Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
name	Kevin Kline
birth name	Kevin Delaney Kline
birth date	October 24, 1947
birth place	St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
years active	1972–present
occupation	Actor/Comedian
spouse	}}

Kevin Delaney Kline (born October 24, 1947) is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.

Early life

Kline was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Peggy and Robert Joseph Kline. His father was a classical music lover and an amateur opera singer who owned and operated The Record Bar, a record store in St. Louis that opened in the early '40s, and sold toys during the '60s and '70s; his father's family also owned Kline's Inc., a department store chain. Kline has described his mother as the "dramatic theatrical character in our family." Kline's father was born into a family of German Jewish ancestry and was an agnostic; Kline's Irish-American mother, the daughter of an emigrant from County Louth, was Catholic. Kline and his siblings were raised Catholic.

Kline graduated from the Catholic Saint Louis Priory School in 1965. He attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he began as an aspiring classical pianist. After joining the on-campus theater group "Vest Pocket Players" as an undergraduate, he fell in love with the theater and switched to acting, graduating from IU in 1970.

Career

In 1970, Kline was awarded a scholarship to the newly formed Drama Division at the Juilliard School in New York. In 1972, he joined with fellow Juilliard graduates, including Patti LuPone and David Ogden Stiers, and formed the City Center Acting Company (now The Acting Company), under the aegis of John Houseman. The Company traveled across the U.S. performing Shakespeare's plays, other classical works, and the musical ''The Robber Bridegroom'', founding one of the most widely praised groups in American repertory theatre.

In 1976, Kline left The Acting Company and settled in New York City, doing a brief stint as the character "Woody Reed" in the now-defunct soap opera ''Search for Tomorrow''. He followed this with a return to the stage in 1977 to play Clym Yeobright opposite Donna Theodore as Eustacia Vye in The Hudson Guild Theater production of ''Dance on a Country Grave'', Kelly Hamilton's musical version of Thomas Hardy's ''The Return of the Native''. In 1978 he played the small role of "Bruce Granit", a matinée idol caricature, in Harold Prince's ''On the Twentieth Century'', for which he won his first Tony Award. In 1981, Kline appeared with rock diva Linda Ronstadt and singer Rex Smith in the New York Shakespeare Festival's Central Park production of ''The Pirates of Penzance'', winning another Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, for his comically dashing portrayal of the Pirate King. In 1983, he played the role in a film version of the musical, also with Ronstadt, Smith and Angela Lansbury, which had a limited theatrical release.

In the ensuing years, Kline appeared many times in New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Shakespeare, including starring roles in ''Richard III'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Henry V'', two productions of ''Hamlet'' (one of which he also directed) and a Tony-nominated Falstaff in a production that combined the two parts of ''Henry IV''.

Dubbed "the American Olivier" by ''New York Times'' theater critic Frank Rich for his stage acting, Kline finally ventured into film in 1982 in Alan J. Pakula's ''Sophie's Choice''. He won the coveted role of the tormented and mercurial Nathan opposite Meryl Streep. Streep won an Academy Award for her performance in the film. Kline was nominated for a Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for best debut performance.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Kline made several films with director Lawrence Kasdan, including ''The Big Chill'', ''Silverado'', ''Grand Canyon'', ''I Love You to Death'', and ''French Kiss''. In 1989, Kline won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the British comedy ''A Fish Called Wanda'', in which he played a painfully inept American ex-CIA thug opposite John Cleese's genteel British barrister and Jamie Lee Curtis' femme fatale/con woman. In 2000, the American Film Institute ranked the film twenty-first on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs.

Though he has been offered many roles that could have boosted him to box-office stardom, Kline has kept a wary distance from the Hollywood star-making machine. He developed a reputation for picking parts with discrimination (such as strong roles in ''Grand Canyon'' and ''Life as a House''), leading to the industry nickname "Kevin Decline". Other awards have included Drama Desk Awards, Golden Globe awards, a Gotham Award, a Hasty Pudding Theatricals Man of the Year Award, and a St. Louis International Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. He also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Film reviewers have widely praised his talent. ''Newsday'' said Kline "has proved himself to be one of the most talented and versatile American actors of his generation."

He played the title role in ''King Lear'' at the Public Theatre, and took the lead role in a Broadway production of ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' opposite Jennifer Garner. That production was forced to close temporarily after only eleven performances as a result of the Broadway stagehands' strike, but subsequently reopened. ''Cyrano'' was filmed in 2008 and aired as part of PBS's ''Great Performances'' series in January 2009. In January 2008, Kline won a Screen Actors Guild award for his portrayal of Jaques in Kenneth Branagh's film ''As You Like It'', adapted from Shakespeare's play. The film premiered theatrically in 2006 in Europe. It bypassed theatres and was sent straight to HBO in the U.S. Kline's film ''The Conspirator'' premiered during the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and was described as an "old fashioned historical thriller". It was well received by most critics. Kline will also star in the 2012 comedy ''Darling Companion'' alongside Diane Keaton.

In December 2004 Kline became the 2,272^nd recipient of a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard.

Personal life

Throughout the 1970s, Kline was involved in a long-term relationship with his Juilliard classmate Patti LuPone. They separated and reconnected many times before finally ending their relationship in 1978. Their relationship is precisely detailed in LuPone's memoir, ''Patti LuPone: A Memoir''.

Kline married actress Phoebe Cates, 15 years his junior, in 1989. The couple live in New York City and have two children: Owen Joseph Kline (born October 14, 1991), who had a featured role in ''The Squid and the Whale'', and Greta Simone Kline (born March 21, 1994). After his son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, Kline became active with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In November 2004, he was presented with the JDRF's Humanitarian of the Year award by Meryl Streep for his volunteer efforts on behalf of the organization.

The Kevin Kline Awards honor theatre professionals in St. Louis in a wide array of categories, which include best actor and actress, set design, choreography, and original play. The first awards ceremony took place on March 20, 2006.

Filmography

Title	Year	Role	Notes
! scope="row"	1982	Nathan Landau
''''	1983
''''	1983	Harold Cooper
! scope="row"	1985	Paden
! scope="row"	1986	Henry Squires
''Cry Freedom''	1987	Donald Woods
''''	1988	Otto West
''''	1989	Nick Starkey
''I Love You to Death''	1990	Joey Boca
''Soapdish''	1991	Jeffery AndersonDr. Rod Randall	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
! scope="row"	1991	Mack
''Consenting Adults''	1992	Richard Parker
! scope="row"	1992	Douglas Fairbanks
! scope="row"	1993	Dave KovicPresident William Harrison Mitchell	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
''''	1993	Narrator	Voice Only
! scope="row"	1994	Frixos
! scope="row"	1995	Luc Teyssier
''''	1996	Captain Phoebus	Voice Only
''''	1997	Ben Hood
''Fierce Creatures''	1997	Vince McCainRod McCain
''In & Out''	1997	Howard Brackett
''''	1999	Nick Bottom
! scope="row"	1999	U.S. Marshal Artemus 'Artie' GordonPresident Ulysses S. Grant
''''	2000	Tulio
''''	2001	Cal Gold
''Life as a House''	2001	George Monroe	Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
! scope="row"	2002	Marcus Skinner	Uncredited
''''	2002	Captain Phoebus
''''	2002	William Hundert
''De-Lovely''	2004	Cole Porter
''''	2006	Chief Inspector Dreyfus
''''	2006	Guy Noir
! scope="row"	2006	Jaques	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
! scope="row"	2007	Ray Sheridan	Munich Film Festival Award for Best Actor
''Definitely, Maybe''	2008	Hampton Roth
''''	2008	Andre	Voice Only
! scope="row"	2008	Cyrano de Bergerac
''Queen to Play''	2009	Docteur Kröger
''''	2010	Henry Harrison
! scope="row"	2011	Alvin
''''	2011	Edwin Stanton
''Bob's Burgers''	2011 - present	Mr. Fischoeder	Voice Only

References

External links

in 2010

St. Louis Walk of Fame

The Kevin Kline Awards

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:American film actors Category:American stage actors Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:Gilbert and Sullivan performers Category:Indiana University alumni Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Jewish descent Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:Actors from Missouri Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri Category:Shakespearean actors Category:Tony Award winners

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Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
birth name	Mary Louise Streep
birth date	June 22, 1949
birth place	Summit, New Jersey, U.S.
spouse	Don Gummer(m.1978–present; 4 children)
children	4 (including Mamie Gummer and Grace Gummer)
lover	John Cazale(1976–78, his death)
occupation	Actress
years active	1971–present }}

Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress and singer who has worked in theatre, television, and film. She is widely regarded as one of the most talented and respected actresses of the contemporary era.

Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's ''The Playboy of Seville'', before her screen debut in the television movie ''The Deadliest Season'' in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with ''Julia''. Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978) and ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' (1979), the former giving Streep her first Oscar nomination and the latter her first win. She later won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in ''Sophie's Choice'' (1982).

Streep has received 17 Academy Award nominations, winning two, and 26 Golden Globe nominations, winning eight, more nominations than any other actor in the history of either award. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, five New York Film Critics Circle Awards, five Grammy Award nominations, two BAFTA awards, an Australian Film Institute Award, and a Tony Award nomination, amongst others. She was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004.

Early life and background

Streep was born Mary Louise Streep in Summit, New Jersey. Her mother, Mary Wolf (née Wilkinson; 1915 - 2001), was a commercial artist and former art editor, and her father, Harry William Streep, Jr. (1910 - 2003), was a pharmaceutical executive. She has two brothers, Dana David and Harry William III. Her patrilineal ancestry originates in Loffenau, Germany, from where her second great-grandfather, Gottfried Streeb, emigrated to the United States, and where one of her ancestors served as mayor. Another line of her father's family was from Giswil, a small town in Switzerland. Her maternal ancestry originates in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, and partly traces back to 17th century immigrants from England. Her eighth great-grandfather, Lawrence Wilkinson, was one of the first Europeans to settle Rhode Island. Streep is also a distant relative of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, and records show that her family were among the first purchasers of land in the state.

She was raised a Presbyterian, and grew up in Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended Bernards High School. She had many school friends who were Catholic, and regularly attended Mass because she loved its rituals. She received her B.A., in Drama at Vassar College in 1971 (where she briefly received instruction from actress Jean Arthur), but also enrolled as an exchange student at Dartmouth College for a quarter before it became coeducational. She subsequently earned an M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama. While at Yale, she played a variety of roles onstage, from the glamorous Helena in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' to an eighty-year old woman in a wheelchair in a comedy written by then-unknown playwrights Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato.

Career

Early career

Streep performed in several theater productions in New York and New Jersey after graduating from Yale School of Drama, including the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of ''Henry V'', ''The Taming of the Shrew'' with Raúl Juliá, and ''Measure for Measure'' opposite Sam Waterston and John Cazale, who became her lover and with whom she lived for three years. She starred on Broadway in the Brecht/Weill musical ''Happy End'', and won an Obie for her performance in the all-sung off-Broadway production of ''Alice at the Palace''.

Streep began auditioning for film roles, and later recalled an unsuccessful audition for Dino De Laurentiis for the leading role in ''King Kong''. De Laurentiis commented to his son in Italian, "She's ugly. Why did you bring me this thing?" and was shocked when Streep replied in fluent Italian. Streep's first feature film was ''Julia'' (1977), in which she played a small but pivotal role during a flashback scene. Streep was living in New York City with her lover, Cazale, who had been diagnosed with bone cancer. He was cast in ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978), and Streep was delighted to secure a small role because it allowed her to remain with Cazale for the duration of filming. She was not specifically interested in the part, commenting, "They needed a girl between the two guys and I was it."

She played a leading role in the television miniseries ''Holocaust'' (1978) as a German woman married to a Jewish artist in Nazi era Germany. She later explained that she had considered the material to be "unrelentingly noble", and had taken the role only because she had needed money. Streep travelled to Germany and Austria for filming while Cazale remained in New York. Upon her return, Streep found that Cazale's illness had progressed, and she nursed him until his death on March 12, 1978. She spoke of her grief and her hope that work would provide a diversion; she accepted a role in ''The Seduction of Joe Tynan'' (1979) with Alan Alda, later commenting that she played it on "automatic pilot", and performed the role of Katherine in ''The Taming of the Shrew'' for Shakespeare in the Park. With an estimated audience of 109 million, ''Holocaust'' brought a degree of public recognition to Streep, who was described in August 1978 as "on the verge of national visibility". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie for her performance.

''The Deer Hunter'' (1978) was released a month later, and Streep was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Streep played a supporting role in ''Manhattan'' (1979) for Woody Allen, later stating that she had not seen a complete script and was given only the six pages of her own scenes, and that she had not been permitted to improvise a word of her dialogue. Asked to comment on the script for ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' (1979), in a meeting with the producer Stan Jaffee, director Robert Benton and star Dustin Hoffman, Streep insisted that the female character was not representative of many real women who faced marriage breakdown and child custody battles, and was written as "too evil". Jaffee, Benton and Hoffman agreed with Streep, and the script was revised. In preparing for the part, Streep spoke to her own mother about her life as a mother and housewife with a career, and frequented the Upper East Side neighborhood in which the film was set. Benton allowed Streep to write her dialogue in two of her key scenes, despite some objection from Hoffman. Jaffee and Hoffman later spoke of Streep's tirelessness, with Hoffman commenting, "She's extraordinarily hardworking, to the extent that she's obsessive. I think that she thinks about nothing else but what she's doing."

Streep drew critical acclaim for her performance in each of her three films released in 1979: the romantic comedy ''Manhattan'', the political drama ''The Seduction of Joe Tynan'' and the family drama, ''Kramer vs. Kramer''. She was awarded the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress, National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her collective work in the three films. Among the awards won for ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' were the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

1980s

After prominent supporting roles in two of the 1970s' most successful films, the consecutive winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture, ''The Deer Hunter'' and ''Kramer vs. Kramer'', and praise for her versatility in several supporting roles, Streep progressed to leading roles. Her first was ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' (1981). A story within a story drama, the film paired Streep with Jeremy Irons as contemporary actors, telling their modern story as well as the Victorian era drama they were performing. A ''New York Magazine'' article commented that while many female stars of the past had cultivated a singular identity in their films, Streep was a "chameleon", willing to play any type of role. Streep was awarded a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work.

Her next film, the psychological thriller, ''Still of the Night'' (1982) reunited her with Robert Benton, the director of ''Kramer vs. Kramer'', and co-starred Roy Scheider and Jessica Tandy. Vincent Canby, writing for ''The New York Times'', noted that the film was an homage to the works of Alfred Hitchcock, but that one of its main weaknesses was a lack of chemistry between Streep and Scheider, concluding that Streep "is stunning, but she's not on screen anywhere near long enough".

As the Polish holocaust survivor in ''Sophie's Choice'' (1982), Streep's emotional dramatic performance and her apparent mastery of a Polish accent drew praise. William Styron wrote the novel with Ursula Andress in mind for the part of Sophie, but Streep was very determined to get the role. After she obtained a pirated copy of the script, she went to Alan J. Pakula and threw herself on the ground begging him to give her the part. Streep filmed the "choice" scene in one take and refused to do it again, as she found shooting the scene extremely painful and emotionally exhausting. Among several notable acting awards, Streep won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Roger Ebert said of her performance, "Streep plays the Brooklyn scenes with an enchanting Polish-American accent (she has the first accent I've ever wanted to hug), and she plays the flashbacks in subtitled German and Polish. There is hardly an emotion that Streep doesn't touch in this movie, and yet we're never aware of her straining. This is one of the most astonishing and yet one of the most unaffected and natural performances I can imagine."

She followed this success with a biographical film, ''Silkwood'' (1983), in which she played her first real-life character, the union activist Karen Silkwood. She discussed her preparation for the role in an interview with Roger Ebert and said that she had met with people close to Silkwood to learn more about her, and in doing so realized that each person saw a different aspect of Silkwood. Streep concentrated on the events of Silkwood's life and concluded, "I didn't try to turn myself into Karen. I just tried to look at what she did. I put together every piece of information I could find about her... What I finally did was look at the events in her life, and try to understand her from the inside."

Her next films were a romantic drama, ''Falling in Love'' (1984) opposite Robert De Niro, and a British drama, ''Plenty'' (1985). Roger Ebert said of Streep's performance in ''Plenty'' that she conveyed "great subtlety; it is hard to play an unbalanced, neurotic, self-destructive woman, and do it with such gentleness and charm... Streep creates a whole character around a woman who could have simply been a catalogue of symptoms."

''Out of Africa'' (1985) starred Streep as the Danish writer Karen Blixen and co-starred Robert Redford. A significant critical success, the film received a 63% "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Streep co-starred with Jack Nicholson in her next two films, the dramas ''Heartburn'' (1986) and ''Ironweed'' (1987), in which she sang onscreen for the first time since the television movie, ''Secret Service'', in 1977. In ''A Cry in the Dark'' (1988), she played the biographical role of Lindy Chamberlain, an Australian woman who had been convicted of the murder of her infant daughter in which Chamberlain claimed her baby had been taken by a dingo. Filmed in Australia, Streep won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, a Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and was nominated for several other awards for her portrayal of Chamberlain.

In ''She-Devil'' (1989), Streep played her first comedic film role, opposite Roseanne Barr. Richard Corliss, writing for ''Time,'' commented that Streep was the "one reason" to see the film and observed that it marked a departure from the type of role for which she had been known, saying, "Surprise! Inside the Greer Garson roles Streep usually plays, a vixenish Carole Lombard is screaming to be cut loose."

1990s

From 1984 to 1990, Streep won six People's Choice Awards for Favorite Motion Picture Actress and, in 1990, was named World Favorite.

In the 1990s, Streep continued to choose a great variety of roles, including a drug-addicted movie actress in a screen adaptation of Carrie Fisher's novel ''Postcards from the Edge'', with Dennis Quaid and Shirley MacLaine. Streep and Goldie Hawn had established a friendship and were interested in making a film together. After considering various projects, they decided upon ''Thelma and Louise'', until Streep's pregnancy coincided with the filming schedule, and the producers decided to proceed with Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. They subsequently filmed the farcical black comedy, ''Death Becomes Her'', with Bruce Willis as their co-star. ''Time'''s Richard Corliss wrote approvingly of Streep's "wicked-witch routine" but dismissed the film as "''She-Devil'' with a make-over".

Biographer Karen Hollinger describes this period as a downturn in the popularity of Streep's films, which reached its nadir with the failure of ''Death Becomes Her'', attributing this partly to a critical perception that her comedies had been an attempt to convey a lighter image following several serious but commercially unsuccessful dramas, and more significantly to the lack of options available to an actress in her forties. Streep commented that she had limited her options by her preference to work in Los Angeles, close to her family, a situation that she had anticipated in a 1981 interview when she commented, "By the time an actress hits her mid-forties, no one's interested in her anymore. And if you want to fit a couple of babies into that schedule as well, you've got to pick your parts with great care."

Streep appeared with Glenn Close in the movie version of Isabel Allende's ''The House of the Spirits''; the screen adaptation of ''The Bridges of Madison County'' with Clint Eastwood; ''The River Wild''; ''Marvin's Room'' (with Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio); ''One True Thing''; and ''Music of the Heart'', in a role that required her to learn to play the violin, She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for "The Bridges of Madison County", "Music of the Heart" (where she plays the role of Roberta Guaspari) and "One True Thing".

2000s

Streep entered the 2000s with Steven Spielberg's ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'', a science fiction film about a child-like android, played by Haley Joel Osment, uniquely programmed with the ability to love, voicing the Blue Fairy. The same year, Streep co-hosted the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert with Liam Neeson in Oslo, Norway, and began work on Spike Jonze's comedy-drama ''Adaptation'' (2002), in which she portrayed real-life journalist Susan Orlean. Lauded by critics and viewers alike, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, and won Streep her fourth Golden Globe in the Best Supporting Actress category. Also in 2002, Streep appeared alongside Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore in Stephen Daldry's ''The Hours'', based on the 1999 novel of the same title by Michael Cunningham. Focusing on three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by the novel ''Mrs. Dalloway'' by Virginia Woolf, the film was generally well-received and won all three leading actresses a Silver Bear for Best Actress the following year.

thumb|right|upright|Streep in 2004 The following year, Streep had a cameo as herself in the Farrelly brothers comedy ''Stuck on You'' (2003) and reunited with Mike Nichols to star with Al Pacino and Emma Thompson in the HBO adaptation of Tony Kushner's six-hour play ''Angels in America'', the story of two couples whose relationships dissolve amidst the backdrop of Reagan Era politics. Streep, who was cast in four roles in the mini-series, received her second Emmy Award and fifth Golden Globe for her performance. In 2004, Streep was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award by the Board of Directors of the American Film Institute, and appeared in Jonathan Demme's moderately successful remake ''The Manchurian Candidate'', co-starring Denzel Washington, playing a U.S. senator and a manipulative, ruthless mother of a vice-presidential candidate. The same year, she played the supporting role of Aunt Josephine in ''Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'' alongside Jim Carrey, based on the first three novels in Snicket's book series. The black comedy received generally favorable reviews from critics, and won the Academy Award for Best Makeup.

Streep was next cast in the 2005 comedy ''Prime'', directed by Ben Younger. In the film, she played Lisa Metzger, the Jewish psychoanalyst of a divorced and lonesome business-woman, played by Uma Thurman, who enters a relationship with Metzger's 23-year-old son (Bryan Greenberg). A modest mainstream success, it eventually grossed US$67.9 million internationally. In 2006, Streep, along with Lily Tomlin, portrayed the last two members of what was once a popular family country music act in Robert Altman's final film ''A Prairie Home Companion''. A comedic ensemble piece featuring Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline and Woody Harrelson, the film revolves around the behind-the-scenes activities at the long-running public radio show of the same name. The film grossed over US$26 million, the majority of which came from domestic markets. Commercially, Streep fared better with a role in ''The Devil Wears Prada'' (2006), a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. Portraying the powerful and demanding fashion magazine editor and boss of a recent college graduate (played by Anne Hathaway) Miranda Priestly, Streep's performance drew rave reviews from critics and later earned her many award nominations, including her record-setting 14th Oscar bid, as well as another Golden Globe. Upon its commercial release, the film became Streep's biggest commercial success yet, grossing more than US$326.5 million worldwide.

In 2007, Streep was cast in four films. She portrayed a wealthy university patron in Chen Shi-zheng's much-delayed feature drama ''Dark Matter'' (2007), a film about a Chinese science graduate student who becomes violent after dealing with academic politics at a U.S. university. Inspired by the events of the 1991 University of Iowa shooting, and initially scheduled for a 2007 release, producers and investors decided to shelve ''Dark Matter'' out of respect for the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007. The drama received negative to mixed reviews upon its limited 2008 release. Streep played a U.S. government official, who investigates an Egyptian foreign national in Washington, D.C., suspected of terrorism in the Middle East, in the political thriller ''Rendition'' (2007), directed by Gavin Hood. Keen to get involved into a thriller film, Streep welcomed the opportunity to star in a film genre for which she was not usually offered scripts and immediately signed on to the project. Upon its release, ''Rendition'' was less commercially successful, and received mixed reviews.

Also in 2007, Streep had a short role alongside Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close and her eldest daughter Mamie Gummer in Lajos Koltai's drama film ''Evening'', based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Susan Minot. Switching between the present and the past, it tells the story of a bedridden woman, who remembers her tumultuous life in the mid-1950s. The film was released to lukewarm reactions by critics, who called it "beautifully filmed, but decidedly dull [and] a colossal waste of a talented cast." Streep's last film of 2007 was Robert Redfords ''Lions for Lambs'', a film about the connection between a platoon of United States soldiers in Afghanistan, a U.S. senator, a reporter, and a California college professor.

In 2008, Streep found major commercial success when she starred in Phyllida Lloyd's ''Mamma Mia!'', a film adaptation of the musical of the same name, based on the songs of Swedish pop group ABBA. Co-starring Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, and Colin Firth, Streep played a single mother and a former backing singer, whose daughter (Seyfried), a bride-to-be who never met her father, invites three likely paternal candidates to her wedding on an idyllic Greek island. An instant box office success, ''Mamma Mia!'' became Streep's highest-grossing film to date, with box office receipts of US$602.6 million, also ranking it first among the highest-grossing musical films of all-time. Nominated for another Golden Globe, Streep's performance was generally well-received by critics, with Wesley Morris of the ''Boston Globe'' commenting "the greatest actor in American movies has finally become a movie star." Streep's other film of 2008 was ''Doubt'' featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. A drama revolving around the stern principal nun (Streep) of a Bronx Catholic school in 1964 who brings charges of pedophilia against a popular priest (Hoffman), the film became a moderate box office success, but was hailed by many critics as one of the best of 2008. The film received five Academy Awards nominations, for its four lead actors and for Shanley's script.

In 2009, Streep played chef Julia Child in Nora Ephron's ''Julie & Julia'', co-starring Amy Adams and Stanley Tucci. The first major motion picture based on a blog, it contrasts the life of Child in the early years of her culinary career with the life of young New Yorker Julie Powell (Adams), who aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'' in 365 days, a challenge she described on her popular blog, ''The Julie/Julia Project'', that would make her a published author. The same year, Streep also starred in Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy ''It's Complicated'', with Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. She also received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for both of these films and won the award for the former. Streep later received her 16th Oscar nomination for ''Julie & Julia''. She also lent her voice to Mrs. Felicity Fox in the stop-motion film ''Fantastic Mr. Fox''.

2010s

In July 2010, it was announced that Streep will star in an upcoming comedy entitled ''Mommy & Me'' alongside Tina Fey who will play her daughter. The film is being directed by Stanley Tucci. Streep portrayed Margaret Thatcher in ''The Iron Lady'', a look at the Prime Minister during the Falklands War and her years in retirement. For this role, Streep won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She has also received her 17th Oscar nominateion.

Accents and dialects

Streep is well known for her ability to imitate foreign and domestic accents, from Danish in ''Out of Africa'' (1985), to British RP in ''Plenty'' (also 1985), ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' and ''The Iron Lady'' (2011), as well as Italian in ''The Bridges of Madison County'' (1995), to a Midwestern dialect in ''A Prairie Home Companion'' (2006). In ''A Cry in the Dark'' (1988), most critics were impressed with Streep's performance and ability to master an Australian accent. For her role in the film ''Sophie's Choice'' (1982), she took a language course in Polish for four months, in order to accurately display a Polish accent. In ''The Iron Lady'', she reproduced the vocal style of Margaret Thatcher, from the time before she became Britain's Prime Minister, and after she had taken elocution lessons to change her pitch, pronunciation and delivery. Despite the accolades accorded to her, Streep has responded to praise with the assertion that adopting accents is an element that she simply considers an obvious part of her task in creating characters. When asked whether accents help her get into character, she responded, "I'm always baffled by this question... How could I play that part and talk like me?" When questioned as to how she reproduces different accents, Streep replied, "I listen."

Theatre

In New York City, she appeared in the 1976 Broadway double bill of Tennessee Williams' ''27 Wagons Full of Cotton'' and Arthur Miller's ''A Memory of Two Mondays''. For the former, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Her other early Broadway credits include Anton Chekhov's ''The Cherry Orchard'' and the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill musical ''Happy End'' in which she originally appeared off-Broadway at the Chelsea Theater Center. She received Drama Desk Award nominations for both productions. Once Streep's film career flourished, she took a long break from stage acting.

In July 2001, Streep returned to the stage for the first time in more than twenty years, playing Arkadina in the Public Theater's revival of Anton Chekhov's ''The Seagull''. The staging, directed by Mike Nichols, also featured Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Marcia Gay Harden, and John Goodman.

In August and September 2006, she starred onstage at The Public Theater's production of ''Mother Courage and Her Children'' at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. The Public Theater production was a new translation by playwright Tony Kushner (''Angels in America''), with songs in the Weill/Brecht style written by composer Jeanine Tesori (''Caroline, or Change''); veteran director George C. Wolfe was at the helm. Streep starred alongside Kevin Kline and Austin Pendleton in this three-and-a-half-hour play in which she sang and appeared in almost every scene.

Music

After appearing in ''Mamma Mia!'', Streep's rendition of the song "Mamma Mia" rose to popularity in the Portuguese music charts, where it peaked at #8 in October 2008.

At the 35th People's Choice Awards, her version of ''Mamma Mia'' won an award for "Favorite Song From A Soundtrack". In 2008, Streep was nominated for a Grammy Award (her fifth nomination) for her work on the ''Mamma Mia!'' soundtrack.

Philanthropy

Streep is the spokesperson for the National Women's History Museum, to which she has donated a significant amount of money (including her fee for ''The Iron Lady'') and hosted numerous events.

Personal life

Meryl Streep lived with her partner, actor John Cazale, for three years until his death in March 1978. Streep married sculptor Don Gummer on September 15, 1978. They have four children: Henry "Hank" Wolfe Gummer (born November 13, 1979), Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer (born August 3, 1983), Grace Jane Gummer (born May 9, 1986), and Louisa Jacobson Gummer (born June 12, 1991). Both Mamie and Grace are actresses. Hank is a musician who performs under the name Henry Wolfe.

When asked if religion plays a part in her life in an interview in 2009, Streep replied, "I follow no doctrine. I don't belong to a church or a temple or a synagogue or an ashram." Streep does not rule out the possibility that God exists. “I do have a sense of trying to make things better. Where does that come from?”

Awards

Streep holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor, having been nominated seventeen times since her first nomination in 1979 for ''The Deer Hunter'' (fourteen for Best Actress and three for Best Supporting Actress). Streep is also the most-nominated performer for a Golden Globe Award (with 26 nominations) and, with her overall eighth win for ''The Iron Lady'' in 2012, has won the most Golden Globes (excluding special awards).

In 1983, Yale - from which Streep had graduated in 1975 - was the first university to award her an honorary degree, a Doctorate of Fine Arts. In 1998, Women in Film awarded Streep with the Crystal Award for outstanding women who have helped expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.

In 2003, Streep was awarded an honorary César Award by the French ''Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma.'' In 2004, at the Moscow International Film Festival, Streep was honored with the Stanislavsky Award for the outstanding achievement in the career of acting and devotion to the principles of Stanislavsky's school. Also in 2004, Streep received the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2009, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by Princeton University. In 2010, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree by Harvard University.

Streep received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998, and May 27, 2004 was proclaimed "Meryl Streep Day" by Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.

In 2008, Streep was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

On December 4, 2011 (program aired on CBS-TV on December 27, 2011), Streep received the 2011 Kennedy Center Honor (along with Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo Ma, Sonny Rollins, and Barbara Cook).

On February 12, 2012, Streep received the 2012 BAFTA award for best actress for the movie ''The Iron Lady''.

On February 14, 2012, Streep received the Honorary Golden Bear at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. She previously won the Berlinale Camera at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival in 1999.

Filmography

! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1978	''The Deer Hunter''	Linda
1979		Jill	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Kramer vs. Kramer)National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Kramer vs. Kramer)National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Kramer vs. Kramer)Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1979	''Kramer vs. Kramer''	Joanna Kramer	Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Manhattan)National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for Manhattan and The Seduction of Joe Tynan)National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Manhattan)New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress (and also The Seduction of Joe Tynan)Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1981		Sarah/Anna	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
1982		Sophie Zawistowski	Academy Award for Best ActressBoston Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNational Board of Review Award for Best ActressNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1983	''Silkwood''	Karen Silkwood	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1985		Karen Blixen
1987		Helen Archer	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
1988	''A Cry in the Dark''		Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressBest Actress Award (Cannes Film Festival)Nominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1990		Suzanne Vale
1995		Francesca Johnson	Nominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
1998	''One True Thing''	Kate Gulden	Nominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
1999	''Music of the Heart''	Roberta Guaspari	Nominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2002		Susan Orlean	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressFlorida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureSatellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureSilver Bear for Best ActressSoutheastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting RoleNominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the YearNominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best CastNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2002		Clarissa Vaughan	Silver Bear for Best Actress in Berlin International Film Festival (with Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman)Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best CastNominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2004		Eleanor Shaw	Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting RoleNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureNominated - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2006		Miranda Priestly	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyLondon Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the YearNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting ActressOnline Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressSatellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - MTV Movie Award for Best VillainNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2008		Donna	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNational Board of Review Award for Best CastPhoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading RoleWashington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best CastNominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the YearNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2008		Sister Aloysius Beauvier	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNational Board of Review Award for Best CastPhoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading RoleWashington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best CastNominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the YearNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2009	''Julie & Julia''	Julia Child	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressBroadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressPhoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressSatellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedySoutheastern Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the YearNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2011		Margaret Thatcher	AACTA International Award for Best ActressBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleDenver Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNew York Film Critics Online Award for Best ActressLondon Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressUK's Annual Regional Film Awards for Best ActressPending - Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best ActressNominated - Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Actress Defying Age and AgeismNominated - Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Female Icon AwardNominated - Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress (runner-up) Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressNominated - Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best ActresNominated - Iowa Film Critics Awards for Best ActressNominated - Irish Film & Television Award for Best International ActressNominated - National Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressNominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressNominated - Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNominated - Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

See also

List of people from New Jersey

List of American actresses

References

Bibliography

Napoleon, Davi (1991). ''Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater.'' Includes discussion of Streep's performance in Robert Kalfin's production of ''Happy End'' at the Chelsea Theater and on Broadway. Iowa State University Press. ISBN-0-8138-1713-7.

''Finding Herself: The Prime of Meryl Streep'' by Molly Haskell, ''Film Comment'', May/June 2008.

External links

merylstreeponline.net, Streep's official website

Meryl Streep at BAFTA forty-minute webcast, January 2009

Meryl Streep at Emmys.com

Category:1949 births Category:20th-century American people Category:20th-century women Category:21st-century American people Category:21st-century women Category:Actors from New Jersey Category:American film actors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of German descent Category:American people of Swiss descent Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners Category:Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:César Award winners Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Obie Award recipients Category:Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Bernardsville, New Jersey Category:People from Summit, New Jersey Category:Vassar College alumni Category:Yale School of Drama alumni Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients

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Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
birth date	February 21, 1946
birth place	Hammersmith, London, England
birth name	Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman
occupation	Actor (stage, screen)
years active	1978–present
partner	Rima Horton (1965–present) }}

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born 21 February 1946) is an English actor of the stage and screen. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His breakout performance was as the Vicomte de Valmont in ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'', for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Rickman is known for his film performances as Hans Gruber in ''Die Hard'', Severus Snape in the ''Harry Potter'' film series, Eamon de Valera in ''Michael Collins'', and Metatron in ''Dogma''.

Rickman has also had a number of other notable film roles such as the Sheriff of Nottingham in ''Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'', Jamie in ''Truly, Madly, Deeply'', P.L. O'Hara in ''An Awfully Big Adventure'' and Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee's 1995 film ''Sense and Sensibility''. More recently, he played Judge Turpin in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical of ''Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street''.

Early life

Rickman was born in South Hammersmith, London, to a working class family, the son of Margaret Doreen Rose (née Bartlett), a housewife, and Bernard Rickman, a factory worker. Rickman's mother was from Wales and a Methodist, and his father was of Irish Catholic background. He has one elder brother, David (b. 1944), a graphic designer, a younger brother, Michael (b. 1947), a tennis coach, and a younger sister, Sheila (b. 1949). Rickman attended Derwentwater Primary School, in Acton, a school that followed the Montessori method of education.

When he was eight, his father died, leaving his mother to bring up four children mostly alone. She married again, but divorced his stepfather after three years. "There was one love in her life," Rickman later said. Rickman excelled at calligraphy and watercolour painting, and from Derwentwater Junior School he won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in London, where he started getting involved in drama. After leaving Latymer, Rickman attended Chelsea College of Art and Design and then the Royal College of Art. This education allowed him to work as a graphic designer for the radical newspaper the ''Notting Hill Herald'', which he considered a more stable occupation than acting. "Drama school wasn't considered the sensible thing to do at 18," he said.

After graduation, Rickman and several friends opened a graphic design studio called Graphiti, but after three years of successful business, he decided that if he were to ever explore acting professionally, it was now or never. This led him to write a letter to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) requesting an audition and was awarded a place in RADA which he attended from 1972–74. While there, he studied Shakespeare's works and supported himself by working as a dresser for Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Ralph Richardson, and left after winning several prizes, including the Emile Littler Prize, the Forbes Robertson Prize, and the Bancroft Gold Medal.

Career

After graduating from RADA, Rickman worked extensively with various British repertory and experimental theatre groups on productions including ''The Seagull'' and Snoo Wilson's ''The Grass Widow'' at the Royal Court Theatre, and has appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 1978, he played with the Court Drama Group, performing in several plays, most notably ''Romeo And Juliet'' and ''A View from the Bridge''. While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) he starred in, among other things, ''As You Like It''.

In 1982, British television audiences came to know Alan Rickman as the Reverend Obadiah Slope in the BBC's adaptation of ''Barchester Towers'' known as The Barchester Chronicles. In 1985, Rickman was given the male lead, the Vicomte de Valmont, in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Christopher Hampton's ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'', directed by Howard Davies. When the show went to Broadway in 1987, Rickman earned both a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance.

Rickman's career has been filled with a wide variety of roles. He has played romantic leads like Colonel Brandon in ''Sense and Sensibility'', and Jamie in ''Truly, Madly, Deeply'', as well as numerous villains in Hollywood big budget films: German terrorist Hans Gruber in ''Die Hard'' (1988), the Sheriff of Nottingham in ''Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' (1991), and most recently Severus Snape, the potions master in the ''Harry Potter'' series (2001–2011). In 1995, Rickman turned down the role of Alec Trevelyan in the James Bond film ''GoldenEye''.

His role in ''Die Hard'' earned him a spot on the AFI's 100 years...100 Heroes & Villains as the 46th best villain in film history. His performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in ''Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' also made him known as one of the best actors to portray a villain in films. He has taken issue with being typecast as a "villain actor", citing the fact that he has not portrayed a stock villain character since the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991.

During his long career Rickman has also played a number of comedic roles, sending up classically trained British actors who take on "lesser roles" as the character Sir Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus in the science fiction spoof ''Galaxy Quest'', portraying the angel Metatron, the voice of God, in ''Dogma'', appearing as Emma Thompson's foolish husband Harry in ''Love Actually'', providing the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', and the egotistical, Nobel Prize-winning father in ''Nobel Son''.

Rickman has also received acclaim for two biographical pieces he did for HBO. He won a Golden Globe and an ''Emmy'' for his performance as ''Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny'' in 1996, and was also nominated for an Emmy for his work as Dr. Alfred Blalock in 2004's ''Something the Lord Made''. He also starred in the independent film ''Snow Cake'' (with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss) which had its debut at the Berlinale, and also ''Perfume: The Story of a Murderer'' (with Dustin Hoffman), directed by Tom Tykwer.

In 2007, Rickman appeared in the critically acclaimed ''Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'' directed by Tim Burton, alongside ''Harry Potter'' co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall; he played antagonist Judge Turpin. Rickman also appeared as Absolem the Caterpillar in Burton's 2010 film ''Alice in Wonderland''.

Rickman has performed on stage in Noël Coward's romantic comedy ''Private Lives'', which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002. Rickman had reunited with his ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' co-star Lindsay Duncan and director Howard Davies for this Tony Award-winning production.

His previous stage performance was as Mark Antony, opposite Helen Mirren as Cleopatra, in the Royal National Theatre's production of ''Antony and Cleopatra'' at the Olivier Theatre in London, which ran from 20 October to 3 December 1998. Before that, he performed in Yukio Ninagawa's ''Tango at the End of Winter'' in London's West End and the Riverside Studio production of ''Hamlet'' in 1991, directed by Robert Sturua.

Rickman had also directed ''The Winter Guest'' at London's Almeida Theatre in 1995 and the film version of the same play in 1996 starring Emma Thompson and her real life mother Phyllida Law. He also compiled (with Katharine Viner) and directed the play ''My Name Is Rachel Corrie'' in April 2005 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and won the Theatre Goers' Choice Awards for best director. In May 2010, he finished directing Strindberg's play ''Creditors'' at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Harvey Theatre after its previous run at London's Donmar Warehouse in 2008.

In 2009 Rickman was given the James Joyce Award by University College Dublin’s Literary and Historical Society.

In October and November 2010, Rickman starred in the eponymous role in Henrik Ibsen's ''John Gabriel Borkman'' at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin alongside Lindsay Duncan and Fiona Shaw. The ''Irish Independent'' called Rickman's performance breathtaking. This production subsequently travelled to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for performances in January and February 2011.

In 2011, Rickman again appeared as Severus Snape in the final instalment in the ''Harry Potter'' series, ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2''. Kenneth Turan of ''The Los Angeles Times'' said Rickman "as always, makes the most lasting impression," while Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' called Rickman "sublime at giving us a glimpse at last into the secret nurturing heart that [...] Snape masks with a sneer." Media coverage characterized Rickman's performance as worthy of an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination. He earned his first award nominations for his role as Snape at the 2011 Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards, 2011 Scream Awards and 2011 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards in the Best Supporting Actor category.

On 21 November 2011, Rickman opened in ''Seminar'', a new play by Theresa Rebeck, at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway. He is to star with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in a remake of 1966's ''Gambit'' by the Coen brothers.

In the media

Rickman was chosen by ''Empire'' as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (No 34) in 1995 and ranked No 59 in ''Empire'''s "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in October 1997. In 2009 and 2010 Rickman ranked once again as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars by ''Empire'', both times Rickman was placed 8th out of the 50 actors chosen. Rickman became Vice-Chairman of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 2003. He was voted No 19 in ''Empire'' magazine's Greatest Living Movie Stars over the age of 50 and was twice nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actor (Play): in 1987 for ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'', and in 2002 for a revival of Noel Coward's ''Private Lives''. ''The Guardian'' named Rickman as an "honourable mention" in a list of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.

Two researchers, a linguist and a sound engineer, found "the perfect [male] voice" to be a combination of Rickman's and Jeremy Irons's voices based on a sample of 50 voices. Coincidentally, the two actors played brothers in the ''Die Hard'' series of films.

Rickman has also been featured in several musical works – most notably in a song composed by the English songwriter Adam Leonard entitled "Not Alan Rickman". Moreover, the actor played a "Master of Ceremonies" part in announcing the various instruments in Mike Oldfield's ''Tubular Bells II'' on the track ''The Bell''. Rickman was one of the many artists who recited Shakespearian sonnets on the 2002 album'' When Love Speaks'', and is also featured prominently in a music video by the band Texas entitled "In Demand", which premiered on Europe MTV in August 2000. In the video, lead singer Sharleen Spiteri danced the tango with Rickman: the clip was nominated for Best British Video at the Brit Awards.

Personal life

In 1965, at the age of 19, Rickman met his partner Rima Horton, a Labour party councillor on Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council 1986-2006. They began living together in 1977.

Filmography

! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1978		Tybalt	BBC Television Shakespeare
		1980	''Thérèse Raquin''	Vidal	BBC Miniseries
1980		Clive	Episode #1.7
1982	''Busted''	Simon	BBC TV Movie
1982	''Smiley's People''	Mr. Brownlow	Episode #1.2
1982	''''	The Rev. Obadiah Slope	BBC Miniseries
1985	''Return of the Native''	Narrator	British Audiobook Publishing Association's "Talkie Award" for Best Unabridged Classic Recording
1985	''Summer Season''	Croop	BBC TV Series
1985	''Girls On Top''	Dimitri / Voice of RADA	CIT TV Series
1988	''Die Hard''	Hans Gruber
1989	''Revolutionary Witness''	Jacques Roux	BBC TV Short
1989	''''	Ed, the painter
1989	''Screenplay''	Israel Yates	BBC TV Series
1990	''Quigley Down Under''	Elliot Marston
1991	''Truly, Madly, Deeply''	Jamie	Evening Standard British Film Awards#1991 Winners
1991	''[[Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves''	Sheriff of Nottingham	BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting RoleEvening Standard British Film Awards#1991 Winners
1991		Sinclair Bryant	[[Evening Standard British Film Awards#1991 Winners
1991	''[[Closet Land''	The Interrogator
1992	''Bob Roberts''	Lukas Hart III
1993		Dwight Billings	Propaganda Films TV Series
1994		Franz Anton Mesmer	Montreal World Film Festival for Best Actor
1995	''''	P.L. O'Hara
1995		Colonel Brandon	Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting RoleNominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1996	''Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny''	Grigori Rasputin	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a MovieGolden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television FilmSatellite Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television FilmScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
1996		Éamon de Valera	Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1996	''Castle Ghosts of Ireland''	Living Tyde	Documentary
1997	''''	Man in street (uncredited)	Also director and co-writerBrussels International Fantastic Film Festival: Audience AwardChicago International Film Festival: Gold Hugo Award for Best FilmVenice Film Festival: 'CinemAvvenire' Award and OCIC AwardNominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best DirectorNominated — Czech Lion Award for Best Foreign Language FilmNominated — Golden Lion Award
1998		Detective David Friedman
1998	''Dark Harbor''	David Weinberg
1999		The Metatron
1999	''Galaxy Quest''	Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
2000	''Help! I'm a Fish''	Joe	Voice
2001		Man
2001	''Blow Dry''	Phil Allen
2001	''''	John Gissing
2001		Severus Snape	Known as ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' in the United States
2002		Severus Snape	Nominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2002	''King of the Hill''	King Philip	Voice
2003	''Love Actually''	Harry	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best EnsembleNominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2004	''Something the Lord Made''		Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a MovieNominated — Satellite Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
2004		Severus Snape
2005		Severus Snape
2005	''''	Marvin the Paranoid Android	Voice
2006		Antoine Richis
2006	''Snow Cake''	Alex Hughes
2007	''Nobel Son''	Eli Michaelson
2007		Severus Snape
2007		Judge Turpin	Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best CastNominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
2008	''Bottle Shock''		Seattle International Film Festival: Golden Space Needle Award for Best Actor
2009		Severus Snape	Scream Award for Best Ensemble
2010			Voice
2010	''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1''	Severus Snape
2010	''''	Noel Odell	National Geographic documentaryVoice
2010	''''	He	''BBC Drama Production''
2011	''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2''	Severus Snape	MTV World Cup Award for Favorite Harry Potter Character PortrayalPeople's Choice Award for Favorite Ensemble Movie CastSan Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an EnsembleNominated — Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best Actor in a Supporting RoleNominated — IGN Movie Award for Best Ensemble CastNominated — Scream Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated — Scream Award for Best EnsembleNominated — St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated — Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2011	''The Boy in the Bubble''	Narrator	Animated short film
2012		Lord Shahbandar	Post Production

References

External links

Alan Rickman at Emmys.com

Category:1946 births Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award winners Category:Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actor Golden Globe winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Emmy Award winners Category:English film actors Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:English voice actors Category:English theatre directors Category:Living people Category:Old Latymerians Category:People from Hammersmith Category:English people of Irish descent Category:English people of Welsh descent Category:Royal National Theatre Company members Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category:Alumni of the University of the Arts Category:Alumni of Chelsea College of Art & Design

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Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
birth date	April 19, 1968
birth place	Granada Hills, California, U.S.
birth name	Ashley Tyler Ciminella
occupation	Actress
years active	1991–present
spouse	Dario Franchitti (2001–present)
alma mater	Paul G Blazer High SchoolUniversity of KentuckyHarvard University }}

Ashley Judd (born April 19, 1968) is an American television and film actress, who has played lead roles in films including ''Ruby in Paradise,'' ''Kiss the Girls'', ''Double Jeopardy'', ''Where the Heart Is'' and ''High Crimes''. She is active in a number of humanitarian and political causes, including two missions to the Democratic Republic of Congo to campaign against sexual violence against women.

Early life

Ashley was born as Ashley Tyler Ciminella in Granada Hills, California. She is the daughter of Naomi Judd, a country music singer and motivational speaker, and Michael C. Ciminella, a marketing analyst for the horseracing industry. Ashley's elder half-sister, Wynonna, also is a country music singer. Her paternal grandfather was of Sicilian descent, and her paternal grandmother was a descendant of Mayflower pilgrim William Brewster. At the time of her birth, her mother was unemployed and did not become well-known as a singer until the early 1980s. Judd's parents divorced in 1972, and in 1973 her mother took her back to her native Kentucky, where Judd spent the majority of her childhood. She also lived in Marin County, California, for two years during grade school.

She appeared on an April 8, 2011 episode of the NBC television show, Who Do You Think You Are? (U.S. TV series) where she learned that an ancestor that served in the American Civil War lost his leg at the Battle of Saltville I, Virginia, and not at Andersonville prison, as she previously believed.

Judd attended 13 schools before college, including the Sayre School in Lexington, Kentucky, graduated 1986 Paul G. Blazer High School in Ashland Kentucky and Franklin High School in Tennessee. She briefly tried modeling in Japan during one school break. An alumna of the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Kentucky, she majored in French and minored in anthropology, art history, theater and women's studies. She spent a semester studying in France as part of her major, a move that mirrored her role as Reed in the television series ''Sisters''. She graduated from the UK Honors Program and was nominated to Phi Beta Kappa, but did not graduate with her class. Forgoing her commitment to join the Peace Corps, after college she drove to Hollywood, where she studied with well-respected acting teacher, Robert Carnegie, at Playhouse West. During this time, she worked as a hostess at The Ivy restaurant and lived in a Malibu rental house, which later burned down during the great Malibu fires of fall 1993. On May 9, 2007, it was announced Judd had completed her bachelor's degree in French from the University of Kentucky. In a May 2007 appearance on ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'', Judd explained she had completed her degree requirements in 1990 with 27 more hours taken than the required 120 hours, but had mistakenly thought she was one class short. She only needed to "sign a piece of paper" in order to graduate. DeGeneres then surprised Judd by presenting her with her diploma, which Ellen had acquired from the university. Judd subsequently earned a Master's degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2010.

Career

Judd appeared as Ensign Robin Lefler, a Starfleet officer, in two 1991 episodes of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'', "Darmok" and "The Game". From 1991 to 1994, she had a recurring role as Reed, the daughter of Alex (Swoosie Kurtz), on the NBC drama ''Sisters''. She made her feature film debut with a small role in 1992's ''Kuffs''. In 1993 Judd fought for and was cast in her first starring role playing the title character in Victor Nuñez's Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Winning, ''Ruby in Paradise''. On her way to the audition, she was so nervous about getting a role that she felt defined her life, she nearly wrecked her car."From the first three sentences, I knew it was written for me," she told the San Jose Mercury News. She received rave reviews playing Ruby Lee Gissing, a young woman trying to make a new life for herself, and it was this performance that would launch her career as an actress. Nunez told author James L. Dickerson that the resonance of the character was Judd's creation: "The resonance, those moments, was not contrived. It was just a matter of creating the scene and trusting that it was worth telling."

Oliver Stone, who had seen her in Nuñez's film, cast Judd in ''Natural Born Killers'', but her scenes were later cut from the version of the film released theatrically. The following year she gained further critical acclaim for her role as Harvey Keitel's estranged daughter in Wayne Wang's ''Smoke'' and also as Val Kilmer's wife in Michael Mann's ''Heat''. That same year she also played the role of Callie in Philip Ridley's dark, adult fairy tale, ''The Passion of Darkly Noon''.

By the end of the 1990s, Judd had managed to achieve significant fame and success as a leading actress, after leading roles in several thrillers that performed well at the box office, including ''Kiss the Girls'' in 1997 and 1999's ''Double Jeopardy''.

In June 2000, Judd flew to Austin, Texas to begin work on "Where the Heart Is," a film adapted from the novel of the same name by Billie Letts. Judd's co-star was Natalie Portman, the hottest up-and-coming actress at that time. When Judd spoke her emotionally painful lines about the abuse of her children, Portman became so engrossed that she almost lost her place in the script. It prompted Portman to tell a Nashville reporter that it was the best acting she'd seen up close. Critics agreed that it was Judd's best performance since "Ruby in Paradise."

Several of her early 2000s films, including 2001's ''Someone Like You'' and 2002's ''High Crimes'', received only mixed reviews and moderate box office success; although, she did receive positive recognition, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, for her performance in the 2004 biography of Cole Porter, ''De-Lovely'', opposite Kevin Kline.

Judd is currently the magazine advertising "face" of American Beauty, an Estée Lauder cosmetic brand sold exclusively at Kohl's department stores, and H. Stern jewelers. In June 2007, Goody's Family Clothing announced they were going to be releasing three fashion clothing lines with Judd in the Fall to be called – "AJ", "Love Ashley" and "Ashley Judd." Regarding the clothing line, Judd said, "I'm thrilled to be involved in a clothing line that provides simple, lovely solutions for women's wardrobes. I've always loved items that you can throw on easily and know that you'll feel and look good. This line does just that, while keeping with the best of current styles and trends."

On April 5, 2011, Judd released her memoir ''All That is Bitter and Sweet'' where she talks about her trials and tribulations from adolescence to adulthood.Judd has also run into controversy after comments she made about Hip Hop being a "rape culture". Artists such as ?uestlove and Russell Simmons have their own opinions about the motivation behind Judd's comments. Judd asserts that she was just basing her comments off of observation and was not trying to offend anyone within the Hip Hop community.

Personal life

In December 1999, Judd became engaged to Scottish auto racer Dario Franchitti, who was at the time driving in Champ Car World Series (he has since raced in IndyCars and NASCAR). The two were married at Skibo Castle, near Dornoch, Scotland, on December 12, 2001. She and her husband divide their time between a home in Scotland and their farm outside Franklin, Tennessee.

Although Judd is best known for regularly attending University of Kentucky basketball games (frequently sitting in the student section), she has also attended several Kentucky football games. Last year, Judd was a guest columnist for a local Kentucky newspaper, writing about the NCAA championships. She is frequently sought out for celebrity camera shots during televised games. Judd posed for a poster wearing only a hockey jersey for fund raising purposes for the University of Kentucky's hockey team. She is also an avid practitioner of yoga, cooking and gardening.

In February 2006, Judd entered a program at Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Buffalo Gap, Texas and stayed for 47 days. She was there because of personal issues, including depression, insomnia and codependency.

A disagreement between Judd and Indy race car driver Milka Duno took place during the 2007 Indy Racing League season. After the final race of the 2007 season, the actress stated to the assembled news media, "I know this is not very sportsmanlike, but they've got to get the 23 car (Duno) off the track. It's very dangerous. I'm tired of holding my tongue. She shouldn't be out there. When a car is 10 miles (an hour) off the pace, it's not appropriate to be racing. People's lives are at stake."

Judd was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky on May 9, 2009. In July 2009, Judd enrolled at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in the Mid-Career Master in Public Administration (MC/MPA) program. On May 27, 2010, Judd received her degree.

Humanitarian work

Ashley Judd's philanthropic contributions have centered around becoming a global ambassador for YouthAIDS, a prevention program under the Population Services International. She has been a member of their Board of Directors since 2004, also. Judd has travelled with YouthAIDS to places affected by illness and poverty such as Cambodia, Kenya, Rwanda, and many others.

Inspired by her travels, which allowed her to witness the life of the poor and uneducated, she has since become an advocate for preventing poverty and promoting awareness internationally. She has donated her time and met with political and religious leaders, heads of states, diplomats, and leaders on behalf of the deprived to convey the message to those who have the power to bring about political and social change.

Judd has also donated her time and resources towards filming three award-winning documentaries for YouthAIDS which aired internationally on the Discovery Channel, in National Geographic, and on VH1. She personally advocates for a balanced and integrated approach to empower human rights and global health, and to prevent social atrocities.

In 2011, Judd joined the Leadership Council of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).

Other organizations Judd have been involved with include the Women for Women International, and Equality Now, along with other non-governmental organizations which center around bringing attention to social, educational, health, economic, cultural, and financial funding of the unfortunate.

Philanthropic contributions

Judd has supported the following charities and foundations:

Children's Medical Research Institute

Creative Coalition

Defenders of Wildlife

Eracism Foundation

Five & Alive

Jeans for Genes

International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)

Listen Campaign

Malaria No More

Population Services International

SixDegrees.org

YouthAIDS

Women for Women International

Equality Now

Political activities

In 2008, Judd supported Barack Obama's presidential campaign. In 2009, she appeared in a one-minute video advertisement for the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, in which Judd condemned Alaska governor Sarah Palin for supporting aerial wolf hunting. In response, Palin stated the reason these wolves are killed is to protect the caribou population in Alaska, and she called the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund an "extreme fringe group". In 2010, Judd signed the Animal Legal Defense Fund's petition to urge Governor Steve Beshear to protect Kentucky's homeless animals through tough enforcement of the state's Humane Shelter Law.

Judd is active in humanitarian and political causes. She was appointed Global Ambassador for YouthAIDS, an education and prevention program of the international NGO Population Services International (PSI), promoting AIDS prevention and treatment, and speaks and demonstrates at pro-choice events. Judd was honored November 10 as the recipient of the fourth annual USA TODAY Hollywood Hero, awarded for her work with PSI. Judd received the award at a private award gala on the evening of November 10, 2009 at The Montage Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills. Guests enjoyed special celebrity tributes to Ashley Judd, dinner, a silent auction and an exciting live auction, with all proceeds to benefit PSI. On October 29, 2006, Judd appeared at a "Women for Ford" event for Democratic Tennessee Senate candidate Harold Ford, Jr. She has also campaigned extensively locally and nationally for a variety of Democratic candidates, including President Barack Obama in critical swing states.

On September 8, 2010, CNN interviewed Judd about her second humanitarian mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Judd traveled with the Enough Project, a project to end genocide and crimes against humanity. In the interview, Judd discussed her efforts to raise awareness about how conflict minerals fuel sexual violence in Congo. During her trip, Judd visited hospitals for victims of sexual violence, camps for displaced persons, mines, and civil society organizations. On September 30, 2010, CNN.com published an Op-ed titled "Ashley Judd: Electronics fuel unspeakable violence" by Ashley Judd and the Enough Project's co-founder John Prendergast regarding the continued violence in Congo. Her Op-ed discusses the recent provision in the Dodd-Frank Reform bill that requires companies to prove where their minerals originated. On November 26, 2010, ''The Huffington Post'' published an Op-ed by Ashley Judd titled "Costs of Convenience". The Op-ed is excerpted from Ashley Judd's trip diary from her trip to eastern Congo. Judd describes the link between her cell phone, laptop, MP3 player, and e-reader and the continued rape and sexual violence in Congo. Judd also explains the immediate need for electronics companies to commit to tracing, auditing, and certifying the minerals in their products to guarantee a clean supply chain.

Filmography

''Sisters (TV series) ''Kuffs'' ''Ruby in Paradise'' ''Love Can Build a Bridge'' ''Heat (1995 film) ''Smoke (film) '''' '''' ''Norma Jean & Marilyn'' ''Normal Life'' ''Kiss the Girls (film) '''' ''Simon Birch'' ''Double Jeopardy (film) ''Where the Heart Is (2000 film) ''Eye of the Beholder (film) ''Someone Like You (film) ''Frida'' ''Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (film) ''High Crimes'' ''De-Lovely'' ''Twisted (2004 film) ''Come Early Morning'' ''Bug (2006 film) ''India's Hidden Plague'' ''Helen (film) ''Crossing Over (film) ''Tooth Fairy (film) ''Dolphin Tale'' ''Flypaper (2011 film)

+ Film
width="50px"	Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	''Star Trek: The Next Generation''	Robin Lefler >
1991–94	Sisters'' ||	Reed Halsey	32 episodes
1992	|	Wife of Paint Store Owner
1993	|	Ruby Lee Gissing	Won the 1993 Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female
1994	|	Ashley Judd
1995	Heat'' ||	Charlene Shiherlis
1995	Smoke'' ||	Felicity
1995	|	Callie
1996	|	Carla Brigance
1996	|	Marilyn Monroe>Norma Jean	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television FilmNominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1996	|	Pam Anderson
1997	Kiss the Girls'' ||	Dr. Kate McTiernan
1997	|	Kitty
1998	|	Rebecca Wenteworth
1999	Double Jeopardy'' ||	Elizabeth "Libby" Parsons	Nominated — MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
2000	Where the Heart Is'' ||	Lexie Coop
2000	Eye of the Beholder'' ||	Joanna Eris
2001	Someone Like You'' ||	Jane Goodale
2002	|	Tina Modotti
2002	Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood'' ||	Younger Vivi Abbott Walker
2002	|	Claire Kubik
2004	|	Linda Lee Thomas>Linda Porter	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2004	Twisted'' ||	Jessica Shepard
2006	|	Lucy
2007	Bug'' ||	Agnes White
2007	|	Herself
2009	Helen'' ||	Helen
2009	Crossing Over'' ||	Denise Frankel
2010	Tooth Fairy'' ||	Carly
2011	|	Lorraine Nelson
2011	Flypaper'' ||	Kaitlin

Honors

Kentucky Colonel Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Union College, Barbourville, Kentucky

References

External links

Official Website

YouthAid's Ambassador Ashley Judd launches US-funded Newstart Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centre (VCT) for HIV/AIDS in Cape Town

This is What a Feminist Looks Like

"Sarah Palin's Ongoing Wolf Slaughter" – Judd's video for Defenders of Wildlife

Category:1968 births Category:Actors from Kentucky Category:American film actors Category:American people of Sicilian descent Category:American television actors Category:American activists Category:American humanitarians Category:American feminists Category:Feminist artists Category:Kentucky Democrats Category:John F. Kennedy School of Government alumni Category:Kentucky Wildcats basketball Category:Living people Category:People from Ashland, Kentucky Category:University of Kentucky alumni Category:Children of Entertainers

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Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
name	Cyrano de Bergerac
birth date	March 06, 1619
birth place	Sannois, France
death date	July 28, 1655
death place	Paris, France
occupation	Playwright, Soldier
children	}}

Hercule-Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French dramatist and duelist. He is now best remembered for the works of fiction which have been woven, often very loosely, around his life story, most notably the 1897 play by Edmond Rostand. In these fictional works he is featured with an overly large nose, which people would travel from miles around to see. Portraits suggest that he did have a big nose, though not nearly as large as described in Rostand's play and the subsequent works about him. His work furnished models and ideas for subsequent writers.

Life and works

He was the son of Abel de Cyrano, lord of Mauvières and Bergerac. He received his first education from a country priest, and had for a fellow pupil his friend and future biographer, Henri Lebret. He then proceeded to Paris to the college de Beauvais, where he had for master Jean Grangier, whom he afterwards ridiculed in his comedy ''Le Pédant joué'' (''The Pedant Tricked'') of 1654. At the age of nineteen, he entered a corps of the guards, serving in the campaigns of 1639 and 1640.

Research indicates that around 1640 he became the lover of Charles Coypeau d'Assoucy, a writer and musician, until around 1653, when they became engaged in a bitter rivalry. This led to Bergerac sending d'Assoucy death threats that compelled him to leave Paris. The quarrel extended to a series of satirical texts by both men. Bergerac wrote ''Contre Soucidas'' (an anagram of his enemy's name) and ''Contre un ingrat'' ("Against an Ingrate"), while D’Assoucy counterattacked with ''Le Combat de Cyrano de Bergerac avec le singe de Brioché, au bout du Pont-Neuf''.

He is said to have fought more than 1000 duels, mostly on account of his nose. The story of his adventure single-handed against a hundred enemies was vouched for by Lebret as the simple truth. After two years in the guards, Cyrano left the service and returned to Paris to pursue literature, producing tragedies cast in the orthodox classical mode.

The model for the Roxane character of the Rostand play was Bergerac's cousin, who lived with his sister, Catherine de Cyrano, at the Convent of the Daughter of the Cross As in the play, Bergerac did fight at the siege of Arras (1640), a battle of the Thirty Years' War between French and Spanish forces in France (though this was not the more famous final Battle of Arras, fought fourteen years later). One of his confreres in the battle was the Baron Christian of Neuvillette, who married Cyrano's cousin. However, the plotline of the play, ''Cyrano de Bergerac'', involving Roxane and Christian is entirely fictional.

Cyrano was a freethinker and a pupil of Pierre Gassendi, a canon of the Catholic Church who tried to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity. Cyrano's insistence on reason was rare in his time. His tragedy ''Mort d'Agrippine'' (1654) was regarded at the time as the vehicle of atheistic teaching.

He was injured by a falling wooden beam in 1654 while entering the house of his patron, the Duc D'Arpajon. Whether it was a deliberate attempt on his life or merely an accident is unknown. It is also inconclusive as to whether or not his death was a result of the injury, or an unspecified disease. He died over a year later on July 28, 1655 aged 36. His place of death was the house of his cousin, Pierre De Cyrano, in Sannois. He was buried in a church in Sannois.

Cyrano de Bergerac's works ''L'Autre Monde: où les États et Empires de la Lune (The Other World: The States and Empires of the Moon)'' (published posthumously, 1657) and ''Les États et Empires du Soleil (The States and Empires of the Sun)'' (1662) are classics of early modern science fiction. In the former, Cyrano travels to the moon using rockets powered by firecrackers and meets the inhabitants. The moon-men have four legs, musical voices, and firearms that shoot game and cook it.

His mixture of science and romance in the last two works furnished a model for many subsequent writers, among them Jonathan Swift, Edgar Alan Poe and probably Voltaire. Corneille and Molière freely borrowed ideas from ''Le Pédant joué''.

In fiction

Rostand

In 1897, the French poet Edmond Rostand published a play, ''Cyrano de Bergerac'', on the subject of Cyrano's life. This play, by far Rostand's most successful work, concentrates on Cyrano's love for the beautiful Roxane, whom he is obliged to woo on behalf of a more conventionally handsome but less articulate friend, Christian de Neuvillette.

The play has been adapted for cinema several times, most recently in 1990 with Gerard Depardieu in the title role. That 1990 version's dialogue is in French with subtitles written by Anthony Burgess in rhymed couplets, mirroring the form of the dialogue in the original play. The most famous film version in English is the 1950 film, with José Ferrer in the title role, a performance for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1959, Hiroshi Inagaki wrote and directed a Japanese version, ''Aru kengo no shogai'' (''Samurai Saga'' AKA ''Life of a Expert Swordsman''), setting the story in 17th century Shogunate Japan and starring Toshirō Mifune as the Cyrano character "Heihachiro Komaki" and Yoko Tsukasa as the Roxanne character "Lady Ochii". Ferrer reprised the role in the 1960 French film ''Cyrano et d'Artagnan'', directed by Abel Gance, opposite Jean-Pierre Cassel as D'Artagnan. Much later, Cassel made a cameo appearance as Cyrano de Bergerac in ''The Return of the Musketeers'': the character was depicted as fifty-something and attempting to travel to the Moon with the aid of a balloon.

Other works

"The Adventures of Cyrano De Bergerac", by Louis Gallet, was published in English by Jarrolds Publishers (London) in 1900. This is a swashbuckling tale of adventure and romance bearing no resemblance to Rostand's play, other than the outstanding physical characteristics of the De Bergerac character.

Other film interpretations of Rostand include the romantic comedies ''Roxanne'', and ''The Truth About Cats & Dogs'', respectively starring Steve Martin and Janeane Garofalo in the Cyrano-like roles. ''Cyrano Fernández'' (2007) is a retelling from Venezuela, set in contemporary times, in which Cyrano is disfigured but lacks the large nose.

Geraldine McCaughrean rewrote the play as a novel entitled ''Cyrano'', which was longlisted for the Carnegie Award in 2007. In 1936, Franco Alfano composed his opera, ''Cyrano de Bergerac'', to a libretto based on the play. David Bintley, Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, created a ballet of the story in 2007. Most recently, David DiChiera rewrote the play as another opera entitled ''Cyrano'', which was produced first by Michigan Opera Theater and then by the Opera Company of Philadelphia (February 2008).

The character of Cyrano also inspired a song, "Cyrano," by Italian performer Francesco Guccini about the hypocrisy, servitude to conventions, and superficialities of modern show business and political society. Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac is one of the main characters in Philip José Farmer's ''Riverworld'' novels.

A couple of characters in modern works are based on Cyrano, although not named as such. Robert Heinlein's ''Glory Road'' features a cameo appearance by such a figure. The Swordmaster in Alain Ayrole's and Jean-Luc Masbou's French comic book ''De cape et de crocs'' portrays a colorful gentleman living on the Moon, at ease either with a sword or with a sonnet, and using both to silence those foolish enough to mock his prominent nose.

"Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk" is a character with a Pinocchio-like nose, whose moniker is a play on the name "Cyrano de Bergerac." Sir Nose is an antagonist within P-Funk mythology, and first appears on the album Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome by Parliament.

In 1995, the award-winning Scottish novelist A. L. (Alison) Kennedy featured a newly-revived Cyrano in her novel 'So I am glad'. The heroine finds him entering her life where she is under stress as a radio 'voice'. We are left unsure whether Cyrano has returned to live with her as her lover for a time or is a figment of her imagination. In any case, she is engaged by the vitality of his character, his revisiting the events of his life and his unorthodoxy and adventures in modern Glasgow.

In 1998, James L. Carcioppolo wrote and published ''The Lost Sonnets of Cyrano de Bergerac''. The book fictionalizes a dying Cyrano writing a sequence of sonnets in an attempt to come to terms with his conflicted life. It portrays a Cyrano very close to the historical personage without diminishing his love for freedom and individuality.

Influence

The ghostwritten love letters of Cyrano de Bergerac are said to have inspired Heart Raps, a modern day service that writes custom romantic hip-hop verses to be given as gifts .

See also

Asteroid 3582 Cyrano, named after de Bergerac.

Cyrano (Damrosch), a four-act opera with music by Walter Damrosch and libretto by William J. Henderson

Cyrano (opera), an opera in three acts by David DiChiera to a libretto by Bernard Uzan

Cyrano de Bergerac (Alfano), a four-act opera with music by Franco Alfano and libretto by Henri Caïn

Cyrano de Bergerac (film)

Cyrano de Bergerac (play)

Roxanne (film)

Addyman, Ishbel (2008). ''Cyrano: The Life and Legend of Cyrano De Bergerac'', Simon & Schuster

References

External links

Brief biography at Kirjasto (Pegasos)

Le Vrai Cyrano de Bergerac (French)—Biography

Cyrano(s) de Bergerac (French)—Information on fictional portrayals versus real person

''The Other World: Society and Government of the Moon''—annotated English language edition

—English language edition. —French language edition.

Category:1619 births Category:1655 deaths Category:French dramatists and playwrights Category:French science fiction writers Category:Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni Category:Moon in fiction Category:Writers from Paris

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