A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century it took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and the term is now often used as synonymous with any love song, particularly the pop or rock ''power ballad''.

Origins

The ballad probably derives its name from medieval French dance songs or "ballares" (from which we also get ballet), as did the alternative rival form that became the French Ballade. In theme and function they may originate from Scandinavian and Germanic traditions of storytelling that can be seen in poems such as Beowulf. The earliest example we have of a recognisable ballad in form in England is ‘Judas’ in a 13th-century manuscript.

Ballad form

Most, but not all, northern and west European ballads are written in ballad stanzas or quatrains (four-line stanzas) of alternating lines of iambic (an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable) tetrameter (eight syllables) and iambic trimeter (six syllables), known as ballad meter. Usually, only the second and fourth line of a quatrain are rhymed (in the scheme a, b, c, b), which has been taken to suggest that, originally, ballads consisted of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. As can be seen in this stanza from ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Annet’:

The horse| fair Ann|et rode| upon| He amb|led like| the wind|, With sil|ver he| was shod| before, With burn|ing gold| behind|.

However, there is considerable variation on this pattern in almost every respect, including length, number of lines and rhyming scheme, making the strict definition of a ballad extremely difficult. In southern and eastern Europe, and in countries that derive their tradition from them, ballad structure differs significantly, like Spanish ''romanceros'', which are octosyllabic and use consonance rather than rhyme.

In all traditions most ballads are narrative in nature, with a self-contained story, often concise and relying on imagery, rather than description, which can be tragic, historical, romantic or comic. More recently scholars have pointed to the interchange of oral and written forms of the ballad.

Classification

right|thumb|Illustration by Arthur Rackham to ''Young Bekie.'' European Ballads have been generally classified into three major groups: traditional, broadside and literary. In America a distinction is drawn between ballads that are versions of European, particularly British and Irish songs, and 'native American ballads', developed without reference to earlier songs. A further development was the evolution of the blues ballad, which mixed the genre with Afro-American music. For the late 19th century the music publishing industry found a market for what are often termed sentimental ballads, and these are the origin of the modern use of the term ballad to mean a slow love song.

Traditional ballads

The traditional, classical or popular (meaning of the people) ballad has been seen as originating with the wandering minstrels of late medieval Europe. From the end of the 15th century we have printed ballads that suggest a rich tradition of popular music. We know from a reference in William Langland's ''Piers Plowman'', that ballads about Robin Hood were being sung from at least the late 14th century and the oldest detailed material we have is Wynkyn de Worde's collection of Robin Hood ballads printed about 1495.

Early collections of ballads were made by Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) and in the Roxburghe Ballads collected by Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer (1661–1724). In the 18th century there were increasing numbers of such collections, including Thomas D'Urfey's ''Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy'' (1719–20) and Bishop Thomas Percy's ''Reliques of Ancient English Poetry'' (1765). The last of these also contained some oral material and by the end of the 18th century this was becoming increasingly common, with collections including John Ritson's, ''The Bishopric Garland'' (1784), which paralleled the work of figures like Robert Burns and Walter Scott in Scotland.

Key work on the traditional ballad was undertaken in the late 19th century in Denmark by Svend Grundtvig and for England and Scotland by the Harvard professor Francis James Child. There have been many different and contradictory attempts to classify traditional ballads by theme, but commonly identified types are the religious, supernatural, tragic, love ballads, historic, legendary and humorous.

Broadsides

Broadside ballads (also known as 'roadsheet’, ‘stall’, ‘vulgar’ or ‘come all ye’ ballads) were a product of the development of cheap print in the 16th century. They were generally printed on one side of a medium to large sheet of poor quality paper. In their heyday of the first half of the 17th century, they were printed in black-letter or gothic type and included multiple, eye-catching illustrations, a popular tune tile, as well as an alluring poem. By the 18th century, they were printed in white letter or roman type and often without much decoration (as well as tune title). These later sheets could include many individual songs, which would be cut apart and sold individually as "slipsongs." Alternatively, they might be folded to make small cheap books or "chapbooks" which often drew on ballad stories. They were produced in huge numbers, with over 400,000 being sold in England annually by the 1660s. Tessa Watt estimates the number of copies sold may have been in the millions. Many were sold by travelling chapmen in city streets or at fairs. The subject matter varied from what has been defined as the traditional ballad, although many traditional ballads were printed as broadsides. Among the topics were love, religion, drinking-songs, legends, and early journalism, which included disasters, political events and signs, wonders and prodigies.

Literary ballads

Literary or lyrical ballads grew out of an increasing interest in the ballad form among social elites and intellectuals, particularly in the Romantic movement from the later 18th century. Respected literary figures like Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott in Scotland both collected and wrote their own ballads, using the form to create an artistic product. Similarly in England William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge produced a collection of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, including Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. At the same time in Germany Goethe cooperated with Schiller on a series of ballads, some of which were later set to music by Schubert. Later important examples of the poetic form included Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Barrack Room Ballads’ (1892-6) and Oscar Wilde’s ‘Ballad of Reading Gaol’ (1897).

Ballad operas

thumb|200px|Painting based on ''The Beggar's Opera'', Act III Scene 2, William Hogarth, c. 1728In the 18th century ballad operas developed as a form of English stage entertainment, partly in opposition to the Italian domination of the London operatic scene. It consisted of racy and often satirical spoken (English) dialogue, interspersed with songs that are deliberately kept very short to minimize disruptions to the flow of the story. Subject matter involved the lower, often criminal, orders, and typically showed a suspension (or inversion) of the high moral values of the Italian opera of the period. The first, most important and successful was ''The Beggar's Opera'' of 1728, with a libretto by John Gay and music arranged by John Christopher Pepusch, both of whom probably influenced by Parisian vaudeville and the burlesques and musical plays of Thomas D'Urfey (1653–1723), a number of whose collected ballads they used in their work. Gay produced further works in this style, including a sequel under the title ''Polly''. Henry Fielding, Colley Cibber, Arne, Dibdin, Arnold, Shield, Jackson of Exeter, Hook and many others produced ballad operas that enjoyed great popularity. Ballad opera was attempted in America and Prussia. Later it moved into a more pastoral form, like Isaac Bickerstaffe's ''Love in a Village'' (1763) and Shield’s ''Rosina'' (1781), using more original music that imitated, rather than reproduced, existing ballads. Although the form declined in popularity towards the end of the 18th century its influence can be seen in light operas like that of Gilbert and Sullivan's early works like ''The Sorcerer''. In the 20th century, one of the most influential plays, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's (1928) ''The Threepenny Opera'' was a reworking of ''The Beggar's Opera'', setting a similar story with the same characters, and containing much of the same satirical bite, but only using one tune from the original. The term ballad opera has also been used to describe musicals using folk music, such as ''The Martins and the Coys'' in 1944, and Peter Bellamy's ''The Transports'' in 1977. The satiric elements of ballad opera can be seen in some modern musicals such as ''Chicago'' and ''Cabaret''.

Beyond Europe

Native American ballads

Native American ballads are ballads that are native to North America (not to be confused with ballads performed by native Americans). Some 300 ballads sung in North America have been identified as having origins in British traditional or broadside ballads. Examples include ‘The Streets of Laredo’, which was found in Britain and Ireland as ‘The Unfortunate Rake’; however, a further 400 have been identified as originating in North America, including among the best known, ‘The Ballad of Davy Crockett' and 'Jesse James'. They became an increasing area of interest for scholars in the 19th century and most were recorded or catalogued by George Malcolm Laws, although some have since been found to have British origins and additional songs have since been collected. They are usually considered closest in form to British broadside ballads and in terms of style are largely indistinguishable, however, they demonstrate a particular concern with occupations, journalistic style and often lack the ribaldry of British broadside ballads. The 19th century was the golden age of bush ballads. Several collectors have catalogued the songs including John Meredith whose recording in the 1950s became the basis of the collection in the National Library of Australia. The songs tell personal stories of life in the wide open country of Australia. Typical subjects include mining, raising and droving cattle, sheep shearing, wanderings, war stories, the 1891 Australian shearers' strike, class conflicts between the landless working class and the squatters (landowners), and outlaws such as Ned Kelly, as well as love interests and more modern fare such as trucking. The most famous bush ballad is "Waltzing Matilda", which has been called "the unofficial national anthem of Australia".

Sentimental ballads

Now the most commonly understood meaning of the term ballad, sentimental ballads, sometimes called "tear-jerkers" or "drawing-room ballads" owing to their popularity with the middle classes, had their origins in the early ‘Tin Pan Alley’ music industry of the later 19th century. They were generally sentimental, narrative, strophic songs published separately or as part of an opera (descendants perhaps of broadside ballads, but with printed music, and usually newly composed. Such songs include "Little Rosewood Casket" (1870), "After the Ball" (1892) and "Danny Boy". By the Victorian era, ''ballad'' had come to mean any sentimental popular song, especially so-called "royalty ballads", which publishers would pay popular singers to perform in Britain and the United States in "ballad concerts." Some of Stephen Foster's songs exemplify this genre. By the 1920s, composers of Tin Pan Alley and Broadway used ''ballad'' to signify a slow, sentimental tune or love song, often written in a fairly standardized form (see below). Jazz musicians sometimes broaden the term still further to embrace all slow-tempo pieces.

Jazz, blues and traditional pop

As new genres of music, such as ragtime, blues and jazz, began to emerge in the early 20th century the popularity of the genre faded, but the association with sentimentality led to the term ballad being used for a slow love song from the 1950s onwards. Most pop standard and jazz ballads are built from a single, introductory ''verse''; usually around 16 bars in length, and ending on the dominant; the ''chorus'' or ''refrain'', usually it is 16 or 32 bars long, and in AABA form (though other forms such as ABAC are not uncommon). In AABA forms, the B section is usually referred to as the ''bridge''; often a brief ''coda'', sometimes based on material from the bridge, was added as in "Over the Rainbow". Other key traditional pop and jazz ballads include: "Body and Soul" by Johnny Green; "Misty" by Erroll Garner; "The Man I Love" by George Gershwin; "My Funny Valentine" by Rodgers and Hart, "God Bless the Child" by Billie Holiday, "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" by Cole Porter, the instrumental ballad "Naima" by John Coltrane, "In a Sentimental Mood" by Duke Ellington and "Always" by Irving Berlin.

Pop and rock ballads

The most common use of the term ballad in modern pop music is for an emotional love song. When the word ''ballad'' appears in the title of a song, as for example in The Beatles's "The Ballad of John and Yoko" or Billy Joel's "The Ballad of Billy the Kid", the folk-music sense is generally implied. ''Ballad'' is also sometimes applied to strophic story-songs more generally, such as Don McLean's "American Pie".

Power ballads

Simon Frith identifies the origins of the power ballad in the emotional singing of soul artists, particularly Ray Charles and the adaptation of this style by figures such as Eric Burdon, Tom Jones and Joe Cocker to produce slow tempo songs often building to a loud and emotive chorus backed by drums, electric guitars and sometimes choirs. According to Charles Aaron, power ballads came into existence in the early 1970s, when rock stars attempted to convey profound messages to audiences. He argues that the power ballad broke into the mainstream of American consciousness in 1976 as FM radio gave a new lease of life to earlier songs like Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" (1971), Aerosmith's "Dream On" (1973), and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" (1974). Other notable examples include Nazareth's version of "Love Hurts" (1975), Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", Scorpions "Still Loving You", (both 1984), Heart's "What About Love" (1985), and Whitesnake's "Is This Love" (1987).

See also

Border ballads

Corrido — a form of ballad originating in northern Mexico and the U.S. southwest

Graves, Alfred Perceval

List of the Child Ballads

List of folk song collections

List of Irish ballads

List of rock ballads

Murder ballad

Roud Folk Song Index

Song structure (popular music)

Torch song

Notes

References and further reading

Middleton, Richard. "Popular Music (I)". ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (subscription required). Accessed 2007-04-06.

Randel, Don (1986). ''The New Harvard Dictionary of Music''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-61525-5.

Temperley, Nicholas. "Ballad (II, 2)". ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (subscription required). Accessed 2007-04-06.

Witmer, Robert. "Ballad (jazz)". ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (subscription required). Accessed 2007-04-06.

Marcello Sorce Keller, "Sul castel di mirabel: Life of a Ballad in Oral Tradition and Choral Practice", Ethnomusicology, XXX(1986), no. 3, 449- 469.

External links

The Ballad Society of Japan

The British Literary Ballads Archive

The Bodleian Library Ballad Collection: view facsimiles of printed ballads

The English Broadside Ballad Archive: searchable database of ballad images, citations, and recordings

Welsh Ballads Website

The Traditional Ballad Index

Black-letter Broadside Ballads Of The years 1595-1639 From the Collection of Samuel Pepys

Smithsonian Global Sound: The Music of Poetry — audio samples of poems, hymns and songs in ballad meter.

The Oxford Book of Ballads, complete 1910 book by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Great Rock Ballads

Jazz and Vocal Ballads

English Broadside Ballad Archive -- an archive of images and recordings of over 4,000 pre-1700 broadside ballads

Category:Folk music Category:Poetic form Category:Song forms Category:Jazz techniques Category:Radio formats

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Name	Todd Howard
Birth place	Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania, USA
Nationality	American
Known for	The Elder Scrolls/Fallout 3
Employer	Bethesda Game Studios
Occupation	Video game designer/Producer

Todd Howard is an American designer, director, and producer. He is currently Game Director and Executive Producer for Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the creation of ''Fallout 3'' and ''The Elder Scrolls'' video game series. GamePro magazine named him to the Top 20 Most Influential People in Gaming over the last 20 years. He has also been named one of IGN’s Top Game Creators of All Time.

Early life

Howard was born in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania and claims to have developed an interest in computers, particularly video games, at a very young age. He considers "Wizardry" and "Ultima 3" to be inspirations for his future games. He is a 1989 graduate of Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. In 1993, he graduated from The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he majored in finance despite his desire to create video games, claiming "it seemed like the easiest path to get through college". After playing ''Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey'' he requested a job from a Bethesda office he encountered each day on his commute from school to home, but was denied.

Bethesda Softworks

Howard joined Bethesda Softworks in 1994. Most recently he was Game Director and Executive Producer of ''Fallout 3'', the 2008 winner of E3’s Best of Show, and Game of the Year from the Game Developers Choice Awards, The Associated Press, Yahoo, Gamespy, IGN, PC Gamer, and more. Prior to that he led the creation of ''The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion'', the 2006 Game of the Year winner from the VGAs, The Associated Press, G4, Computer Gaming World, AIAS, and more. Currently, he is working on the fifth installment of ''The Elder Scrolls'' series, ''Skyrim'', which is due out November 11, 2011.

His other major credits include Project Leader and Designer of ''The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind'' (2002), Producer and Designer of ''The Terminator: Future Shock'' (1995) and ''SkyNET'' (1996), and Project Leader and Designer of ''The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard'' (1998).

He is a frequent speaker at industry events, and his games have been featured in everything from ''Newsweek'', CNN, ''USA Today'', and ''The Today Show'', to magazine covers worldwide. Howard has stated that Bethesda's philosophy for the ''Elder Scrolls'' games is to allow people to "live another life, in another world."

Howard spoke before developers at the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit, sharing his three rules of game development:

Great games are played not made. – "You can have the greatest design document ever made, and you're going to change 90 percent of it as soon as you play the game."

Keep it simple. – Doing something really well takes time, more time than you think it will. Simple systems acting together create complexity that players can appreciate.

Define the experience - "Don't define your game by a list of bullet points... define it by the experience you want people to have."

He also quipped that developers should ignore demographics and installed base, and follow their passions, saying “if install base really mattered, we'd all make board games, because there are a lot of tables.”

External links

"Fallout 3 Q&A;," with Todd Howard, ''Gamespot'', August 2, 2007.

"Fallout Official Website"

"The Elder Scrolls Official Website"

"Falling Into Fallout 3: Director Todd Howard Talks Scope And Evolution" ''Gamasutra'', October 13, 2008.

References

Category:Living people Category:American Christians Category:Video game directors Category:American video game designers Category:The College of William & Mary alumni Category:Emmaus High School alumni Category:Fallout series developers Category:People from Lehigh County, Pennsylvania Category:Terminator video games Category:The Elder Scrolls Category:Video game producers

nl:Todd Howard ru:Говард, Тодд

name	Dream Evil
background	group_or_band
origin	Gothenburg, Sweden
genre	Heavy metal, power metal
years active	1999–present
label	Century Media
website	www.dreamevil.se
current members	Nick NightDannee DemonRitchie RainbowPete PainPat Power
past members	Snowy ShawGus GMark Black }}

Dream Evil is a power metal band from Sweden, assembled and integrated by renowned musical producer Fredrik Nordström in 1999.

Biography

Producer Fredrik Nordström had the ambition of creating a power metal band of his own for a long time, but had difficulty finding anyone with musical ideals similar to his own. However, while on holiday in the Greek islands during the year of 1999, Nordström met the young guitarist Gus G. (from Firewind). The musicians got along quite well, despite an age difference of over a decade. Plans for a band commenced - Gus had already been planning to relocate to Gothenburg, and upon his arrival he looked up Fredrik at Studio Fredman to begin writing.

The first person asked to join the new band was Snowy Shaw (from King Diamond, Mercyful Fate and Notre Dame), but the drummer initially refused their invitation. He would later change his mind and agreed to play on the band's debut album in a session capacity.

Vocalist Niklas Isfeldt had done backing vocals for some of HammerFall's songs produced by Nordström, and since he was not involved in any major projects at the time, he agreed to take the position. He also brought along his longtime friend and Pure-X bandmate Peter Stålfors, who assumed bass duties.

Up until the moment the first promotional photos were shot, the entire band had never been in the same place at the same time before. Some members did not even know each other.

The band soon got a deal with Century Media Records, and intended to name themselves ''Dragonslayer'' due to the medieval and fantastical themes of the songs written by Gus and Nordström. The label did not find the name original enough, and thus the band settled for the name Dream Evil, inspired by the Dio album of the same name.

Dream Evil's debut album was released in April 2002, and received positive feedback from the metal press. At one point the album, titled ''Dragonslayer,'' reached number one on the Japanese import charts. The band proceeded to play a series of festivals, and also supported Blind Guardian during a part of their world tour.

The band members found that they got along well as a unit, despite the somewhat random manner by which they had been brought together - Snowy Shaw decided to join the band permanently, and Dream Evil went on their first Japanese tour. During their stay in Japan, the band was invited by HammerFall to support their 2003 European tour. Their label manager hinted that it would be a good idea to have a new album out by then.

With little time on their hands, the band wrote the basis of several songs on the flight back to Europe, and on the day of their arrival entered the studio in order to record a new album. They took two weeks in total to record ''Evilized'', and most songs were recorded as they had been written. It was released on the 20th of January, and one week later Dream Evil proceeded to tour Europe with HammerFall and the less known Masterplan.

For their third album, the band actually took time to write the songs and fine-tune them in the studio. ''The Book of Heavy Metal'' took two months to be recorded, and was released in May 2004.

Guitarist Gus G. left the band in late 2004 in order to dedicate more time to Firewind, being replaced by Mark Black (then known as Mark U Black). Black had previously filled in for Gus on a few other occasions and replaced him permanently on their tour as support act for Saxon.

Niklas Isfeldt and Peter Stålfors briefly left in 2005 to be replaced by Jake E. Berg (aka Jake Steel, of Dreamland) and Tommy Larsson, but returned before recordings or live shows were done. At the start of 2006, Snowy Shaw abruptly quit Dream Evil. After a period of silence for several months, Dream Evil announced Pat Power (Patrik Jerksten), a co-worker of Fredrik Nordström from Studio Fredman, as Snowy's replacement.

The first album featuring the new line-up, ''United'', was released on October 13, 2006.

Dream Evil announced on December 7, 2007 on the website that Mark Black would be leaving the band and will be replaced by Daniel Varghamne aka Dannee Demon.

On March 3, 2008, the band announced that they had begun work on a new studio album, tentatively titled ''In the Night''. The album is set to be released January 25, 2010 in Europe and January 26, 2010 in North America.

On July 23, 2008, the band announced that their first live DVD/CD set, ''Gold Medal in Metal (Alive & Archive)'', was released on August 25, 2008. In a interview with bass player Peter Stalfors he talked about a new album for 2012.

Line-up

Niklas Isfeldt - Vocals (1999–Present)

Daniel Varghamne - Lead Guitar (2007–Present)

Fredrik Nordström - Rhythm Guitar (1999–Present)

Peter Stålfors - Bass (1999–2005, 2005–Present)

Pat Power - Drums (2006–Present)

Former members

Gus G. - Lead Guitar (1999–2004)

Mark Black - Lead Guitar (2004–2007)

Snowy Shaw - Drums (1999–2006)

Jake E. Lundberg - Vocals (2005)

Tommy Larsson - Bass (2005)

Session musicians:

Magnus Olsfelt - Bass

Daniel Svensson - Drums

Klas Bas - Bass

Discography

''Dragonslayer'' – (2002)

''Evilized'' – (2003)

''The Book of Heavy Metal'' – (2004)

''United'' – (2006)

''In the Night'' – (2010)

"TBA" (2012)

EPs

''Children of the Night'' – (EP, 2003)

''The First Chapter'' – (EP, 2004)

Live

''Gold Medal in Metal (Alive & Archive)'' – (2008)

Notes

External links

Dream Evil Official Website

Category:Swedish power metal musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1999 Category:Century Media Records artists

de:Dream Evil es:Dream Evil it:Dream Evil (gruppo musicale) hu:Dream Evil ja:ドリーム・イーヴル pl:Dream Evil pt:Dream Evil ru:Dream Evil fi:Dream Evil sv:Dream Evil tr:Dream Evil

name	Leonard Nimoy
birth date	March 26, 1931
birth place	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
birth name	Leonard Simon Nimoy
occupation	Actor, film director, poet, photographer, singer, songwriter
years active	1951–present
spouse	Sandra Zober (1954–1987)Susan Bay (1988–present) }}

Leonard Simon Nimoy ( ; born March 26, 1931) is a Jewish American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original ''Star Trek'' series (1966–1969), multiple films, television and video game sequels.

Nimoy began his career in his early twenties, teaching acting classes in Hollywood and making minor film and television appearances through the 1950s, as well as playing the title role in ''Kid Monk Baroni''. In 1953, he served in the United States Army. In 1965, he made his first appearance in the rejected ''Star Trek'' pilot, "The Cage", and would go on to play the character of Mr. Spock until 1969, followed by seven further feature films and a number of guest slots in various sequels. His character of Spock generated a significant cultural impact and three Emmy Award nominations; ''TV Guide'' named Spock one of the 50 greatest TV characters. Nimoy also had a recurring role in ''Mission: Impossible'' and a narrating role in ''Civilization IV'', as well as several well-received stage appearances.

Nimoy's fame as Spock is such that both his autobiographies, ''I Am Not Spock'' (1977) and ''I Am Spock'' (1995) detail his existence as being shared between the character and himself.

Early life

Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the West End, to Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, Ukraine. His father, Max Nimoy, owned a barbershop in the Mattapan section of the city. His mother, Dora Nimoy (née Spinner), was a homemaker. Nimoy began acting at the age of eight in children's and neighborhood theater. His parents wanted him to attend college and pursue a stable career, or even learn to play the accordion—which, his father advised, Nimoy could always make a living with—but his grandfather encouraged him to become an actor. His first major role was at 17, as Ralphie in an amateur production of Clifford Odets' ''Awake and Sing!''. Nimoy took Drama classes at Boston College in 1953 but failed to complete his studies, and in the 1970s studied photography at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has an MA in Education and an honorary doctorate from Antioch University in Ohio.

Nimoy served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army from 1953 through 1955, alongside fellow actor Ken Berry and architect Frank Gehry.

Career

Stage and screen

Nimoy's film and television acting career began in 1951, but after receiving the title role in the 1952 film ''Kid Monk Baroni'', a story about a street punk turned professional boxer, he played more than 50 small parts in B movies, TV shows such as ''Dragnet'', and serials such as Republic Pictures' ''Zombies of the Stratosphere'' (1952). To support his family Nimoy often worked other jobs, such as delivering newspapers in the morning.

He played an Army sergeant in the 1954 science fiction thriller, ''Them!'', a professor in the 1958 science fiction movie ''The Brain Eaters'', and had a role in ''The Balcony'' (1963), a film adaptation of the Jean Genet play. Together with Vic Morrow, he produced a 1966 version of ''Deathwatch'', a English language film version of Genet's play ''Haute Surveillance'', adapted and directed by Morrow and starring Nimoy.

On television Nimoy appeared as "Sonarman" in two episodes of the 1957–1958 syndicated military drama, ''The Silent Service'', based on actual events of the submarine section of the United States Navy. He had guest roles in the ''Sea Hunt'' series from 1958 to 1960 and had a minor role in ''The Twilight Zone'' episode "A Quality of Mercy" in 1961. He also appeared in ''Highway Patrol''. Throughout the 1960s Nimoy appeared in a number of other TV series including ''Bonanza'' (1960), ''Two Faces West'' (1961), ''The Untouchables (1962)'', ''The Eleventh Hour'' (1962), ''Combat!'' (1963, 1965), ''Perry Mason'' (1963), ''The Outer Limits'' (1964), ''The Virginian'' (1965) and ''Get Smart'' (1966). He appeared again in the 1995 ''Outer Limits'', again in the episode "I, Robot".

On the stage, Nimoy played the lead-role alien of a short run of Gore Vidal's "A Visit to a Small Planet" in 1968, shortly before the end of the Star Trek series. This play was staged at the now-folded Pheasant Run Playhouse in St. Charles, Illinois.

Nimoy and William Shatner first worked together in an episode of ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'', "The Project Strigas Affair" (1964). Their characters were from either side of the Iron Curtain, though with his saturnine looks, Nimoy was predictably the villain, with Shatner playing a reluctant U.N.C.L.E. recruit.

Nimoy first worked with DeForest Kelley in an episode of ''The Virginian'' from season two titled "Man of Violence", with Kelley as the doctor and Nimoy as the patient.

''Star Trek''

}} Nimoy's greatest prominence came from his role in the original ''Star Trek'' series. As the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock—a role he chose instead of one on the soap opera ''Peyton Place''—Nimoy became a star, and the press predicted that he would "have his choice of movies or television series." He formed a long-standing friendship with Shatner, who portrayed his commanding officer, saying of their relationship, "We were like brothers." ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' was originally telecast from 1966 to 1969, and Nimoy earned three Emmy acting nominations for his work on the iconic program that has defined American television science fiction, both for fans of science fiction, and beyond.

He went on to reprise the Spock character in a voice-over role in ''Star Trek: The Animated Series'' (so much so that the episode "Yesteryear" is the only ''ST:TAS'' episode to have been accepted as ''Star Trek'' canon); in two episodes of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''; and, in six Star Trek movies featuring the original ''Star Trek'' cast. He played the elder Spock in the 2009 ''Star Trek'' movie, directed by J. J. Abrams, the film being widely credited with revitalizing the franchise.

Spock's Vulcan salute became a recognized symbol of the show identified with him. Nimoy created the sign himself from his childhood memories of the way ''kohanim'' (Jewish priests) held their hand when giving blessings. During an interview, he translated the Priestly Blessing which accompanied the sign and described it during a public lecture:

:''May the Lord bless and keep you and may the Lord cause his countenance to shine upon you. May the Lord be gracious unto you and grant you peace.''

Nimoy was asked to read these verses as part of his narration for ''Civilization IV''.

After ''Star Trek''

Following ''Star Trek'' in 1969, Nimoy immediately joined the cast of the spy series ''Mission: Impossible'', which was seeking a replacement for Martin Landau. Nimoy was cast as an IMF agent who was an ex-magician and make-up expert, 'The Great Paris'. He played the role from 1969 to 1971, on the fourth and fifth seasons of the show.

He co-starred with Yul Brynner and Richard Crenna in the Western movie ''Catlow'' (1971). Nimoy appeared in various made for television films such as ''Assault on the Wayne'' (1970), ''Baffled'' (1972), ''The Alpha Caper'' (1973), ''The Missing Are Deadly'' (1974), ''Seizure: The Story Of Kathy Morris'' (1980), and ''Marco Polo'' (1982). He received an Emmy award nomination for best supporting actor for the TV film ''A Woman Called Golda'' (1982). He also had roles in ''Night Gallery'' (1972) and ''Columbo'' (1973) where he played a murderous doctor who was one of the few criminals with whom Columbo became angry.

In the late 1970s, he hosted and narrated the television series ''In Search of...'', which investigated paranormal or unexplained events or subjects. He also has a memorable character part as a psychiatrist in Philip Kaufman's remake of ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers''.

During this time, Nimoy also won acclaim for a series of stage roles. He appeared in such plays as ''Vincent'', ''Fiddler on the Roof'', ''The Man in the Glass Booth'', ''Oliver!'', ''Six Rms Riv Vu'', ''Full Circle'', ''Camelot'', ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'', ''The King and I'', ''Caligula'', ''The Four Poster'', ''Twelfth Night'', ''Sherlock Holmes'', ''Equus'' and ''My Fair Lady''.

''Star Trek'' films

When a new ''Star Trek'' series series was planned in the late 1970s, Nimoy was to be in only two out of every eleven episodes, but when the show was elevated to a feature film, he agreed to reprise his role. After directing a few television show episodes, Nimoy started film directing in 1984 with the third installment of the film series. Nimoy would go on to direct the second most successful film (critically and financially) in the franchise after the 2009 ''Star Trek'' film, ''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'' (1986), and ''Three Men and a Baby'', the highest grossing film of 1987, made him a star director. At a press conference promoting the 2009 ''Star Trek'' movie, Nimoy made it clear that he had no further plans or ambition to direct:

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Other work after ''Star Trek''

In 1978, Nimoy played Dr. David Kibner in ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers''. He also did occasional work as a voice actor in animated feature films, including the character of Galvatron in ''The Transformers: The Movie'' in 1986.

In 1991, Nimoy teamed up with Robert B. Radnitz to produce a movie for TNT about a ''pro bono publico'' lawsuit brought by public interest attorney William John Cox on behalf of Mel Mermelstein, an Auschwitz survivor, against a group of organizations engaged in Holocaust denial. Nimoy also played the Mermelstein role and believes: "If every project brought me the same sense of fulfillment that ''Never Forget'' did, I would truly be in paradise."

Nimoy performed as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in ''The Pagemaster'' in 1994. In 1998, he had a leading role as Mustapha Mond in the made-for-television production of Aldous Huxley's ''Brave New World.''

Together with John De Lancie, another ex-actor from the Star Trek series, Nimoy created ''Alien Voices'', an audio-production venture that specializes in audio dramatizations. Among the works jointly narrated by the couple are ''The Time Machine'', ''A Journey to the Center of the Earth'', ''The Lost World'', ''The Invisible Man'', and ''The First Men in the Moon'', as well as several television specials for the Sci-Fi Channel.

From 1994 until 1998, Nimoy narrated the ''Ancient Mysteries'' series on A&E; including "The Sacred Water of Lourdes" and "Secrets of the Romanovs". He also appeared in advertising in the United Kingdom for the computer company Time Computers in the late 1990s. In 1997, Nimoy played the prophet Samuel, alongside Nathaniel Parker, in The Bible Collection movie "David". He had a central role in ''Brave New World'', a 1998 TV-movie version of Aldous Huxley's novel where he played a character reminiscent of Spock in his philosophical balancing of unpredictable human qualities with the need for control. Nimoy has also appeared in several popular television seriesincluding ''Futurama'' and ''The Simpsons''as both himself and Spock.

Nimoy appeared in ''Hearts of Space'' program number 142 – "Whales alive."

In 1999, he voiced the narration of the English version of the Sega Dreamcast game ''Seaman'' and promoted Y2K educational films.

In 2000, he provided on-camera hosting and introductions for 45 half-hour episodes of an anthology series entitled ''Our 20th Century'' on the AEN TV Network. The series covers world news, sports, entertainment, technology, and fashion using original archive news clips from 1930 to 1975 from the National Archives in Washington D.C. and other private archival sources.

In 2003, he announced his retirement from acting to concentrate on photography, but subsequently appeared in several television commercials with William Shatner for Priceline.com. He appeared in a commercial for Aleve, an arthritis pain medication, which aired during the 2006 Super Bowl.

Nimoy provided a comprehensive series of voiceovers for the 2005 computer game ''Civilization IV''. He did the TV series ''Next Wave'' where he interviewed people about technology. He is the host in the documentary film ''The Once and Future Griffith Observatory'' currently running in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater located at the recently reopened Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California.

In January 2007, he granted an interview to Fat Free Film, where he discussed his early career and the benefits of being typecast.

Nimoy was given casting approval over who would play the young Spock in the newest film.

On January 6, 2009, he was interviewed by William Shatner on Biography Channel's ''Shatner's Raw Nerve''.

In May 2009, he made an appearance as the mysterious Dr. William Bell in the season finale of ''Fringe'', which explores the existence of a parallel universe. Nimoy returned as Dr. Bell in the autumn for an extended arc, and according to Roberto Orci, co-creator of ''Fringe'', Bell will be "the beginning of the answers to even bigger questions." This choice led one reviewer to question if ''Fringe'''s plot might be a homage to the ''Star Trek'' episode "Mirror, Mirror", which featured an alternate reality "Mirror Universe" concept and an evil version of Spock distinguished by a goatee.

On the May 9, 2009 episode of ''Saturday Night Live'', Nimoy appeared as a surprise guest on the skit "Weekend Update". During a mock interview, Nimoy called old Trekkies who did not like the new movie "dickheads". In the 2009 ''Star Trek'' movie, he plays the older Spock from the original ''Star Trek'' timeline; Zachary Quinto portrays the young Spock.

Starring with Will Ferrell in the TV-based movie ''Land of the Lost'' in June 2009, he voiced the part of "The Zarn", an Altrusian.

Nimoy is also a frequent and popular reader for "Selected Shorts", an ongoing series of programs at Symphony Space in New York City (that also tours around the country) which features actors, and sometimes authors, reading works of short fiction. The programs are broadcast on radio and available on websites through Public Radio International, National Public Radio and WNYC radio. Nimoy was honored by Symphony Space with the renaming of the Thalia Theater as the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater.

Nimoy has also provided voiceovers for the ''Star Trek Online'' massively multiplayer online game, released in February 2010, as well as ''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep'' as the villainous Master Xehanort. Tetsuya Nomura, the director of ''Birth by Sleep'', stated that he chose Nimoy for the role specifically because of his role as Spock.

Retirement

In April 2010, Leonard Nimoy announced that he is retiring from playing the signature character of Star Trek's Spock, citing both his advanced age and the desire to give Zachary Quinto the opportunity to enjoy full media attention with the Spock character. ''Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep'' was to be his final performance. However, in February 2011, he announced his definite plan to return to Fringe and reprise his role as William Bell. His retirement from acting has not included voice acting, as his appearance in the third season of ''Fringe'' only includes his voice (his character only appears in animated scenes), and he provided the voice of Sentinel Prime in ''Transformers: Dark of the Moon''. In May 2011 Nimoy starred in the alternate version music video of Bruno Mars' ''The Lazy Song''. Nimoy revealed that he violated his retirement decision after Aaron Bay-Schuck, the Atlantic Records executive who signed Bruno Mars to the label and Nimoy's stepson, asked him to participate in the video.

Photography

Nimoy's interest in photography began in childhood; he still owns a camera which he rebuilt at the age of 13. His photography studies at UCLA occurred after ''Star Trek'' and ''Mission: Impossible'', when Nimoy seriously considered changing careers. His work has been exhibited at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

Literary works

Nimoy has written two autobiographies. The first was called ''I Am Not Spock'' (1977) and was controversial, as many fans incorrectly assumed that Nimoy was distancing himself from the Spock character. In the book, Nimoy conducts dialogues between himself and Spock. The contents of this first autobiography also touched on a self-proclaimed "identity crisis" that seemed to haunt Nimoy throughout his career. It also related to an apparent love/hate relationship with the character of Spock and the Trek franchise.

}}

His second autobiography was ''I Am Spock'' (1995), communicating that he finally realized his years of portraying the Spock character had led to a much greater identification between the fictional character and himself. Nimoy had much input into how Spock would act in certain situations, and conversely, Nimoy's contemplation of how Spock acted gave him cause to think about things in a way that he never would have thought if he had not portrayed the character. As such, in this autobiography Nimoy maintains that in some meaningful sense he has merged with Spock while at the same time maintaining the distance between fact and fiction.

Nimoy has also written several volumes of poetry, some published along with a number of his photographs. His latest effort is titled ''A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life'' (2002). His poetry can be found in the Contemporary Poets index of The HyperTexts. In the mid-1970s Nimoy wrote and starred in a one-man play called ''Vincent'' based on the play ''Van Gogh'' by Phillip Stephens.

In 1995, Nimoy was involved in the production of ''Primortals'', a comic book series published by Tekno Comix that involved a first contact situation with aliens, which had arisen from a discussion he had with Isaac Asimov. There was a novelization by Steve Perry.

Music career

During and following ''Star Trek'', Nimoy also released five albums of vocal recordings on Dot Records, including ''Trek''-related songs such as "Highly Illogical", and cover versions of popular tunes, such as "Proud Mary". In regards to how his recording career got started, he stated:

The albums were popular and resulted in numerous live appearances and promotional record signings that attracted crowds of fans in the thousands. The early recordings were produced by Charles Grean, who may be best known for his version of "Quentin's Theme" from the mid-sixties goth soap opera ''Dark Shadows''. These recordings are generally regarded as unintentionally camp, though his tongue-in-cheek performance of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" received a fair amount of airplay when Peter Jackson's ''The Lord of the Rings'' films were released.

In addition to his own music career he directed a 1985 music video for The Bangles' "Going Down to Liverpool". He makes a brief cameo appearance in the video as their driver. This came about because his son Adam Nimoy (now a frequent television director) was a friend of Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs from college. He released a version of Johnny Cash's song "I Walk the Line".

Nimoy's voice appeared in sampled form on a song by the pop band Information Society in the late Eighties. The song, "What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)" (released in 1988), reached #3 on the US Pop charts, and #1 on Dance charts. The group's self-titled LP contains several other samples from the original Star Trek television series.

Nimoy also appears in the alternate music video for the song "Lazy Song" by pop artist Bruno Mars.

Personal life

Nimoy has long been active in the Jewish community, and he can speak and read Yiddish. In 1997, he narrated the documentary ''A Life Apart: Hasidism in America'', about the various sects of Hasidic Orthodox Jews. In October 2002, Nimoy published ''The Shekhina Project'', a photographic study exploring the feminine aspect of God's presence, inspired by Kabbalah.

Nimoy has been married twice. In 1954, he married actress Sandra Zober (1927–2011), whom he divorced in 1987. He had two children with her, director Adam Nimoy and Julie Nimoy, who both appeared in an Oldsmobile commercial, with the tagline "This is not your father's Oldsmobile". In 1988, he married actress Susan Bay, who is a cousin of director Michael Bay.

In a 2001 DVD, Nimoy revealed that he became an alcoholic while working on ''Star Trek'' and ended up in rehab. Also in William Shatner's 2008 book ''Up Till Now: The Autobiography'', Shatner speaks about how later in their lives Nimoy tried to help Shatner's alcoholic wife.

Nimoy still has the last pair of Spock's ears he wore on the series, as a memento. He has said that the character of Spock, which he played twelve to fourteen hours a day, five days a week, influenced his personality in private life. Each weekend during the original run of the series, he would be in character throughout Saturday and into Sunday, behaving more like Spock than himself more logical, more rational, more thoughtful, less emotional and finding a calm in every situation. It was only on Sunday in the early afternoon that Spock's influence on his behavior would fade off and he would feel more himself again – only to start the cycle over Monday morning.

Nimoy also introduced the Vulcan nerve pinch in an early ''Star Trek'' episode "The Enemy Within". Initially, Spock was supposed to knock out an evil Kirk in the Engineering room by striking him on the back of the head. Nimoy felt that the action was not in keeping with the nature of Spock's character, so he suggested the "pinch" as a non-violent alternative, suggesting that Vulcans have the ability to emit energy from their fingertips, which, if applied to the correct nerve cluster, could render a human unconscious. Nimoy explained this to the episode's director and according to Nimoy, the director had no idea what he was talking about. However, Nimoy would express relief in later interviews and appearances that when he explained the concept to William Shatner, he got it immediately, and Nimoy credits Shatner's reaction to the nerve pinch in the episode as what really sold the neck pinch. In early scripts for ''Star Trek'', the nerve pinch was referred to as the "F.S.N.P.," which stood for "Famous Spock Neck Pinch."

He has remained good friends with co-star William Shatner (also of Ukrainian-Jewish descent) and was best man at Shatner's third marriage in 1997. Shatner is only four days older than Nimoy. He also remained good friends with DeForest Kelley until Kelley's death in 1999.

The Space Foundation named Nimoy as the recipient of the 2010 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award for creating a positive role model that inspired untold numbers of viewers to learn more about the universe. An honor Nimoy did not receive, however, was the naming of asteroid 2309 Mr. Spock after his character, at least not directly. The asteroid was named by discoverer James B. Gibson after his pet cat, "Mr. Spock," said feline indeed being named after the ''Star Trek'' character.

Filmography

Year	! Film	! Role	! Notes
1951		Young Ball Player
	''Kid Monk Baroni''	Paul 'Monk' Baroni
''Zombies of the Stratosphere''	Narab
1952	''Francis Goes to West Point''	Football player	Spoken part but uncredited
1953	''Old Overland Trail''	Chief Black Hawk
1954	''Them!''	Army Sergeant
1954		Julius Carver & Karlo Rozwadowski	(TV series) Episodes "The Big Boys" in 1954 & "The Big Name" in 1959.
1956		Tom Kennedy & ?	(TV series) 2 episodes, "His Brother's Fist" (1956) & "Cold Peril" (1957)
1957		Harry Wells, Ray	(TV series) 2 episodes, as Harry Wells in "Hot Dust" (1957) & Ray in "Blood Money" (1958)
	''The Brain Eaters''	Professor Cole
''Sea Hunt''	Indio	(TV series) 6 episodes (1958–1960)
	''Bonanza''	Freddy	(TV series) Episode "The Ape"
''M Squad''	Bob Nash	(TV series) Episode "Badge for a Coward"
		Hansen	(TV series) (Episode "A Quality of Mercy")
	Anko	(TV series) Episode "Incident Before Black Pass"
	''The Balcony''	Roger
	Lt. Beldon M.D.	(TV series) Episode "Man of Violence"
		Konig	(TV series) (Episode "Production and Decay of Strange Particles")
	Judson Ellis
''The Man From U.N.C.L.E.''	Vladeck	(TV series) Episode "The Project Strigas Affair"
	''Get Smart''	Stryker
''Gunsmoke''	John Walking Fox
''Daniel Boone''	Oontah	(TV series) (Episode "Seminole Territory")
''Deathwatch''	Jules LaFranc
1966	''Star Trek''		(TV series) (79 episodes)
1969			(TV series) (49 episodes)
1971	''Catlow''	Miller
	''Baffled!''	Tom Kovack	(TV)
	Dr. Barry Mayfield	(TV)
''Star Trek: The Animated Series''		(voice) (22 episodes)
1974	''Rex Harrison Presents Stories of Love''	Mick	(TV)
1976		Narrator(1976–1982)	(TV series)
1978		Dr. David Kibner
1979	''Star Trek: The Motion Picture''
1981			(TV)
	''A Woman Called Golda''	Morris Meyerson	(TV)
	Achmet	(TV mini-series)
''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''
	1983	''T.J. Hooker''	Paul McGuire	(TV Series) (Episode "Vengeance is Mine")
	''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock''
''The Sun Also Rises''	Count Mippipopolous	(TV)
	''The Transformers: The Movie''	Galvatron	(voice), main Decepticon antagonist/ main villain
''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home''
''Faerie Tale Theatre''	The Evil Moroccan Magician	(TV Series) (Episode "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp")
1989	''Star Trek V: The Final Frontier''
		Mel Mermelstein	(TV)
''Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories''	Narrator	(TV)
''Star Trek: The Next Generation''		(TV series) (episodes "Unification (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country''
1993		Mr. Moundshroud	(voice)
1994	''The Pagemaster''	Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde	(voice)
	''Bonanza: Under Attack''	Frank James	(TV)
	Thomas Cutler
''Titanica''	Narrator	(documentary)
1997	''David''	Samuel	(TV)
1998		Mustapha Mond	(TV)
	''Seaman (video game)''	Narrator	(video game)
''Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists''	Akron/Baraka/King Chandra	(voice)
		Professor Emmett Fowler	(TV series) (episode "The TorMentor")
''Atlantis: The Lost Empire''	King Kashekim Nedakh	(voice)
2005	''Civilization IV''	Narrator	(video game), (voice)
	Dr. William Bell	(TV series) (four episodes – but only provided a voice-over in one of them)
		(voice)
	''Star Trek Online''	Mr. Spock (Narrator)	(video game), (voice)
''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep''		(video game), (voice)
	Dr. William Bell	(TV series) (recurring from "There's More Than One of Everything".)
2011	''Transformers: Dark of the Moon''	Sentinel Prime (also as Spock on a television set in the background)	(voice) main Autobot antagonist/Autobot Traitor

Director

''Vincent'': Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens (1978–1981)

''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' (1984)

''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'' (1986)

''Three Men and a Baby'' (1987)

''The Good Mother'' (1988)

''Funny About Love'' (1990)

''Holy Matrimony'' (1994)

episodes of ''Night Gallery'', ''T.J. Hooker'', ''The Powers of Matthew Star'' and ''Deadly Games''

Videography

Music videos

"Bilbo Baggins" by Leonard Nimoy

"Going Down to Liverpool" by The Bangles (1985)

"The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars (2011)

Writer

Bibliography

''I Am Not Spock'' (1977)

''Vincent: Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens'' (1978)

''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (1979) (Contributions uncredited) ''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' (1984) (Contributions uncredited)

''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'' (1986)

''Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'' (1991)

''I Am Spock'' (1995)

''Shekhina'' photography (2005) (ISBN 978-1-884167-16-4)

''The Full Body Project'' (2008)

Poetry

''You & I'' (1973) (ISBN 978-0-912310-26-8)

''Will I Think of You?'' (1974) (ISBN 0912310701)

''We Are All Children Searching for Love: A Collection of Poems and Photographs'' (1977) (ISBN 978-0-88396-024-0)

''Come be With Me'' (1978) (ISBN 978-0-88396-033-2)

''These Words are for You'' (1981) (ISBN 978-0-88396-148-3)

''Warmed by Love'' (1983) (ISBN 978-0-88396-200-8)

''A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life'' (2002) (ISBN 978-0-88396-596-2)

Discography

:''See also: Leonard Nimoy discography (includes compilations and re-issues)''

''Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space'' (Dot Records), (1967).

''Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy'' (Dot Records), (1968).

''The Way I Feel'' (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25883), (1968).

''The Touch of Leonard Nimoy'' (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25910), (1969).

''The New World of Leonard Nimoy'' (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25966), (1970).

References

External links

Leonard Nimoy's personal website

Leonard Nimoy's entry at Startrek.com

Leonard Nimoy at Alien Voices

Interview with Leonard Nimoy at hossli.com

Leonard Nimoy Poetry and Photography on The HyperTexts

Interview with Leonard Nimoy by the Archive of American Television (2000)

2010 Interview with Nimoy about his "Secret Selves" show at Mass MoCA

Media

Newsmaker of the Week: Leonard Nimoy (30-min. interview, free)

Archive of American Television Interview with Leonard Nimoy Nov 2, 2000

Interview with Leonard Nimoy about photography, on ''The Callie Crossley Show''

Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American Jews Category:American military personnel of the Korean War Category:American Orthodox Jews Category:American poets Category:American television actors Category:American television directors Category:American voice actors Category:American video game actors Category:Antioch College alumni Category:English-language film directors Category:Jewish actors Category:Dot Records artists Category:Actors from Massachusetts Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Category:1931 births Category:Living people Category:United States Army soldiers

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name	Johnny Cash
background	solo_singer
birth name	J. R. Cash
birth date	February 20, 1932
birth place	Kingsland, Arkansas, United States
death date	September 12, 2003
death place	Nashville, Tennessee, United States
instrument	Vocals, guitar, harmonica, mandolin
genre	Country, rock and roll, folk, gospel, blues, rockabilly
occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, actor
years active	1955–2003
label	Sun, Columbia, Mercury, American, House of Cash, Legacy Recordings
associated acts	The Tennessee Three, The Highwaymen, June Carter Cash, The Statler Brothers, The Carter Family, The Oak Ridge Boys, Area Code 615, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins
website
notable instruments	Martin Acoustic Guitars }}

John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003), A.K.A. "The Man In Black", was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Although he is primarily remembered as a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal led to Cash being inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Late in his career, Cash covered songs by several rock artists.

Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice; for the "boom-chicka-boom" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for his rebelliousness, coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor; for providing free concerts inside prison walls; and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black". He traditionally started his concerts by saying, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." and usually following it up with his standard "Folsom Prison Blues."

Much of Cash's music, especially that of his later career, echoed themes of sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption. His signature songs include "I Walk the Line", "Folsom Prison Blues", "Ring of Fire", "Get Rhythm" and "Man in Black". He also recorded humorous numbers, including "One Piece at a Time" and "A Boy Named Sue"; a duet with his future wife, June Carter, called "Jackson"; as well as railroad songs including "Hey, Porter" and "Rock Island Line".

Cash, a troubled but devout Christian, has been characterized as a "lens through which to view American contradictions and challenges." A Biblical scholar, he penned a Christian novel titled ''Man in White'', and he made a spoken word recording of the entire New King James Version of the New Testament. Even so, Cash declared that he was "the biggest sinner of them all", and viewed himself overall as a complicated and contradictory man. Accordingly, Cash is said to have "contained multitudes", and has been deemed "the philosopher-prince of American country music".

Personal life

Early life

Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas, the fourth of seven children to Ray Cash (May 13, 1897, Kingsland, Arkansas – December 23, 1985, Hendersonville, Tennessee) and Carrie Cloveree Rivers (March 13, 1904, Rison, Arkansas – March 11, 1991, Hendersonville, Tennessee). Cash was named J. R. Cash because his parents couldn't think of a name, but the initials "J. R." When Cash enlisted in the Air Force, they wouldn't let him use initials as his name, so he started to use his legal name of John R. Cash. In 1955, when signing with Sun Records, he took Johnny Cash as his stage name.

The Cash children were, in order: Roy, Margaret Louise, Jack, J. R., Reba, Joanne and Tommy. His younger brother, Tommy Cash, also became a successful country artist.

In March 1935, when Cash was three years old, the family settled in Dyess, Arkansas. J.R. was working in cotton fields beginning at age five, singing along with his family simultaneously while working. The family farm was flooded on at least two occasions, which later inspired him to write the song "Five Feet High and Rising". His family's economic and personal struggles during the Great Depression inspired many of his songs, especially those about other people facing similar difficulties.

Cash was very close to his older brother, Jack. In May 1944, Jack was pulled into a whirling head saw in the mill where he worked and was almost cut in two. He suffered for over a week before he died on May 20, 1944, at age 15. Cash often spoke of the horrible guilt he felt over this incident. According to ''Cash: The Autobiography'', his father was away that morning, but he and his mother, and Jack himself, all had premonitions or a sense of foreboding about that day, causing his mother to urge Jack to skip work and go fishing with his brother. Jack insisted on working, as the family needed the money. On his deathbed, Jack said he had visions of heaven and angels. Decades later, Cash spoke of looking forward to meeting his brother in heaven.

Cash's early memories were dominated by gospel music and radio. Taught by his mother and a childhood friend, Cash began playing guitar and writing songs as a young boy. In high school he sang on a local radio station; decades later he released an album of traditional gospel songs, called ''My Mother's Hymn Book''. He was also significantly influenced by traditional Irish music that he heard performed weekly by Dennis Day on the Jack Benny radio program.

Cash enlisted in the United States Air Force on July 7, 1950. After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and technical training at Brooks Air Force Base, both in San Antonio, Texas, Cash was assigned to a U.S. Air Force Security Service unit, assigned as a Morse Code Intercept Operator for Soviet Army transmissions at Landsberg, Germany "where he created his first band named The Landsberg Barbarians." He was the first radio operator to pick up the news of the death of Joseph Stalin. After he was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant on July 3, 1954, he returned to Texas. On August 7, 1954, one month after his discharge, he married his first wife, Vivian Liberto, in San Antonio.

Marriages and family

On July 18, 1951, while in Air Force training, Cash met 17-year-old Vivian Liberto at a roller skating rink in her native San Antonio. They dated for three weeks, until Cash was deployed to Germany for a three year tour. During that time, the couple exchanged hundreds of pages of love letters. On August 7, 1954, one month after his discharge, they were married at St. Anne's Catholic church in San Antonio. The ceremony was performed by her uncle, Father Vincent Liberto. They had four daughters: Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy and Tara. Cash's drug and alcohol abuse, constant touring, and affairs with other women, and his close relationship with future wife June Carter, led Liberto to file for divorce in 1966.

In 1968, 13 years after they first met backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, Cash proposed to June Carter, an established country singer, during a live performance in London, Ontario, marrying on March 1, 1968 in Franklin, Kentucky. They had one child together, John Carter Cash (born March 3, 1970). They continued to work together and tour for 35 years, until June Carter died in 2003. Cash died just four months later. Carter co-wrote one of Cash's biggest hits, "Ring of Fire," with singer Merle Kilgore. She and Cash won two Grammy awards for their duets.

Vivian Liberto claims a different version of the origins of "Ring of Fire" in ''I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny'', stating that Cash gave Carter the credit for monetary reasons.

Heritage

Cash found out that his heritage was a British Isles mix. For example, he learned upon researching his heritage that he was of Scottish royal descent on his father's side, traced back to Malcolm I of Scotland. After meeting with now-dead laird Major Michael Crichton-Stuart of Falkland, Fife, Scotland, Johnny traced the Cash family tree to eleventh-century Fife; Cash Loch and other locations in Fife bear the name of his family.

Cash found that he also had English and Scotch-Irish ancestry. Though he learned that he did not have Native American Indian ancestry, his empathy and compassion for Native American Indians were unabated; these feelings were expressed in several of his songs, including "Apache Tears" and "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", and on his album, ''Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian''. Through his maternal grandmother, Rosanna Lee (Hurst) Rivers, Cash is distantly related to millionaire William Randolph Hearst and socialite Patty Hearst.

Friends

Cash was a long time friend of Woody Hayes (ex Ohio State Buckeyes football coach). The lyrics "I braided Twigs of Willows Made a String of Buckeye Beads" from the song Flesh and Blood was for Woody.

Career

Early career

In 1954, Cash and Vivian moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he sold appliances while studying to be a radio announcer. At night he played with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant. Perkins and Grant were known as the Tennessee Two. Cash worked up the courage to visit the Sun Records studio, hoping to get a recording contract. After auditioning for Sam Phillips, singing mostly gospel songs, Phillips told him that he didn't record gospel music any longer. It was once rumored that Phillips told Cash to "go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell," though in a 2002 interview Cash denied that Phillips made any such comment. Cash eventually won over the producer with new songs delivered in his early rock'a'billy style. In 1955 Cash made his first recordings at Sun, "Hey Porter" and "Cry! Cry! Cry!", which were released in late June and met with reasonable success on the country hit parade.

On December 4, 1956, Elvis Presley dropped in on studio owner Sam Phillips to pay a social visit while Carl Perkins was in the studio cutting new tracks, with Jerry Lee Lewis backing him on piano. Cash was also in the studio and the four started an impromptu jam session. Phillips left the tapes running and the recordings, almost half of which were gospel songs, survived and have since been released under the title ''Million Dollar Quartet''.

Cash's next record, "Folsom Prison Blues", made the country Top 5, and "I Walk the Line" became No. 1 on the country charts and entered the pop charts Top 20. "Home of the Blues" followed, recorded in July 1957. That same year Cash became the first Sun artist to release a long-playing album. Although he was Sun's most consistently selling and prolific artist at that time, Cash felt constrained by his contract with the small label partly due to the fact that Phillips wasn't keen on Johnny recording gospel, and he was only getting a 3% royalty as opposed to the standard rate of 5%. Presley had already left Sun, and Phillips was focusing most of his attention and promotion on Lewis. The following year Cash left the label to sign a lucrative offer with Columbia Records, where his single "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" became one of his biggest hits.

In the early 1960s, Cash toured with the Carter Family, which by this time regularly included Mother Maybelle's daughters, Anita, June and Helen. June, whom Cash would eventually marry, later recalled admiring him from afar during these tours. In the 1960s he appeared on Pete Seeger's short lived ''Rainbow Quest.''

He also acted in a 1961 film entitled ''Five Minutes to Live'', later re-released as ''Door-to-door Maniac''. He also wrote and sang the opening theme.

Outlaw image

As his career was taking off in the late 1950s, Cash started drinking heavily and became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates. For a brief time, he shared an apartment in Nashville with Waylon Jennings, who was heavily addicted to amphetamines. Cash used the uppers to stay awake during tours. Friends joked about his "nervousness" and erratic behavior, many ignoring the warning signs of his worsening drug addiction. In a behind-the-scenes look at ''The Johnny Cash Show'', Cash claims to have "tried every drug there was to try."

Although in many ways spiraling out of control, Cash's frenetic creativity was still delivering hits. His rendition of "Ring of Fire" was a crossover hit, reaching No. 1 on the country charts and entering the Top 20 on the pop charts. The song was written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore. The song was originally performed by June's sister, but the signature mariachi-style horn arrangement was provided by Cash, who said that it had come to him in a dream.

In June 1965, his truck caught fire due to an overheated wheel bearing, triggering a forest fire that burned several hundred acres in Los Padres National Forest in California. When the judge asked Cash why he did it, Cash said, "I didn't do it, my truck did, and it's dead, so you can't question it." The fire destroyed , burning the foliage off three mountains and killing 49 of the refuge's 53 endangered condors. Cash was unrepentant: "I don't care about your damn yellow buzzards." The federal government sued him and was awarded $125,172 ($}} today). Cash eventually settled the case and paid $82,001. He said he was the only person ever sued by the government for starting a forest fire.

Although Cash carefully cultivated a romantic outlaw image, he never served a prison sentence. Despite landing in jail seven times for misdemeanors, each stay lasted only a single night. His most infamous run-in with the law occurred while on tour in 1965, when he was arrested October 4 by a narcotics squad in El Paso, Texas. The officers suspected that he was smuggling heroin from Mexico, but it was 688 Dexedrine capsules and 475 Equanil tablets that the singer had hidden inside his guitar case. Because they were prescription drugs rather than illegal narcotics, he received a suspended sentence. Cash was later arrested on May 11, 1965, in Starkville, Mississippi, for trespassing late at night onto private property to pick flowers. (This incident gave the spark for the song "Starkville City Jail", which he spoke about on his live ''At San Quentin'' prison album.)

In the mid 1960s, Cash released a number of concept albums, including ''Ballads Of the True West'' (1965), an experimental double record mixing authentic frontier songs with Cash's spoken narration, and ''Bitter Tears'' (1964), with songs highlighting the plight of the Native Americans. His drug addiction was at its worst at this point, and his destructive behavior led to a divorce from his first wife and canceled performances.

In 1967, Cash's duet with June Carter, "Jackson", won a Grammy Award.

Johnny Cash's final arrest was in Walker County, Georgia where he was taken in after being involved in a car accident while carrying a bag of prescription pills. Cash attempted to bribe a local deputy, who turned the money down, and then spent the night in a LaFayette, Georgia jail. The singer was released after a long talk with Sheriff Ralph Jones, who warned him of his dangerous behavior and wasted potential. Johnny credited that experience for saving his life, and he later came back to LaFayette to play a benefit concert that attracted 12,000 people (the city population was less than 9,000 at the time) and raised $75,000 for the high school.

Cash curtailed his use of drugs for several years in 1968, after a spiritual epiphany in the Nickajack Cave, when he attempted to commit suicide while under the heavy influence of drugs. He descended deeper into the cave, trying to lose himself and "just die", when he passed out on the floor. He reported to be exhausted and feeling at the end of his rope when he felt God's presence in his heart and managed to struggle out of the cave (despite the exhaustion) by following a faint light and slight breeze. To him, it was his own rebirth. June, Maybelle, and Ezra Carter moved into Cash's mansion for a month to help him conquer his addiction. Cash proposed onstage to June at a concert at the London Gardens in London, Ontario, Canada on February 22, 1968; the couple married a week later (on March 1) in Franklin, Kentucky. June had agreed to marry Cash after he had "cleaned up". He rediscovered his Christian faith, taking an "altar call" in Evangel Temple, a small church in the Nashville area, pastored by Rev. Jimmie Rodgers Snow, son of country music legend Hank Snow.

According to longtime friend Marshall Grant, Cash's 1968 rebirth experience did not result in his completely stopping use of amphetamines. However, in 1970, Cash ended all drug use for a period of seven years. Grant claims that the birth of Cash's son, John Carter Cash, inspired Cash to end his dependence. Cash began using amphetamines again in 1977. By 1983, he was once again addicted, and entered the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, California for rehabilitation. Cash managed to stay off drugs for several years, but by 1989, he was dependent again and entered Nashville's Cumberland Heights Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center. In 1992, he entered the Loma Linda Behavioural Medicine Centre in Loma Linda, California for his final rehabilitation (several months later, his son followed him into this facility for treatment).

Folsom Prison Blues

Cash felt great compassion for prisoners. He began performing concerts at various prisons starting in the late 1950s. His first ever prison concert was held on January 1, 1958 at San Quentin State Prison. These performances led to a pair of highly successful live albums, ''Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison'' (1968) and ''Johnny Cash at San Quentin'' (1969).

The Folsom Prison record was introduced by a rendition of his classic "Folsom Prison Blues", while the San Quentin record included the crossover hit single "A Boy Named Sue", a Shel Silverstein-penned novelty song that reached No. 1 on the country charts and No. 2 on the U.S. Top Ten pop charts. The AM versions of the latter contained a couple of profanities which were edited out. The modern CD versions are unedited and uncensored and thus also longer than the original vinyl albums, though they still retain the audience reaction overdubs of the originals.

In addition to his performances at U.S. prisons, Cash also performed at the Österåker Prison in Sweden in 1972. The live album ''På Österåker'' ("At Österåker") was released in 1973. Between the songs, Cash can be heard speaking Swedish, which was greatly appreciated by the inmates.

"The Man in Black"

From 1969 to 1971, Cash starred in his own television show, ''The Johnny Cash Show'', on the ABC network. The Statler Brothers opened up for him in every episode; the Carter Family and rockabilly legend Carl Perkins were also part of the regular show entourage. However, Cash also enjoyed booking more contemporary performers as guests; such notables included Neil Young, Louis Armstrong, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition (who appeared a record four times on his show), James Taylor, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton (then leading Derek and the Dominos), and Bob Dylan. During the same period, he contributed the title song and other songs to the film ''Little Fauss and Big Halsey'', which starred Robert Redford, Michael J. Pollard, and Lauren Hutton. The title song, ''The Ballad of Little Fauss and Big Halsey'', was nominated for a Golden Globe award.

Cash had met with Dylan in the mid 1960s and became closer friends when they were neighbors in the late 1960s in Woodstock, New York. Cash was enthusiastic about reintroducing the reclusive Dylan to his audience. Cash sang a duet with Dylan on Dylan's country album ''Nashville Skyline'' and also wrote the album's Grammy-winning liner notes.

Another artist who received a major career boost from ''The Johnny Cash Show'' was songwriter Kris Kristofferson, who was beginning to make a name for himself as a singer/songwriter. During a live performance of Kristofferson's "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", Cash refused to change the lyrics to suit network executives, singing the song with its references to marijuana intact: "On a Sunday morning sidewalk / I'm wishin', Lord, that I was stoned."

By the early 1970s, he had crystallized his public image as "The Man in Black". He regularly performed dressed all in black, wearing a long black knee-length coat. This outfit stood in contrast to the costumes worn by most of the major country acts in his day: rhinestone suit and cowboy boots. In 1971, Cash wrote the song "Man in Black", to help explain his dress code: "We're doing mighty fine I do suppose / In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes / But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back / Up front there ought to be a man in black."

He wore black on behalf of the poor and hungry, on behalf of "the prisoner who has long paid for his crime", and on behalf of those who have been betrayed by age or drugs. "And," Cash added, "with the Vietnam War as painful in my mind as it was in most other Americans', I wore it 'in mournin' for the lives that could have been.' ... Apart from the Vietnam War being over, I don't see much reason to change my position ... The old are still neglected, the poor are still poor, the young are still dying before their time, and we're not making many moves to make things right. There's still plenty of darkness to carry off."

He and his band had initially worn black shirts because that was the only matching color they had among their various outfits. He wore other colors on stage early in his career, but he claimed to like wearing black both on and off stage. He stated that, political reasons aside, he simply liked black as his on-stage color. To this day, the US Navy's winter blue uniform is referred to by sailors as "Johnny Cashes", as the uniform's shirt, tie, and trousers are solid black.

In the mid 1970s, Cash's popularity and number of hit songs began to decline. He made commercials for Amoco, an unpopular enterprise in an era in which oil companies made high profits while consumers suffered through high gasoline prices and shortages. However, his autobiography (the first of two), titled ''Man in Black'', was published in 1975 and sold 1.3 million copies. A second, ''Cash: The Autobiography'', appeared in 1997. His friendship with Billy Graham led to the production of a film about the life of Jesus, ''The Gospel Road'', which Cash co-wrote and narrated.

He also continued to appear on television, hosting an annual Christmas special on CBS throughout the 1970s. Later television appearances included a role in an episode of ''Columbo'' (Swan Song). He also appeared with his wife on an episode of ''Little House on the Prairie'' entitled "The Collection" and gave a performance as John Brown in the 1985 American Civil War television mini-series ''North and South''.

He was friendly with every US President starting with Richard Nixon. He was closest to Jimmy Carter, with whom he became close friends. He stated that he found all of them personally charming, noting that this was probably essential to getting oneself elected.

When invited to perform at the White House for the first time in 1970, Richard Nixon's office requested that he play "Okie from Muskogee" (a satirical Merle Haggard song about people who despised youthful drug users and war protesters) and "Welfare Cadillac" (a Guy Drake song which denies the integrity of welfare recipients). Cash declined to play either and instead selected other songs, including "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" (about a brave Native American World War II veteran who was mistreated upon his return to Arizona), and his own compositions, "What is Truth" and "Man in Black". Cash wrote that the reasons for denying Nixon's song choices were not knowing them and having fairly short notice to rehearse them, rather than any political reason. However, Cash added, even if Nixon's office had given Cash enough time to learn and rehearse the songs, their choice of pieces that conveyed "antihippie and antiblack" sentiments might have backfired.

Highwaymen

thumb|200px|From left to right Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, who formed the country music [[Supergroup (music)|supergroup, The Highwaymen]] In 1980, Cash became the Country Music Hall of Fame's youngest living inductee at age forty-eight, but during the 1980s his records failed to make a major impact on the country charts, although he continued to tour successfully. In the mid 1980s, he recorded and toured with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson as The Highwaymen, making three hit albums which were released beginning with the originally titled "Highwaymen" in 1985, followed by "Highwaymen 2" in 1990, and concluding with "Highwaymen - The Road Goes on forever" in 1995.

During that period, Cash appeared in a number of television films. In 1981, he starred in ''The Pride of Jesse Hallam'', winning fine reviews for a film that called attention to adult illiteracy. In the same year, Cash appeared as a "very special guest star" in an episode of the ''Muppet Show''. In 1983, he appeared as a heroic sheriff in ''Murder in Coweta County'', based on a real-life Georgia murder case, which co-starred Andy Griffith as his nemesis. Cash had tried for years to make the film, for which he won acclaim.

Cash relapsed into addiction after being administered painkillers for a serious abdominal injury in 1983 caused by an unusual incident in which he was kicked and wounded by an ostrich he kept on his farm.

At a hospital visit in 1988, this time to watch over Waylon Jennings (who was recovering from a heart attack), Jennings suggested that Cash have himself checked into the hospital for his own heart condition. Doctors recommended preventive heart surgery, and Cash underwent double bypass surgery in the same hospital. Both recovered, although Cash refused to use any prescription painkillers, fearing a relapse into dependency. Cash later claimed that during his operation, he had what is called a "near death experience". He said he had visions of Heaven that were so beautiful that he was angry when he woke up alive.

Cash's recording career and his general relationship with the Nashville establishment were at an all-time low in the 1980s. He realized that his record label of nearly 30 years, Columbia, was growing indifferent to him and was not properly marketing him (he was "invisible" during that time, as he said in his autobiography). Cash recorded an intentionally awful song to protest, a self-parody. "Chicken in Black" was about Cash's brain being transplanted into a chicken. Ironically, the song turned out to be a larger commercial success than any of his other recent material. Nevertheless, he was hoping to kill the relationship with the label before they did, and it was not long after "Chicken in Black" that Columbia and Cash parted ways.

In 1986, Cash returned to Sun Studios in Memphis to team up with Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins to create the album ''Class of '55''. Also in 1986, Cash published his only novel, ''Man in White'', a book about Saul and his conversion to become the Apostle Paul. He also recorded ''Johnny Cash Reads The Complete New Testament'' in 1990.

American Recordings

After Columbia Records dropped Cash from his recording contract, he had a short and unsuccessful stint with Mercury Records from 1987 to 1991 (see Johnny Cash discography).

His career was rejuvenated in the 1990s, leading to popularity with an audience not traditionally interested in country music. In 1991, he sang a version of "Man in Black" for the Christian punk band One Bad Pig's album ''I Scream Sunday''. In 1993, he sang "The Wanderer" on U2's album ''Zooropa''. Although no longer sought after by major labels, he was offered a contract with producer Rick Rubin's American Recordings label, better known for rap and hard rock.

Under Rubin's supervision, he recorded ''American Recordings'' (1994) in his living room, accompanied only by his Martin dreadnought guitar – one of many Cash played throughout his career. The album featured covers of contemporary artists selected by Rubin and had much critical and commercial success, winning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Cash wrote that his reception at the 1994 Glastonbury Festival was one of the highlights of his career. This was the beginning of a decade of music industry accolades and commercial success. Cash teamed up with Brooks & Dunn to contribute "Folsom Prison Blues" to the AIDS benefit album ''Red Hot + Country'' produced by the Red Hot Organization. On the same album, he performed the Bob Dylan favorite "Forever Young".

Cash and his wife appeared on a number of episodes of the television series ''Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'' starring Jane Seymour. The actress thought so highly of Cash that she later named one of her twin sons after him. He lent his voice for a cameo role in ''The Simpsons'' episode "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)," as the "Space Coyote" that guides Homer Simpson on a spiritual quest. In 1996, Cash enlisted the accompaniment of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and released ''Unchained'', which won the Best Country Album Grammy. Believing he did not explain enough of himself in his 1975 autobiography ''Man in Black'', he wrote ''Cash: The Autobiography'' in 1997.

Last years and death

In 1997, Cash was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Shy-Drager syndrome, a form of multiple system atrophy. The diagnosis was later altered to autonomic neuropathy associated with diabetes. This illness forced Cash to curtail his touring. He was hospitalized in 1998 with severe pneumonia, which damaged his lungs. The albums ''American III: Solitary Man'' (2000) and ''American IV: The Man Comes Around'' (2002) contained Cash's response to his illness in the form of songs of a slightly more somber tone than the first two American albums. The video that was released for "Hurt", a cover of the song by Nine Inch Nails, fits Cash's view of his past and feelings of regret. The video for the song, from ''American IV'', is now generally recognized as "his epitaph," and received particular critical and popular acclaim. June Carter Cash died on May 15, 2003, at the age of 73. June had told Cash to keep working, so he continued to record, completing 60 more songs in the last four months of his life, and even performed a couple of surprise shows at the Carter Family Fold outside Bristol, Virginia. At the July 5, 2003 concert (his last public performance), before singing "Ring of Fire", Cash read a statement about his late wife that he had written shortly before taking the stage:

Cash died of complications from diabetes at approximately 2:00 a.m. CT on September 12, 2003 while hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville - less than four months after his wife. It was suggested that Johnny's health worsened due to a broken heart over June's death. He was buried next to his wife in Hendersonville Memory Gardens near his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

His stepdaughter, Rosie Nix Adams and another passenger were found dead on a bus in Montgomery County, Tennessee, on October 24, 2003. It was speculated that the deaths may have been caused by carbon monoxide from the lanterns in the bus. Adams was 45 when she died. She was buried in the Hendersonville Memory Gardens, near her mother and stepfather.

On May 24, 2005, Vivian Liberto, Cash's first wife and the mother of Rosanne Cash and three other daughters, died from surgery to remove lung cancer at the age of 71. It was her daughter Rosanne's 50th birthday.

In June 2005, his lakeside home on Caudill Drive in Hendersonville was put up for sale by his estate. In January 2006, the house was sold to Bee Gees vocalist Barry Gibb and wife Linda and titled in their Florida limited liability company for $2.3 million. The listing agent was Cash's younger brother, Tommy Cash. The home was destroyed by fire on April 10, 2007.

One of Cash's final collaborations with producer Rick Rubin, entitled ''American V: A Hundred Highways'', was released posthumously on July 4, 2006. The album debuted in the No.1 position on the ''Billboard'' Top 200 album chart for the week ending July 22, 2006.

On February 23, 2010, three days before what would have been Cash's 78th birthday, the Cash Family, Rick Rubin, and Lost Highway Records released his second posthumous record, titled ''American VI: Ain't No Grave''.

Legacy

From his early days as a pioneer of rockabilly and rock and roll in the 1950s, to his decades as an international representative of country music, to his resurgence to fame in the 1990s as a living legend and an alternative country icon, Cash influenced countless artists and left a large body of work. Upon his death, Cash was revered by the greatest popular musicians of his time. His rebellious image and often anti-authoritarian stance influenced punk rock.

Among Cash's children, his daughter Rosanne Cash (by first wife Vivian Liberto) and his son John Carter Cash (by June Carter Cash) are notable country-music musicians in their own right.

Cash nurtured and defended artists on the fringes of what was acceptable in country music even while serving as the country music establishment's most visible symbol. At an all-star concert which aired in 1999 on TNT, a diverse group of artists paid him tribute, including Bob Dylan, Chris Isaak, Wyclef Jean, Norah Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Dom DeLuise and U2. Cash himself appeared at the end and performed for the first time in more than a year. Two tribute albums were released shortly before his death; ''Kindred Spirits'' contains works from established artists, while ''Dressed in Black'' contains works from many lesser-known artists.

In total, he wrote over 1,000 songs and released dozens of albums. A box set titled ''Unearthed'' was issued posthumously. It included four CDs of unreleased material recorded with Rubin as well as a ''Best of Cash on American'' retrospective CD.

In recognition of his lifelong support of SOS Children's Villages, his family invited friends and fans to donate to that charity in his memory. He had a personal link with the SOS village in Diessen, at the Ammersee Lake in Southern Germany, near where he was stationed as a GI, and also with the SOS village in Barrett Town, by Montego Bay, near his holiday home in Jamaica. The Johnny Cash Memorial Fund was founded.

In 1999, Cash received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone Magazine'' ranked Cash No.31 on their list of the ''100 Greatest Artists of All Time''.

In a tribute to Cash after his death, country music singer Gary Allan included the song "Nickajack Cave (Johnny Cash's Redemption)" on his 2005 album entitled ''Tough All Over''. The song chronicles Cash hitting rock bottom and subsequently resurrecting his life and career.

The main street in Hendersonville, Tennessee, Highway 31E, is known as "Johnny Cash Parkway"; the Johnny Cash Museum is located in the town.

On November 2–4, 2007, the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival was held in Starkville, Mississippi. Starkville, where Cash was arrested over 40 years earlier and held overnight at the city jail on May 11, 1965, inspired Cash to write the song "Starkville City Jail". The festival, where he was offered a symbolic posthumous pardon, honored Cash's life and music, and was expected to become an annual event.

JC Unit One, Johnny Cash's private tour bus from 1980 until 2003, was put on exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum in 2007. The Cleveland, Ohio museum offers public tours of the bus on a seasonal basis (it is stored during the winter months and not exhibited during those times).

WWE Superstar The Undertaker has been using Cash's song "Aint No Grave" (from ''American VI: Ain't No Grave'') as his entrance theme since February 21, 2011. Independent circuit wrestlers Tyson Dux and Brodie Lee also use "God's Gonna Cut You Down" (from ''American V: A Hundred Highways'') as entrance music. Other professional wrestlers who have used Cash's songs as entrance music include Austin Aries, who used his cover of the Depeche Mode's song "Personal Jesus" (from ''American IV: The Man Comes Around''), and Necro Butcher, who used both "The Man Comes Around" and "Hurt". WWE also used "Hurt" in a special video package that was aired on Monday Night RAW in November 2005 as a tribute to Eddie Guerrero, a popular WWE Superstar who had died of heart failure while he was still contracted with the company. It is also noted that current WWE Superstar Ted DiBiase, Jr. is a huge fan of Cash, as is former WWE Diva and current TNA Knockout Mickie James.

Along with the television show "The Deadliest Catch" is using the song "Ain't No Grave" as the theme song in many of their commercials.

Portrayals

The Canada Trust company used his name and images for their Johnny Cash automatic bank machines during the late 80s and early 90s.

In 1998, country singer Mark Collie was the first to portray Cash, in the short film, ''I Still Miss Someone.''

In November of 2005, ''Walk the Line'', an Academy Award-winning biopic about Cash's life starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny (for which he was nominated for the 2005 Best Actor Oscar) and Reese Witherspoon as June (for which she won the 2005 Best Actress Oscar), was released in the United States on to considerable commercial success and critical acclaim. Both Phoenix and Witherspoon have won various other awards for their roles, including the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, respectively. They both performed their own vocals in the film, and Phoenix learned to play guitar for his role as Cash. Phoenix received the Grammy Award for his contributions to the soundtrack. John Carter Cash, the first child of Johnny and June, served as an executive producer on the film.

On March 12, 2006 ''Ring of Fire'', a jukebox musical of the Cash oeuvre, debuted on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, but closed due to harsh reviews and disappointing sales on April 30, 2006.

On April 11, 2010, ''Million Dollar Quartet'', a musical portraying the early Sun recording sessions involving Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins, debuted on Broadway. Actor Lance Guest portrayed Cash. The musical was nominated for three awards at the 2010 Tony Awards, and won one.

Discography

: ''See Johnny Cash discography, and Johnny Cash Sun Records discography.''

Awards and honors

: ''For detailed lists of music awards, see List of Johnny Cash awards.''

Cash received multiple Country Music Association Awards, Grammys, and other awards, in categories ranging from vocal and spoken performances to album notes and videos.

In a career that spanned almost five decades, Cash was the personification of country music to many people around the world. Cash was a musician who was not tied to a single genre. He recorded songs that could be considered rock and roll, blues, rockabilly, folk, and gospel, and exerted an influence on each of those genres. Moreover, he had the unique distinction among country artists of having "crossed over" late in his career to become popular with an unexpected audience, young indie and alternative rock fans. His diversity was evidenced by his presence in three major music halls of fame: the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1980), and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1992). Only thirteen performers are in both of the last two, and only Hank Williams Sr., Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, and Bill Monroe share the honor with Cash of being in all three. However, only Cash was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the regular manner, unlike the other country members, who were inducted as "early influences." His pioneering contribution to the genre has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1996. Cash stated that his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, in 1980, was his greatest professional achievement. In 2001, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. He was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for best cinematography for "Hurt" and was supposed to appear, but died during the night.

In 2007, Cash was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Further reading

Graeme Thomson ''The Resurrection of Johnny Cash: Hurt, Redemption, and American Recordings'' Jawbone Press ISBN 978-1906002367

Sources

Notes

References

D'Ambrosio, Antonino (2009). ''A Heartbeat and A Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears''. With Original Art by Shepard Fairey and Photos by Jim Marshall. Perseus Books/Nation Books ISBN 9781568584072

Millier, Bill. (retrieved September 7, 2004). Johnny Cash Awards. JohnnyCash.com.

Streissguth, Michael. ''Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison: The Making of a Masterpiece'', Da Capo Press (2004). ISBN 0-306-81338-6.

Urbanski, Dave. ''The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash''. New York: Relevant Books. ISBN 0-9729276-7-0.

Turner, Steve. ''The Man Called Cash: The Life, Love, and Faith of an American Legend''. Nashville, W Publishing Group, 2004. (The Authorized Biography).

Published works

Cash, Johnny. ''Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words''. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975. ISBN 99924-31-58-X.

Cash, Johnny, with Patrick Carr. ''Cash: The Autobiography''. New York: Harper Collins, 1997. ISBN 0-06-101357-9.

Cash, Johnny, with June Carter Cash. ''Love'' liner notes. New York: Sony, 2000.

Cash, Johnny, ''The Man in White'', 1986.

External links

Johnny Cash Official Label Website

Johnny Cash Radio Webcast

Johnny Cash World - buy songs, albums, movies, books with Johnny Cash

Official Johnny Cash Lost Highway Artist Page

at the Country Music Hall of Fame

at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame

at the Hit Parade Hall of Fame

Larry King's November 26, 2002 interview With Johnny Cash on CNN

Johnny Cash: Best Photos – slideshow by ''Life magazine''

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