RDFRS plans to finance research on the psychology of belief and religion, finance scientific education programs and materials, and publicise and support secular charitable organisations. The foundation also offers humanist, rationalist and scientific materials and information through its website.

Other fields

In his role as professor for public understanding of science, Dawkins has been a critic of pseudoscience and alternative medicine. His 1998 book ''Unweaving the Rainbow'' takes John Keats' accusation that, by explaining the rainbow, Isaac Newton had diminished its beauty, and argues for the opposite conclusion. He suggests that deep space, the billions of years of life's evolution, and the microscopic workings of biology and heredity contain more beauty and wonder than do "myths" and "pseudoscience". Dawkins wrote a foreword to John Diamond's posthumously published ''Snake Oil'', a book devoted to debunking alternative medicine, in which he asserted that alternative medicine was harmful, if only because it distracted patients from more successful conventional treatments, and gave people false hopes. Dawkins states that "there is no alternative medicine. There is only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't work."

Dawkins has expressed concern about the growth of the planet's human population, and about the matter of overpopulation. In ''The Selfish Gene'', he briefly mentions population growth, giving the example of Latin America, whose population, at the time the book was written, was doubling every 40 years. He is critical of Roman Catholic attitudes to family planning and population control, stating that leaders who forbid contraception and "express a preference for 'natural' methods of population limitation" will get just such a method in the form of starvation.

As a supporter of the ''Great Ape Project'' – a movement to extend certain moral and legal rights to all great apes – Dawkins contributed the article "Gaps in the Mind" to the ''Great Ape Project'' book edited by Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer. In this essay, he criticises contemporary society's moral attitudes as being based on a "discontinuous, speciesist imperative".

Dawkins also regularly comments in newspapers and weblogs on contemporary political questions; his opinions include opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the British nuclear deterrent and the actions of U.S. President George W. Bush. Several such articles were included in ''A Devil's Chaplain'', an anthology of writings about science, religion and politics. He is also a supporter of the Republic campaign to replace the British monarchy with a democratically elected president. Dawkins has described himself as a Labour voter in the 1970s and voter for the Liberal Democrats since the party's creation. In 2009 he spoke at the party's conference in opposition to blasphemy laws, alternative medicine and faith schools. In the UK general election of 2010, Dawkins officially endorsed the Liberal Democrats, in support of their campaign for electoral reform and for their "refusal to pander to 'faith'."

In the 2007 TV documentary ''The Enemies of Reason'', Dawkins discusses what he sees as the dangers of abandoning critical thought and rationale based upon scientific evidence. He specifically cites astrology, spiritualism, dowsing, alternative faiths, alternative medicine and homeopathy. He also discusses how the Internet can be used to spread religious hatred and conspiracy theories with scant attention to evidence-based reasoning.

Continuing a long-standing partnership with Channel 4, Dawkins participated in a five-part television series ''The Genius of Britain'', along with fellow scientists Stephen Hawking, James Dyson, Paul Nurse, and Jim Al-Khalili. The five-episode series was broadcast in June 2010. The series focussed on major British scientific achievements throughout history.

Dawkins presented a More4 documentary entitled 'Faith School Menace' in which he argued for "us to reconsider the consequences of faith education, which... bamboozles parents and indoctrinates and divides children."

In 1998 Dawkins expressed his appreciation for two books, famous for their criticism of postmodernism in US universities, in departments like literary studies, anthropology and other cultural studies; the two books are ''Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science'' (by Gross and Levitt) and ''Intellectual Impostures'' (by Sokal and Bricmont), both related to the Sokal affair hoax. In the same occasion Dawkins also criticised Cambridge University for awarding philosopher Jacques Derrida an honorary doctorate.

In 2011 Dawkins joined the professoriate of the New College of the Humanities, a new private university in London established by A. C. Grayling, which is scheduled to open in September 2012.

Awards and recognition

Dawkins was awarded a Doctor of Science by the University of Oxford in 1989. He holds honorary doctorates in science from the University of Huddersfield, University of Westminster, Durham University, the University of Hull, and the University of Antwerp, and honorary doctorates from the University of Aberdeen, Open University, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the University of Valencia. He also holds honorary doctorates of letters from the University of St Andrews and the Australian National University (HonLittD, 1996), and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997 and the Royal Society in 2001. He is one of the patrons of the Oxford University Scientific Society.

In 1987 Dawkins received a Royal Society of Literature award and a ''Los Angeles Times'' Literary Prize for his book, ''The Blind Watchmaker''. In the same year, he received a ''Sci. Tech'' Prize for Best Television Documentary Science Programme of the Year, for the BBC ''Horizon'' episode ''The Blind Watchmaker''.

His other awards have included the Zoological Society of London Silver Medal (1989), Finlay innovation award (1990), the Michael Faraday Award (1990), the Nakayama Prize (1994), the American Humanist Association's Humanist of the Year Award (1996), the fifth International Cosmos Prize (1997), the Kistler Prize (2001), the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic (2001), the Bicentennial Kelvin Medal of The Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow (2002) and the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest (2009).

Dawkins topped ''Prospect'' magazine's 2004 list of the top 100 public British intellectuals, as decided by the readers, receiving twice as many votes as the runner-up. He has been short-listed as a candidate in their 2008 follow-up poll. In 2005 the Hamburg-based Alfred Toepfer Foundation awarded him its Shakespeare Prize in recognition of his "concise and accessible presentation of scientific knowledge". He won the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science for 2006 and the Galaxy British Book Awards Author of the Year Award for 2007. In the same year, he was listed by ''Time'' magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2007, and he was ranked 20th in ''The Daily Telegraph'''s 2007 list of 100 greatest living geniuses. He was awarded the Deschner Award, named after German anti-clerical author Karlheinz Deschner.

Since 2003, the Atheist Alliance International has awarded a prize during its annual conference, honouring an outstanding atheist whose work has done most to raise public awareness of atheism during that year. It is known as the Richard Dawkins Award, in honour of Dawkins' own work.

In February 2010 he was named to the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Honorary Board of distinguished achievers.

Media

Selected publications

(Scheduled to publish on 4 October 2011)

Documentary films

''Nice Guys Finish First'' (1986)

''The Blind Watchmaker'' (1987)

''Growing Up in the Universe'' (1991)

''Break the Science Barrier'' (1996)

''The Root of All Evil?'' (2006)

''The Enemies of Reason'' (2007)

''The Genius of Charles Darwin'' (2008)

''Faith School Menace'' (2010)

Other appearances

''Doctor Who: The Stolen Earth'' (2008) – as himself

''Doctor Who: The Big Bang'' (2010) – as himself

Notes

b. The debate ended with the motion "That the doctrine of creation is more valid than the theory of evolution" being defeated by 198 votes to 115.

References

External links

General

Official website

Richard Dawkins' page on Academia.edu

The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science

Video

National Geographic Interviews – A series of video interviews with National Geographic Channel with Richard Dawkins on Darwin, Evolution and God.

TED Talks: Richard Dawkins on militant atheism at TED in 2002

TED Talks: Richard Dawkins on our "queer" universe at TED Global in 2005

Video interview with Riz Khan for Al Jazeera English

Video interview at Big Think

Selected writings

Viruses of the Mind (1993) – Religion as a mental virus.

The Real Romance in the Stars (1995) – A critical view of astrology.

The Emptiness of Theology (1998) – A critical view of theology. (Alternative link at RDFRS.)

Snake Oil and Holy Water (1999) – Suggests that there is no convergence occurring between science and theism.

What Use is Religion? (2004) – Suggests that religion may have no survival value other than to itself.

Race and Creation (2004) – On race, its usage and a theory of how it evolved.

The giant tortoise's tale, The turtle's tale and The lava lizard's tale (2005) – A series of three articles written after a visit to the Galápagos Islands.

Dawkins' ''Huffington Post'' articles

Audio

Richard Dawkins on RadioLIVE's Weekend Variety Wireless – Richard Dawkins appears live on New Zealand's RadioLIVE, taking calls from the audience.

Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century biologists Category:21st-century biologists Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:Atheism activists Category:British republicans Category:Criticism of religion Category:English atheists Category:English biologists Category:English humanists Category:English sceptics Category:English science writers Category:Ethologists Category:Evolutionary biologists Category:Fellows of New College, Oxford Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Gifford Lecturers Category:New College of the Humanities Category:Old Oundelians Category:People from Nairobi Category:Presenters of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures Category:Recipients of the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic Category:Statutory Professors of the University of Oxford Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty

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birth date	August 04, 1955
birth place	Hot Springs, Arkansas, U.S.
name	Billy Bob Thornton
occupation	Actor, screenwriter, director, musician
years active	1986–present
spouse	Melissa Lee Gatlin (1978–1980; 1 child)Toni Lawrence (1986–1988)Cynda Williams (1990–1992)Pietra Dawn Cherniak (1993–1997; 2 children)Angelina Jolie (2000–2003)
partner	Connie Angland (2003–present; 1 child) }}

Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom ''Hearts Afire'' and in several early 1990s films including ''On Deadly Ground'' and ''Tombstone''. In the mid-1990s, after writing, directing, and starring in the independent film ''Sling Blade'', he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He appeared in several major film roles following ''Sling Blade'' 's success, including 1998's ''Armageddon'' and ''A Simple Plan.'' During the late 1990s, Thornton began a career as a singer-songwriter. He has released three albums and was the singer of a blues rock band.

Early life

Thornton was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the son of Virginia Roberta (née Faulkner), a psychic, and William Raymond "Billy Ray" Thornton (November 1929–August 1974), a high school history teacher and basketball coach who died when Thornton was 18. He has two younger brothers, Jimmy Don (April 1958–October 1988), who died abruptly of a heart attack at 30, and John David (born 1969), who resides in California. Jimmy Don Thornton wrote a number of songs, two of which--"Island Avenue" and "Emily"--Thornton has recorded on his solo albums. During his childhood, Thornton lived in both Alpine, Arkansas, and Malvern, Arkansas. He was raised a Methodist, in an extended family in a shack that had neither electricity nor plumbing. Thornton graduated from high school in 1973. A good high school baseball player, he tried out for the Kansas City Royals, but was let go after an injury. After a short period laying asphalt for the Arkansas State Transportation Department, he attended Henderson State University to pursue studies in psychology, but he dropped out after two semesters.

In the mid 1980s, Thornton settled in Los Angeles, to pursue his career as an actor, with future writing partner Tom Epperson. Thornton initially had a difficult time succeeding as an actor, and worked in telemarketing, offshore wind farming, and fast food management between auditioning for acting jobs. He also played drums and sang with South African rock band Jack Hammer. While Thornton worked as a waiter for an industry event, he served film director and screenwriter Billy Wilder, who is famous for films such as ''Double Indemnity'' and ''Sunset Boulevard''. Thornton struck up a conversation with Wilder, who advised Thornton to consider a career as a screenwriter.

Career

Film

One of Thornton's early screen roles was as a cast member on the CBS sitcom ''Hearts Afire'' with John Ritter and Markie Post. His role as the villain in 1992's ''One False Move'', which he also co-wrote, brought him to the attention of critics. He also had small roles in the early 1990s films ''Indecent Proposal'', ''On Deadly Ground'', ''Bound by Honor'', ''Grey Knight'', and ''Tombstone''. Thornton put Wilder's advice to good use, and went on to write, direct and star in the independent film ''Sling Blade'', which was released in 1996. The film, an expansion of a short film titled ''Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade'', introduced the story of Karl Childers, a mentally handicapped man imprisoned for a gruesome and seemingly inexplicable murder. ''Sling Blade'' garnered international acclaim. Thornton's screenplay earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Writers Guild of America Award, and an Edgar Award, while his performance received Oscar and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Actor.

In 1998, he portrayed the James-Carville-like Richard Jemmons in ''Primary Colors''. Thornton adapted the book ''All the Pretty Horses'' into a 2000 film with the same name, starring Matt Damon and Penélope Cruz. The negative experience (he was forced to cut more than an hour) led to his decision to never direct another film (a subsequent release, ''Daddy and Them'', had been filmed earlier). Also in 2000, an early script which he and Tom Epperson wrote together was made into ''The Gift'' which starred Cate Blanchett, Hilary Swank, Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear, and Giovanni Ribisi. In 2000, he also appeared in Travis Tritt's music video for the song "Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde".

Thornton's screen persona has been described by the press as that of a "tattooed, hirsute man's man". He appeared in several major film roles following ''Sling Blade'' 's success, including 1998's ''Armageddon'' with Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis, and ''A Simple Plan.'' In 2001, he directed ''Daddy and Them'', while also securing starring roles in three hollywood pictures, ''Monster's Ball'', ''Bandits'' and ''The Man Who Wasn't There'', for which he received many awards. He played a malicious mall Santa Claus in 2003's Bad Santa, a black comedy that performed well at the box office and established Thornton as a leading comic actor, and in the same year, portrayed a womanizing President of the United States in the British romantic comedy ''Love Actually''. Thornton has stated that, following ''Bad Santa'''s success, audiences "like to watch [him] play that kind of guy," and "they [casting directors] call [him] up when they need an asshole. It's kinda that simple... you know how narrow the imagination in this business can be." In 2004 he played Davy Crockett in ''The Alamo''.

He appeared in the comic film ''School for Scoundrels'', which was released on September 29, 2006. In the film, he plays a self-help doctor; the role was written specifically for Thornton. More recent films include ''The Astronaut Farmer'', a drama released on February 23, 2007, and the comedy, ''Mr. Woodcock'', in which Thornton plays a sadistic gym teacher. In September 2008, Thornton starred in the big brother action movie ''Eagle Eye'' alongside Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan. He will next star in the drama ''Peace Like a River''. Thornton has also expressed an interest in directing another film, possibly a period piece about cave explorer Floyd Collins, based on the book ''Trapped! The Story of Floyd Collins'' by Robert K. Murray and Roger Brucker. Thornton received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 7, 2004.

Music

During the late 1990s, Thornton, who has had a life-long love for music, began a career as a singer-songwriter. He released a roots rock album titled ''Private Radio'' in 2001, and three more albums, ''The Edge of the World'' (2003), ''Hobo'' (2005) and ''Beautiful Door'' (2007). Thornton's manager, David Spero, helped his ''Edge of the World'' album get off the ground with a summer tour. Thornton was the singer of a blues rock band named ''Tres Hombres''. Guitarist Billy Gibbons referred to the band as "The best little cover band in Texas", and Thornton bears a tattoo with the band's name on it. He performed the Warren Zevon song ''The Wind'' on the tribute album ''Enjoy Every Sandwich: Songs of Warren Zevon''. Thornton recorded a cover of the Johnny Cash classic "Ring of Fire" for the ''Oxford American'' magazine's Southern Music CD in 2001.

CBC incident

On April 8, 2009, Thornton and his musical group The Boxmasters appeared on CBC Radio One program ''Q'' which was widely criticized and received international attention after Thornton was persistently unintelligible and discourteous to host Jian Ghomeshi. Thornton eventually explained he had "instructed" the show's producers to not ask questions about his movie career. Ghomeshi had mentioned Thornton’s acting in the introduction. Thornton had also complained Canadian audiences were like “mashed potatoes without the gravy." The following night, opening for Willie Nelson at Toronto's Massey Hall, Thornton said mid-set he liked Canadians but not Ghomeshi, which was greeted with boos and catcalls. The Boxmasters did not continue the tour in Canada as, according to Thornton, some of the crew and band had the flu.

Personal life

Relationships and children

Thornton has been married five times, with each marriage ending in divorce, and he has four children by three women. From 1978 to 1980, he was married to Melissa Lee Gatlin, with whom he had a daughter, Amanda Brumfield. In 2011, Brumfield was convicted of aggravated manslaughter in the death of her friend's 1-year-old daughter, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Thornton and Brumfield are estranged.

Thornton's second marriage was to actress Toni Lawrence in 1986; they separated the following year and divorced in 1988. From 1990 to 1992, he was married to actress Cynda Williams, whom he cast in his writing debut, ''One False Move'' (1992). In 1993, Thornton married ''Playboy'' model Pietra Dawn Cherniak, with whom he had two sons; the marriage ended in 1997, with Cherniak accusing Thornton of spousal abuse.

Thornton was engaged to be married to actress Laura Dern, whom he dated from 1997 to 1999, but in 2000, he married actress Angelina Jolie, with whom he starred in ''Pushing Tin'' (1999). The marriage became known for the couple's eccentric displays of affection, which reportedly included wearing vials of each other's blood around their necks; Thornton later clarified that the "vials" were, instead, two small lockets, each containing only a single drop of blood. Thornton and Jolie announced the adoption of a child from Cambodia in March 2002, but it was later revealed that Jolie had adopted the child as a single parent. They separated in June 2002 and divorced the following year.

Since 2003, Thornton has been in a relationship with seamstress Connie Angland, with whom he has a daughter. The family resides in Los Angeles, California. Thornton has stated that he likely will not marry again, specifying that he believes marriage "doesn't work" for him.

Health issues

During his early years in Los Angeles, Thornton couldn't afford to eat properly and lived on a diet of potatoes. When his health began to suffer, he was admitted to hospital and diagnosed with myocarditis, a heart condition brought on by malnutrition.

Thornton has obsessive-compulsive disorder. Various idiosyncratic behaviors have been well documented in interviews with Thornton; among these is a phobia of antique furniture—a disorder shared by Dwight Yoakam's character Doyle Hargraves in the Thornton-penned ''Sling Blade'', and by Thornton's own character in the 2001 film ''Bandits''. Additionally, he has stated that he has a fear of certain types of silverware, a trait assumed by his character Hank Grotowski in 2001's ''Monster's Ball'', in which Grotowski insists on a plastic spoon for his daily bowl of chocolate ice cream. In a 2004 interview with ''The Independent'', Thornton explained: "It's just that I won't use real silver. You know, like the big, old, heavy-ass forks and knives, I can't do that. It's the same thing as the antique furniture. I just don't like old stuff. I'm creeped out by it, and I have no explanation why...I don't have a phobia about American antiques, it's mostly French—you know, like the big, old, gold-carved chairs with the velvet cushions. The Louis XIV type. That's what creeps me out. I can spot the imitation antiques a mile off. They have a different vibe. Not as much dust."

Other

A baseball fan, Thornton's favorite team is the St. Louis Cardinals. He has said that his childhood dream was to play for the Cardinals. He narrated ''The 2006 World Series Film'', the year-end retrospective DVD chronicling the Cardinals' championship season. Thornton is also a professed fan of American football team the Indianapolis Colts.

Thornton is the cousin of professional wrestling legends Terry Funk and Dory Funk, Jr.

Filmography

+ List of film appearances
Title	Year	Role	Notes
''Hunter's Blood''	1986	Billy Bob
''South of Reno''	1988	Counterman
''Going Overboard''	1989	Dave
''Chopper Chicks in Zombietown''	1989	Tommy
''''	1991	Patron at Sloppy's	(uncredited)
''For the Boys''	1991	Marine Sergeant, Korea
''One False Move''	1992	Ray Malcolm	also co-wrote
! scope="row"	1993	Johnny Tyler
''Blood In Blood Out''	1993	Lightning
''Indecent Proposal''	1993	Day Tripper
''''	1993	Langston
''Trouble Bound''	1993	Coldface
''On Deadly Ground''	1994	Homer Carlton
''Floundering''	1994	Gun Clerk
''Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade''	1994	Karl Childers	Short film
''Dead Man''	1995	Big George Drakoulious
''''	1995	Roy
''Sling Blade''	1996	Karl Childers
! scope="row"	1996	Marshall	also co-wrote
''''	1996	Jack
''''	1997	Troublemaker
! scope="row"	1997	Darrell
''Princess Mononoke''	1997	Jigo	Voice Only (English Language Version)
''''	1998	Jacob Mitchell
! scope="row"	1998	Dan Truman, NASA Administrator
! scope="row"	1998	Jack Marsden
! scope="row"	1998	Richard Jemmons
''Pushing Tin''	1999	Russell Bell
''''	2000	Tar
''South of Heaven, West of Hell''	2001	Brig. Smalls
''Daddy and Them''	2001	Claude Montgomery	also wrote and directed
''Monster's Ball''	2001	Hank Grotowski	Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (also for ''Bandits'' and ''The Man Who Wasn't There'')National Board of Review Award for Best Actor (also for ''Bandits'' and ''The Man Who Wasn't There'')Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
''Bandits''	2001	Terry Lee Collins	Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (also for ''Monster's Ball'' and ''The Man Who Wasn't There'')National Board of Review Award for Best Actor (also for ''Monster's Ball'' and ''The Man Who Wasn't There'')Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
''''	2001	Ed Crane	Chlotrudis Audience Award for Best ActorFlorida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (also for ''Bandits'' and ''Monster's Ball'')London Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActorNational Board of Review Award for Best Actor (also for ''Bandits'' and ''Monster's Ball'')Online Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorRussian Guild of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign ActorSoutheastern Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNominated—American Film Institute Award AFI Actor of the YearNominated—Saturn Award for Best ActorNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture DramaNominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
''Waking Up in Reno''	2002	Lonnie Earl Dodd
''''	2002	Sheriff Darl Hardwick
''Bad Santa''	2003	Willie T. Stokes	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
''Love Actually''	2003	The US President
''Intolerable Cruelty''	2003	Howard D. Doyle
! scope="row"	2003	Manuel Jordan
! scope="row"	2004	Coach Gary Gaines
''''	2004	Davy Crockett
''Chrystal''	2004	Joe
''''	2005	Vic Cavanaugh
''Bad News Bears''	2005	Morris Buttermaker
! scope="row"	2006	Dr. P/Dennis Sherman
''''	2007	Charles Farmer
''Mr. Woodcock''	2007	Jasper Woodcock
''Eagle Eye''	2008	Thomas Morgan
''''	2009	William
''My Run''	2009	Narrator
''''	2009	Patrick
! scope="row"	2010	Cop
''Nashville Rises''	2011	Narrator
! scope="row"	2011	Jack (Voice)	post-production
''The Baytown Disco''	2012	Carlos	currently filming

+ Other screen credits
Title	Year	Role	Notes
''One False Move''	1992	Writer	Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay
''Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade''	1994	Writer
''A Family Thing''	1996	Writer	Humanitas Prize
! scope="row"	1996	Director/Writer	Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture ScreenplayNational Board of Review Award for Special Achievement in FilmmakingIndependent Spirit Award for Best First FeatureWriters Guild of America Award for Best Adapted ScreenplayNominated—Chlotrudis Award for Best DirectorNominated—Satellite Award for Best Original Screenplay
! scope="row"	1996	Story and teleplay
! scope="row"	2000	Director/Producer
''''	2000	Writer	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Writing
''Camouflage''	2001	Story and screenplay	as Reginald Perry
''Daddy and Them''	2001	Director/Writer

References

Further reading

External links

Official site of Billy Bob Thornton

Billy Bob Thornton attacks CBC Radio Host

Six Degrees of Swampland, Billy Bob Thornton

Swampland: GRITZ Billy Bob Thornton Interview 2008

Alamo Sentry Interview with Thornton regarding his role as David Crockett.

Billy Bob Thornton interview

"Set For Launch: A Video Interview with the Makers of 'The Astronaut Farmer'" — eFilmCritic.com video interviews with Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen and the Polish Brothers

Stumped? Interview

Billy Bob Thornton: “I Have 5,000 Favorites”

Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from Arkansas Category:American Christians Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American male singers Category:American screenwriters Category:American voice actors Category:Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners Category:Edgar Award winners Category:People from Hot Springs, Arkansas Category:People from Malvern, Arkansas Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners

ar:بيلي بوب ثورنتون an:Billy Bob Thornton bn:বিলি বব থর্নটন bg:Били Боб Торнтън da:Billy Bob Thornton de:Billy Bob Thornton es:Billy Bob Thornton eu:Billy Bob Thornton fa:بیلی باب تورنتون fr:Billy Bob Thornton gl:Billy Bob Thornton hr:Billy Bob Thornton io:Billy Bob Thornton id:Billy Bob Thornton is:Billy Bob Thornton it:Billy Bob Thornton he:בילי בוב תורנטון lv:Bilijs Bobs Torntons hu:Billy Bob Thornton nl:Billy Bob Thornton ja:ビリー・ボブ・ソーントン no:Billy Bob Thornton pl:Billy Bob Thornton pt:Billy Bob Thornton ru:Торнтон, Билли Боб sr:Били Боб Торнтон fi:Billy Bob Thornton sv:Billy Bob Thornton tl:Billy Bob Thornton tr:Billy Bob Thornton

name	Bob Thornton
number	23, 45, 23, 33, 34
position	Power forward / Center
height ft	6
height in	10
weight lb	225
birth date	July 10, 1962
birth place	Los Angeles, California
nationality	American
high school	Mission Viejo(Mission Viejo, California)
college	Saddleback College (1980–1981)UC Irvine (1981–1984)
draft year	1984
draft round	4
draft pick	87
draft team	New York Knicks
career start	1984
career end	1996
years1	1984–1985
team1	Caja Madrid (Spain)
years2	–
team2	New York Knicks
years3	1987–
team3	Philadelphia 76ers
years4
team4	Minnesota Timberwolves
years5	1991–1992
team5	Sioux Falls Skyforce (CBA)
years6	1992
team6	Tissino Assicurazione Siena (Italy)
years7
team7	Utah Jazz
years8	1992–1993
team8	Fernet Branca Pavia (Italy)
years9	1993–1994
team9	Olitalia Siena (Italy)
years10	1994
team10	Teorematour Roma (Italy)
years11	1994
team11	Tonno Auriga Trapani (Italy)
years12	1995–1996
team12	Chicago Rockers (CBA)
years13
team13	Washington Bullets
cyears1	2000–2001
cteam1	Quad City Thunder (CBA)
cyears2	2001–2002
cteam2	Huntsville Flight (NBA D-League)
bbr	thornbo01
letter	t }}

Robert George (Bob) Thornton (born July 10, 1962, in Los Angeles, California) is a retired American professional basketball player whose career lasted from 1985 to 1996. He was a 6'10" 225 forward. He holds NBA career averages of 3.0 points and 2.5 rebounds in 283 total games.

Thornton played college basketball at University of California, Irvine and Saddleback Community College, and was selected by the New York Knicks with the 87th pick of the 1984 NBA Draft.

Thornton, an eight-year NBA veteran, played for five NBA teams (New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards) and played three seasons in the Italian A-1 league with Rome, Siena and Pavia. He has held coaching positions with the Chicago Bulls, the CBA's Yakima Sun Kings, the NBDL's Quad City Thunder and Arkansas RimRockers, and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Notes

External links

College & NBA stats @ basketballreference.com

NBA.com coach profile

Category:1962 births Category:Living people Category:American basketball coaches Category:American basketball players Category:American expatriate basketball people in Italy Category:Arkansas RimRockers players Category:Basketball players from California Category:Chicago Rockers players Category:Continental Basketball Association coaches Category:Junior college men's basketball players in the United States Category:Mens Sana Basket players Category:Minnesota Timberwolves assistant coaches Category:Minnesota Timberwolves players Category:New York Knicks draft picks Category:New York Knicks players Category:Pallacanestro Virtus Roma players Category:Philadelphia 76ers players Category:Power forwards (basketball) Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:Quad City Thunder players Category:Sioux Falls Skyforce (CBA) players Category:UC Irvine Anteaters men's basketball players Category:Utah Jazz players Category:Washington Bullets players

it:Bob Thornton (cestista)