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1941
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Aaron S. Watkins
Aaron S. Watkins (1863 – 1941), born in Ohio, was president of Asbury College in Kentucky. Before his ordination as a Methodist minister, he practiced law with his brother. He was the grandfather of Prohibition candidate for Vice President of the United States, W. Dean Watkins.
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Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (, abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and served as head of state as Führer und Reichskanzler from 1934 to 1945.
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Adrian Lyne
Adrian Lyne (born 4 March 1941 in Peterborough, then in Northamptonshire, England) is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for directing films that focus on sexually charged characters and often uses natural light, a fog machine and other effects to create eroticized atmospheres. He was educated at Highgate School.
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Ahmet Necdet Sezer
Ahmet Necdet Sezer (born September 13, 1941 in Afyonkarahisar) was the tenth President of the Republic of Turkey. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey elected Sezer in 2000 after Süleyman Demirel's seven year term expired. He was succeeded by Abdullah Gül.
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Alberto Naranjo
Alberto Naranjo [nah-rahn'-ho] (born September 14, 1941) is a musician. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela. His mother, the singer Graciela Naranjo, was a radio, film and television pioneer in her homeland. Largely self-taught, Alberto embarked on a similar musical course, becoming – like his mother – one of Venezuela's icons of contemporary popular music.
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Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, Knight Bachelor, CBE, popularly known as Sir Alex or Fergie (born 31 December 1941 in Govan, Glasgow) is a Scottish football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986.
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Alexander Ragulin
Alexander Pavlovich "Rags" Ragulin (; May 5, 1941 in Moscow - November 17, 2004 in Moscow) was a defenseman for the Red Army ice hockey team, CSKA Moscow (1962–1973), a 10 time World Champion, and a 3-time Olympic champion (1964, 1968 and 1972).
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Alexandros Koryzis
Alexandros Koryzis (, 1885 – April 18, 1941) was the Prime Minister of Greece briefly in 1941.
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Alexej von Jawlensky
Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky (13 March 1864 – 15 March 1941) was a Russian expressionist painter active in Germany. He was a key member of the New Munich Artist's Association (Neue Künstlervereinigung München), Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group and later the Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four).
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Alfred G. Gilman
Alfred Goodman Gilman (born July 1, 1941) is an American pharmacologist and biochemist. He shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Martin Rodbell for their discoveries regarding G-proteins.
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Allan Forrest
Allan Forrest (1 September 1885 - 25 July 1941) was an American silent film actor.
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Allan Young
Allan Robert Young (born January 20, 1941 in Edmonton, London) is a former professional footballer, playing mainly as a central defender.
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Amarsinh Chaudhary
Amarsinh Chaudhary (July 31, 1941, Surat, Gujarat, India – August 15, 2004, Ahmedabad, Gujarat) was an Indian politician. He was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 1985 to 1989. He served as President of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee between June 2001 and July 2002. In 2002, he was elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party in Gujarat. He was admitted to a hospital in Ahmedabad on July 24, 2004 for "severe liver and kidney complications". He died of cardiac arrest on August 15, 2004 after a prolonged illness.
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Andreas Khol
Andreas Khol (born July 14, 1941, in Bergen, Germany) is an Austrian politician of the center-conservative Austrian People's Party, President of the Nation Council from 2002 to 2006.
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Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret Olsson (born April 28, 1941) is a Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer whose professional name is Ann-Margret. She became famous for her starring roles in Bye, Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, The Cincinnati Kid, Carnal Knowledge, and Tommy. Her later career includes character roles in Grumpy Old Men, Any Given Sunday, , and The Break-Up. She has won five Golden Globe Awards and been nominated for two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and six Emmy Awards. On August 21, 2010, she won her first Emmy Award for her guest appearance on .
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Anne Rice
Anne Rice (born '''Howard Allen O'Brien''' on October 4, 1941) is a best-selling American author of gothic, erotic, and religious-themed books from New Orleans, Louisiana. She was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years until his death from cancer in 2002. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history.
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Anne Tyler
Anne Tyler (born October 25, 1941) is an American novelist.
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Annie Jump Cannon
Annie Jump Cannon (December 11, 1863 – April 13, 1941) was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of the Harvard Classification Scheme, which was the first serious attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures.
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Apostolos Santas
Apostolos Santas (, born 1922) is a Greek veteran of the Resistance against the Axis Occupation of Greece during World War II, most notable for his participation, along with Manolis Glezos, in the taking down of the German flag from the Acropolis on 30 May 1941.
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Arkady Gaidar
Arkady Petrovich Golikov (; ( — October 26, 1941), better known as Arkady Gaidar (), was a Soviet writer, whose stories were very popular among Soviet children.
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Art Garfunkel
Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is an American singer, poet, and actor, best known as half of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel. In particular, he is remembered for being the lead singer on the #1 hit single, "Bridge Over Troubled Water". Highlights of his solo career include a top ten hit, three top twenty hits, six top forty hits, fourteen Adult Contemporary top 30 singles, Five Adult Contemporary number ones, two UK number ones, a Golden Globe nomination and a People's Choice Award.
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Arthur Evans
Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete and for developing the concept of Minoan civilization from the structures and artifacts found there and elsewhere throughout eastern Mediterranean. Evans was the first to define Cretan scripts Linear A and Linear B, as well as an earlier pictographic writing.
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Arthur L. Bristol
Arthur LeRoy Bristol, Jr. (July 15, 1886 – April 27, 1942), was a Vice Admiral in the United States Navy, who held important commands during World War I and World War II, and was an early aircraft carrier commander.
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Averill Harriman
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Banjo Paterson
Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE (17 February 18645 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson's more notable poems include "Waltzing Matilda", "The Man from Snowy River" and "Clancy of the Overflow".
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Beatrice Tinsley
Beatrice Muriel Hill Tinsley (January 27, 1941 - March 23, 1981) was a New Zealand astronomer and cosmologist whose research made fundamental contributions to the astronomical understanding of how galaxies evolve with time.
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Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III (born December 9, 1941) is an American actor.
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Benny Parsons
Benjamin Stewart Parsons (July 12, 1941 – January 16, 2007) was an American NASCAR driver, and later an announcer/analyst on TBS, ESPN, NBC and TNT. He became famous as the 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) champion.
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Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht (; born ; 10 February 1898–14 August 1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.
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Bill Baxley
William Joseph Baxley II (born June 27, 1941) is an American Democratic politician and attorney.
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Bill Freehan
William Ashley Freehan (born November 29, 1941 in Detroit) is a former catcher in Major League Baseball who played his entire fifteen-year career with the Detroit Tigers. Regarded as the premier catcher in the American League for several years, he was named an All-Star in each of the eleven seasons in which he caught at least 75 games, and was the MVP runnerup with the 1968 champions for his handling of a pitching staff that included Mickey Lolich and Denny McLain, who became the only 30-game winner in the majors since 1934. A winner of five consecutive Gold Glove Awards, he held the major league record for highest career fielding percentage (.9933) until 2002, as well as the records for career putouts (9941) and total chances (10,734) from 1975 until the late 1980s; he ranked ninth in major league history in games caught (1581) at the end of his career. His career totals of 200 home runs and 2502 total bases placed him behind only Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey among American League catchers when he retired.
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Bill Oddie
William Edgar "Bill" Oddie OBE (born 7 July 1941, Rochdale, England) is an English author, actor, comedian, artist, naturalist and musician, who first became famous as one of The Goodies.
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Bill Parcells
Bill Parcells (born Duane Charles Parcells on August 22, 1941, in Englewood, New Jersey) is currently a team consultant for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. He is also a former American football head coach, most recently with the Dallas Cowboys from 2003 to 2006. He is known as "The Big Tuna", a nickname derived from a team joke during his tenure as linebackers coach of the New England Patriots.
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Bill Reardon
Bill Reardon (born June 24, 1941) is an American politician and educator. He served in the Kansas state House of Representatives from 1975 to 2004, when he was replaced in the House of Representatives by his wife Kathy.
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Bill Tutte
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Blanche Bates
Blanche Bates (25 August 1873 – 25 December 1941) was an American actress, born at Portland, Ore. She made her début in San Francisco in a benefit performance of Brander Matthews's This Picture and That. Among her early successes were her Mrs. Hillary in The Senator, Phyllis in The Charity Ball, and Nora in ''A Doll's House''. She joined Daly's company in 1898 and the next year at Daly's Theatre, New York, played Mirtza in The Great Ruby. In 1901 she appeared as Cigarette in Under the Two Flags at the Garden Theatre in New York. Thereafter devoting herself to the productions of David Belasco, she won great success in The Darling of the Gods (1902) and The Girl of the Golden West (1905).
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Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has been a major figure in music for six decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was at first an informal chronicler, and later an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of his songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems for the American civil rights and anti-war movements. His early lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social and philosophical, as well as literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, and the performance style of Little Richard, Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres, exploring numerous distinct traditions in American song—from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly, to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.
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Bob Matsui
Robert Takeo Matsui (松井 武男, September 17, 1941 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician from the state of California. Matsui was a member of the Democratic Party and served 13 terms (although elected to 14) in the U.S. House of Representatives as the congressman for California's 5th congressional district.
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Bobby Burgess
Robert Wilkie "Bobby" Burgess (born May 19, 1941 in Long Beach, California) is an American dancer and singer. As a child he was an original Mouseketeer and later in life a regular on the The Lawrence Welk Show.
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Bobby Cox
Robert Joseph "Bobby" Cox (born May 21, 1941 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is the former manager of the Atlanta Braves, and a former third baseman in Major League Baseball. He first led the Braves from to , and then managed the Toronto Blue Jays from to . He later rejoined the Braves in as a general manager. He moved back to the manager's role during the season and stayed there until his retirement following the 2010 season. He led the Atlanta Braves to the World Series championship in . He holds the all-time record for ejections in Major League Baseball with 158 (plus an additional 3 post-season ejections), a record previously held by John McGraw.
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Bobby Moore
Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore, OBE (12 April 1941 – 24 February 1993) was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup.
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Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC (born Beverly Sainte-Marie, February 20, 1941 or 1942) is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, pacifist, educator, social activist, and philanthropist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism. Her music might generally be categorized as folk and traditional music, though she did record one mostly country album, ''I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again'', in Nashville. Some of her other songs have more modern popular sounds. Her work has been covered by such musicians as Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Neko Case, Janis Joplin, Chet Atkins, The Indigo Girls and Joe Cocker. She is also responsible for Cradleboard Teaching Project, an educational curriculum devoted to better understanding of Native Americans. She has won recognition and many awards and honours for both her music and her work in education and social activism.
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Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is an American fictional character who starred in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1944. In 2002, he was named by TV Guide as the greatest cartoon character of all time. Bugs starred in 163 shorts in the Golden Age of American animation, and made cameos in three others along with a few appearances in non-animated films.
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Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet (; born Don Glen Vliet, January 15, 1941) is an American musician and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12 studio albums. Noted for his powerful singing voice with its wide range, Van Vliet also played the harmonica, saxophone, bass clarinet, piccolo oboe and shehnai. His music blended rock, blues and psychedelia with free jazz, avant-garde and contemporary experimental composition. An iconoclastic mix of complex instrumentation, atonal melodies, and often humorously surreal lyrics, it was crafted through dictatorial control over his musicians and creative vision.
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Cass Elliott
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Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) (nicknamed "Slim," "Lucky Lindy" and "The Lone Eagle") was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.
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Charles Whitman
Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was a student at the University of Texas at Austin and a former Marine who killed 16 people and wounded 32 others during a shooting rampage on and around the university's campus on August 1, 1966.
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Chris Watson
John Christian Watson (9 April 186718 November 1941), commonly known as Chris Watson, Australian politician, was the third Prime Minister of Australia. He was the first prime minister from the Australian Labour Party (the spelling of 'Labour' was changed to 'Labor' in 1912), and the first Labour Party prime minister in the world.
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Christian Sinding
Christian August Sinding (11 January 1856 – 3 December 1941) was a Norwegian composer.
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Christopher Hogwood
Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood CBE, MA (Cantab), HonMusD (Cantab) (born 10 September 1941, Nottingham) is an English conductor, harpsichordist, writer and scholar of music.
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Chuck Woolery
Charles Herbert "Chuck" Woolery (born March 16, 1941) is an American game show host. He has had long-running tenures hosting several different game shows. He was the original host of Wheel of Fortune from 1975–1981, the original incarnation of Love Connection from 1983–1994, and Scrabble from 1984-1990 (and during a brief revival in 1993). He also hosted Lingo on GSN from 2002–2007, and most recently hosted Think Like a Cat, which premiered on GSN on November 15, 2008. Woolery started out as a singer and has occasionally dabbled in other entertainment roles including acting and talk show hosting.
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Chuichi Nagumo
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Clifford E. Berry
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Connie Smith
Connie Smith (born Constance June Meador; August 14, 1941) is an American country music artist. She began her career in 1963 after winning a local talent contest near Columbus, Ohio, which attracted the attention of country songwriter Bill Anderson. After recording several demos for Anderson to pitch to other artists, Smith was offered a contract by RCA Victor Records in 1964.
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César Basa
Cesar Fernando Basa (1915 – 1941) was a Filipino pilot and hero of World War II. Born in 1915, he was one of the pioneer fighter pilots in the Philippine Air Force and the first Filipino casualty during World War II.
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Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly (born September 20, 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, United States) is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur.
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David Bale
David Howard Bale (September 2, 1941 – December 30, 2003) was a South African-born entrepreneur and an environmentalist animal rights activist, perhaps best known as the husband of journalist, political and social activist, and Women's Movement leader Gloria Steinem and the father of actor Christian Bale.
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David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash (who are sometimes augmented by Neil Young), and CPR. Crosby is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work in The Byrds and CSN.
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David Dickinson
David Dickinson (born David Gulessarian on 16 August 1941) is an English antiques expert, television presenter and entrepreneur.
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David Hemmings
David Hemmings (18 November 1941 – 3 December 2003) was an English film actor and director, whose most famous role was the photographer in Blowup. In his later acting career, he was known for his distinctive eyebrows and gravelly voice.
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David Jeremiah
For the article on the retired U.S. Navy admiral and former Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, see David E. Jeremiah.
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David Ruffin
Davis Eli "David" Ruffin (January 18, 1941 – June 1, 1991) was an American soul singer and musician most famous for his work as one of the lead singers of the Temptations from 1964 to 1968 (or the group's "Classic Five" period as it was later known). He was the lead voice on such famous songs as "My Girl" and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg." Known for his unique raspy and anguished tenor vocals, Ruffin was ranked as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2008. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 for his work with the Temptations. Fellow Motown recording artist Marvin Gaye once said admiringly of Ruffin that, "I heard in [his voice] a strength my own voice lacked."
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David Selby
David Lynn Selby (born February 5, 1941) is an American character and stage actor. He has worked in movies, soap operas and television. The naturally black-headed Selby is best known for playing the roles of Quentin Collins on the ABC-TV serial, Dark Shadows (a role he played from 1968 to its ending in 1971 and again in the recent audio revival), and as the evil and compassionate, illegitimate son of the late husband of Angela Channing (played by Jane Wyman), Richard Channing, on the primetime CBS soap opera Falcon Crest (a role he played from 1982 to 1990).
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Dennis Ritchie
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (username: dmr, born September 9, 1941) is an American computer scientist notable for his influence on C and other programming languages, and on operating systems such as Multics and Unix. He received the Turing Award in 1983 and the National Medal of Technology 1998 on April 21, 1999. Ritchie was the head of Lucent Technologies System Software Research Department when he retired in 2007.
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Derek Mahon
Derek Mahon (born 23 November 1941) is a Northern Irish poet. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
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Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (born January 30, 1941) served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under George W. Bush. He briefly served as Acting President of the United States on two occasions during which Bush underwent medical procedures.
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Dolly Sisters
The Dolly Sisters, twins Rosika (Rose) and Jansci (Jenny) Deutsch, were born October 25, 1892 in Hungary, and emigrated to the United States in 1905. They perfected a single-sex "tandem" dance act - practising in front of mirrors - under the name of 'The Dolly Sisters' they began earning money in beer halls as early as 1907. Barred for being under age by the New York City stage, they toured the Orpheum circuit until 1909 when they debuted on the Keith vaudeville circuit till 1911 when they signed with the Ziegfeld Follies for two seasons.
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Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880 – April 5, 1964) was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines Campaign. Arthur MacArthur, Jr., and Douglas MacArthur were the first father and son to each be awarded the medal. He was one of only five men ever to rise to the rank of general of the army in the U.S. Army, and the only man ever to become a field marshal in the Philippine Army.
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Dr. Demento
Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941),"About The Dr." The Online Internet Site For Information on Dr. Demento music, songs, lyrics, and chat. 2005. 03 Mar. 2006 . better known as Dr. Demento, is a radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present.
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Eddie Rabbitt
Edward Thomas "Eddie" Rabbitt (November 27, 1941 – May 7, 1998) was an American country music singer-songwriter who enjoyed much pop success at the height of his career in the 1970s and 80s with twenty #1 country hits including "Drivin' My Life Away" and "I Love a Rainy Night," which also topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks.
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Eddie Smith
Edgar (Eddie) Smith (December 14, 1913 - January 2, 1994) was a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Philadelphia Athletics (1936-1939), Chicago White Sox (1939-1943, 1946-1947) and Boston Red Sox (1947[end]). Smith was a switch-hitter and threw left-handed. He was born in Mansfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey.
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Eduardo Duhalde
Eduardo Alberto Duhalde (; born October 5, 1941) is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 2002 to 2003.
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Edwin Stanton Porter
Edwin Stanton Porter (April 21, 1870 – April 30, 1941) was an early film pioneer, most famous as a director with Thomas Edison's company.
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El Lissitzky
() ( – December 30, 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (, ), was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, polemicist and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for the former Soviet Union. His work greatly influenced the Bauhaus and constructivist movements, and he experimented with production techniques and stylistic devices that would go on to dominate 20th-century graphic design.
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Elaine Esposito
Elaine Esposito (December 3, 1934 – November 25, 1978) holds the record for longest coma according to the Guinness World Records, having lost consciousness in 1941 and eventually dying in that condition more than 37 years later.
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Elliott Dexter
Elliott Dexter (March 29, 1870 in Galveston, Texas – June 21, 1941 in Amityville, New York) was an American film and stage actor. Dexter started his career in vaudeville and didn't move to films until he was 45. He retired from acting in 1925.
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Eric Braeden
Eric Braeden (born Hans Jörg Gudegast on April 3, 1941) is a German-born film and television actor, best known for his role as Victor Newman on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. Braeden won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1998 for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the role.
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Eric Burdon
Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941) is best known as a founding member and vocalist of The Animals, a rock band formed in Newcastle, England, his funk rock band War and his aggressive stage performance. He was ranked 57th in Rolling Stone's list - The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
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Erkin Koray
Erkin Koray (born June 24, 1941, in Beykoz, Istanbul), has been in the Turkish rock music scene since the late 1950s or early 1960s. He is widely acclaimed as being the first person to ever play rock and roll in Turkey; in 1957, he and his band gained fame by playing covers of Elvis Presley and Fats Domino. He was also one of the first Turkish musicians to embrace the electric guitar and modern amplification.
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Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881–14 April 1951) was a British Labour politician, best known for his time as Minister of Labour in the war-time coalition government, and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government.
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Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944), popularly known as the Desert Fox (Wüstenfuchs, ), was a famous German Field Marshal of World War II.
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Esmond Romilly
Esmond Marcus David Romilly (10 June 1918 – 30 November 1941) was a British socialist and anti-fascist, now remembered mainly for his marriage to Jessica Mitford, one of the Mitford sisters. He was born to a family of public service and aristocratic descent, but at a young age became a communist and turned his back on the privileges of his birth.
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Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress.
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Fiorello La Guardia
Fiorello Henry La Guardia (; born Fiorello Enrico La Guardia; December 11, 1882 September 20, 1947) was Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934 to 1945 as a liberal Republican. Previously he was elected to Congress in 1916 and 1918, and again from 1922 through 1930. Irascible, energetic and charismatic, he craved publicity and is acclaimed as one of the three or four greatest mayors in American history. Only five feet tall, he was called "the Little Flower" (Fiorello is Italian for "little flower", diminutive of fiore, Italian for "flower").
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Franz von Werra
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Fred Karno
Frederick John Westcott (26 March 1866 – 18 September 1941), best known by his stage name Fred Karno, was a theatre impresario of the British music hall.
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Frederick Banting
Sir Frederick Grant Banting, KBE, MC, FRSC (November 14, 1891 – February 21, 1941) was a Canadian medical scientist, doctor and Nobel laureate noted as one of the co-discoverers of insulin.
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Friedrich Akel
Friedrich Karl Akel (September 5, 1871 in Halliste, Estonia – July 3, 1941 in Tallinn) was an Estonian diplomat and politician, a member of the International Olympic Committee. , and Head of State of Estonia in 1924.
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Fuzzy Haskins
Clarence Eugene "Fuzzy" Haskins (born June 8, 1941) is a former singer with 1950s and 1960s doo-wop group, The Parliaments. He is a founding member of the groundbreaking and influential 1970s funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, also known as Parliament-Funkadelic. He left Parliament-Funkadelic in 1977 to pursue a solo career. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.
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Gay Kayler
Gay Kayler (born Gay Kahler 27 September 1941, Gatton, Queensland) is an Australian country music entertainer and recording artist. Gay used her maiden name in her professional career until 1978, when she changed the spelling to Kayler to maintain a consistency of pronunciation.
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George Saimes
George Thomas Saimes (born September 15, 1941 in Canton, Ohio) is a former American football defensive back and fullback for Michigan State University and the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League, which produced American Football League Championships in 1964 and 1965. In 1964 he had a career-high six interceptions and earned the first of his five American Football League All-Star Game appearances. He made The Sporting News All-AFL Team in 1964, 1965 and 1967. Former Pro Football writer and president of the Pro Football Writers Association, Larry Felser, calls Saimes "the finest open-field tackler in the league."
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George Tiller
George Richard Tiller, MD (August 8, 1941 – May 31, 2009) was an American physician from Wichita, Kansas. He was the medical director of a clinic in Wichita, Women's Health Care Services, one of only three nationwide which provided abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy (known as late-term abortion).
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Gerd Brantenberg
Gerd Mjøen Brantenberg (born October 27, 1941) is a Norwegian author, teacher, and feminist writer. She is also the cousin of radio and tv entertainer Lars Mjøen.
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Glenn T. Seaborg
Glenn Theodore Seaborg (; April 19, 1912 – February 25, 1999) was an American scientist who won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements", contributed to the discovery and isolation of ten elements, and developed the actinide concept, which led to the current arrangement of the actinoid series in the periodic table of the elements. He spent most of his career as an educator and research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley where he became the second Chancellor in its history and served as a University Professor. Seaborg advised ten presidents from Truman to Clinton on nuclear policy and was the chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission from 1961 to 1971 where he pushed for commercial nuclear energy and peaceful applications of nuclear science. Throughout his career, Seaborg worked for arms control. He was signator to the Franck Report and contributed to the achievement of the Limited Test Ban Treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Seaborg was a well-known advocate of science education and federal funding for pure research. He was a key contributor to the report "A Nation at Risk" as a member of President Reagan's National Commission on Excellence in Education and was the principal author of the Seaborg Report on academic science issued in the closing days of the Eisenhower administration.
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Goh Chok Tong
Goh Chok Tong (; born 20 May 1941) is the Senior Minister of Singapore and the chairman of the central bank of Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He also served as the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore from 28 November, 1990 to 12 August, 2004, succeeding to Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore
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Graham Chapman
Graham Arthur Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was an English comedian, actor, writer, physician and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe. He was also the lead actor in their two narrative films, playing King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Brian in ''Monty Python's Life of Brian. He co-authored and starred in the film Yellowbeard''.
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Gunpei Yokoi
, also spelled Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese video game designer. He was a long-time Nintendo employee, creator of the Game Boy and Game & Watch handheld systems, and producer of several long-running video game franchises. Yokoi's games have been seen on every Nintendo video game console, with his earliest work appearing on arcade machines. His games have received critical praise from many reviewers, and he has been the recipient of various awards. Yokoi was married. He died in a traffic accident in 1997.
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Gus Kahn
Gustav Gerson Kahn (November 6, 1886 – October 8, 1941) was a musician, songwriter and lyricist.
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Gutzon Borglum
(John) Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American artist and sculptor famous for creating the monumental presidents' heads at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, the famous carving on Stone Mountain near Atlanta, as well as other public works of art.
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Guy Hovis
Guy Lee Hovis Jr. (born September 24, 1941) is an American-born singer who was one of the featured performers of television's The Lawrence Welk Show, but is best known as one half of the singing couple Guy & Ralna.
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Haile Selassie
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Hank Marvin
Hank Brian Marvin (born 28 October 1941) also known as Brian Robson Rankin is an English guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows. The group, which primarily performed instrumentals, was formed as a backing band for vocalist Cliff Richard. Marvin has a distinctive guitar sound and appearance, primarily using a clean sound with very distinctive echo and vibrato giving a dreamy effect.
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Hans Spemann
Hans Spemann (June 27, 1869 – September 9, 1941) was a German embryologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935 for his discovery of the effect now known as embryonic induction, an influence, exercised by various parts of the embryo, that directs the development of groups of cells into particular tissues and organs.
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Hans Wiegel
Hans Wiegel (born July 16, 1941) is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He served as Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister from December 19, 1977 until September 11, 1981. He has been member of both the Senate and House of Representatives of the States-General of the Netherlands. He later served as Queen's Commissioner of Friesland from June 16, 1982 until February 1, 1994. He has been the president of the Dutch Healthcare insurance board since January 1, 1995.
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Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), who sometimes went by the stage name Nilsson, was an American songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success as a singer in the mid 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings, he is credited as 'Nilsson' and is known for the hit singles "Without You", "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City", "Everybody's Talkin'," "Coconut" and "Jump into the Fire". Nilsson's songs 'One' and 'Cuddly Toy' have been covered by artists including the Monkees, Three Dog Night and Aimee Mann. He was awarded Grammy Awards for two of his recordings.
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Harvey Hendrick
Harvey "Gink" Hendrick (November 9, 1897 - October 29, 1941) was an American major league baseball player who played for several different teams during an eleven-year career.
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Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly five decades, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli, an animation studio and production company. The success of Miyazaki's films has invited comparisons with American animator Walt Disney, British animator Nick Park as well as Robert Zemeckis, who pioneered Motion Capture animation, and he has been named one of the most influential people by Time Magazine.
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Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan (August 2, 1900 – October 9, 1941) was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s. She starred as Julie LaVerne in the original Broadway production of Hammerstein and Kern's musical Show Boat in 1927 as well as in the 1932 Broadway revival of the musical, and appeared in two film adaptations, a part-talkie made in 1929 (prologue only) and a full-sound version made in 1936, becoming firmly associated with the role. She suffered from bouts of alcoholism, and despite her notable success in the title role of another Hammerstein and Kern's Broadway musical, Sweet Adeline (1929), her stage career was relatively short. Helen Morgan died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 41. She was portrayed by Ann Blyth in the 1957 biopic The Helen Morgan Story.
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Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy (born October 25, 1941) is an Australian-born singer and actress. In the 1970s, she enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed fifteen singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Three of those fifteen songs reached #1, including her signature hit "I Am Woman."
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Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson ( 18 October 1859–4 January 1941) was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many thinkers that immediate experience and intuition are more significant than rationalism and science for understanding reality.
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Henri Lebesgue
Henri Léon Lebesgue (; June 28, 1875 – July 26, 1941) was a French mathematician most famous for his theory of integration, which was a generalization of the seventeenth century concept of integration—summing the area between an axis and the curve of a function defined for that axis. His theory was published originally in his dissertation Intégrale, longueur, aire ("Integral, length, area") at the University of Nancy during 1902.
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Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893– 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of the First World War as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite ("The Blue Max"). He was the last commander of Jagdgeschwader 1, the air squadron of Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron".
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Hideki Tojo
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Hitler
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Hjalmar Mäe
Hjalmar-Johannes Mäe (24 October 1901 in Tuhala, Harjumaa, Estonia, Russian Empire – 10 April 1978 in Graz, Austria) was an Estonian politician.
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Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh (, Chữ Nôm: 胡志明), born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc (19 May 1890 – 3 September 1969) was a Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1946–1955) and president (1945–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He formed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and led the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War until his death.
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Howard Florey
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Hugh Walpole
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (13 March 1884 – 1 June 1941) was an English novelist. A prolific writer, he published thirty-six novels, five volumes of short stories, two plays and three volumes of memoirs. His skill at scene-setting, his vivid plots, his high profile as a lecturer and his driving ambition brought him a large readership in the United Kingdom and North America. A best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s, his works have been neglected since his death.
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Iona Brown
Iona Brown OBE (born Elizabeth Iona Brown, 7 January 1941 - 5 June 2004) was a British violinist and conductor. Born in Salisbury, her parents Antony and Fiona were both musicians. In addition, her brother Timothy is principal horn player with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, her other brother Ian is a pianist, and her sister Sally plays viola with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
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Isaac Campbell Kidd
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J. Frank Wilson
J. Frank Wilson (December 11, 1941 – October 4, 1991) was an American singer, the lead vocalist of J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers.
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J. Stuart Blackton
James Stuart Blackton (January 5, 1875 – August 13, 1941), usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an Anglo-American film producer of the Silent Era, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation. He is considered the father of American animation.
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James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century. Joyce is best known for Ulysses (1922), a landmark novel which perfected his stream of conciousness technique and combined nearly every literary device available in a modern re-telling of The Odyssey. Other major works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939), and his complete oeuvre includes three books of poetry, a play, occasional journalism, and his published letters.
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James Stephenson
James Stephenson (14 April 1889 – 29 July 1941) was a British actor.
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Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (September 20, 1885July 10, 1941), best known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer.
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Jennifer Dunn
Jennifer Blackburn Dunn (July 29, 1941 – September 5, 2007) was a prominent Republican member of the United States House of Representatives 1993–2005, representing .
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Jerry Spinelli
Jerry Spinelli (born February 1, 1941) is an author of children's novels on adolescence and early adulthood. He is best known for the novels Maniac Magee and Wringer.
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Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (born October 8, 1941) is an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. is his eldest son. In an AP-AOL "Black Voices" poll in February 2006, Jackson was voted "the most important black leader" with 15% of the vote.
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Jessica Walter
Jessica Walter (born January 31, 1941) is an American actress, known for the film Play Misty for Me and for her role as Lucille Bluth on the sitcom Arrested Development. She recently had a starring role for the first half of season 1 of 90210. She currently does the voice for Mallory Archer in the FX animated series ''Archer.
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Jew
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Jim Trelease
Jim Trelease (born March 23, 1941), also known as James Joseph Trelease, is an educator and author who stresses reading aloud to children as a way to instill in them the love of literature.
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Jimmy Velvit
Jimmy Velvit is an American rock and roll singer, who began his career in the 1960s. His real name is James Mullins, originally from Coalgate, Oklahoma, later from Dallas, Texas. He is best known for recording a white rhythm and blues version, in 1961, of Robert & Johnny's 1958 hit "We Belong Together". Velvit's first release was "Sometimes At Night" on Cub Records (a division of M-G-M). He also recorded under the name 'James Bell', in 1968, when he charted "He Ain't Country", a Country & Western release, for Bell Records.
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Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941) is an American folk singer, songwriter and activist. Baez has a distinctive vocal style, with a strong vibrato. Her recordings include many topical songs and material dealing with social issues.
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Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999) was an American baseball player for the New York Yankees. He was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955. He was the middle of three brothers who each became major league center fielders, the others being Vince and Dom.
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Joe Flaherty
Joe Flaherty (born June 21, 1941) is an American-Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV, from 1976 to 1984, and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks. He is currently a judge on ''The Second City's Next Comedy Legend''.
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John Bennett Perry
John Bennett Perry (born January 4, 1941) is an American actor and former model. He is the father of actor Matthew Perry.
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John Curtin
John Joseph Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945), Australian politician and the 14th Prime Minister of Australia, led Australia when the Australian mainland came under direct military threat during the Japanese advance in World War II. He is widely regarded as one of the country's greatest Prime Ministers. General Douglas MacArthur said that Curtin was "one of the greatest of the wartime statesmen". His Prime Ministerial predecessor, Arthur Fadden of the Country Party wrote: "I do not care who knows it but in my opinion there was no greater figure in Australian public life in my lifetime than Curtin."
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John Lahr
John Lahr (born July 12, 1941) is an American theater critic, and the son of actor Bert Lahr. Since 1992, he has been the senior drama critic at The New Yorker magazine.
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John Lavery
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John Levene
John Levene (born 24 December 1941) is an English actor. His most famous role was that of Sergeant Benton of UNIT on the television series Doctor Who.
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Jon Lord
Jon Douglas Lord (born 9 June 1941) is an English composer, pianist, and Hammond organ player.
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Joseph Grew
Joseph Clark Grew (May 27, 1880 – May 25, 1965) was a United States diplomat and career foreign service officer. He was the chargé d'affaires at the U.S. embassy in Vienna when Austria-Hungary severed diplomatic relations with the United States on April 9, 1917. Later he was the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark 1920–1921 and U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland 1921–1924. In 1924, Grew became the Under Secretary of State and oversaw the establishment of the Foreign Service. Grew was the US Ambassador to Turkey 1927–1932 and the Ambassador to Japan beginning in 1932. He was the US Ambassador in Tokyo at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor and when the United States and Japan declared war on each other in December 1941. He was interned for a short time by the Japanese government but was released and returned to the United States on June 25, 1942.
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Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and head of state who served as the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. After the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Stalin rose to become the leader of the Soviet Union, which he ruled as a dictator.
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Josiah Stamp
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Karin Boye
(October 26, 1900 – April 24, 1941) was a Swedish poet and novelist.
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Karl Parts
Karl Parts VR I/1, VR II/2, VR II/3 (July 15, 1886 Palupera Commune, Estonia - September 1, 1941 Kirov, Soviet Union) was an Estonia military commander during the Estonian War of Independence.
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Kaspar Villiger
Kaspar Villiger (pronounced Caspar Veeleeger) (born 5 February 1941) is a Swiss businessman, politician and former member of the Swiss Federal Council (1989 – 2003). He currently heads Swiss bank UBS.
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Kay Adams (singer)
Kay Adams (born April 9, 1941) is an American country singer.
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Kenji Kimihara
is a former Japanese long-distance runner. He won the silver medal in the men's marathon at the 1968 Summer Olympics held in Mexico City, Mexico. Four years later he finished in fifth place in the same event. He won two gold medals in the marathon at the Asian Games in 1966 and 1970, and won the Boston Marathon in 1966.
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Kevin Keelan
Kevin Damien Keelan MBE (born 5 January 1941 in Calcutta) is a former professional football goalkeeper. He spent the majority of his career with Norwich City, though he also played for Stockport County, Wrexham, New England Tea Men and Tampa Bay Rowdies.
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Konrad Zuse
Konrad Zuse (pronounced ; 22 June 1910 Berlin – 18 December 1995 Hünfeld near Fulda) was a German engineer and computer pioneer.
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Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Kieślowski (; 27 June 1941 – 13 March 1996) was an influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.
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Kyu Sakamoto
was a Japanese singer and actor.
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Lee Myung Bak
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Lee Roy Jordan
Lee Roy Jordan (born April 27, 1941) is a retired American football linebacker. After attending the University of Alabama, playing under head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, he spent 14 years in the National Football League playing for the Dallas Cowboys between 1963–1976. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983.
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Lew Fields
Lew Fields (born 1 January 1867 - died 20 July 1941, Beverly Hills, California), born as Moses Schoenfeld, was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre manager and producer.
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Lo Hoi Pang
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Long John Baldry
John "Long John" William Baldry (12 January 1941 – 21 July 2005) was an English and Canadian blues singer and a voice actor. He sang with many British musicians, with Rod Stewart and Elton John appearing in bands led by Baldry in the 1960s. He enjoyed pop success in the UK where "Let the Heartaches Begin" reached No. 1 in 1967 and in Australia where his duet with Kathi McDonald "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" reached No. 2 in 1980. Baldry lived in Canada from the late 1970s until his death. There he continued to make records and do voiceover work. He was the voice of Dr. Robotnik in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
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Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig (June 19, 1903 – June 2, 1941) was an American baseball player in the 1920s and 1930s, chiefly remembered for his prowess as a hitter, his consecutive games-played record and its subsequent longevity, and the pathos of his farewell from baseball at age 36, when he was stricken with a fatal neurological disease. Popularly called "The Iron Horse" for his durability, Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams (23).
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Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis (; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish parents who had immigrated from Europe. He enrolled at Harvard Law School, graduating at the age of twenty with the highest grade average in the college’s history.
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Louis Chevrolet
Louis-Joseph Chevrolet (December 25, 1878 – June 6, 1941) was a Swiss-born American race car driver of French descent and co-founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company with William C. Durant. Chevrolet had differences with Durant in 1915 and sold his share of the company to him. The company was folded into Durant's General Motors.
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Louis J. Ignarro
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Lyle Berman
Lyle Arnold Berman (born August 6, 1941 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is a professional poker player and business executive.
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Mahmoud Darwish
Mahmoud Darwish () (13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who won numerous awards for his literary output and was regarded as the Palestinian national poet. In his work, Palestine became a metaphor for the loss of Eden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of dispossession and exile.
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Manolis Glezos
Manolis Glezos () is a Greek left wing politician and writer, worldwide known especially for his participation in the World War II resistance.
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Marina Tsvetaeva
Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (; –31 August 1941) was a Russian and Soviet poet and writer.
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Martha Argerich
Martha Argerich (born June 5, 1941) is an Argentine concert pianist. Her aversion to the press and publicity has resulted in her remaining out of the limelight for most of her career. Nevertheless she is widely recognized as one of the greatest modern-day pianists.
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Martha Stewart
Martha Helen Stewart (née Kostyra; born August 3, 1941) is an American business magnate, television host, author, and magazine publisher. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising. Stewart's syndicated talk show, Martha, is broadcast throughout the world, she has written numerous bestselling books, and she is the publisher of Martha Stewart Living magazine.
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Martine Beswick
Martine Beswick (born 26 September 1941) is a British actress and model, best known for her roles in two James Bond movies.
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Marv Albert
Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig; June 12, 1941) is an American television and radio sportscaster. Honored for his work as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he is commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball." From 1967–2004, he was also known as "the voice of the New York Knicks."
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Maulana Karenga
Maulana Karenga (born Ronald McKinley Everett on July 14, 1941, and also known as Ron Karenga and as M. Ron Karenga) is an African American author, political activist, and college professor best known as the creator of Kwanzaa. Karenga was active in the Black Power movement in the 1960s and 1970s and founded the black nationalist group Us Organization which remains active to this day promoting the philosophy of Kawaida. Kawaida is a philosophy based on social and cultural change.
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Maureen Reagan
Maureen Elizabeth Reagan (January 4, 1941–August 8, 2001) was the first-born daughter of former President Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman. Maureen's brother and the couple's only son, Michael Reagan, was born and adopted into the family in 1945. Maureen and Michael's sister Christine was the couple's last child. She was born prematurely and died the day after her birth in 1947.
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Mel Renfro
Melvin Lacy "Mel" Renfro (born December 30, 1941 in Houston, Texas) is a former American football defensive back in the National Football League who spent his entire fourteen-year career with the Dallas Cowboys.
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Mel Winkler
Mel Winkler is an American film and TV actor. Though he mostly takes on minor live-action roles, he is probably best known as the voice of the guardian mask Aku Aku in the Crash Bandicoot series, and Johnny Snowman in the TV series Oswald.
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Menzies Campbell
Sir Walter Menzies "Ming" Campbell CBE QC (born 22 May 1941) is a British politician, advocate, Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, and retired sprinter. He is Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Fife and was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2 March 2006 until 15 October 2007.
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Michael Apted
Michael David Apted, CMG (born 10 February 1941) is an English director, producer, writer and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his generation but is best known for his work on the Up! series of documentaries and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.
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Michael Stuart Brown
Michael Stuart Brown (born April 13, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American geneticist and Nobel Laureate. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Joseph L. Goldstein in 1985 for describing the regulation of cholesterol metabolism.
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Mike Love
Michael Edward "Mike" Love (born March 15, 1941) is an American singer/songwriter and musician with The Beach Boys. He formed the band along with his cousins Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, and their friend Al Jardine.
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Milan Kučan
Milan Kučan (14 January, 1941) is a Slovenian politician and statesman. He was the first President of Slovenia.
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Myron Scholes
Myron Samuel Scholes (born July 1, 1941) is a Canadian-born American financial economist who is best known as one of the authors of the Black–Scholes equation. In 1997 he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for a new method to determine the value of derivatives. The model provides the fundamental conceptual framework for valuing options, such as calls or puts, and is referred to as the Black-Scholes model, which has become the standard in financial markets globally. Trillions of dollars of options trades are executed each year using this model and derivations thereof. All binomial option models have evolved from this original concept.
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Naomi Uemura
was a Japanese adventurer. He was particularly well known for doing alone what had previously been achieved only with large teams. For example, he was the first person ever to reach the North Pole solo, the first ever to raft the Amazon solo, and the first ever to climb Mount McKinley solo.
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Neelie Kroes
Neelie Kroes (born July 19, 1941) is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). She was the European Commissioner for Competition (2004–2010) and is since 2010 European Commissioner for Digital Agenda.
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neutrality pact
http://wn.com/neutrality_pact -
Nick Nolte
Nicholas King Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor, film producer and former model.
http://wn.com/Nick_Nolte -
Nigel Dempster
Nigel Richard Patton Dempster (1 November 1941 in Calcutta, India — 12 July 2007 in Ham, Surrey) was a British journalist, author, broadcaster and diarist. Best known for his celebrity gossip columns in newspapers, his work appeared in the Daily Express and Daily Mail and also in Private Eye magazine. At his death, the editor of the Daily Mail Paul Dacre was reported as saying: "His scoops were the stuff of legend and his zest for life inexhaustible".
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Nona Gaprindashvili
Nona Gaprindashvili (; born 3 May 1941) is a Georgian chess player, the sixth women's world chess champion (1962–1978), and first female Grandmaster. Born in Zugdidi, Georgia (then part of the Soviet Union), she was the strongest female player of her generation.
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Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron (born May 19, 1941) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, author, and blogger.
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Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985), best known as Orson Welles, was an American filmmaker, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the twentieth century, especially for his significant and influential early work—despite his notoriously contentious relationship with Hollywood. His distinctive directorial style featured layered, nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting and chiaroscuro, unique camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes. Welles's long career in film is noted for his struggle for artistic control in the face of pressure from studios, which resulted in many of his films being severely edited and others left unreleased. He has thus been praised as a major creative force and as "the ultimate auteur."
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Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 December 10, 1967) was an American soul singer. Often called the "King of Soul", he is renowned for an ability to convey strong emotion through his voice. According to the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where he was inducted in 1989), Redding's name is "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm and blues into a form of funky, secular testifying." In addition, rock critic Jon Landau said in 1967, "Otis Redding is rock & roll". Redding died in a plane crash at the age of 26, one month before his biggest hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", was released.
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Paavo Lipponen
Paavo Tapio Lipponen () (born April 23, 1941) is a Finnish politician and former reporter. He was Prime Minister of Finland from 1995 to 2003, and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland from 1993 to 2005. He also served as Speaker of the Parliament of Finland 2003–2007.
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Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, (, ash-sha`b al-filasTīni) also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs (, al-filasTīnīyyūn; , al-`Arab al-filasTīnīyyūn), are an Arabic-speaking nation of Levantine people with family origins in Palestine. In the areas of Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, as of 2004, Arabs constitute 49% of all inhabitants, some of whom are internally displaced. The remainder, comprise what is known as the Palestinian diaspora, of whom more than half are stateless refugees, lacking citizenship in any country. Of the diaspora, about 1.9 million live in neighboring Jordan, one and a half million between Syria and Lebanon, a quarter million in Saudi Arabia, while Chile's half a million are the largest concentration outside the Arab world.
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Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka, OC (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian American singer, songwriter, and actor.
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Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter.
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Peder Oluf Pedersen
Peder Oluf Pedersen (19 June 1874 – 30 August 1941) was a Danish engineer and physicist. He is notable for his work on electrotechnology and his cooperation with Valdemar Poulsen on the developmental work on the telegraphone and the Poulsen Arc Transmitter.
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Peggy Shannon
Peggy Shannon (January 10, 1907 – May 11, 1941) was an American actress. She appeared on the stage and screen of the 1920s and 1930s.
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Pete Rose
Peter Edward Rose (born April 14, 1941) is a former Major League Baseball player and manager. Rose played from 1963 to 1986, and managed from 1984 to 1989.
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Peter Foxhall
Peter Christopher Foxhall (born 7 February 1941) is an Australian clergyman, evangelist and author, who was born in St Neots, Huntingdonshire (now in Cambridgeshire), England.
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Philippe Wynne
http://wn.com/Philippe_Wynne -
Pierre Laval
:Not to be confused with Pierre N. Leval.
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Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil KBE (born 21 January 1941), better known as Plácido Domingo, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range. In March 2008, he debuted in his 128th opera role, giving Domingo more roles than any other tenor. One of The Three Tenors, he has also taken on conducting opera and concert performances, as well as serving as the General Director of the Washington National Opera in Washington, D.C. and the Los Angeles Opera in California. His contracts in both Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. have been extended through the 2010–2011 season.
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Prajadhipok
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha Prajadhipok Phra Pok Klao Chao Yu Hua (), or Rama VII (8 November 1893 – 30 May 1941) was the seventh monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri. He was the last absolute monarch and the first constitutional monarch of the country. His reign was a turbulent time for Siam due to huge political and social changes during the Revolution of 1932. Also he was the only Siamese monarch to abdicate.
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Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (, robindronath ţhakur) (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), sobriquet Gurudev, was an Indian poet, novelist, musician, painter and playwright who reshaped Bengali literature and music. As author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, His poetry in translation was viewed as spiritual, and this together with his mesmerizing persona gave him a prophet-like aura in the west but his "elegant prose and magical poetry" still remains largely unknown outside the confines of Bengal.
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Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German Nazi official. He was SS-Obergruppenführer (General) and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office (including the SD, Gestapo and Kripo) and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy Reich-Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia. In August 1940, he was appointed and served as President of Interpol (the international law enforcement agency). Heydrich chaired the 1942 Wannsee Conference, which discussed plans for the deportation and extermination of all Jews in German-occupied territory. He was attacked by British-trained Czech agents on 27 May 1942 sent to assassinate him in Prague (see Operation Anthropoid). He died approximately one week later due to his injuries.
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Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (; born July 28, 1941) is an Italian conductor. In May 2008 he was appointed the 10th music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, effective with the 2010-11 season.
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Richard C. Hottelet
Richard C. Hottelet (born September 22, 1917) was a Brooklyn-born American broadcast journalist for the latter half of the twentieth century. He continues to write and lecture.
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Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941) is a British ethologist and evolutionary biologist. He is a fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.
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Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens (born January 21, 1941) is an American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense rhythmic guitar style (in open tuning), soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.
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Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens (born Ricardo Esteban Valenzuela Reyes; May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959) was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist.
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Robert Baden-Powell
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Robert Foxworth
Robert Heath Foxworth (born November 1, 1941) is an American film, stage and television actor.
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Robert Guéï
Robert Guéï (March 16, 1941 – September 19, 2002) was the military ruler of the Côte d'Ivoire from December 24, 1999 to October 26, 2000.
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Ron Bushy
Ron Bushy (born December 23, 1945) is the drummer of the rock band Iron Butterfly.
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Roy Blount, Jr.
Roy Alton Blount, Jr. (born October 4, 1941; ) is an American writer. Best known as a humorist, Blount is also a reporter, actor, and musician with the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock band composed entirely of writers. He is also president of the Authors Guild.
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Roy Harper
Roy Harper (born 12 June 1941) is an English rock / folk singer-songwriter / guitarist who has been a professional musician since the mid 1960s. Harper has described American blues musician Leadbelly and folk singer Woody Guthrie as his biggest musical influences when he was growing up. As a musician, Harper is known for his distinctive fingerstyle playing and lengthy, complex compositions. He has released a large catalogue of albums as an artist, most of which are available on his own record label Science Friction.
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Rudolf Hess
:''Not to be confused with Rudolf Höss, commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp
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Rudolf Hilferding
Rudolf Hilferding (10 August 1877, probably in the house of Malzgasse 9/10, Leopoldstadt, Vienna February 11, 1941, Paris) was an Austrian-born Marxist economist, leading socialist theorist, politician and chief theoretician for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic, almost universally recognized as the SPD's foremost theoretician of his century, and physician.
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Ruth Stonehouse
Ruth Stonehouse (September 28, 1892 – May 12, 1941) was an actress and film director during the silent film era.
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Sally Kirkland
Sally Kirkland (born October 31, 1941) is an American film and television actress.
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Scott Glenn
Scott Glenn (born January 26, 1941) is an American actor. His roles have included Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy (1980), astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff (1983), Commander Bart Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October (1990), and Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
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Sergei Dovlatov
Sergei Donatovich Dovlatov (Mechik) (; 3 September 1941, Ufa, USSR – 24 August 1990, New York, USA) was a Russian journalist and writer.
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Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz, among others.
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Shirley Stelfox
Shirley Stelfox (born 11 April 1941) is an English actress, who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She is best known as Edna Birch in British Soap Opera Emmerdale.
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Sigmar Polke
Sigmar Polke (13 February 1941 – 10 June 2010) was a German painter and photographer.
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Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević (sometimes transliterated as Miloshevich; ; Serbian Cyrillic: Слободан Милошевић; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. He also led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990. In the midst of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, Milošević was charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), but the trial ended after Milošević died in his cell.
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South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 km². Depending on measurement, it is the largest or second largest body of water after the five oceans.
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Spalding Gray
Spalding Rockwell Gray (June 5, 1941 – ca. January 10, 2004) was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist, and monologuist. He was primarily known for his "trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania." Gray achieved celebrity for writing and acting in the play Swimming to Cambodia, adapted into a film in 1987.
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Stacy Keach
Walter Stacy Keach, Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He is most famous for his dramatic roles; however, he has done narration work in educational programming on PBS and the Discovery Channel, as well as some comedy (particularly his role in the short-lived FOX sitcom Titus as Ken, the hard-drinking, chain-smoking, womanizing father of comedian Christopher Titus) and musical roles. He is well known for his distinctive voice.
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Stephen J. Cannell
Stephen Joseph Cannell (; February 5, 1941 – September 30, 2010) was an American television producer, writer, novelist and occasional actor, and the founder of Stephen J. Cannell Productions.
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Sushilkumar Shinde
Sushilkumar Shinde () (born September 4, 1941, Solapur, Maharashtra) is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He is currently the Cabinet Minister for Power in the Manmohan Singh government.
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Tadao Ando
is a Japanese architect whose approach to architecture was once categorized as critical regionalism. Ando has led a storied life, working as a truck driver and boxer prior to settling on the profession of architecture, despite never having taken formal training in the field.
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Takeo Yoshikawa
(March 7, 1914-February 20, 1993) was a Japanese spy in Hawaii before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
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Terttu Savola
http://wn.com/Terttu_Savola -
Theo Berger
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Theodor W. Hänsch
Theodor Wolfgang Hänsch (b. 30 October 1941 in Heidelberg, Germany) is a German physicist. He received one fourth of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for "contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique", sharing the prize with John L. Hall and Roy J. Glauber.
http://wn.com/Theodor_W_Hänsch -
Théoneste Bagosora
Colonel Théoneste Bagosora (born August 16, 1941) is a former Rwandan military officer. He is chiefly known for his role in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
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Tim Hardin
Timothy James "Tim" Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980) was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Robert Plant, and "Reason to Believe", covered by many, including Rod Stewart, as well as his own recording career.
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Tim McCarver
James Timothy "Tim" McCarver (born October 16, 1941) is an American former Major League Baseball catcher, and a current sportscaster for Fox Sports.
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Tineke Lagerberg
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Tommy Vance
Tommy Vance (born Richard Anthony Crispian Francis Prew Hope-Weston, 11 July 1940 – 6 March 2005) was a British pop radio broadcaster, born in Eynsham, Oxfordshire. He was one of the few music broadcasters in the United Kingdom to champion hard rock and heavy metal in the early 1980s, providing the only national radio forum for both bands and fans. The Friday Rock Show that he hosted gave new bands airtime for their music and fans an opportunity to hear it. His radio show was a factor in the rise of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. He used a personal tag-line of "TV on the radio".
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Tony Ray-Jones
Tony Ray-Jones (June 7, 1941 in Wells, Somerset – March 13, 1972 in London) was an English photographer.
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Vaclav Klaus
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Valentine O'Hara
'''Valentine James O'Hara''' (8 February 1875 – 8 October 1941) was a noted Irish author and authority on Russia and the Baltic States in the 1920s.
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Valeri Zolotukhin
Valeri Sergeevich Zolotukhin (, b. June 21, 1941, Altai Krai, USSR) is a Soviet/Russian theatrical and cinema actor, People's Artist of Russia.
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Van Dyke Parks
Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American composer, arranger, producer, musician, singer, author and actor. He has worked with performers including Grace Kelly, Delaney Bramlett, The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Loudon Wainwright III, Silverchair, Ry Cooder, Joanna Newsom, Inara George and Ringo Starr.
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Victor Hasselblad
Victor Hasselblad (born March 8, 1906, Gothenburg Sweden – August 5, 1978) was a Swedish inventor and photographer, known for inventing the Hasselblad 6x6 cm medium format camera.
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Victor Schertzinger
Victor L. Schertzinger (April 8, 1888 - October 26, 1941) was an American composer, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His films include Paramount on Parade (co-director, 1930), Something to Sing About (1937) with James Cagney, and the first two "Road" pictures Road to Singapore (1940) and Road to Zanzibar (1941). His two best-known songs are "I Remember You" and "Tangerine", both with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and both featured in Schertzinger's final film ''The Fleet's In'' (1942).
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Vikki Carr
Vikki Carr (born Florencia Bisenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona, July 19, 1941, El Paso, Texas) is an American singer from Mexican origins, who has performed in a variety of music genres, including jazz, pop and country, but has enjoyed her greatest success singing in Spanish. Carr is a blond and blue-eyed white Hispanic.
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Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.
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Volga German
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Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov ( – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician and diplomat, a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium (Politburo) of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev. He was a major perpetrator of the Great Terror and the principal Soviet signatory of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 (also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) as well as post-war negotiations, and a signatory of the Politburo resolution authorizing the Katyn wood massacre. He remained unapologetic and had few regrets of the actions of the Party under Stalin, a view that remained until his death. The Molotov cocktail was derisively named after him by the Finnish military during the Winter War.
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Walter Ruttmann
Walter Ruttmann (28 December 1887 – 15 July 1941) was a German film director and along with Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling was an early German practitioner of experimental film.
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Walther Nernst
Walther Hermann Nernst (25 June 1864 – 18 November 1941) was a German physical chemist and physicist who is known for his theories behind the calculation of chemical affinity as embodied in the third law of thermodynamics, for which he won the 1920 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Nernst helped establish the modern field of physical chemistry and contributed to electrochemistry, thermodynamics, solid state chemistry and photochemistry. He is also known for developing the Nernst equation.
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Wasim Sajjad
Wasim Sajjad (born 30 March 1941) was interim President of Pakistan on two occasions, serving as interim President prior to elections. Currently, being a member of PML-Q, he is the Leader of the Opposition in Senate of Pakistan.
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William D. Byron
William Devereux Byron, II (May 15, 1895 – February 27, 1941), a Democrat, was a U.S. Congressman who represented the 6th congressional district of Maryland from January 3, 1939 to February 27, 1941. After his death in an airplane crash in Georgia on February 27, 1941, his widow, Katharine Byron, a granddaughter of U.S. Senator Louis E. McComas, was elected in a special election to complete his term of office.
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Willie Stargell
Wilver Dornell "Willie" Stargell (March 6, 1940 – April 9, 2001), nicknamed "Pops" in the later years of his career, was a professional baseball player who played his entire Major League career (1962-1982) with the Pittsburgh Pirates as an outfielder and first baseman. Over his 21-year career with the Pirates, he batted .282, with 2,232 hits, 423 doubles, 475 home runs and 1540 runs batted in, helping his team capture six National League East division titles, two National League pennants and two World Series (1971, 1979).
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Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War (WWII). He is widely regarded as one of the great wartime leaders. He served as prime minister twice (1940–1945 and 1951–1955). A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, writer, and an artist. To date, he is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the first person to be recognised as an honorary citizen of the United States.
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Wolfgang Petersen
Wolfgang Petersen (born 14 March 1941) is a German film director. his films include The NeverEnding Story, Enemy Mine, Outbreak, In the Line of Fire, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy, and Poseidon. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for the 1981 World War II submarine warfare film Das Boot.
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Zareh Baronian
Archimandrite Zareh Baronian (born October 2, 1941, in Bucharest, Romania) is an Armenian theologian and abbot.
http://wn.com/Zareh_Baronian
- Addis Ababa
- Albania
- Albay
- Auckland
- Babi Yar massacre
- Baltic States
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Belgrade
- Benghazi
- Bouvet Island
- Brooklyn
- Bulgaria
- California
- Canada
- Crete
- Crimean
- Croatia
- Darnah, Libya
- Des Moines, Iowa
- Ecuador
- Edwin Stanton Porter
- Eritrea
- Ethiopia
- Florida
- Gestapo
- Greenland
- HMAS Sydney (1934)
- HMS Ark Royal (91)
- HMS Hood (51)
- HMS Repulse (1916)
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Iceland
- Iran
- John Kaufman
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Legaspi City
- Lithuania
- Lublin
- Lvov
- Mariupol
- Montenegro
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Nazi Germany
- Nobel Peace Prize
- Oxford
- Peloponnesus
- Philippines
- Puerto Rico
- Radcliffe Infirmary
- Reshetylivka
- Romania
- Saint Petersburg
- Samara, Russia
- Schutzstaffel
- Serbia
- Singapore
- Sisak
- Slovakia
- Smederevo
- South China Sea
- Soviet Union
- Soviets
- Straits Settlements
- Swansea
- Syria
- Thailand
- Tobruk
- Tripoli
- Ukraine
- Valley of Geysers
- Versailles
- Vienna
- Washington, D.C.
- Yreka, California
- Yugoslavia
- 1854
- 1856
- 1857
- 1859
- 1860
- 1861
- 1863
- 1864
- 1866
- 1867
- 1869
- 1870
- 1871
- 1873
- 1874
- 1875
- 1876
- 1877
- 1878
- 1879
- 1880
- 1881
- 1882
- 1884
- 1885
- 1886
- 1887
- 1888
- 1889
- 1890
- 1891
- 1892
- 1893
- 1895
- 1897
- 1900
- 1903
- 1904
- 1910
- 1915
- 1918
- 1959
- 1966
- 1967
- 1972
- 1974
- 1978
- 1980
- 1981
- 1984
- 1985
- 1989
- 1990
- 1991
- 1993
- 1994
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- 1999
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2004
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
- 2008
- 2009
- 2010
- Aaron Neville
- Aaron S. Watkins
- Acropolis
- Addis Ababa
- Adolf Hitler
- Adrian Lyne
- aerial torpedo
- Afrika Korps
- Ahmet Necdet Sezer
- Air Training Corps
- aircraft carrier
- airstrike
- Albania
- Albay
- Albert Alexander
- Alberto Naranjo
- Alex Ferguson
- Alexander Ragulin
- Alexandros Koryzis
- Alexej von Jawlensky
- Alfred G. Gilman
- Allan Forrest
- Allan Young
- Amarsinh Chaudhary
- Amy Johnson
- Andreas Khol
- animated film
- Ann-Margret
- Anne Rice
- Anne Tyler
- Anneke Wills
- Annie Jump Cannon
- Antoni Łomnicki
- Apostolos Santas
- April 1
- April 10
- April 11
- April 12
- April 13
- April 14
- April 15
- April 16
- April 17
- April 18
- April 19
- April 2
- April 20
- April 21
- April 23
- April 24
- April 25
- April 27
- April 28
- April 3
- April 30
- April 4
- April 5
- April 6
- April 8
- April 9
- Arkady Gaidar
- Army Air Forces
- Art Garfunkel
- Arthur Evans
- Arthur L. Bristol
- Athens
- Atlantic Charter
- Auckland
- August 1
- August 12
- August 13
- August 14
- August 16
- August 17
- August 18
- August 2
- August 20
- August 22
- August 24
- August 25
- August 27
- August 28
- August 3
- August 30
- August 31
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1941 theatrical teaser
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:39
- Published: 12 Jul 2006
- Uploaded: 30 Dec 2011
- Author: reichmarshall
Spielberg's fourth film, labeled a flop only because it wasn't as successful as Jaws or Close Encounters. It's still pretty good (way better than AI). It chronicles the paranoia and blind patriotism that gripped the west coast after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and seems oddly familiar in today's political climate. John Belushi plays Wild Wayne Kelso (changed to Wild Bill by the time principle filming began). Dan Aykroyd provides the narration.
http://wn.com/1941_theatrical_teaser
Slim Pickens Submarine Scene - "1941"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:44
- Published: 14 Jun 2008
- Uploaded: 02 Jan 2012
- Author: californiamagician
The scene in which late actor Slim Picken's appears in the movie 1941, in the japanese submarine. I included how he was captured cutting down Christmas Trees, and most of Slim's most memorable scenes from the movie.
http://wn.com/Slim_Pickens_Submarine_Scene__1941
1941 Music Video (John Williams)
'1941' is a comedy directed by Steven Spielberg in 1979. It's commonly regarded as one of his worst films. However has earned a kind of cult status after running on TV in an extended cut. The film was written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale with some help from John Milius. The film is about the panic that gripped Los Angeles after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It's a very anarchic and quite a messy film. There are a great many characters in this film, most of which I tried to fit into the video. But the most attention grabbing is John Belushi's lunatic pilot Wild Bill Kelso. One of the best things about the film is its music. Composed by John Williams, it features one of the best marches in his career. '1941' and its music belong to Columbia Pictures.
http://wn.com/1941_Music_Video_John_Williams
1941 - The Arcade Game
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:48
- Published: 06 May 2009
- Uploaded: 13 Oct 2011
- Author: classicgamevideos
1941 - Counter Attack © 1990 Capcom A vertically scrolling shoot'em up. Player-1 uses a P-38 Lightning and Player-2 uses a Mosquito Mk IV. Capcom Play System (CPS) hardware Game ID : CP-S No. 07 Main CPU : 68000 (@ 10 Mhz) Sound CPU : Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz) Sound Chips : YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.576 Khz) Screen orientation : Vertical Video resolution : 224 x 384 pixels Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz Palette colors : 4096 Players : 2 Control : 8-way joystick Buttons : 2
http://wn.com/1941__The_Arcade_Game
Tea Making Tips (1941)
Welcome to the world of a national obsession and a place where people say 'orf' instead of 'off'. Tea connoisseurs will benefit from the six golden tips for making the perfect cuppa, as well as countless other handy hints (never store your tea next to cheese, for example). There's an assessment of the pros and cons of various teapots and words of wisdom about the tea bush itself. Slightly grotesque methods for producing tea en masse are demonstrated - it was wartime, after all - and tea had to be produced by the oceanful. As such, there are some top tips for cleaning that hard-to-reach tap in your tea urn. Remember: "a dirty tap means dirty tea". (Robin Baker) You can watch over 1000 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge in the Mediatheque at BFI Southbank, London and from October 2008 at the new QUAD centre for art and film in Derby -- www.bfi.org.uk www.derbyquad.co.uk
http://wn.com/Tea_Making_Tips_1941
German U-boat in action 1941
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:29
- Published: 28 Mar 2007
- Uploaded: 28 Dec 2011
- Author: ww2footage
German U-boat in action ,full 30min.video(112Mb) here: hotfile.com footage from 10/17/1941 ,12 Hours of Rare WW2 Combat Footage .
http://wn.com/German_U-boat_in_action_1941
1941 (Steven Spielberg) Movie Scenes
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:03
- Published: 19 Feb 2007
- Uploaded: 27 Dec 2011
- Author: californiamagician
I met John Belushi, Dan Akroid, John Candy, Frank Mcrae, and plenty of other celebritys on the set of the Movie "1941" when I was 17 years old. I have isolated these scenes for myself and to share with friends and family. I met steven spielberg after I twisted my ankle on the set and he had to yell cut and send me to first aid. See my other video here on Youtube: "Meeting John Belushi" www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/1941_Steven_Spielberg_Movie_Scenes
Wild Bill and his P40
Captain Wild Bill Kelso's P40 from the movie 1941
http://wn.com/Wild_Bill_and_his_P40
New Orleans Mardi Gras 1941 in color
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:37
- Published: 12 Jan 2008
- Uploaded: 21 Dec 2011
- Author: MindsiMedia
It is almost Mardi Gras time again in New Orleans & elsewhere.This film takes us back to Mardi Gras 1941 and is in living color. This was the first year a female krewe paraded (Venus) and was the last celebration until after the war. The hot Dixie jazz is provided by George Lewis & Johnny Dodds. So Bon Temps Roule! We have some other Mardi Gras videos for you to enjoy; www.youtube.com www.youtube.com www.youtube.com We have now added a second clip of vintage Mardi Gras celebration: Early 1950's New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade & Crowd Here are some links for those who would like to explore more Mardi Gras history; www.mardigrasunmasked.com www.mardigrasdigest.com This site has a great timeline. www.mardigrasneworleans.com
http://wn.com/New_Orleans_Mardi_Gras_1941_in_color
The Wolfman (1941)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 70:21
- Published: 04 Oct 2011
- Uploaded: 25 Oct 2011
- Author: universalmoviesuk
After teasing his friends for believing in werewolves, Larry (Lon Chaney Jr.) is promptly bitten by a rabid wolf and faints. Horror superstars share the screen when Larry wakes to find a gypsy (Bela Lugosi) who moonlights as a werewolf. Cursed by the werewolf's bite, Larry suffers torturous full-moon transformations and tries to escape the townsfolk who hunt him. Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers and Ralph Bellamy also grace this classic B movie.
http://wn.com/The_Wolfman_1941
Hired! (1941) Chevrolet Car Sales Training and Motivation Film
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 18:33
- Published: 29 Sep 2009
- Uploaded: 27 Dec 2011
- Author: USAutoIndustry
Hired! 1940 Chevrolet Sales Film
http://wn.com/Hired!_1941_Chevrolet_Car_Sales_Training_and_Motivation_Film
Swing Dancing from the Movie Hellzapoppin' (1941)
Swing Dancing from the Movie Hellzapoppin' (1941). Slim Galliard and members performing the Hellzapoppin' Jam. Classic dance sequence of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers Dancers (in order of appearance) William Downes and Micky Jones, Billy Ricker and Norma Miller, Al Minns and Willa Mae Ricker, Frankie Manning and Ann Johnson. Brought to you by the San Francisco Jitterbugs, www.jitterbugs.info
http://wn.com/Swing_Dancing_from_the_Movie_Hellzapoppin'_1941
The Bee Gees- 'New York Mining Disaster 1941'
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:09
- Published: 06 Sep 2007
- Uploaded: 03 Jan 2012
- Author: Graffitist
The Bee Gees- The Best of The Bee Gees- 'New York Mining Disaster 1941'
http://wn.com/The_Bee_Gees_'New_York_Mining_Disaster_1941'
Winston Churchill's 1941 Great Declaration
Churchill's 1941 Speech to the 'coalition'
http://wn.com/Winston_Churchill's_1941_Great_Declaration
Fascinating Yosemite 1941
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 12:46
- Published: 18 May 2008
- Uploaded: 20 Sep 2011
- Author: travelfilmarchive
A tour of Yosemite National Park in California in the early 1940's. Footage from this film is available for licensing from www.globalimageworks.com
http://wn.com/Fascinating_Yosemite_1941
Harry Nilsson - 1941 (Album Version)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:45
- Published: 03 Dec 2010
- Uploaded: 21 Dec 2011
- Author: TheKafkaLover
The album version of this great song.
http://wn.com/Harry_Nilsson__1941_Album_Version
SWING TO BOP (1941) by Charlie Christian
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:35
- Published: 04 Nov 2009
- Uploaded: 02 Jan 2012
- Author: wilsonmcphert
Charlie Christian is generally recognised as the person who popularised the electric guitar (although not the first) and who changed everyones thinking about how jazz could be played on it. As well as playing guitar for Benny Goodman, Charlie participated in after hours jam sessions with other musicians in places such as Mintons and Monroes in New York City. On 12 May 1941 Charlie played Swing to Bop at Mintons, with Joe Guy on trumpet, Kenny Kersey on piano, Nick Fenton on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. This live track excerpt is characterised by longer solos than Charlie would typically play with Goodman, and is a good indication of his incredible improvisational abilities. His influence on guitarists then and since has been massive. Famed jazz guitarist Barney Kessel spent three days with Charlie watching him play. "He played probably 95% downstrokes and held a very stiff big triangular pick very tightly between his thumb and first finger. He rested his second, third and fourth fingers very firmly on the pickguard...". Source: Guitar Player March 1982. For heaps of info on Charlie, see the site Solo Flight, which includes numerous transcriptions, including this one. home.roadrunner.com Sadly, there is no film available of Charlie Christian playing live, so I have included a slide show for this track. Comments welcome.
http://wn.com/SWING_TO_BOP_1941_by_Charlie_Christian
The Bee Gees - New York Mining Disaster 1941 (1975)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:28
- Published: 23 Jul 2008
- Uploaded: 26 Dec 2011
- Author: nyrainbow2
The Bee Gees - New York Mining Disaster 1941 (1975)
http://wn.com/The_Bee_Gees__New_York_Mining_Disaster_1941_1975
![Stalin speech - November 7, 1941[English subtitles]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120130204046im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8IGbjPqFFvA/0.jpg "Stalin speech - November 7, 1941[English subtitles]")
Stalin speech - November 7, 1941[English subtitles]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:48
- Published: 08 Jun 2008
- Uploaded: 03 Jan 2012
- Author: lazarodesouzagomes
Comrade Stalin show your bravery and call the Soviet people for the fight in Second World War! His famous speech, in 1941, when the German Army was only a dozen of kilometers near of Moscow! PLEASE SEE ALSO!!! In the same Day, the Soviet Military Parade: www.youtube.com Soviet Victory Parade of 1945 [Part I] www.youtube.com Soviet Victory Parade of 1945 [Part II] - Final www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/Stalin_speech__November_7,_1941 English_subtitles
John Belushi in 1941
John Belushi as Capt. Wild Bill Kelso in Steven Spielberg film.
http://wn.com/John_Belushi_in_1941
COUNT BASIE Swingin' the Blues, 1941 HOT big band swing jazz
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:29
- Published: 15 Oct 2008
- Uploaded: 02 Jan 2012
- Author: that1940sguy
COUNT BASIE Excerpts from the oddly titled "Dance of the Gremlins" (thanks to mfb25890 & mbdavis10025 for the song ID), and "Swingin' the Blues", c. 1941. This is some of the HOTTEST big band swing of the 40s! Don Byas on tenor, Harry "Sweets" Edison & then later Buck Clayton, trumpet, Jo Jones drums... ================================== ==================================
http://wn.com/COUNT_BASIE_Swingin'_the_Blues,_1941_HOT_big_band_swing_jazz
STOMPIN' AT THE SAVOY (1941) - Charlie Christian live in small club
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:39
- Published: 05 Nov 2009
- Uploaded: 02 Jan 2012
- Author: wilsonmcphert
Here is another Charlie Christian track playing live at Mintons in New York City (the other I have uploaded is Swing to Bop from the same session). These are my two favourite CC tracks. However I also love his Goodman stuff, both studio and radio broadcasts as well (see my video of Rose Room). Charlie not only popularised the electric guitar, but also influenced just about everyone who came after with his horn like solos and sense of swing. As well as playing guitar for Benny Goodman, Charlie did some moonlighting in after hours jam sessions with other musicians in places such as Mintons and Monroes in New York City. On 12 May 1941 Charlie Christian jammed on 'Stompin' at the Savoy' at Mintons, with Joe Guy on trumpet, Nick Fenton on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. Despite the original acetates indicating Thelonious Monk played piano, some consider it was Kenny Kersey based, at least in part, on analysis of playing style. This live track excerpt is characterised by longer solos than Charlie would typically play with Goodman, and is a good indication of his incredible improvisational abilities. Famed jazz guitarist Barney Kessel spent three days with Charlie watching him play. "He played probably 95% downstrokes and held a very stiff big triangular pick very tightly between his thumb and first finger. He rested his second, third and fourth fingers very firmly on the pickguard...". Source: Guitar Player March 1982. As there is no film available of Charlie Christian playing <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/STOMPIN'_AT_THE_SAVOY_1941__Charlie_Christian_live_in_small_club
![HMS Barcross (1943), later renamed SAS Somerset. The SAS[3] Somerset was a Bar-class Boom Defence Vessel of the South African Navy, originally built by Blythe Shipyard[4] and commissioned as HMS Barcross in 1941.[5].](http://web.archive.org./web/20120130204046im_/http://cdn7.wn.com/pd/c0/28/5d02aec1b811c47d1573fddf2629_small.jpg "HMS Barcross (1943), later renamed SAS Somerset. The SAS[3] Somerset was a Bar-class Boom Defence Vessel of the South African Navy, originally built by Blythe Shipyard[4] and commissioned as HMS Barcross in 1941.[5].")
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US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Lawrence Davis
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US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John P. Curtis
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![HMS Barcross (1943), later renamed SAS Somerset. The SAS[3] Somerset was a Bar-class Boom Defence Vessel of the South African Navy, originally built by Blythe Shipyard[4] and commissioned as HMS Barcross in 1941.[5].](http://web.archive.org./web/20120130204046/http://cdn1.wn.com/pd/c0/28/5d02aec1b811c47d1573fddf2629_medium.jpg "HMS Barcross (1943), later renamed SAS Somerset. The SAS[3] Somerset was a Bar-class Boom Defence Vessel of the South African Navy, originally built by Blythe Shipyard[4] and commissioned as HMS Barcross in 1941.[5].")
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Kansas City Star
LOS ANGELES - When the film "Citizen Kane" came out in 1941, William Randolph Hearst gave it an unequivocal two thumbs down. The press lord kept ads for the film out of his many newspapers. Just before its release, one of his allies in Hollywood tried to buy the footage in order to burn it. Another...
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The Independent
Kovály found a gentle intellectual she had befriended dead on a filthy mattress, lice crawling over him, surrounded by his books and the Botticelli Venus painting he cradled. The juxtaposition of innocence and beauty with the death of a decent man is shockingly...
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Levante reach first cup quarters since 1941
12 Jan 2012
FourFourTwo
Levante reach first cup quarters since 1941Spain 2 hours agoLamela double fires Roma past FiorentinaItaly 2 hours agoLisandro fires Lyon into League Cup semisRest of Europe 3 hours agoMaxwell in France to finalise PSG moveSpain 5 hours agoLawyer: Disgraced Doni a 'destroyed man'Italy 5 hours...
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Levante reach first Cup quarter-final since 1941
11 Jan 2012
The Guardian
MADRID, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Levante's extraordinary season continued when they thrashed second-division Alcorcon 4-0 on Wednesday to secure a 5-2 aggregate victory and advance to the King's Cup quarter-finals for the first time in more than 70 years. One of the poorest teams in the Spanish top...
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The New York Times
Andrew Edlin Gallery ArtsBeat Breaking news about the arts, coverage of live events, critical reviews, multimedia and more. Go to Arts Beat » A sortable calendar of noteworthy cultural events in the New York region, selected by Times critics. Go to Event Listings » 134 10th Avenue, near 18th Street,...
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Year 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Events
Below, events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
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February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Date unknown
Births
January
February
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September
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This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| birth name | Louis Burton (Bert) Lindley, Jr. |
|---|---|
| birth date | June 29, 1919 |
| birth place | Kingsburg, California, U.S. |
| death date | December 08, 1983 |
| death place | Modesto, California, U.S. |
| spouse | Margaret (Maggie) Pickens }} |
Early life
Pickens was born Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. in Kingsburg, California, the son of Sally Mosher (née Turk) and Louis Bert Lindley, Sr. He was an excellent rider from age 4 and quit school to join the rodeo at 12. He was told that working in the rodeo would be "slim pickings" (very little money), giving him his name, but he did well and eventually became a well-known rodeo clown — one of the most dangerous jobs in live entertainment.After 20 years on the rodeo circuit, his distinctive Oklahoma-Texas drawl (even though he was a lifelong Californian), his wide eyes and moon face and strong physical presence gained him a role in the western ''Rocky Mountain'' (1950) starring Errol Flynn. He appeared in many more westerns, playing both villains and comic sidekicks to the likes of Rex Allen.
Film career
Pickens appeared in dozens of films, including ''Old Oklahoma Plains'' (1952), ''Down Laredo Way'' (1953), ''One-Eyed Jacks'' (1961) with Marlon Brando, ''Dr. Strangelove'' (1964), ''Major Dundee'' (1965) with Charlton Heston, the remake of ''Stagecoach'' (1966; Pickens played the driver, portrayed in the 1939 film by Andy Devine), ''Never a Dull Moment'' (1968), ''The Cowboys'' (1972) with John Wayne, ''Ginger in the Morning'' (1974) with Fred Ward, ''Blazing Saddles'' (1974), ''Poor Pretty Eddy'' (1975), ''Rancho Deluxe'' (1975), ''The Getaway'' with Steve McQueen, ''Tom Horn'' (1980), also with McQueen, ''An Eye for an Eye'' (1966) and ''Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid'' (1973) in a small but memorable role. He also had a small role in Steven Spielberg's ''1941'' (1979) in scenes with Toshirō Mifune and Christopher Lee; during one scene, he names the objects that he has with himself, and sounds like he does in ''Dr. Strangelove'' when identifying his possessions. In 1978, Pickens lent his voice to theme park Silver Dollar City as a character named Rube Dugan, for a ride called "Rube Dugan's Diving Bell", The diving bell was a simulation ride that took passengers on a journey to the bottom of Lake Silver and back. The ride was in operation from 1978 to 1984. He also played werewolf sheriff Sam Newfield in ''The Howling'' (1981).In 1960 he appeared in NBC's ''Overland Trail'' in the episode "Sour Annie" with fellow guest stars Mercedes McCambridge and Andrew Prine. Pickens appeared five times on NBC's ''Outlaws'' (1960–1962) western series as the character "Slim." The program, starring Barton MacLane, was the story of a U.S. marshal in Oklahoma Territory -- deputies played by Don Collier, Jock Gaynor and Bruce Yarnell -- and the outlaws that they pursued. In 1967 Pickens had a recurring role as the scout California Joe Milner on the ABC military western ''Custer,'' starring Wayne Maunder in the title role.
Pickens was offered the part of Dick Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's ''The Shining''. He refused, saying that filming with Kubrick on ''Dr. Strangelove'' was too strenuous. He later relented, saying that he would appear in the film as long as Kubrick was contractually required to shoot Pickens' scenes in fewer than 100 takes a shot. However, the role went to Scatman Crothers.
The next year Pickens was in another western, playing the evil, limping bank robber in Walt Disney's ''The Apple Dumpling Gang''. He provided the voice of B.O.B. in the 1979 Disney sci-fi thriller ''The Black Hole''.
Dr. Strangelove
Pickens' role in ''Dr. Strangelove'' was B-52 pilot Major T.J. "King" Kong.. Stanley Kubrick cast Pickens after Peter Sellers, who played three other roles in the film, sprained his ankle and was unable to perform in the role. Pickens was chosen because his accent and comic sense were perfect for the role of Kong, a cartoonishly patriotic and gung-ho B-52 commander. Pickens was not told the movie was a black comedy and he was instructed to play the role straight. He was also not given the script to the entire film, but only those portions in which he played a part. Three memorable scenes featuring Pickens' were:# A monologue meant to steel the crew for their duty after he receives the definitive inflight order to bomb a strategic target in the USSR. # Reading aloud to his crew the contents of their survival kits (possibly the first mention of condoms in a Hollywood film). After listing the contents usable for barter with Russian women (prophylactics, nylons, lipstick, etc.), Major Kong said, "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good time in Dallas with all this stuff." This line had to be looped ("time in Dallas" changed to "weekend in Vegas") after the November 22, 1963 screening for critics was canceled due to JFK's assassination. # Best known of all, Pickens riding a dropped H-bomb to a certain death, whooping and waving his cowboy hat (in the manner of a rodeo performer bronc riding or bull riding), not knowing its detonation will trigger a Russian doomsday device.
Pickens credited ''Dr. Strangelove'' as a turning point in his career. Previously he was "Hey you" on sets and afterward he was addressed as "Mr. Pickens." He has been quoted as commenting, "After ''Dr. Strangelove'' the roles, the dressing rooms, and the checks all started gettin' bigger." Pickens said he was amazed at the difference a single movie could make.
Voice work
Pickens lent his voice to the 1975 studio recording of Bobby Bridger's collection of Western ballads ''A Ballad of the West'', in which he narrated part 1, "Seekers of the Fleece", the story of Jim Bridger and the mountain man fur trade era. Slim’s interest in this project blossomed in 1970 when his daughter, Daryle Ann, was cast in Max Evans' independent film ''The Wheel''. Evans had also hired Jim Bridger’s great-grandnephew, Bobby Bridger, to sing the film's theme song. Aware of her father’s interest in mountain men, Daryle Ann set up a meeting for Evans and Pickens, and Pickens immediately volunteered to narrate the heroic couplets. In July, Bobby, Slim and the Lost Gonzo Band recorded Seekers of the Fleece outside Denver in a tipi studio, where Slim's old mountain-man pal Timberjack Joe had decorated with grizzly bear robes and beaver pelts to set the mood.
Television
Pickens appeared in numerous television guest shots, including three episodes of NBC's ''The Wide Country'' (1962) with Earl Holliman and Andrew Prine and one appearance on ABC's ''The Legend of Jesse James'', ''The Fugitive'' and a first-season episode of ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.''. He was a credited semi-regular in the second season of the show ''Outlaws'' as "Slim". He appeared in a few episodes of ''Alias Smith and Jones'', ''The Lone Ranger'', ''Daniel Boone'', ''The Virginian'', Bonanza and ''Kung Fu''. He starred in regular roles in ''The Legend of Custer'', ''Bonanza'', ''Hee Haw'', ''B. J. and the Bear'' with Greg Evigan, and ''Filthy Rich''. He played the owner of station WJM, Wild Jack Monroe, on the ''Mary Tyler Moore Show''.One of Pickens' most memorable television roles was an episode of ''Hawaii Five-O'' where he played the patriarch of a family of serial killers.
Awards
In 1982, Pickens was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.Pickens was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, CO for his work as a Rodeo Clown.
Personal life
In his last years Pickens lived with his wife in Columbia, Tuolumne County, California. Slim was a civilian pilot with a multi-engine rating and enjoyed flying in a green U.S. Air Force flight suit while wearing a cowboy hat, similar to the wardrobe worn in Dr. Strangelove. He died on December 8, 1983, after surgery for a brain tumor. He was cremated. Rex Allen attended his funeral.Pickens' brother, Samuel T. Lindley, acted under the name Easy Pickens. His most notable appearance was as "Easy" in Sam Peckinpah's ''The Ballad of Cable Hogue'' (1970).
Partial filmography
See also
References
External links
Category:1919 births Category:1983 deaths Category:American clowns Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:Deaths from brain cancer Category:Actors from California Category:Rodeo clowns Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:People from Fresno County, California
de:Slim Pickens es:Slim Pickens fr:Slim Pickens it:Slim Pickens sh:Slim Pickens fi:Slim Pickens sv:Slim PickensThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| names | John Williams |
|---|---|
| background | non_performing_personnel |
| birth name | John Towner Williams |
| born | February 08, 1932 |
| origin | Flushing, Queens, New York, U.S. |
| occupation | Composer, pianist, conductor |
| years active | 1952–present |
| spouse | Barbara Ruick (1956–74) (deceased)Samantha Winslow (1980–present) }} |
Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, the ''NBC Nightly News,'' the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, the DreamWorks Pictures production logo, and the television series ''Lost in Space.'' Williams has also composed numerous classical concerti, and he served as the principal conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980 to 1993; he is now the orchestra's conductor laureate.
Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, and 21 Grammy Awards. With 45 Academy Award nominations, Williams is, together with composer Alfred Newman, the second most nominated person, after Walt Disney. John Williams was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music. Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.
Early life and family
John Williams was born on February 8, 1932, in Flushing (Queens), New York, the son of Esther and John Williams, Sr. His father was a jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet.In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School graduating in 1950. He later attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and studied privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. In 1952, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for the Air Force Band as part of his assignments.
After his Air Force service ended in 1955, Williams moved to New York City and entered the Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne. During this time, Williams worked as a jazz pianist in New York's many clubs and eventually studios, most notably for composer Henry Mancini. His fellow session musicians included Rolly Bundock on bass, Jack Sperling on drums, and Bob Bain on guitar—the same lineup featured on the ''Mr. Lucky'' television series. Williams was known as "Little Johnny Love" Williams during the early 1960s, and he served as music arranger and bandleader for a series of popular music albums with the singer Frankie Laine.
Williams was married to actress Barbara Ruick from 1956 until her death on March 3, 1974. The Williamses had three children: Jennifer (born 1956), Mark (born 1958), and Joseph (born 1960). Williams' younger son is one of the various lead singers the band Toto has had over the decades. John Williams married his second wife, Samantha Winslow, on July 21, 1980.
John Williams is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national fraternity for college band members.
Film and television scoring
While skilled in a variety of twentieth-century compositional idioms, Williams's most familiar style may be described as a form of neoromanticism, inspired by the same large-scale orchestral music of the late 19th century—especially the compositions of Richard Wagner and its concept of leitmotif—that inspired his film music predecessors.After his studies at Juilliard, Williams returned to Los Angeles, where he began working as an orchestrator at film studios. Among other composers, Williams worked with Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, and also with his fellow orchestrators Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn. Williams was also a studio pianist, performing on film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, and Henry Mancini. Williams recorded with Henry Mancini on the film scores of ''Peter Gunn'' (1959), ''Days of Wine and Roses'' (1962), and ''Charade'' (1963). (Williams actually played the well-recognized opening riff to Mancini's ''Peter Gunn'' theme.) Williams (often credited as "Johnny Williams") also composed the theme music for various TV programs in the 1960s: The pilot episode of ''Gilligan's Island,'' the ''Kraft Suspense Theatre'', ''Lost in Space'' (1965–68), ''The Time Tunnel'' (1966–67), and ''Land of the Giants'' (the last three created by the prolific TV producer, Irwin Allen).
Working at Universal Studios, Williams shared music credit on a number of films, the most notable being ''The Creature from the Black Lagoon'' in 1954. Williams's first major film composition was for the B movie ''Daddy-O'' in 1958, and his first screen credit came two years later in ''Because They're Young.'' He soon gained notice in Hollywood for his versatility in composing jazz, piano, and symphonic music. Williams received his first nomination for an Academy Award for his film score for ''Valley of the Dolls'' (1967), and then was nominated again for his score for ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1969). Williams broke through to win his first Academy Award for his adapted score for the film ''Fiddler on the Roof'' (1971). In 1972 he composed the score for the Robert Altman psychological thriller ''Images'' (recorded in collaboration with noted percussionist Stomu Yamashta) which earned him another nomination in the category 'Best Music, Original Dramatic Score' at the 1973 Academy Awards. During the early 1970s, Williams' prominence grew thanks to his work for now–film producer Irwin Allen's disaster films, composing the scores for ''The Poseidon Adventure'' (1972) and ''The Towering Inferno'' (1974). In addition, he scored Universal's ''Earthquake'' (1974) for director Mark Robson, completing a "trinity" of scores for the highest grossing "disaster films" of the decade. He also wrote a very memorable score to ''The Cowboys'' (1972), a western starring John Wayne and directed by Mark Rydell.
In 1974, Williams was approached by director Steven Spielberg to compose the music for his feature directorial debut, ''The Sugarland Express.'' The young director had been impressed with Williams's score for the movie ''The Reivers'' (1969), and Spielberg was convinced that Williams could compose the musical sound that he desired for any of his films. They teamed up again a year later for Spielberg's second film, ''Jaws.'' Widely considered to be a classic suspense film, its film score's ominous two-note motif has become synonymous with sharks and approaching danger. The score for ''Jaws'' earned Williams his second Academy Award, his first one for an original composition.
Shortly thereafter, Williams and Spielberg began a long collaboration for their next feature film together, ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (''CE3K,'' 1977). In an unusual step for a Hollywood film, Spielberg and Williams developed their script and musical concepts simultaneously, as in the film these entwine very closely together. During their two-year-long collaboration, they crafted its distinctive five-note figure that functions both in the background music and as the communications signal of the film's extraterrestrials. Williams also used a system of musical hand signals in ''CE3K'' that were based on hand signs created by John Curwen and refined by Zoltan Kodaly.
During the same period, Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend and fellow director George Lucas, who needed a composer to score his ambitious space epic, ''Star Wars'' (1977). Williams delivered a grand symphonic score in the fashion of Richard Strauss and Golden Age Hollywood composers Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Its main theme, "Luke's Theme" is among the most widely recognized in motion picture history, and the "Force Theme" and "Princess Leia's Theme" are well-known examples of leitmotif. Both the film and its soundtrack were immensely successful—it remains the highest grossing non-popular music recording of all-time—and Williams won another Academy Award for Best Original Score. In 1980, Williams returned to score ''The Empire Strikes Back'', where he introduced "The Imperial March" as the theme for Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire. The original ''Star Wars'' trilogy concluded with the 1983 film ''Return of the Jedi'', for which Williams's score provided most notably the "Emperor's Theme", "Parade of the Ewoks", and "Luke and Leia". Both scores earned Williams Academy Award nominations.
Williams worked with director Richard Donner to score the 1978 film ''Superman''. The score's heroic and romantic themes, particularly the main march, the Superman fanfare and the love theme, known as "Can You Read My Mind", would appear in the four sequel films. For the 1981 film ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'', created and directed by Lucas and Spielberg, Williams wrote a rousing main theme known as "The Raiders March" to accompany the film's hero, Indiana Jones. He also composed separate themes to represent the Ark of the Covenant, the character Marion, and the Nazi villains of the story. Additional themes were featured in his scores to the sequel films ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' (1984), ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989), and ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' (2008). Williams composed an emotional and sensitive score to Spielberg's 1982 fantasy film ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''. The music conveys the film's benign, childlike sense of innocence, particularly with a spirited theme for the freedom of flight, and a soft string-based, harp-featured theme for the friendship between characters E.T. and Elliott. The film's final chase and farewell sequence marks a rare instance in film history in which the on-screen action was re-edited to conform to the composer's musical interpretation. Williams was awarded a fourth Academy Award for this score.
The 1985 film ''The Color Purple'' is the only theatrical feature directed by Steven Spielberg for which John Williams did not serve as composer. The film's producer, Quincy Jones, wanted to personally arrange and compose the music for the project. Williams also did not score ''Twilight Zone: The Movie,'' but Spielberg had directed only one of the four segments in that film; the lead director and producer of the film, John Landis, selected Jerry Goldsmith as composer. The Williams-Spielberg collaboration resumed with the director's 1987 film ''Empire of the Sun,'' and has continued to the present, spanning genres from science fiction thrillers (1993's ''Jurassic Park),'' to somber tragedies (1993's ''Schindler's List'', 2005's ''Munich),'' to Eastern-tinged melodramas (2005's ''Memoirs of a Geisha'', directed by Rob Marshall). Spielberg has said, "I call it an honorable privilege to regard John Williams as a friend."
In 1999, George Lucas launched the first of a series of prequels to the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy. Williams was asked to score all three films, starting with ''The Phantom Menace.'' Along with themes from the previous movies, Williams created new themes to be used as leitmotifs in ''Attack of the Clones'' (2002) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' (2005). Most notable of these was "Duel of the Fates", an aggressive choral movement utilizing harsh Sanskrit lyrics that broadened the style of music used in the Star Wars films. Also of note was "Anakin's Theme", which begins as an innocent childlike melody and morphs insidiously into a quote of the sinister "Imperial March" of the prior trilogy. For ''Episode II,'' Williams composed "Across the Stars", a love theme for Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker (mirroring the love theme composed for the second film of the previous trilogy, ''The Empire Strikes Back''). The final installment combined many of the themes created for the series' previous movies, including "The Emperor's Theme", "The Imperial March", "Across the Stars", "Duel of the Fates", "The Force Theme", "Rebel Fanfare", "Luke's Theme", and "Princess Leia's Theme", as well as new themes for General Grievous and the film's climax, entitled "Battle of the Heroes." Few composers have scored an entire series of this magnitude: The combined scores of all six ''Star Wars'' films add up to more than 14 hours of orchestral music.
In the new millennium, Williams was asked to score the film adaptations of the widely successful book series, ''Harry Potter''. He went on to score the first three installments of the film franchise. As with his ''Superman'' theme, the most important theme from Williams's scores for the adaptations of J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series, dubbed ''Hedwig's Theme'', has been used in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth films (''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'', ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'', ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'', ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1'' and ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2''), scored by Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper and Alexandre Desplat respectively. Like the main themes from ''Star Wars'', ''Jaws'', ''Superman'', and ''Indiana Jones'', fans have come to identify the ''Harry Potter'' films with Williams's original compositions. Williams was asked to return to the film franchise to score the final installment, ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2'', but director David Yates stated that "their schedules simply did not align" as he would have had to provide Williams with a rough cut of the film sooner than was possible.
In 2006, ''Superman Returns'' was completed under the direction of Bryan Singer, best known for directing the first two movies in the ''X-Men'' series. Although Singer did not request Williams to compose a score for the intentionally Donner-esque film, he employed the skills of ''X2'' composer John Ottman to incorporate Williams's original ''Superman'' theme, as well as those for Lois Lane and Smallville. Don Davis performed a similar role for ''Jurassic Park III'', recommended to the producers by Williams himself. (Film scores by Ottman and to a lesser extent Davis are often compared to those of Williams, as both use similar styles of composition.)
In 2008, Williams returned to the ''Indiana Jones'' series to score the fourth film—''The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull''. He received a Grammy nomination for his work on the film. During 2008, he also composed music for two documentaries, ''Warner at War'', and ''A Timeless Call'', the latter of which was directed by Steven Spielberg.
Williams also composed the score to ''The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn,'' the first film in the upcoming ''Tintin'' trilogy based on the comics by Hergé. This film continues his long-time collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, and he will work with producer Peter Jackson for the first time. The film is currently in post production. Williams is also scheduled to score Spielberg's upcoming films ''War Horse'' (2011) and ''Lincoln'' (2012).
Conducting and performing
From 1980 to 1993, Williams succeeded Arthur Fiedler as Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Williams never met Fiedler in person but spoke with him by telephone. His arrival as the new leader of the Pops in the spring of 1980 allowed him to devote part of the Pops' first PBS broadcast of the season to presenting his new compositions for ''The Empire Strikes Back,'' in addition to conducting many Fiedler audience favorites.Williams almost ended his tenure with the Pops in 1984. Considered a customary practice of opinion, some players hissed while sight-reading a new Williams composition in rehearsal; Williams abruptly left the session and turned in his resignation. He initially cited mounting conflicts with his film composing schedule, but later admitted a perceived lack of discipline in and respect from the Pops' ranks, culminating in this latest instance. After entreaties by the management and personal apologies from the musicians, Williams withdrew his resignation and continued as principal conductor for nine more years. In 1995 he was succeeded by Keith Lockhart, the former associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.
Williams is now the Laureate Conductor of the Pops, thus maintaining his affiliation with its parent, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Williams leads the Pops on several occasions each year, particularly during their Holiday Pops season and typically for a week of concerts in May. He conducts an annual Film Night at both Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, where he frequently enlists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, official chorus of the BSO.
Williams has written many concert pieces, including a symphony; a Concerto for Horn written for Dale Clevenger, principal hornist of the Chicago Symphony; a Concerto for Clarinet written for Michele Zukovsky (Principal Clarinetist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) in 1991; a sinfonietta for wind ensemble; a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1994; concertos for the flute and violin recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra; and a trumpet concerto, which was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra and their principal trumpet Michael Sachs in September 1996. His bassoon concerto, "The Five Sacred Trees", which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and principal bassoon player Judith LeClair in 1995, was recorded for Sony Classical by Williams with LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also an accomplished pianist, as can be heard in various scores in which he provides solos, as well as a handful of European classical music recordings.
Williams was the subject of an hour-long documentary for the BBC in 1980, and was featured in a story for ABC's newsmagazine 20/20 in 1983.
In 1985, Williams was commissioned by NBC to compose a television news music package for various network news spots. The package, which Williams named "The Mission", consists of four movements, two of which are still used heavily by NBC today for ''The Today Show'', ''NBC Nightly News'', and ''Meet the Press''. Williams also composed the "Liberty Fanfare" for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, "We're Lookin' Good!" for the Special Olympics in celebration of the 1987 International Summer Games, and themes for the 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2002 Olympic games. His most recent concert work, "Seven for Luck", for soprano and orchestra, is a seven-piece song cycle based on the texts of former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove. "Seven for Luck" was given its world premiere by the Boston Symphony under Williams with soprano Cynthia Haymon.
Williams makes annual appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and took part as conductor and composer in the orchestra's opening gala concerts for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003.
In April 2005, Williams and the Boston Pops performed "The Force Theme" from ''Star Wars'' at opening day in Fenway Park as the Boston Red Sox, having won their first World Series championship since 1918, received their championship rings. For Game 1 of the 2007 World Series, Williams conducted a brass-and-drum ensemble through a new dissonant arrangement of the "Star Spangled Banner."
In April 2004, February 2006, and September 2007, he conducted the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. The initial program was intended to be a one-time special event, and featured Williams's medley of Oscar-winning film scores first performed at the previous year's Academy Awards. Its unprecedented popularity led to two concerts in 2006: fundraising gala events featuring personal recollections by film directors Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Continuing demand fueled three more concerts in 2007, which all sold out. These featured a tribute to the musicals of film director Stanley Donen, and had the distinction of serving as the opening event of the New York Philharmonic season. After a four-season absence, Williams is scheduled to conduct the Philharmonic once again in October 2011.
Notable compositions
Film scores
{| style="width:100%;" |- valign="top"The following list consists of select films for which John Williams wrote the score and/or songs.
2010s
2000s
1990s
1980s
1970s
1960s
1950s
The Olympics
Williams has composed music for four Olympic Games:
Television themes
Concerti
Celebration pieces and other concert works
Awards
John Williams has won five Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. He has been nominated for 21 Golden Globes and 59 Grammys. With 45 Oscar nominations, Williams currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person, and is the second most nominated person in the history of the Academy Awards, tied with late fellow film composer Alfred Newman and behind only Walt Disney's 59. Forty of Williams' Oscar nominations are for Best Original Music Score and five are for Best Original Song. He won four Oscars for Best Original Score and one for Best Adapted Score ''(Fiddler on the Roof).''Williams has received three Emmy Awards and five nominations, six BAFTAs, twenty-one Grammy Awards, and has been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. In 2004 he received a Kennedy Center Honor. He won a Classical Brit award in 2005 for his soundtrack work of the previous year.
Notably, Williams has won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for his scores for ''Star Wars'', ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', ''Superman'', ''The Empire Strikes Back'', ''E.T. The Extraterrestrial'', ''Angela's Ashes'' (1999), ''Munich'' (2005), and ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.'' The competition includes not only composers of film scores, but also composers of instrumental music of any genre, including composers of classical fare such as symphonies and chamber music.
In 2003, the International Olympic Committee accorded Mr. Williams its highest individual honor, the Olympic Order.
In 2010, Williams received the National Medal of Arts in the White House in Washington for his achievements in symphonic music for motion pictures, and "as a pre-eminent composer and conductor [whose] scores have defined and inspired modern movie-going for decades."
AFI
Williams's richly thematic and highly popular 1977 score to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was selected in 2005 by the American Film Institute as the greatest American movie score of all time. His scores for ''Jaws'' and ''E.T.'' also appeared on the list, at No. 6 and #14, respectively. Other Williams scores for the following films were nominated for the list:
Academy Awards
|- | 1967 | ''Valley of the Dolls'' | Best Score Adaptation | |- | rowspan=2 | 1969 | ''Goodbye, Mr Chips'' | Best Score Adaptation | |- | ''The Reivers'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1971 | ''Fiddler on the Roof'' | Best Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1972 | ''Images'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | ''The Poseidon Adventure'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | rowspan=3 | 1973 | ''Cinderella Liberty'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | "Nice to Be Around" (from ''Cinderella Liberty'') | Best Original Song | |- | ''Tom Sawyer'' | Best Score Adaptation | |- | 1974 | ''The Towering Inferno'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1975 | ''Jaws'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1977 | ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1978 | ''Superman'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1980 | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1981 | ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1982 | ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' | Best Original Score | |- | "If We Were in Love" (from ''Yes, Giorgio'') | Best Original Song | |- | 1983 | ''Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1984 | ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''The River'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1987 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''The Witches of Eastwick'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1988 | ''The Accidental Tourist'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1989 | ''Born on the Fourth of July'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1990 | ''Home Alone'' | Best Original Score | |- | "Somewhere in My Memory" (from ''Home Alone'') | Best Original Song | |- | rowspan=2 | 1991 | ''JFK'' | Best Original Score | |- | "When You're Alone" (from ''Hook'') | Best Original Song | |- | 1993 | ''Schindler's List'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=3 | 1995 | ''Nixon'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | ''Sabrina'' | Best Original Musical or Comedy Score | |- | "Moonlight" (from ''Sabrina'') | Best Original Song | |- | 1996 | ''Sleepers'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | 1997 | ''Amistad'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | 1998 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | 1999 | ''Angela's Ashes'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2000 | ''The Patriot'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 2001 | ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2002 | ''Catch Me If You Can'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2004 | ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 2005 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Munich'' | Best Original Score |
BAFTA Awards
|- | 1975 | ''Jaws'' | Best Film Music | |- | rowspan=2 | 1978 | ''Star Wars'' | Best Film Music | |- | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1980 | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1981 | ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1982 | ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1988 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1993 | ''Schindler's List'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1998 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Film Music | |- | 2002 | ''Catch Me If You Can'' | Best Film Music | |- | 2005 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Film Music |
Emmy Awards
|- | 1962 | ''Alcoa Premiere'' | Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composed for Television | |- | 1963 | ''Alcoa Premiere'' | Outstanding Achievement in Composing Original Music | |- | 1968 | ''Heidi'' | Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition | |- | 1971 | ''Jane Eyre'' | Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition | |- | 2002 | The 74th Academy Awards | Outstanding Music Direction | |- | 2009 | ''Great Performances'' | Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music |
Golden Globe Awards
|- | 1973 | ''The Poseidon Adventure'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1974 | ''Cinderella Liberty'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Tom Sawyer'' (with Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman) | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1975 | ''Earthquake'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Jaws'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1977 | ''Star Wars'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1978 | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1979 | ''Superman'' | Best Original Score | |- | | 1981 | ''Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1982 | ''E.T.'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1983 | "If We Were In Love" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from ''Yes, Giorgio'' | Best Original Song | |- | 1985 | ''The River'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1988 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1989 | ''The Accidental Tourist'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1990 | ''Born on the Fourth of July'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1994 | ''Schindler's List'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1996 | "Moonlight" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from ''Sabrina'' | Best Original Song | |- | 1998 | ''Seven Years in Tibet'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1999 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2000 | ''Angela's Ashes'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2002 | ''Artificial Intelligence: AI'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2005 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Original Score |
Grammy awards
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States.|- | 1962 | ''Checkmate'' | Best Soundtrack Album or Recording or Score from Motion Picture or Television | |- | 1975 | ''Jaws'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=3 | 1977 | ''Star Wars'' | Best Pop Instrumental Performance | |- | "Main Title" from ''Star Wars'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=2 | 1978 | "Theme" from ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=2 | 1979 | "Main Title Theme from Superman" | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Superman'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=2 | 1980 | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | 1981 | ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=3 | 1982 | "Flying" (Theme from ''E.T.'') | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | "Flying" (Theme from ''E.T.'') | Best Arrangement on an Instrumental Recording | |- | rowspan=2 | 1984 | ''Olympic Fanfare and Theme'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1988 | ''The Witches of Eastwick'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1989 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1990 | ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1992 | "Somewhere in My Memory" (with Leslie Bricusse) from ''Home Alone'' | Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 1993 | ''Schindler's List'' | Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture or Television | |- | ''Hook'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1994 | ''Jurassic Park'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1997 | "Moonlight" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from ''Sabrina'' | Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 1998 | ''Seven Years in Tibet'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | ''The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 1999 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | ''Amistad'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 2000 | "Theme" from ''Angela's Ashes'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2002 | ''Artificial Intelligence: A.I.'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2003 | ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | rowspan=2 | 2004 | ''Catch Me If You Can'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2005 | ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2006 | ''Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | rowspan=3 | 2007 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | ''Munich'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | "A Prayer For Peace" (Theme from ''Munich'') | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | rowspan=2 | 2009 | "The Adventures of Mutt" from ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media |
See also
References
Further reading
External links
Category:1932 births Category:People from Queens Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers Category:American film score composers Category:American music arrangers Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Harry Potter music Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:United States Air Force personnel Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients
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| birth date | December 18, 1946 |
|---|---|
| birth place | Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| nationality | American |
| spouse | |
| children | 6, including Sasha |
| occupation | Film director, producer, screenwriter |
| education | Saratoga High School |
| alma mater | California State University, Long Beach |
| religion | Jewish |
| networth | $3.0 billion (2011) |
| years active | 1963–present }} |
Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Schindler's List'' (1993) and ''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998). Three of Spielberg's films—''Jaws'' (1975), ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), and ''Jurassic Park'' (1993)—achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. Forbes puts Spielberg's wealth at $3.0 billion.
Early life
Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a Jewish family. His mother, Leah Adler, was a restaurateur and concert pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg, was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers. He spent his childhood in Haddon Township, New Jersey, where he saw one of his first films in a theater, as well as in Scottsdale, Arizona. Throughout his early teens, Spielberg made amateur 8 mm "adventure" films with his friends, the first of which he shot at the Pinnacle Peak Patio restaurant in Scottsdale. He charged admission (25 cents) to his home films (which involved the wrecks he staged with his Lionel train set) while his sister sold popcorn.In 1958, he became a Boy Scout, and fulfilled a requirement for the photography merit badge by making a nine-minute 8 mm film entitled ''The Last Gunfight''. Spielberg recalled years later to a magazine interviewer, "My dad's still-camera was broken, so I asked the scoutmaster if I could tell a story with my father's movie camera. He said yes, and I got an idea to do a Western. I made it and got my merit badge. That was how it all started." At age 13, Spielberg won a prize for a 40-minute war film he titled ''Escape to Nowhere'' which was based on a battle in east Africa. In 1963, at age 16, Spielberg wrote and directed his first independent film, a 140-minute science fiction adventure called ''Firelight'' (which would later inspire ''Close Encounters''). The film, which had a budget of US$500, was shown in his local cinema and generated a profit of $1. He also made several WWII films inspired by his father's war stories.
After his parents divorced, he moved to Saratoga, California with his father. His three sisters and mother remained in Arizona. Although he attended Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Arizona for three years, Spielberg ended up graduating from Saratoga High School in 1965. It was during this time Spielberg attained the rank of Eagle Scout.
Spielberg attended synagogue as a young boy in Haddon Heights, NJ, an area which did not allow Jews before World War II. He attended Hebrew school from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis, who would later be memorialized as the main character in Mitch Albom's, ''Have a Little Faith''.
As a child, Spielberg faced difficulty reconciling being an Orthodox Jew with the perception of him by other children he played with. “It isn’t something I enjoy admitting,” he once said, “but when I was 7, 8, 9 years old, God forgive me, I was embarrassed because we were Orthodox Jews. I was embarrassed by the outward perception of my parents’ Jewish practices. I was never really ashamed to be Jewish, but I was uneasy at times. My grandfather always wore a long black coat, black hat and long white beard. I was embarrassed to invite my friends over to the house, because he might be in a corner davening [praying], and I wouldn’t know how to explain this to my WASP friends.” Spielberg also said he suffered from acts of anti-Semitic prejudice in his early life: he later said, "In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. Two bloody noses. It was horrible."
After moving to California, he applied to attend the film school at University of Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television two separate times, but was unsuccessful. He was a student subsequently of California State University, Long Beach. While attending Long Beach State in the 1960s, Spielberg became a member of Theta Chi Fraternity. His actual career began when he returned to Universal Studios as an unpaid, seven-day-a-week intern and guest of the editing department (uncredited). After Spielberg became famous, USC awarded him an honorary degree in 1994, and in 1996 he became a trustee of the university. In 2002, thirty-five years after starting college, Spielberg finished his degree via independent projects at CSULB, and was awarded a B.A. in Film Production and Electronic Arts with an option in Film/Video Production.
As an intern and guest of Universal Studios, Spielberg made his first short film for theatrical release, the 26 minute film ''Amblin''' (1968), the title of which Spielberg later took as the name of his production company, Amblin Entertainment. After Sidney Sheinberg, then the vice-president of production for Universal's TV arm, saw the film, Spielberg became the youngest director ever to be signed for a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio (Universal). He dropped out of Long Beach State in 1969 to take up the television director contract at Universal Studios and began his career as a professional director. In 1969, ''Variety'' announced that Spielberg would direct his first full length film, ''Malcolm Winkler'', written by Claudia Salter, produced by John Orland, with Frank Price being the executive producer. However, because of the difficulty in casting the key male role, the film was not made. Steven Spielberg also attended Brookdale Community College for undergrad.
Career
Early career (1969–75)
His first professional TV job came when he was hired to do one of the segments for the 1969 pilot episode of ''Night Gallery''. The segment, "Eyes," starred Joan Crawford, and she and Spielberg were reportedly close friends until her death. The episode is unusual in his body of work, in that the camerawork is more highly stylized than his later, more "mature" films. After this, and an episode of ''Marcus Welby, M.D.'', Spielberg got his first feature-length assignment: an episode of ''The Name of the Game'' called "L.A. 2017". This futuristic science fiction episode impressed Universal Studios and they signed him to a short contract. He did another segment on ''Night Gallery'' and did some work for shows such as ''Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law'' and ''The Psychiatrist'' before landing the first series episode of ''Columbo'' (previous episodes were actually TV films).Based on the strength of his work, Universal signed Spielberg to do four TV films. The first was a Richard Matheson adaptation called ''Duel''. The film is about a psychotic Peterbilt 281 tanker truck driver who chases a terrified driver (Dennis Weaver) of a small Plymouth Valiant and tries to run him off the road. Special praise of this film by the influential British critic Dilys Powell was highly significant to Spielberg's career. Another TV film (''Something Evil'') was made and released to capitalize on the popularity of ''The Exorcist'', then a major best-selling book which had not yet been released as a film. He fulfilled his contract by directing the TV film length pilot of a show called ''Savage'', starring Martin Landau. Spielberg's debut feature film was ''The Sugarland Express'', about a married couple who are chased by police as the couple tries to regain custody of their baby. Spielberg's cinematography for the police chase was praised by reviewers, and ''The Hollywood Reporter'' stated that "a major new director is on the horizon." However, the film fared poorly at the box office and received a limited release.
Studio producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown offered Spielberg the director's chair for ''Jaws'', a thriller-horror film based on the Peter Benchley novel about an enormous killer shark. Spielberg has often referred to the gruelling shoot as his professional crucible. Despite the film's ultimate, enormous success, it was nearly shut down due to delays and budget over-runs.
But Spielberg persevered and finished the film. It was an enormous hit, winning three Academy Awards (for editing, original score and sound) and grossing more than $470 million worldwide at the box office. It also set the domestic record for box office gross, leading to what the press described as "Jawsmania." ''Jaws'' made him a household name, as well as one of America's youngest multi-millionaires, and allowed Spielberg a great deal of autonomy for his future projects. It was nominated for Best Picture and featured Spielberg's first of three collaborations with actor Richard Dreyfuss.
Mainstream breakthrough (1975–93)
Rejecting offers to direct ''Jaws 2'', ''King Kong'' and ''Superman'', Spielberg and actor Richard Dreyfuss re-convened to work on a film about UFOs, which became ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977). One of the rare films both written and directed by Spielberg, ''Close Encounters'' was a critical and box office hit, giving Spielberg his first Best Director nomination from the Academy as well as earning six other Academy Awards nominations. It won Oscars in two categories (Cinematography, Vilmos Zsigmond, and a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing, Frank E. Warner). This second blockbuster helped to secure Spielberg's rise. His next film, ''1941'', a big-budgeted World War II farce, was not nearly as successful and though it grossed over $92.4 million dollars worldwide (and did make a small profit for co-producing studios Columbia and Universal) it was seen as a disappointment, mainly with the critics.Spielberg then revisited his ''Close Encounters'' project and, with financial backing from Columbia Pictures, released ''Close Encounters: The Special Edition'' in 1980. For this, Spielberg fixed some of the flaws he thought impeded the original 1977 version of the film and also, at the behest of Columbia, and as a condition of Spielberg revising the film, shot additional footage showing the audience the interior of the mothership seen at the end of the film (a decision Spielberg would later regret as he felt the interior of the mothership should have remained a mystery). Nevertheless, the re-release was a moderate success, while the 2001 DVD release of the film restored the original ending.
Next, Spielberg teamed with ''Star Wars'' creator and friend George Lucas on an action adventure film, ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'', the first of the Indiana Jones films. The archaeologist and adventurer hero Indiana Jones was played by Harrison Ford (whom Lucas had previously cast in his ''Star Wars'' films as Han Solo). The film was considered an homage to the cliffhanger serials of the Golden Age of Hollywood. It became the biggest film at the box office in 1981, and the recipient of numerous Oscar nominations including Best Director (Spielberg's second nomination) and Best Picture (the second Spielberg film to be nominated for Best Picture). ''Raiders'' is still considered a landmark example of the action-adventure genre.
A year later, Spielberg returned to the science fiction genre with ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''. It was the story of a young boy and the alien he befriends, who was accidentally left behind by his companions and is attempting to return home. ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' went on to become the top-grossing film of all time. ''E.T.'' was also nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.
Between 1982 and 1985, Spielberg produced three high-grossing films: ''Poltergeist'' (for which he also co-wrote the screenplay), a big-screen adaptation of ''The Twilight Zone'' (for which he directed the segment "Kick The Can"), and ''The Goonies'' (Spielberg, executive producer, also wrote the story on which the screenplay was based).
His next directorial feature was the ''Raiders'' sequel ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom''. Teaming up once again with Lucas and Ford, the film was plagued with uncertainty for the material and script. This film and the Spielberg-produced ''Gremlins'' led to the creation of the PG-13 rating due to the high level of violence in films targeted at younger audiences. In spite of this, ''Temple of Doom'' is rated PG by the MPAA, even though it is the darkest and, possibly, most violent Indy film. Nonetheless, the film was still a huge blockbuster hit in 1984. It was on this project that Spielberg also met his future wife, actress Kate Capshaw.
In 1985, Spielberg released ''The Color Purple,'' an adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, about a generation of empowered African-American women during depression-era America. Starring Whoopi Goldberg and future talk-show superstar Oprah Winfrey, the film was a box office smash and critics hailed Spielberg's successful foray into the dramatic genre. Roger Ebert proclaimed it the best film of the year and later entered it into his Great Films archive. The film received eleven Academy Award nominations, including two for Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. However, much to the surprise of many, Spielberg did not get a Best Director nomination. ''The Color Purple'' is the second of two Spielberg films not to be scored by John Williams, the first being ''Duel''.
In 1987, as China began opening to Western capital investment, Spielberg shot the first American film in Shanghai since the 1930s, an adaptation of J. G. Ballard's autobiographical novel ''Empire of the Sun'', starring John Malkovich and a young Christian Bale. The film garnered much praise from critics and was nominated for several Oscars, but did not yield substantial box office revenues. Reviewer Andrew Sarris called it the best film of the year and later included it among the best films of the decade.
After two forays into more serious dramatic films, Spielberg then directed the third Indiana Jones film, 1989's ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade''. Once again teaming up with Lucas and Ford, Spielberg also cast actor Sean Connery in a supporting role as Indy's father. The film earned generally positive reviews and was another box office success, becoming the highest grossing film worldwide that year; its total box office receipts even topped those of Tim Burton's much-anticipated film ''Batman'', which had been the bigger hit domestically. Also in 1989, he re-united with actor Richard Dreyfuss for the romantic comedy-drama ''Always'', about a daredevil pilot who extinguishes forest fires. Spielberg's first romantic film, ''Always'' was only a moderate success and had mixed reviews.
In 1991, Spielberg directed ''Hook'', about a middle-aged Peter Pan, played by Robin Williams, who returns to Neverland. Despite innumerable rewrites and creative changes coupled with mixed reviews, the film proved popular with audiences, making over $300 million worldwide (from a $70 million budget).
In 1993, Spielberg returned to the adventure genre with the film version of Michael Crichton's novel ''Jurassic Park'', about a theme park with genetically engineered dinosaurs. With revolutionary special effects provided by friend George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic company, the film would eventually become the highest grossing film of all time (at the worldwide box office) with $914.7 million. This would be the third time that one of Spielberg's films became the highest grossing film ever.
Spielberg's next film, ''Schindler's List'', was based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a man who risked his life to save 1,100 Jews from the Holocaust. ''Schindler's List'' earned Spielberg his first Academy Award for Best Director (it also won Best Picture). With the film a huge success at the box office, Spielberg used the profits to set up the Shoah Foundation, a non-profit organization that archives filmed testimony of Holocaust survivors. In 1997, the American Film Institute listed it among the 10 Greatest American Films ever Made (#9) which moved up to (#8) when the list was remade in 2007.
Since 1994
In 1994, Spielberg took a hiatus from directing to spend more time with his family and build his new studio, DreamWorks, with partners Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. In 1997, he helmed the sequel to 1993's ''Jurassic Park'' with ''The Lost World: Jurassic Park'', which generated over $618 million worldwide despite mixed reviews, and was the second biggest hit of 1997 behind James Cameron's ''Titanic'' (which topped the original ''Jurassic Park'' to become the new recordholder for box office receipts).His next film, ''Amistad'', was based on a true story (like ''Schindler's List''), specifically about an African slave rebellion. Despite decent reviews from critics, it did not do well at the box office. Spielberg released ''Amistad'' under DreamWorks Pictures, which issued all of his films from ''Amistad'' until ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' in May 2008 (see below).
In 1998, Spielberg re-visited ''Close Encounters'' yet again, this time for a more definitive 137-minute "Collector's Edition" that puts more emphasis on the original 1977 release, while adding some elements of the previous 1980 "Special Edition," but deleting the latter version's "Mothership Finale," which Spielberg regretted shooting in the first place, feeling it should have remained ambiguous in the minds of viewers.
His next theatrical release in that same year was the World War II film ''Saving Private Ryan'', about a group of U.S. soldiers led by Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) sent to bring home a paratrooper whose three older brothers were killed in the last twenty four hours of action in France. The film was a huge box office success, grossing over $481 million worldwide and was the biggest film of the year at the North American box office (worldwide it made second place after Michael Bay's ''Armageddon''). Spielberg won his second Academy Award for his direction. The film's graphic, realistic depiction of combat violence influenced later war films such as ''Black Hawk Down'' and ''Enemy at the Gates''. The film was also the first major hit for DreamWorks, which co-produced the film with Paramount Pictures (as such, it was Spielberg's first release from the latter that was not part of the ''Indiana Jones'' series). Later, Spielberg and Tom Hanks produced a TV mini-series based on Stephen Ambrose's book ''Band of Brothers''. The ten-part HBO mini-series follows Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The series won a number of awards at the Golden Globes and the Emmys.
In 2001, Spielberg filmed fellow director and friend Stanley Kubrick's final project, ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' which Kubrick was unable to begin during his lifetime. A futuristic film about a humanoid android longing for love, ''A.I.'' featured groundbreaking visual effects and a multi-layered, allegorical storyline, adapted by Spielberg himself. Though the film's reception in the US was relatively muted, it performed better overseas for a worldwide total box office gross of $236 million.
Spielberg and actor Tom Cruise collaborated for the first time for the futuristic neo-noir ''Minority Report'', based upon the sci-fi short story written by Philip K. Dick about a Washington D.C. police captain in the year 2054 who has been foreseen to murder a man he has not yet met. The film received strong reviews with the review tallying website Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 92% approval rating, reporting that 206 out of the 225 reviews they tallied were positive. The film earned over $358 million worldwide. Roger Ebert, who named it the best film of 2002, praised its breathtaking vision of the future as well as for the way Spielberg blended CGI with live-action.
Spielberg's 2002 film ''Catch Me If You Can'' is about the daring adventures of a youthful con artist (played by Leonardo DiCaprio). It earned Christopher Walken an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The film is known for John Williams' score and its unique title sequence. It was a hit both commercially and critically.
Spielberg collaborated again with Tom Hanks along with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Stanley Tucci in 2004's ''The Terminal'', a warm-hearted comedy about a man of Eastern European descent who is stranded in an airport. It received mixed reviews but performed relatively well at the box office. In 2005, ''Empire'' magazine ranked Spielberg number one on a list of the greatest film directors of all time.
Also in 2005, Spielberg directed a modern adaptation of ''War of the Worlds'' (a co-production of Paramount and DreamWorks), based on the H. G. Wells book of the same name (Spielberg had been a huge fan of the book and the original 1953 film). It starred Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning, and, as with past Spielberg films, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) provided the visual effects. Unlike ''E.T.'' and ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', which depicted friendly alien visitors, ''War of the Worlds'' featured violent invaders. The film was another huge box office smash, grossing over $591 million worldwide.
Spielberg's film ''Munich'', about the events following the 1972 Munich Massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games, was his second film essaying Jewish relations in the world (the first being ''Schindler's List''). The film is based on ''Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team'', a book by Canadian journalist George Jonas. It was previously adapted into the 1986 made-for-TV film ''Sword of Gideon''. The film received strong critical praise, but underperformed at the U.S. and world box-office; it remains one of Spielberg's most controversial films to date. Munich received five Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture, Film Editing, Original Music Score (by John Williams), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director for Spielberg. It was Spielberg's sixth Best Director nomination and fifth Best Picture nomination.
Spielberg directed ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'', which wrapped filming in October 2007 and was released on May 22, 2008. This was his first film not to be released by DreamWorks since 1997. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, and has performed very well in theaters. As of May 10, 2010, ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' has grossed $317 million domestically, and over $786 million worldwide.
Production credits
Since the mid-1980s Spielberg has increased his role as a film producer. He headed up the production team for several cartoons, including the Warner Brothers hits ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', ''Animaniacs'', ''Pinky and the Brain'', ''Toonsylvania'', and ''Freakazoid!'', for which he collaborated with Jean MacCurdy and Tom Ruegger. Due to his work on these series, in the official titles, most of them say, "Steven Spielberg presents" as well as making numerous cameos on the shows. Spielberg also produced the Don Bluth animated features, ''An American Tail'' and ''The Land Before Time'', which were released by Universal Studios. He also served as one of the executive producers of ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' and its three related shorts (''Tummy Trouble'', ''Roller Coaster Rabbit'', ''Trail Mix-Up''), which were all released by Disney, under both the Walt Disney Pictures and the Touchstone Pictures banners. He was furthermore, for a short time, the executive producer of the long-running medical drama ''ER''. In 1989, he brought the concept of ''The Dig'' to LucasArts. He contributed to the project from that time until 1995 when the game was released. He also collaborated with software publishers Knowledge Adventure on the multimedia game ''Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair'', which was released in 1996. Spielberg appears, as himself, in the game to direct the player. The Spielberg name provided branding for a Lego Moviemaker kit, the proceeds of which went to the Starbright Foundation.In 1993, Spielberg acted as executive producer for the highly anticipated television series ''seaQuest DSV''; a science fiction series set "in the near future" starring Roy Scheider (who Spielberg had directed in ''Jaws'') and Jonathan Brandis akin to ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' that aired on Sundays at 8:00 pm. on NBC. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well. Spielberg's name no longer appeared in the third season and the show was cancelled mid way through it.
Spielberg served as an uncredited executive producer on ''The Haunting'', ''The Prince of Egypt'', ''Just Like Heaven'', ''Shrek'', and ''Evolution''. He served as an executive producer for the 1998 film ''Men in Black'', and its sequels, ''Men in Black II'' and the upcoming ''Men in Black III''. In 2005, he served as a producer of ''Memoirs of a Geisha'', an adaptation of the novel by Arthur Golden, a film he was previously attached to as director. In 2006, Spielberg co-executive produced with famed filmmaker Robert Zemeckis a CGI children's film called ''Monster House'', marking their eight collaboration together since 1990's ''Back to the Future Part III''. He also teamed with Clint Eastwood for the first time in their careers, co-producing Eastwood's ''Flags of Our Fathers'' and ''Letters from Iwo Jima'' with Robert Lorenz and Eastwood himself. He earned his twelfth Academy Award nomination for the latter film as it was nominated for Best Picture. Spielberg served as executive producer for ''Disturbia'' and the ''Transformers'' live action film with Brian Goldner, an employee of Hasbro. The film was directed by Michael Bay and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and Spielberg continued to collaborate on the sequels, ''Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'' and ''Transformers: Dark of the Moon''. In 2011, he produced the J. J. Abrams science fiction thriller film ''Super 8'' for Paramount Pictures.
Other major television series Spielberg produced were ''Band of Brothers'', ''Taken'' and ''The Pacific''. He was an executive producer on the critically acclaimed 2005 TV miniseries ''Into the West'' which won two Emmy awards, including one for Geoff Zanelli's score. For his 2010 miniseries ''The Pacific'' he teamed up once again with co-producer Tom Hanks, with Gary Goetzman also co-producing'. The miniseries is believed to have cost $250 million and is a 10-part war miniseries centered on the battles in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Writer Bruce McKenna, who penned several installments of (''Band of Brothers''), was the head writer.
In 2007, Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett co-produced ''On the Lot'' a short-lived TV reality show about filmmaking. Despite this, he never gave up working on television. He currently serves as one of the executive producers on ''United States of Tara'', a show created by Academy Award winner Diablo Cody which they developed together (Spielberg is uncredited as creator).
In 2011, Spielberg launched ''Falling Skies'', a science fiction television series, on the TNT network. He developed the series with Robert Rodat and is credited as an executive producer.
Acting credits
Steven Spielberg had cameo roles in ''The Blues Brothers'', ''Gremlins'', ''Vanilla Sky'', and ''Austin Powers in Goldmember'', as well as small uncredited cameos in a handful of other films, such as a life-station worker in ''Jaws''. He also made numerous cameo roles in the Warner Brothers cartoons he produced, such as Animaniacs, and even made reference to some of his films. Spielberg voiced himself in the film ''Paul'', and in one episode of ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' titled ''Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian''.
Involvement in video games
Apart from being an ardent gamer Spielberg has had a long history of involvement in video games. In 2005 the director signed with Electronic Arts to collaborate on three games including an action game and an award winning puzzle game for the Wii called ''Boom Blox'' (and its 2009 sequel: ''Boom Blox Bash Party''). Previously, he was involved in creating the scenario for the adventure game ''The Dig''. In 1996, Spielberg worked on and shot original footage for a movie-making simulation game called ''Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair''. He is the creator of the ''Medal of Honor'' series by Electronic Arts. He is credited in the special thanks section of the 1998 video game ''Trespasser''.
Upcoming and announced projects
In early 2009, Spielberg shot the first film in a planned trilogy of motion capture films based on ''The Adventures of Tintin'' written by Belgian artist Hergé, with Peter Jackson. ''The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn'', will not be released until December 23, 2011 due to the complexity of the computer animation involved. Jackson has been announced to direct the second film, which Spielberg will produce. Spielberg's next film ''War Horse'', was shot in England in the summer of 2010, and will be released just five days after ''The Adventures of Tintin'', on December 28, 2011. The film, based on the novel of the same name, is about the long friendship between a British boy and his horse Joey before and during World War I — a novel that was adapted into a hit play in London which is running on Broadway as of April 2011. It will be released and distributed by Disney, with whom DreamWorks has made a 30-picture deal. The novel was written by Michael Morpurgo and published in 1982. He will follow this with ''Lincoln'', starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln. Based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's bestseller ''Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln'', the film will follow Lincoln's leadership during the years of the American Civil War. Written by Tony Kushner, the film will be shot in the fall of 2011 in Richmond, Virginia and released in the fourth quarter of 2012 by Disney's Touchstone Pictures division. Spielberg also made a commitment to direct a film based on the novel ''Robopocalypse''.In 2009, Spielberg reportedly tried to obtain the screen rights to make a film based on Microsoft's ''Halo'' series. In September 2008, Steven Spielberg bought film rights for John Wyndham's novel ''Chocky'' and is interested in directing it. He is also interested in making an adaptation of ''A Steady Rain'', ''Pirate Latitudes'', ''The 39 Clues'', and ''Under the Dome'', along with a remake of ''When Worlds Collide''. In May 2009, Steven Spielberg bought the rights to the life story of Martin Luther King, Jr.. Spielberg will be involved not only as producer but also as a director. However, the purchase was made from the King estate, led by son Dexter, while the two other surviving children, the Reverend Bernice and Martin III, immediately threatened to sue, not having given their approvals to the project.
In June 2006, Steven Spielberg announced he would direct a scientifically accurate film about "a group of explorers who travel through a worm hole and into another dimension", from a treatment by Kip Thorne and producer Lynda Obst. In January 2007, screenwriter Jonathan Nolan met with them to discuss adapting Obst and Thorne's treatment into a narrative screenplay. The screenwriter suggested the addition of a "time element" to the treatment's basic idea, which was welcomed by Obst and Thorne. In March of that year, Paramount hired Nolan as well as scientists from Caltech, forming a workshop who will begin adapting the treatment after completing the script for Warner Bros.' ''The Chicago Fire''. The following July, Kip Thorne said there was a push by people for him to portray himself in the film ''Interstellar''.
Spielberg is also producing the Fox TV series ''Terra Nova''. ''Terra Nova'' will begin in the year 2149 when all life on the planet Earth is threatened with extinction resulting in scientists opening a door that allows people to travel back 85 million years to prehistoric times. Spielberg will also help produce the upcoming TV series ''The River'' and ''Smash''.
Themes
Spielberg's films often deal with several recurring themes. Most of his films deal with ordinary characters searching for or coming in contact with extraordinary beings or finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances. In an AFI interview in August 2000 Spielberg commented on his interest in the possibility of extra terrestrial life and how it has influenced some of his films. Spielberg described himself as feeling like an alien during childhood, and his interest came from his father, a science fiction fan, and his opinion that aliens would not travel light years for conquest, but instead curiosity and sharing of knowledge.A strong consistent theme in his family-friendly work is a childlike, even naïve, sense of wonder and faith, as attested by works such as ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'', ''Hook'', and ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence''. According to Warren Buckland, these themes are portrayed through the use of low height camera tracking shots, which have become one of Spielberg's directing trademarks. In the cases when his films include children (''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'', ''Empire of the Sun'', ''Jurassic Park'', etc.), this type of shot is more apparent, but it is also used in films like ''Munich'', ''Saving Private Ryan'', ''The Terminal'', ''Minority Report'', and ''Amistad''. If one views each of his films, one will see this shot utilized by the director, notably the water scenes in ''Jaws'' are filmed from the low-angle perspective of someone swimming. Another child oriented theme in Spielberg's films is that of loss of innocence and coming-of-age. In ''Empire of the Sun'', Jim, a well-groomed and spoiled English youth, loses his innocence as he suffers through World War II China. Similarly, in ''Catch Me If You Can'', Frank naively and foolishly believes that he can reclaim his shattered family if he accumulates enough money to support them.
The most persistent theme throughout his films is tension in parent-child relationships. Parents (often fathers) are reluctant, absent or ignorant. Peter Banning in ''Hook'' starts off in the beginning of the film as a reluctant married-to-his-work parent who through the course of his film regains the respect of his children. The notable absence of Elliott's father in ''E.T.'', is the most famous example of this theme. In ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'', it is revealed that Indy has always had a very strained relationship with his father, who is a professor of medieval literature, as his father always seemed more interested in his work, specifically in his studies of the Holy Grail, than in his own son, although his father does not seem to realize or understand the negative effect that his aloof nature had on Indy (he even believes he was a good father in the sense that he taught his son "self reliance," which is not how Indy saw it). Even Oskar Schindler, from ''Schindler's List'', is reluctant to have a child with his wife. ''Munich'' depicts Avner as a man away from his wife and newborn daughter. There are of course exceptions; Brody in ''Jaws'' is a committed family man, while John Anderton in ''Minority Report'' is a shattered man after the disappearance of his son. This theme is arguably the most autobiographical aspect of Spielberg's films, since Spielberg himself was affected by his parents' divorce as a child and by the absence of his father. Furthermore to this theme, protagonists in his films often come from families with divorced parents, most notably ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (protagonist Elliot's mother is divorced) and ''Catch Me If You Can'' (Frank Abagnale's mother and father split early on in the film). Little known also is Tim in ''Jurassic Park'' (early in the film, another secondary character mentions Tim and Lex's parents' divorce). The family often shown divided is often resolved in the ending as well. Following this theme of reluctant fathers and father figures, Tim looks to Dr. Alan Grant as a father figure. Initially, Dr. Grant is reluctant to return those paternal feelings to Tim. However, by the end of the film, he has changed, and the kids even fall asleep with their heads on his shoulders.
Most of his films are generally optimistic in nature. Critics frequently accuse his films of being overly sentimental, though Spielberg feels it is fine as long as it is disguised. The influence comes from directors Frank Capra and John Ford.
Contemporaries
In terms of casting and production itself, Spielberg has a known penchant for working with actors and production members from his previous films. For instance, he has cast Richard Dreyfuss in several films: ''Jaws'', ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', and ''Always''. Aside from his role as Indiana Jones, Spielberg also cast Harrison Ford as a headteacher in ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (though the scene was ultimately cut). Although Spielberg directed him only once (in Raiders of the Lost Ark, for which he voiced many of the animals), veteran voice actor Frank Welker has lent his voice in a number of productions Spielberg has executively produced from ''Gremlins'' to its sequel ''Gremlins 2: The New Batch'', as well as ''The Land Before Time'' (and lending his voice to its sequels which Spielberg had no involvement in), ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', and television shows such as ''Tiny Toons'', ''Animaniacs'', and SeaQuest DSV. Recently Spielberg has used Tom Hanks on several occasions and has cast him in ''Saving Private Ryan'', ''Catch Me If You Can'', and ''The Terminal''. Spielberg also has collaborated with Tom Cruise twice on ''Minority Report'' and ''War of the Worlds''. Spielberg has also cast Shia LaBeouf in five films: ''Transformers'', ''Eagle Eye'', ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'', ''Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'', and ''Transformers: Dark of the Moon''. Spielberg prefers working with production members with whom he has developed an existing working relationship. An example of this is his production relationship with Kathleen Kennedy who has served as producer on all his major films from ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' to the recent ''Munich''. Other working relationships include Allen Daviau, a childhood friend and cinematographer who shot the early Spielberg film ''Amblin'' and most of his films up to ''Empire of the Sun''; Janusz Kamiński who has shot every Spielberg film since ''Schindler's List'' (see List of film director and cinematographer collaborations); and the film editor Michael Kahn who has edited every film directed by Spielberg from ''Close Encounters'' to ''Munich'' (except ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''). Most of the DVDs of Spielberg's films have documentaries by Laurent Bouzereau.A famous example of Spielberg working with the same professionals is his long time collaboration with John Williams and the use of his musical scores in all of his films since ''The Sugarland Express'' (except ''The Color Purple'' and ''Twilight Zone: The Movie''). One of Spielberg's trademarks is his use of music by John Williams to add to the visual impact of his scenes and to try and create a lasting picture and sound of the film in the memories of the film audience. These visual scenes often uses images of the sun (e.g. ''Empire of the Sun'', ''Saving Private Ryan'', the final scene of ''Jurassic Park'', and the end credits of ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (where they ride into the sunset), of which the last two feature a Williams score at that end scene. Spielberg is a contemporary of filmmakers George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, John Milius, and Brian De Palma, collectively known as the "Movie Brats". Aside from his principal role as a director, Spielberg has acted as a producer for a considerable number of films, including early hits for Joe Dante and Robert Zemeckis.
Personal life
Marriages and children
From 1985 to 1989 Spielberg was married to actress Amy Irving. In their 1989 divorce settlement, she received $100 million from Spielberg after a judge controversially vacated a prenuptial agreement written on a napkin. Their divorce was recorded as the third most costly celebrity divorce in history. Following the divorce, Spielberg and Irving shared custody of their son, Max Samuel.Spielberg subsequently developed a relationship with actress Kate Capshaw, whom he met when he cast her in ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom''. They married on October 12, 1991. Capshaw is a convert to Judaism. They currently move among their four homes in Pacific Palisades, California; New York City; Quelle Farm, Georgica Pond in East Hampton, NY; and Naples, Florida.
There are seven children in the Spielberg-Capshaw family:
Wealth
''Forbes'' magazine places Spielberg's personal net worth at $3.0 billion.
Recognition
In 2002, Spielberg was one of eight flagbearers who carried the Olympic Flag into Rice-Eccles Stadium at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. In 2006, ''Premiere'' listed him as the most powerful and influential figure in the motion picture industry. ''Time'' listed him as one of the 100 Most Important People of the Century. At the end of the 20th century, ''Life'' named him the most influential person of his generation.
Starbright
In 1991 Steven Spielberg co-founded Starbright with Randy Aduana—a foundation dedicated to improving sick children's lives through technology-based programs focusing on entertainment and education. In 2002 Starbright merged with the Starlight Foundation forming what is now today the Starlight Children's Foundation.
Politics
Spielberg usually supports U.S. Democratic Party candidates. He has donated over $800,000 for the Democratic party and its nominees. He has been a close friend of former President Bill Clinton and worked with the President for the USA Millennium celebrations. He directed an 18-minute film for the project, scored by John Williams and entitled ''The American Journey''. It was shown at America's Millennium Gala on December 31, 1999, in the National Mall at the Reflecting Pool at the base of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.Spielberg resigned as a member of the national advisory board of the Boy Scouts of America in 2001 because of his disapproval of the organization's anti-homosexuality stance.
In 2007 the Arab League voted to boycott Spielberg's movies after he donated $1 million for relief efforts in Israel during the 2006 Lebanon War.
On February 20, 2007, Spielberg, Katzenberg, and David Geffen invited Democrats to a fundraiser for Barack Obama. However, on June 14, 2007, Spielberg endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) for President. While Geffen and Katzenberg supported Obama, Spielberg was always a supporter of Hillary Clinton. However Spielberg directed a video for Obama at the DNC in August 2008 and attended Obama's inauguration.
In February 2008, Spielberg pulled out of his role as advisor to the 2008 Summer Olympics in response to the Chinese government's inaction over the War in Darfur. Spielberg said in a statement that "''I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue business as usual''." It also said that "''Sudan's government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these on-going crimes, but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more.''." The International Olympic Committee respected Spielberg's decision, but IOC president Jacques Rogge admitted in an interview that "''[Spielberg] certainly would have brought a lot to the opening ceremony in terms of creativity.''" Spielberg's statement drew criticism from Chinese officials and state-run media calling his criticism "unfair".
In September 2008, Spielberg and his wife offered their support to same-sex marriage, by issuing a statement following their donation of $100,000 to the "No on Proposition 8" campaign fund, a figure equal to the amount of money Brad Pitt donated to the same campaign less than a week prior.
Hobbies
Spielberg is an avid film buff, and, when not shooting a picture, he will indulge in "movie orgies" (watching many over a single weekend). He sees almost every major summer blockbuster in theaters if not preoccupied and enjoys most of them; "If I get pleasure from anything, I can't think of it as dumb or myself as shallow [...] I'll probably go late to that movie and go, 'What the dickens was everybody complaining about, that wasn't so bad!'".Since playing Pong while filming ''Jaws'' in 1974, Spielberg has been an avid video gamer. He owns a Wii, a PlayStation 3, a PSP, and Xbox 360, and enjoys playing first-person shooters such as the ''Medal of Honor'' series and ''Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare''. He has also criticized the use of cut scenes in games, calling them intrusive, and feels making story flow naturally into the gameplay is a challenge for future game developers.
Stalking
In 2001, Spielberg was stalked by conspiracy theorist and former social worker Diana Napolis. She accused him, along with actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, of controlling her thoughts through "cybertronic" technology and being part of a satanic conspiracy against her. Napolis was committed for life in a mental institution before pleading guilty to stalking and released on probation with a condition that she have no contact with either Spielberg or Hewitt.Spielberg was a target of the 2002 white supremacist terror plot.
Jonathan Norman was arrested after making two attempts to enter Spielberg's Pacific Palisades home in June and July 1997. Norman was jailed for 25 years in California. Spielberg, told the court: "Had Jonathan Norman actually confronted me, I genuinely, in my heart of hearts, believe that I would have been raped or maimed or killed."
Achievements
Spielberg has won three Academy Awards. He has been nominated for six Academy Awards for the category of Best Director, winning two of them (''Schindler's List'' and ''Saving Private Ryan''), and seven of the films he directed were up for the Best Picture Oscar (''Schindler's List'' won). In 1987 he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for his work as a creative producer.Drawing from his own experiences in Scouting, Spielberg helped the Boy Scouts of America develop a merit badge in cinematography. The badge was launched at the 1989 National Scout Jamboree, which Spielberg attended, and where he personally counseled many boys in their work on requirements.
That same year, 1989, saw the release of ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade''. The opening scene shows a teenage Indiana Jones in scout uniform bearing the rank of a Life Scout. Spielberg stated he made Indiana Jones a Boy Scout in honor of his experience in Scouting. For his career accomplishments and service to others, Spielberg was awarded the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.
Steven Spielberg received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995.
In 1998 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Award was presented to him by President Roman Herzog in recognition of his film ''Schindler's List'' and his Shoa-Foundation.
In 1999, Spielberg received an honorary degree from Brown University. Spielberg was also awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of Defense William Cohen at the Pentagon on August 11, 1999; Cohen presented the award in recognition of Spielberg's film ''Saving Private Ryan''.
In 2001, he was honored as an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2004 he was admitted as knight of the Légion d'honneur by president Jacques Chirac. On July 15, 2006, Spielberg was also awarded the Gold Hugo Lifetime Achievement Award at the Summer Gala of the Chicago International Film Festival, and also was awarded a Kennedy Center honour on December 3. The tribute to Spielberg featured a short, filmed biography narrated by Tom Hanks and included thank-yous from World War II veterans for ''Saving Private Ryan'', as well as a performance of the finale to Leonard Bernstein's ''Candide'', conducted by John Williams (Spielberg's frequent composer).
In November 2007, he was chosen for a Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented at the sixth annual Visual Effects Society Awards in February 2009. He was set to be honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the January 2008 Golden Globes; however, the new, watered-down format of the ceremony resulting from conflicts in the 2007–08 writers strike, the HFPA postponed his honor to the 2009 ceremony. In 2008, Spielberg was awarded the Légion d'honneur.
In June 2008, Spielberg received Arizona State University's Hugh Downs Award for Communication Excellence.
Spielberg received an honorary degree at Boston University's 136th Annual Commencement on May 17, 2009. In October 2009 Steven Spielberg received the Philadelphia Liberty Medal; presenting him with the medal was former US president and Liberty Medal recipient Bill Clinton. Special guests included Whoopi Goldberg, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.
Praise and criticism
Film
In 2005, Steven Spielberg was rated the greatest film director of all time by Empire Magazine.After watching the unconventional, off-center camera techniques of ''Jaws'', Alfred Hitchcock praised "young Spielberg," saying "He's the first one of us who doesn't see the proscenium arch." Or, to paraphrase, he was the first mainstream director to think outside the visual dynamics of the theater, although that didn’t stop Hitchcock from removing Spielberg from the set of ''Family Plot'', his last film.
Some of Spielberg's most famous fans include film legends Robert Aldrich, Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, Sidney Lumet, Roman Polanski, Martin Scorsese, Francois Truffaut and Zhang Yimou.
Subsequently, Spielberg's movies have also influenced many directors that followed, including J.J Abrams, Paul Thomas Anderson, Neill Blomkamp, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro, Roland Emmerich, David Fincher, Peter Jackson, Kal Ng, Robert Rodriguez, John Sayles, Ridley Scott, John Singleton, Kevin Smith, Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino.
British film critic Tom Shone has said of Spielberg, "If you have to point to any one director of the last twenty-five years in whose work the medium of film was most fully itself – where we found out what it does best when left to its own devices, it has to be that guy."
However, Spielberg is not without his critics—many of whom complain that his films are overly sentimental and tritely moralistic. In his book ''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood'', Peter Biskind summarized the views of Spielberg's detractors, accusing the director of "infantilizing the audience, reconstituting the spectator as child, then overwhelming him and her with sound and spectacle, obliterating irony, aesthetic self-consciousness, and critical reflection."
Critics of mainstream film such as Ray Carney and American artist and actor Crispin Glover (who starred in the Spielberg-produced ''Back to the Future'' and also sued Spielberg for using Glover's likeness in ''Back to the Future Part II'') claim that Spielberg's films lack depth and do not take risks.
The late film critic, Pauline Kael, who had championed Spielberg's films in the 1970s, expressed disappointment in his later development, stating that "he’s become, I think, a very bad director.... And I’m a little ashamed for him, because I loved his early work.... [H]e turned to virtuous movies. And he’s become so uninteresting now.... I think that he had it in him to become more of a fluid, far-out director. But, instead, he’s become a melodramatist."
Imre Kertész, Hungarian Jewish author, Nazi concentration camp survivor, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, criticized Spielberg's depiction of the Holocaust in ''Schindler's List'' as kitsch, saying "I regard as kitsch any representation of the Holocaust that is incapable of understanding or unwilling to understand the organic connection between our own deformed mode of life and the very possibility of the Holocaust."
French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard stated that he holds Spielberg partly responsible for the lack of artistic merit in mainstream cinema and accused Spielberg of using his film ''Schindler's List'' to make a profit of tragedy while Schindler's wife lived in poverty in Argentina. In defense of Spielberg, critic Roger Ebert said "Has Godard or any other director living or dead done more than Spielberg, with his Holocaust Project, to honor and preserve the memories of the survivors?"
Stephen Rowley wrote an extensive essay about Spielberg and his career in Senses of Cinema. In it he discussed Spielberg's strengths as a film maker, saying "there is a welcome complexity of tone and approach in these later films that defies the lazy stereotypes often bandied about his films" and that "Spielberg continues to take risks, with his body of work continuing to grow more impressive and ambitious", concluding that he has only received "limited, begrudging recognition" from critics .
Other
Spielberg, as a then co-owner of DreamWorks, was involved in a heated debate in which the studio proposed building on the remaining wetlands in Southern California, though development was later dropped.In August 2007, Ai Weiwei, artistic designer for the Beijing Olympic Stadium Bird's Nest accused those choreographing the Olympic opening ceremony, including Spielberg, of failing to live up to their responsibility as artists. Ai said, "It's disgusting. I don't like anyone who shamelessly abuses their profession, who makes no moral judgment."
Filmography
Awards and nominations
'''Academy Awards:
'''BAFTA Awards:
'''Directors Guild of America:
'''Golden Globes:
'''NBR Award:
'''Primetime Emmys:
'''Producers Guild of America:
'''Saturn Awards:
Other
2009 Liberty Medal
References
Further reading
External links
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| Honorific-prefix | |
|---|---|
| Name | Sir Winston Churchill |
| Honorific-suffix | |
| Order | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
| Term start | 26 October 1951 |
| Term end | 7 April 1955 |
| Monarch | George VIElizabeth II |
| Deputy | Anthony Eden |
| Predecessor | Clement Attlee |
| Successor | Anthony Eden |
| Term start2 | 10 May 1940 |
| Term end2 | 26 July 1945 |
| Deputy2 | Clement Attlee |
| Monarch2 | George VI |
| Predecessor2 | Neville Chamberlain |
| Successor2 | Clement Attlee |
| Order3 | Chancellor of the Exchequer |
| Term start3 | 6 November 1924 |
| Term end3 | 4 June 1929 |
| Primeminister3 | Stanley Baldwin |
| Predecessor3 | Philip Snowden |
| Successor3 | Philip Snowden |
| Order4 | Home Secretary |
| Term start4 | 19 February 1910 |
| Term end4 | 24 October 1911 |
| Primeminister4 | Herbert Henry Asquith |
| Predecessor4 | Herbert Gladstone |
| Successor4 | Reginald McKenna |
| Order5 | Member of Parliamentfor Woodford |
| Term start5 | 5 July 1945 |
| Term end5 | 15 October 1964 |
| Predecessor5 | New constituency |
| Successor5 | Patrick Jenkin |
| Order6 | Member of Parliamentfor Epping |
| Term start6 | 29 October 1924 |
| Term end6 | 5 July 1945 |
| Predecessor6 | Sir Leonard Lyle |
| Successor6 | Leah Manning |
| Order7 | Member of Parliamentfor Dundee |
| Term start7 | 24 April 1908 |
| Term end7 | 15 November 1922 |
| Predecessor7 | Alexander WilkieEdmund Robertson |
| Successor7 | Edmund MorelEdwin Scrymgeour |
| Order8 | Member of Parliamentfor Manchester North West |
| Term start8 | 8 February 1906 |
| Term end8 | 24 April 1908 |
| Predecessor8 | William Houldsworth |
| Successor8 | William Joynson-Hicks |
| Order9 | Member of Parliamentfor Oldhamwith Alfred Emmott |
| Term start9 | 24 October 1900 |
| Term end9 | 12 January 1906 |
| Predecessor9 | Walter RuncimanAlfred Emmott |
| Successor9 | Alfred EmmottJohn Albert Bright |
| Birthname | Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill |
| Birth date | November 30, 1874 |
| Birth place | Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, OxfordshireEngland, United Kingdom |
| Death date | January 24, 1965 |
| Death place | 28 Hyde Park Gate, London, England |
| Restingplace | St Martin's Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire |
| Nationality | British |
| Party | Conservative (1900–04, 1924–64)Liberal (1904–24) |
| Spouse | |
| Relations | Lord Randolph Churchill (father)Lady Randolph Churchill (mother)John Strange Spencer-Churchill (brother)Pamela Harriman (former daughter-in-law)Winston Churchill (grandson) |
| Children | Diana ChurchillRandolph ChurchillSarah Tuchet-JessonMarigold ChurchillMary Soames |
| Residence | 10 Downing Street (Official)Chartwell (Private)28 Hyde Park Gate, London (Private, place of death) |
| Alma mater | Harrow School, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst |
| Profession | Member of Parliament, statesman, soldier, journalist, historian, author, painter |
| Religion | Anglican |
| Allegiance | British Empire |
| Branch | British Army |
| Serviceyears | 1895–1900, 1902–24 |
| Rank | Lieutenant-Colonel |
| Awards | |
| Battles | Anglo-Afghan War*Siege of MalakandMahdist War*Battle of OmdurmanSecond Boer War*Siege of LadysmithFirst World War*Western Front }} |
Churchill was born into the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Marlborough. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer; his mother, Jenny Jerome, an American socialite. As a young army officer, he saw action in British India, the Sudan and the Second Boer War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and through books he wrote about his campaigns.
At the forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty as part of the Asquith Liberal government. During the war, he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign, which he had sponsored, caused his departure from government. He then served briefly on the Western Front, commanding the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He returned to government as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, and Secretary of State for Air. After the War, Churchill served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Conservative (Baldwin) government of 1924–29, controversially returning the pound sterling in 1925 to the gold standard at its pre-War parity, a move widely seen as creating deflationary pressure on the UK economy. Also controversial were Churchill's opposition to increased home rule for India, and his resistance to the 1936 abdication of Edward VIII.
Out of office and politically "in the wilderness" during the 1930s, Churchill took the lead in warning about the danger from Hitler and in campaigning for rearmament. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister. His steadfast refusal to consider defeat, surrender or a compromise peace helped inspire British resistance, especially during the difficult early days of the War when Britain stood alone in its active opposition to Hitler. Churchill was particularly noted for his speeches and radio broadcasts, which helped inspire the British people. He led Britain as Prime Minister until victory had been secured over Nazi Germany.
After the Conservative Party lost the 1945 election, he became Leader of the Opposition. In 1951, he again became Prime Minister, before retiring in 1955. Upon his death, The Queen granted him the honour of a state funeral, which saw one of the largest assemblies of world statesmen ever. Churchill is widely regarded as among the most influential men in British history.
Family and early life
Born into the aristocratic Spencer family, ''Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill'', like his father, used the surname ''Churchill'' in public life. His ancestor George Spencer had changed his surname to Spencer-Churchill in 1817 when he became duke of Marlborough, to highlight his descent from John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Winston's father, Lord Randolph Churchill, the third son of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, was a politician; and his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill (''née'' Jennie Jerome) was the daughter of American millionaire Leonard Jerome. Born on 30 November 1874, two months prematurely, in a bedroom in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, Churchill had one brother, John Strange Spencer-Churchill.Independent and rebellious by nature, Churchill generally did poorly in school, for which he was punished. He was educated at three independent schools: St. George's School, Ascot, Berkshire, followed by Brunswick School in Hove, near Brighton (the school has since been renamed Stoke Brunswick School and relocated to Ashurst Wood in West Sussex), and then at Harrow School from 17 April 1888, where his military career began. Within weeks of his arrival, he had joined the Harrow Rifle Corps. He earned high marks in English and History and was the school's fencing champion.
He was rarely visited by his mother (then known as Lady Randolph Churchill) and wrote letters begging her to either come to the school or to allow him to come home. His relationship with his father was a distant one; he once remarked that they barely spoke to each other. Because of the lack of parental contact, he became very close to his nanny, Elizabeth Anne Everest, whom he used to call "Old Woom". His father died on 24 January 1895, aged 45, leaving Churchill with the conviction that he too would die young and so should be quick about making his mark on the world.
Speech impediment
Various authors in the 1920s–1940s mentioned Churchill's stutter and Churchill described himself as having a "speech impediment", which he consistently worked to overcome. His dentures were specially designed to aid his speech (Demosthenes' pebbles). After many years, he could finally state, "My impediment is no hindrance".The Churchill Centre, however, flatly denies the claim that Churchill stuttered, while confirming that he did have difficulty pronouncing the letter ''S'' and spoke with a lisp as did his father.
Marriage and children
Churchill met his future wife, Clementine Hozier, in 1904 at a ball in Crewe House, home of the Earl of Crewe and Crewe's wife Margaret Primrose (daughter of Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery). In 1908, they met again at a dinner party hosted by Lady St Helier. Churchill found himself seated beside Clementine, and they soon began a lifelong romance. He proposed to Clementine during a house party at Blenheim Palace on 10 August 1908, in a small Temple of Diana. On 12 September 1908, they were married in St. Margaret's, Westminster. The church was packed; the Bishop of St Asaph conducted the service. The couple spent their honeymoon at Highgrove House in Eastcote. In March 1909, the couple moved to a house at 33 Eccleston Square.Their first child, Diana, was born in London on 11 July 1909. After the pregnancy, Clementine moved to Sussex to recover, while Diana stayed in London with her nanny. On 28 May 1911, their second child, Randolph, was born at 33 Eccleston Square. Their third child, Sarah, was born on 7 October 1914 at Admiralty House. The birth was marked with anxiety for Clementine, as Winston had been sent to Antwerp by the Cabinet to "stiffen the resistance of the beleaguered city" after news that the Belgians intended to surrender the town.
Clementine gave birth to her fourth child, Marigold Frances Churchill, on 15 November 1918, four days after the official end of the First World War. In the early days of August 1921, the Churchills' children were entrusted to a French nursery governess in Kent named Mlle Rose. Clementine, meanwhile, travelled to Eaton Hall to play tennis with Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster and his family. While still under the care of Mlle Rose, Marigold had a cold, but was reported to have recovered from the illness. As the illness progressed with hardly any notice, it turned into septicaemia. Following advice from a landlady, Rose sent for Clementine. However the illness turned fatal on 23 August 1921, and Marigold was buried in the Kensal Green Cemetery three days later.
On 15 September 1922, the Churchills' last child was born, Mary. Later that month, the Churchills bought Chartwell, which would be Winston's home until his death in 1965.
Military service
After Churchill left Harrow in 1893, he applied to attend the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. It took three attempts before he passed the entrance exam; he applied for cavalry rather than infantry because the grade requirement was lower and did not require him to learn mathematics, which he disliked. He graduated eighth out of a class of 150 in December 1894, and although he could now have transferred to an infantry regiment as his father had wished, chose to remain with the cavalry and was commissioned as a Cornet (Second Lieutenant) in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars on 20 February 1895. In 1941, he received the honour of being appointed Colonel of the Hussars.Churchill's pay as a second lieutenant in the 4th Hussars was £300. However, he believed that he needed at least a further £500 (equivalent to £25,000 in 2001 terms) to support a style of life equal to other officers of the regiment. His mother provided an allowance of £400 per year, but this was repeatedly overspent. According to biographer Roy Jenkins, this is one reason he took an interest in war correspondence. He did not intend to follow a conventional career of promotion through army ranks, but to seek out all possible chances of military action and used his mother's and family influence in high society to arrange postings to active campaigns. His writings both brought him to the attention of the public, and earned him significant additional income. He acted as a war correspondent for several London newspapers and wrote his own books about the campaigns.
Cuba
In 1895, Churchill travelled to Cuba to observe the Spanish fight the Cuban guerrillas; he had obtained a commission to write about the conflict from the ''Daily Graphic''. To his delight, he came under fire for the first time on his twenty-first birthday. He had fond memories of Cuba as a "...large, rich, beautiful island..." While there, he soon acquired a taste for Havana cigars, which he would smoke for the rest of his life. While in New York, he stayed at the home of Bourke Cockran, an admirer of his mother. Bourke was an established American politician, and a member of the House of Representatives. He greatly influenced Churchill, both in his approach to oratory and politics, and encouraging a love of America.He soon received word that his nanny, Mrs Everest, was dying; he then returned to England and stayed with her for a week until she died. He wrote in his journal "She was my favourite friend." In ''My Early Life'' he wrote: "She had been my dearest and most intimate friend during the whole of the twenty years I had lived."
India
In early October 1896, he was transferred to Bombay, British India. He was considered one of the best polo players in his regiment and led his team to many prestigious tournament victories.In 1897, Churchill attempted to travel to both report and, if necessary, fight in the Greco-Turkish War, but this conflict effectively ended before he could arrive. Later, while preparing for a leave in England, he heard that three brigades of the British Army were going to fight against a Pashtun tribe in the North West Frontier of India and he asked his superior officer if he could join the fight. He fought under the command of General Jeffery, who was the commander of the second brigade operating in Malakand, in the Frontier region of British India. Jeffery sent him with fifteen scouts to explore the Mamund Valley; while on reconnaissance, they encountered an enemy tribe, dismounted from their horses and opened fire. After an hour of shooting, their reinforcements, the 35th Sikhs arrived, and the fire gradually ceased and the brigade and the Sikhs marched on. Hundreds of tribesmen then ambushed them and opened fire, forcing them to retreat. As they were retreating four men were carrying an injured officer but the fierceness of the fight forced them to leave him behind. The man who was left behind was slashed to death before Churchill's eyes; afterwards he wrote of the killer, "I forgot everything else at this moment except a desire to kill this man." However the Sikhs' numbers were being depleted so the next commanding officer told Churchill to get the rest of the men and boys to safety.
Before he left he asked for a note so he would not be charged with desertion. He received the note, quickly signed, and headed up the hill and alerted the other brigade, whereupon they then engaged the army. The fighting in the region dragged on for another two weeks before the dead could be recovered. He wrote in his journal: "Whether it was worth it I cannot tell." An account of the Siege of Malakand was published in December 1900 as ''The Story of the Malakand Field Force''. He received £600 for his account. During the campaign, he also wrote articles for the newspapers ''The Pioneer'' and ''The Daily Telegraph''. His account of the battle was one of his first published stories, for which he received £5 per column from ''The Daily Telegraph''.
Sudan and Oldham
Churchill was transferred to Egypt in 1898. He visited Luxor before joining an attachment of the 21st Lancers serving in the Sudan under the command of General Herbert Kitchener. During this time he encountered two military officers with whom he would work during the First World War: Douglas Haig, then a captain and David Beatty, then a gunboat lieutenant. While in the Sudan, he participated in what has been described as the last meaningful British cavalry charge, at the Battle of Omdurman in September 1898. He also worked as a war correspondent for the ''Morning Post''. By October 1898, he had returned to Britain and begun his two-volume work; ''The River War'', an account of the reconquest of the Sudan which was published the following year. Churchill resigned from the British Army effective from 5 May 1899.He soon had his first opportunity to begin a Parliamentary career, when he was invited by Robert Ascroft to be the second Conservative Party candidate in Ascroft's Oldham constituency. Ascroft's sudden death caused a double by-election and Churchill was one of the candidates. In the midst of a national trend against the Conservatives, both seats were lost; however Churchill impressed by his vigorous campaigning.
South Africa
Having failed at Oldham, Churchill looked about for some other opportunity to advance his career. On 12 October 1899, the Second Boer War between Britain and the Boer Republics broke out and he obtained a commission to act as war correspondent for the Morning Post with a salary of £250 per month. He rushed to sail on the same ship as the newly appointed British commander, Sir Redvers Buller. After some weeks in exposed areas he accompanied a scouting expedition in an armoured train, leading to his capture and imprisonment in a POW camp in Pretoria (converted school building for Pretoria High School for Girls). His actions during the ambush of the train led to speculation that he would be awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy, but this did not occur.He escaped from the prison camp and travelled almost to Portuguese Lourenço Marques in Delagoa Bay, with the assistance of an English mine manager. His escape made him a minor national hero for a time in Britain, though instead of returning home, he rejoined General Buller's army on its march to relieve the British at the Siege of Ladysmith and take Pretoria. This time, although continuing as a war correspondent, he gained a commission in the South African Light Horse. He was among the first British troops into Ladysmith and Pretoria. He and his cousin, the Duke of Marlborough, were able to get ahead of the rest of the troops in Pretoria, where they demanded and received the surrender of 52 Boer prison camp guards.
In 1900, Churchill returned to England on the RMS ''Dunottar Castle'', the same ship on which he set sail for South Africa eight months earlier. He there published ''London to Ladysmith'' and a second volume of Boer war experiences, ''Ian Hamilton's March''. Churchill stood again for parliament in Oldham in the general election of 1900 and won (his Conservative colleague, Crisp, was defeated) in the contest for two seats. After the 1900 general election he embarked on a speaking tour of Britain, followed by tours of the United States and Canada, earning in excess of £5,000.
Territorial service
In 1900, he retired from the regular army and in 1902 joined the Imperial Yeomanry where he was commissioned as a Captain in the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars on 4 January 1902. In April 1905, he was promoted to Major and appointed to command of the Henley Squadron of the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars. In September 1916, he transferred to the territorial reserves of officers where he remained till retiring in 1924, at the age of fifty.
Western front
Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty at the start of the First World War, but was obliged to leave the war cabinet after the disastrous Battle of Gallipoli. He attempted to obtain an appointment as a brigade commander, but settled for command of a battalion. After spending some time as a Major with the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding the 6th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers (part of the 9th (Scottish) Division), on 1 January 1916. Correspondence with his wife shows that his intent in taking up active service was to rehabilitate his reputation, but this was balanced by the serious risk of being killed. As a commander he continued to exhibit the reckless daring which had been a hallmark of all his military actions, although he disapproved strongly of the mass slaughter involved in many western front actions.Lord Deedes opined to a gathering of the Royal Historical Society in 2001 why Churchill went to the front line: "He was with Grenadier Guards, who were dry at battalion headquarters. They very much liked tea and condensed milk, which had no great appeal to Winston, but alcohol was permitted in the front line, in the trenches. So he suggested to the colonel that he really ought to see more of the war and get into the front line. This was highly commended by the colonel, who thought it was a very good thing to do."
Political career to the Second World War
Early years in Parliament
Churchill stood again for the seat of Oldham at the 1900 general election. After winning the seat, he went on a speaking tour throughout Britain and the United States, raising £10,000 for himself (about £}} today). In Parliament, he became associated with a faction of the Conservative Party led by Lord Hugh Cecil; the Hughligans. During his first parliamentary session, he opposed the government's military expenditure and Joseph Chamberlain's proposal of extensive tariffs, which were intended to protect Britain's economic dominance. His own constituency effectively deselected him, although he continued to sit for Oldham until the next general election. After the Whitsun recess in 1904 he crossed the floor to sit as a member of the Liberal Party. As a Liberal, he continued to campaign for free trade. When the Liberals took office with Henry Campbell-Bannerman as prime minister, in December 1905, Churchill became Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies dealing mainly with South Africa after the Boer War. From 1903 until 1905, Churchill was also engaged in writing ''Lord Randolph Churchill'', a two-volume biography of his father which was published in 1906 and received much critical acclaim.Following his deselection in the seat of Oldham, Churchill was invited to stand for Manchester North West. He won the seat at the 1906 general election with a majority of 1,214 and represented the seat for two years, until 1908. When Campbell-Bannerman was succeeded by Herbert Henry Asquith in 1908, Churchill was promoted to the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade. Under the law at the time, a newly appointed Cabinet Minister was obliged to seek re-election at a by-election; Churchill lost his seat but was soon back as a member for Dundee constituency. As President of the Board of Trade he joined newly appointed Chancellor Lloyd George in opposing First Lord of the Admiralty, Reginald McKenna's proposed huge expenditure for the construction of Navy dreadnought warships, and in supporting the Liberal reforms. In 1908, he introduced the Trade Boards Bill setting up the first minimum wages in Britain, In 1909, he set up Labour Exchanges to help unemployed people find work. He helped draft the first unemployment pension legislation, the National Insurance Act of 1911. As a supporter of eugenics, he participated in the drafting of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913, although the Act eventually passed rejected his preferred method of sterilisation of the feeble-minded in favour of their confinement in institutions. Churchill also assisted in passing the People's Budget becoming President of the Budget League, an organisation set up in response to the opposition's "Budget Protest League". The budget included the introduction of new taxes on the wealthy to allow for the creation of new social welfare programmes. After the budget bill was sent to the Commons in 1909 and passed, it went to the House of Lords, where it was vetoed. The Liberals then fought and won two general elections in January and December 1910 to gain a mandate for their reforms. The budget was then passed following the Parliament Act 1911 for which he also campaigned. In 1910, he was promoted to Home Secretary. His term was controversial, after his responses to the Siege of Sidney Street and the dispute at the Cambrian Colliery and the suffragettes.
In 1910, a number of coal miners in the Rhondda Valley began what has come to be known as the Tonypandy Riot. The Chief Constable of Glamorgan requested troops be sent in to help police quell the rioting. Churchill, learning that the troops were already travelling, allowed them to go as far as Swindon and Cardiff but blocked their deployment. On 9 November, ''The Times'' criticised this decision. In spite of this, the rumour persists that Churchill had ordered troops to attack, and his reputation in Wales and in Labour circles never recovered.
In early January 1911, Churchill made a controversial visit to the Siege of Sidney Street in London. There is some uncertainty as to whether he attempted to give operational commands, and his presence attracted much criticism. After an inquest, Arthur Balfour remarked, "he [Churchill] and a photographer were both risking valuable lives. I understand what the photographer was doing, but what was the right honourable gentleman doing?" A biographer, Roy Jenkins, suggests that he went simply because "he could not resist going to see the fun himself" and that he did not issue commands. Another account said the police had the miscreants – Latvian anarchists wanted for murder – surrounded in a house but Churchill, called in the Scots Guards from the Tower of London and, dressed in top hat and astrakhan collar greatcoat, directed operations. The house caught fire and Churchill prevented the fire brigade from dousing the flames so the men inside were burned to death. "I thought it better to let the house burn down rather than spend good British lives in rescuing those ferocious rascals,"
Churchill's proposed solution to the suffragette issue was a referendum on the issue, but this found no favour with Herbert Henry Asquith and women's suffrage remained unresolved until after the First World War.
In 1911, Churchill was transferred to the office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, a post he held into the First World War. He gave impetus to several reform efforts, including development of naval aviation (he undertook flying lessons himself), the construction of new and larger warships, the development of tanks, and the switch from coal to oil in the Royal Navy.
First World War and the Post War Coalition
On 5 October 1914, Churchill went to Antwerp, which the Belgian government proposed to evacuate. The Royal Marine Brigade was there and at Churchill's urgings the 1st and 2nd Naval Brigades were also committed. Antwerp fell on 10 October with the loss of 2500 men. At the time he was attacked for squandering resources. It is more likely that his actions prolonged the resistance by a week (Belgium had proposed surrendering Antwerp on 3 October) and that this time saved Calais and Dunkirk.Churchill was involved with the development of the tank, which was financed from naval research funds. He then headed the Landships Committee which was responsible for creating the first tank corps and, although a decade later development of the battle tank would be seen as a tactical victory, at the time it was seen as misappropriation of funds. In 1915, he was one of the political and military engineers of the disastrous Gallipoli landings on the Dardanelles during the First World War. He took much of the blame for the fiasco, and when Prime Minister Asquith formed an all-party coalition government, the Conservatives demanded his demotion as the price for entry.
For several months Churchill served in the sinecure of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. However on 15 November 1915 he resigned from the government, feeling his energies were not being used and, though remaining an MP, served for several months on the Western Front commanding the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. While in command he personally made 36 forays into no man's land, and his section of the front at Ploegsteert became one of the most active. In March 1916, Churchill returned to England after he had become restless in France and wished to speak again in the House of Commons. Future prime minister David Lloyd George acidly commented: "You will one day discover that the state of mind revealed in (your) letter is the reason why you do not win trust even where you command admiration. In every line of it, national interests are completely overshadowed by your personal concern." In July 1917, Churchill was appointed Minister of Munitions, and in January 1919, Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air. He was the main architect of the Ten Year Rule, a principle that allowed the Treasury to dominate and control strategic, foreign and financial policies under the assumption that "there would be no great European war for the next five or ten years".
A major preoccupation of his tenure in the War Office was the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. Churchill was a staunch advocate of foreign intervention, declaring that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle". He secured, from a divided and loosely organised Cabinet, intensification and prolongation of the British involvement beyond the wishes of any major group in Parliament or the nation—and in the face of the bitter hostility of Labour. In 1920, after the last British forces had been withdrawn, Churchill was instrumental in having arms sent to the Poles when they invaded Ukraine. He became Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1921 and was a signatory of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which established the Irish Free State. Churchill was involved in the lengthy negotiations of the treaty and to protect British maritime interests, he engineered part of the Irish Free State agreement to include three Treaty Ports—Queenstown (Cobh), Berehaven and Lough Swilly—which could be used as Atlantic bases by the Royal Navy. In 1938, however, under the terms of the Chamberlain-De Valera Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement the bases were returned to the Irish Free State.
Churchill advocated the use of tear gas on Kurdish tribesmen in Iraq, Though the British did consider the use of poison gas in putting down Kurdish rebellions, it was not used, as conventional bombing was considered effective.
In 1923, he acted as a paid consultant for Burmah Oil (now BP plc) to lobby the British government to allow Burmah to have exclusive rights to Persian (Iraqi) oil resources, which were successfully granted.
Rejoining the Conservative Party—Chancellor of the Exchequer
In September, the Conservative Party withdrew from the Coalition government following a meeting of backbenchers dissatisfied with the handling of the Chanak Crisis, a move that precipitated the looming October 1922 General Election. Churchill fell ill during the campaign, and had to have an appendicectomy. This made it difficult for him to campaign, and a further setback was the internal division that continued to beset the Liberal Party. He came only fourth in the poll for Dundee, losing to the prohibitionist Edwin Scrymgeour. Churchill later quipped that he left Dundee "without an office, without a seat, without a party and without an appendix". He stood for the Liberals again in the 1923 general election, losing in Leicester, and then as an independent, first without success in a by-election in the Westminster Abbey constituency, and then successfully in the general election of 1924 for Epping. The following year, he formally rejoined the Conservative Party, commenting wryly that "anyone can rat, but it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat."Churchill was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1924 under Stanley Baldwin and oversaw Britain's disastrous return to the Gold Standard, which resulted in deflation, unemployment, and the miners' strike that led to the General Strike of 1926. His decision, announced in the 1924 Budget, came after long consultation with various economists including John Maynard Keynes, the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, Sir Otto Niemeyer and the board of the Bank of England. This decision prompted Keynes to write ''The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill'', arguing that the return to the gold standard at the pre-war parity in 1925 (£1=$4.86) would lead to a world depression. However, the decision was generally popular and seen as 'sound economics' although it was opposed by Lord Beaverbrook and the Federation of British Industries.
Churchill later regarded this as the greatest mistake of his life. However in discussions at the time with former Chancellor McKenna, Churchill acknowledged that the return to the gold standard and the resulting 'dear money' policy was economically bad. In those discussions he maintained the policy as fundamentally political—a return to the pre-war conditions in which he believed. In his speech on the Bill he said "I will tell you what it [the return to the Gold Standard] will shackle us to. It will shackle us to reality."
The return to the pre-war exchange rate and to the Gold Standard depressed industries. The most affected was the coal industry. Already suffering from declining output as shipping switched to oil, as basic British industries like cotton came under more competition in export markets, the return to the pre-war exchange was estimated to add up to 10% in costs to the industry. In July 1925, a Commission of Inquiry reported generally favouring the miners, rather than the mine owners' position. Baldwin, with Churchill's support proposed a subsidy to the industry while a Royal Commission prepared a further report.
That Commission solved nothing and the miners' dispute led to the General Strike of 1926, Churchill was reported to have suggested that machine guns be used on the striking miners. Churchill edited the Government's newspaper, the ''British Gazette'', and, during the dispute, he argued that "either the country will break the General Strike, or the General Strike will break the country" and claimed that the fascism of Benito Mussolini had "rendered a service to the whole world," showing, as it had, "a way to combat subversive forces"—that is, he considered the regime to be a bulwark against the perceived threat of Communist revolution. At one point, Churchill went as far as to call Mussolini the "Roman genius... the greatest lawgiver among men."
Later economists, as well as people at the time, also criticised Churchill's budget measures. These were seen as assisting the generally prosperous rentier banking and salaried classes (to which Churchill and his associates generally belonged) at the expense of manufacturers and exporters which were known then to be suffering from imports and from competition in traditional export markets, and as paring the Armed Forces too heavily.
Political isolation
The Conservative government was defeated in the 1929 General Election. Churchill did not seek election to the Conservative Business Committee, the official leadership of the Conservative MPs. Over the next two years, Churchill became estranged from the Conservative leadership over the issues of protective tariffs and Indian Home Rule and by his political views and by his friendships with press barons, financiers and people whose characters were seen as dubious. When Ramsay MacDonald formed the National Government in 1931, Churchill was not invited to join the Cabinet. He was at the low point in his career, in a period known as "the wilderness years".He spent much of the next few years concentrating on his writing, including ''Marlborough: His Life and Times''—a biography of his ancestor John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough—and ''A History of the English Speaking Peoples'' (though the latter was not published until well after the Second World War), ''Great Contemporaries'' and many newspaper articles and collections of speeches. He was one of the best paid writers of his time. His political views, set forth in his 1930 Romanes Election and published as ''Parliamentary Government and the Economic Problem'' (republished in 1932 in his collection of essays "Thoughts and Adventures") involved abandoning universal suffrage, a return to a property franchise, proportional representation for the major cities and an economic 'sub parliament'.
Indian independence
Churchill opposed Mohandas Gandhi's peaceful disobedience revolt and the Indian Independence movement in the 1930s, arguing that the Round Table Conference "was a frightful prospect". Later reports indicate that Churchill favoured letting Gandhi die if he went on a hunger strike. During the first half of the 1930s, Churchill was outspoken in his opposition to granting Dominion status to India. He was a founder of the India Defence League, a group dedicated to the preservation of British power in India. Churchill brooked no moderation. "The truth is," he declared in 1930, "that Gandhi-ism and everything it stands for will have to be grappled with and crushed." In speeches and press articles in this period he forecast widespread unemployment in Britain and civil strife in India should independence be granted. The Viceroy Lord Irwin, who had been appointed by the prior Conservative Government, engaged in the Round Table Conference in early 1931 and then announced the Government's policy that India should be granted Dominion Status. In this the Government was supported by the Liberal Party and, officially at least, by the Conservative Party. Churchill denounced the Round Table Conference.At a meeting of the West Essex Conservative Association specially convened so Churchill could explain his position he said, "It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well-known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace... to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor." He called the Indian National Congress leaders "Brahmins who mouth and patter principles of Western Liberalism".
Two incidents damaged Churchill's reputation greatly within the Conservative Party in this period. Both were taken as attacks on the Conservative front bench. The first was his speech on the eve of the St George by-election in April 1931. In a secure Conservative seat, the official Conservative candidate Duff Cooper was opposed by an independent Conservative. The independent was supported by Lord Rothermere, Lord Beaverbrook and their respective newspapers. Although arranged before the by-election was set, Churchill's speech was seen as supporting the independent candidate and as a part of the press baron's campaign against Baldwin. Baldwin's position was strengthened when Duff Cooper won, and when the civil disobedience campaign in India ceased with the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. The second issue was a claim by Churchill that Sir Samuel Hoare and Lord Derby had pressured the Manchester Chamber of Commerce to change evidence it had given to the Joint Select Committee considering the Government of India Bill, and in doing so had breached Parliamentary privilege. He had the matter referred to the House of Commons Privilege Committee which after investigations, in which Churchill gave evidence, reported to the House that there had been no breach. The report was debated on 13 June. Churchill was unable to find a single supporter in the House and the debate ended without a division.
Churchill permanently broke with Stanley Baldwin over Indian independence and never held any office while Baldwin was prime minister. Some historians see his basic attitude to India as being set out in his book ''My Early Life'' (1930). Another source of controversy about Churchill's attitude towards Indian affairs arises over what some historians term the Indian 'nationalist approach' to the Bengal famine of 1943, which has sought to place significant blame on Churchill's wartime government for the excessive mortality of up to three million people. While some commentators point to the disruption of the traditional marketing system and maladministration at the provincial level, Arthur Herman, author of ''Churchill and Gandhi'', contends, 'The real cause was the fall of Burma to the Japanese, which cut off India's main supply of rice imports when domestic sources fell short...[though] it is true that Churchill opposed diverting food supplies and transports from other theatres to India to cover the shortfall: this was wartime.' In response to an urgent request by the Secretary of State for India, Leo Amery, and Viceroy of India, Wavell, to release food stocks for India, Churchill responded with a telegram to Wavell asking, if food was so scarce, "why Gandhi hadn't died yet." In July 1940, newly in office, he welcomed reports of the emerging conflict between the Muslim League and the Indian Congress, hoping "it would be bitter and bloody".
German rearmament and conflicts in Europe and Asia
Beginning in 1932, when he opposed those who advocated giving Germany the right to military parity with France, Churchill spoke often of the dangers of Germany's rearmament. He later, particularly in ''The Gathering Storm'', portrayed himself as being for a time, a lone voice calling on Britain to strengthen itself to counter the belligerence of Germany. However Lord Lloyd was the first to so agitate. Churchill's attitude toward the fascist dictators was ambiguous. In 1931, he warned against the League of Nations opposing the Japanese in Manchuria "I hope we shall try in England to understand the position of Japan, an ancient state.... On the one side they have the dark menace of Soviet Russia. On the other the chaos of China, four or five provinces of which are being tortured under Communist rule". In contemporary newspaper articles he referred to the Spanish Republican government as a Communist front, and Franco's army as the "Anti-red movement". He supported the Hoare-Laval Pact and continued up until 1937 to praise Benito Mussolini.Speaking in the House of Commons in 1937, Churchill said "I will not pretend that, if I had to choose between communism and Nazism, I would choose communism". In a 1935 essay titled "Hitler and his Choice", which was republished in his 1937 book ''Great Contemporaries'', Churchill expressed a hope that Hitler, if he so chose, and despite his rise to power through dictatorial action, hatred and cruelty, might yet "go down in history as the man who restored honour and peace of mind to the great Germanic nation and brought it back serene, helpful and strong to the forefront of the European family circle." Churchill's first major speech on defence on 7 February 1934 stressed the need to rebuild the Royal Air Force and to create a Ministry of Defence; his second, on 13 July urged a renewed role for the League of Nations. These three topics remained his themes until early 1936. In 1935, he was one of the founding members of ''The Focus'', which brought together people of differing political backgrounds and occupations who were united in seeking "the defence of freedom and peace". ''The Focus'' led to the formation of the much wider Arms and the Covenant Movement in 1936.
Churchill was holidaying in Spain when the Germans reoccupied the Rhineland in February 1936, and returned to a divided Britain. The Labour opposition was adamant in opposing sanctions and the National Government was divided between advocates of economic sanctions and those who said that even these would lead to a humiliating backdown by Britain as France would not support any intervention. Churchill's speech on 9 March was measured, and praised by Neville Chamberlain as constructive. But within weeks Churchill was passed over for the post of Minister for Co-ordination of Defence in favour of the Attorney General Sir Thomas Inskip. Alan Taylor called this "an appointment rightly described as the most extraordinary since Caligula made his horse a consul". In June 1936, Churchill organised a deputation of senior Conservatives who shared his concern to see Baldwin, Chamberlain and Halifax. He had tried to have delegates from the other two parties and later wrote, "If the leaders of the Labour and Liberal oppositions had come with us there might have been a political situation so intense as to enforce remedial action". As it was the meeting achieved little, Baldwin arguing that the Government was doing all it could, given the anti-war feeling of the electorate.
On 12 November Churchill returned to the topic. Speaking in the Address in Reply debate, after giving some specific instances of Germany's war preparedness, he said "The Government simply cannot make up their mind or they cannot get the prime minister to make up his mind. So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful for impotency. And so we go on preparing more months more years precious perhaps vital for the greatness of Britain for the locusts to eat."
R. R. James called this one of Churchill's most brilliant speeches in this period, Baldwin's reply sounding weak and disturbing the House. The exchange gave new encouragement to the Arms and the Covenant Movement.
Abdication crisis
In June 1936, Walter Monckton told Churchill that the rumours that King Edward VIII intended to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson were true. Churchill then advised against the marriage and said he regarded Mrs Simpson's existing marriage as a 'safeguard'. In November, he declined Lord Salisbury's invitation to be part of a delegation of senior Conservative backbenchers who met with Baldwin to discuss the matter. On 25 November he, Attlee and Liberal leader Archibald Sinclair met with Baldwin, were told officially of the King's intention, and asked whether they would form an administration if Baldwin and the National Government resigned should the King not take the Ministry's advice. Both Attlee and Sinclair said they would not take office if invited to do so. Churchill's reply was that his attitude was a little different but he would support the government.The Abdication crisis became public, coming to a head in the first fortnight of December 1936. At this time Churchill publicly gave his support to the King. The first public meeting of the Arms and the Covenant Movement was on 3 December. Churchill was a major speaker and later wrote that in replying to the Vote of Thanks he made a declaration 'on the spur of the moment' asking for delay before any decision was made by either the King or his Cabinet. Later that night Churchill saw the draft of the King's proposed wireless broadcast and spoke with Beaverbrook and the King's solicitor about it. On 4 December, he met with the King and again urged delay in any decision about abdication. On 5 December, he issued a lengthy statement implying that the Ministry was applying unconstitutional pressure on the King to force him to make a hasty decision. On 7 December he tried to address the Commons to plead for delay. He was shouted down. Seemingly staggered by the unanimous hostility of all Members he left.
Churchill's reputation in Parliament and England as a whole was badly damaged. Some such as Alistair Cooke saw him as trying to build a King's Party. Others like Harold Macmillan were dismayed by the damage Churchill's support for the King had done to the Arms and the Covenant Movement. Churchill himself later wrote "I was myself smitten in public opinion that it was the almost universal view that my political life was ended." Historians are divided about Churchill's motives in his support for Edward VIII. Some such as A J P Taylor see it as being an attempt to 'overthrow the government of feeble men'. Others such as Rhode James see Churchill's motives as entirely honourable and disinterested, that he felt deeply for the King.
Return from exile
Churchill later sought to portray himself as (to some extent) an isolated voice warning of the need to rearm against Germany. While it is true that he had a small following in the House of Commons during much of the 1930s he was given privileged information by some elements within the Government, particularly by disaffected civil servants in the War Ministry. The "Churchill group" in the later half of the decade consisted only of himself, Duncan Sandys and Brendan Bracken. It was isolated from the other main factions within the Conservative Party pressing for faster rearmament and a stronger foreign policy. Churchill continued to be consulted on many matters by the Government or seen as an alternative leader.Even during the time Churchill was campaigning against Indian independence, he received official and otherwise secret information. From 1932, Churchill's neighbour, Major Desmond Morton with Ramsay MacDonald's approval, gave Churchill information on German air power. From 1930 onwards Morton headed a department of the Committee of Imperial Defence charged with researching the defence preparedness of other nations. Lord Swinton as Secretary of State for Air, and with Baldwin's approval, in 1934 gave Churchill access to official and otherwise secret information.
Swinton did so, knowing Churchill would remain a critic of the government, but believing that an informed critic was better than one relying on rumour and hearsay. Churchill was a fierce critic of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Adolf Hitler and in a speech to the House of Commons, he bluntly and prophetically stated, "You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war."
First term as prime minister
"Winston is back"
After the outbreak of the Second World War on 3 September 1939, the day Britain declared war on Germany, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and a member of the War Cabinet, as he had been during the first part of the First World War. When they were informed, the Board of the Admiralty sent a signal to the Fleet: "Winston is back". In this job, he proved to be one of the highest-profile ministers during the so-called "Phoney War", when the only noticeable action was at sea. Churchill advocated the pre-emptive occupation of the neutral Norwegian iron-ore port of Narvik and the iron mines in Kiruna, Sweden, early in the war. However, Chamberlain and the rest of the War Cabinet disagreed, and the operation was delayed until the successful German invasion of Norway.
Bitter beginnings of the war
On 10 May 1940, hours before the German invasion of France by a lightning advance through the Low Countries, it became clear that, following failure in Norway, the country had no confidence in Chamberlain's prosecution of the war and so Chamberlain resigned. The commonly accepted version of events states that Lord Halifax turned down the post of prime minister because he believed he could not govern effectively as a member of the House of Lords instead of the House of Commons. Although the prime minister does not traditionally advise the King on the former's successor, Chamberlain wanted someone who would command the support of all three major parties in the House of Commons. A meeting between Chamberlain, Halifax, Churchill and David Margesson, the government Chief Whip, led to the recommendation of Churchill, and, as a constitutional monarch, George VI asked Churchill to be prime minister. Churchill's first act was to write to Chamberlain to thank him for his support.Churchill had been among the first to recognise the growing threat of Hitler long before the outset of the Second World War, and his warnings had gone largely unheeded. Although there was an element of British public and political sentiment favouring negotiated peace with a clearly ascendant Germany, among them the Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax, Churchill nonetheless refused to consider an armistice with Hitler's Germany. His use of rhetoric hardened public opinion against a peaceful resolution and prepared the British for a long war. Coining the general term for the upcoming battle, Churchill stated in his "finest hour" speech to the House of Commons on 18 June 1940, "I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin." By refusing an armistice with Germany, Churchill kept resistance alive in the British Empire and created the basis for the later Allied counter-attacks of 1942–45, with Britain serving as a platform for the supply of Soviet Union and the liberation of Western Europe.
In response to previous criticisms that there had been no clear single minister in charge of the prosecution of the war, Churchill created and took the additional position of Minister of Defence. He immediately put his friend and confidant, the industrialist and newspaper baron Lord Beaverbrook, in charge of aircraft production. It was Beaverbrook's business acumen that allowed Britain to quickly gear up aircraft production and engineering that eventually made the difference in the war.
Churchill's speeches were a great inspiration to the embattled British. His first speech as prime minister was the famous "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat". He followed that closely with two other equally famous ones, given just before the Battle of Britain. One included the words:
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The other: }}
At the height of the Battle of Britain, his bracing survey of the situation included the memorable line "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few", which engendered the enduring nickname ''The Few'' for the RAF fighter pilots who won it. He first spoke these famous words upon his exit from No. 11 Group's underground bunker at RAF Uxbridge, now known as the Battle of Britain Bunker on 16 August 1940. One of his most memorable war speeches came on 10 November 1942 at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon at Mansion House in London, in response to the Allied victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein. Churchill stated: }}
Without having much in the way of sustenance or good news to offer the British people, he took a risk in deliberately choosing to emphasise the dangers instead.
"Rhetorical power", wrote Churchill, "is neither wholly bestowed, nor wholly acquired, but cultivated." Not all were impressed by his oratory. Robert Menzies, prime minister of Australia and himself a gifted phrase-maker, said of Churchill during the Second World War: "His real tyrant is the glittering phrase so attractive to his mind that awkward facts have to give way." Another associate wrote: "He is... the slave of the words which his mind forms about ideas.... And he can convince himself of almost every truth if it is once allowed thus to start on its wild career through his rhetorical machinery."
Relations with the United States
Churchill's good relationship with Franklin D. Roosevelt secured vital food, oil and munitions via the North Atlantic shipping routes. It was for this reason that Churchill was relieved when Roosevelt was re-elected in 1940. Upon re-election, Roosevelt immediately set about implementing a new method of providing military hardware and shipping to Britain without the need for monetary payment. Put simply, Roosevelt persuaded Congress that repayment for this immensely costly service would take the form of defending the US; and so Lend-lease was born. Churchill had 12 strategic conferences with Roosevelt which covered the Atlantic Charter, Europe first strategy, the Declaration by the United Nations and other war policies. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, Churchill's first thought in anticipation of US help was, "We have won the war!" On 26 December 1941, Churchill addressed a joint meeting of the US Congress, asking of Germany and Japan, "What kind of people do they think we are?" Churchill initiated the Special Operations Executive (SOE) under Hugh Dalton's Ministry of Economic Warfare, which established, conducted and fostered covert, subversive and partisan operations in occupied territories with notable success; and also the Commandos which established the pattern for most of the world's current Special Forces. The Russians referred to him as the "British Bulldog".Churchill's health was fragile, as shown by a mild heart attack he suffered in December 1941 at the White House and also in December 1943 when he contracted pneumonia. Despite this, he travelled over throughout the war to meet other national leaders. For security, he usually travelled using the alias Colonel Warden.
Churchill was party to treaties that would redraw post-Second World War European and Asian boundaries. These were discussed as early as 1943. At the Second Quebec Conference in 1944 he drafted and, together with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed a toned-down version of the original Morgenthau Plan, in which they pledged to convert Germany after its unconditional surrender "into a country primarily agricultural and pastoral in its character." Proposals for European boundaries and settlements were officially agreed to by Harry S. Truman, Churchill, and Joseph Stalin at Potsdam. Churchill's strong relationship with Harry Truman was also of great significance to both countries. While he clearly regretted the loss of his close friend and counterpart Roosevelt, Churchill was enormously supportive of Truman in his first days in office, calling him, "the type of leader the world needs when it needs him most."
Relations with the Soviet Union
When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, Winston Churchill, a vehement anti-Communist, famously stated "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons," regarding his policy toward Stalin. Soon, British supplies and tanks were flowing to help the Soviet Union.The settlement concerning the borders of Poland, that is, the boundary between Poland and the Soviet Union and between Germany and Poland, was viewed as a betrayal in Poland during the post-war years, as it was established against the views of the Polish government in exile. It was Winston Churchill, who tried to motivate Mikołajczyk, who was prime minister of the Polish government in exile, to accept Stalin's wishes, but Mikołajczyk refused. Churchill was convinced that the only way to alleviate tensions between the two populations was the transfer of people, to match the national borders.
As he expounded in the House of Commons on 15 December 1944, "Expulsion is the method which, insofar as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble... A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed by these transferences, which are more possible in modern conditions." However the resulting expulsions of Germans were carried out in a way which resulted in much hardship and, according to a 1966 report by the West German Ministry of Refugees and Displaced Persons, the death of over 2.1 million. Churchill opposed the effective annexation of Poland by the Soviet Union and wrote bitterly about it in his books, but he was unable to prevent it at the conferences.
During October 1944, he and Eden were in Moscow to meet with the Russian leadership. At this point, Russian forces were beginning to advance into various eastern European countries. Churchill held the view that until everything was formally and properly worked out at the Yalta conference, there had to be a temporary, war-time, working agreement with regard to who would run what. The most significant of these meetings were held on 9 October 1944 in the Kremlin between Churchill and Stalin. During the meeting, Poland and the Balkan problems were discussed. Churchill recounted his speech to Stalin on the day:
Stalin agreed to this Percentages Agreement, ticking a piece of paper as he heard the translation. In 1958, five years after the account of this meeting was published (in ''The Second World War''), authorities of the Soviet Union denied that Stalin accepted the "imperialist proposal".
One of the conclusions of the Yalta Conference was that the Allies would return all Soviet citizens that found themselves in the Allied zone to the Soviet Union. This immediately affected the Soviet prisoners of war liberated by the Allies, but was also extended to all Eastern European refugees. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn called the Operation Keelhaul "the last secret of World War II." The operation decided the fate of up to two million post-war refugees fleeing eastern Europe.
Dresden bombings controversy
Between 13–15 February 1945, British and US bombers attacked the German city of Dresden, which was crowded with German wounded and refugees. Because of the cultural importance of the city, and of the number of civilian casualties close to the end of the war, this remains one of the most controversial Western Allied actions of the war. Following the bombing Churchill stated in a top secret telegram:On reflection, under pressure from the Chiefs of Staff and in response to the views expressed by Sir Charles Portal (Chief of the Air Staff,) and Sir Arthur Harris (AOC-in-C of RAF Bomber Command), among others, Churchill withdrew his memo and issued a new one. This final version of the memo completed on 1 April 1945, stated:
Ultimately, responsibility for the British part of the attack lay with Churchill, which is why he has been criticised for allowing the bombings to happen. The German historian Jörg Friedrich, claims that "Winston Churchill's decision to [area] bomb a shattered Germany between January and May 1945 was a war crime" and writing in 2006 the philosopher A. C. Grayling questioned the whole strategic bombing campaign by the RAF presenting the argument that although it was not a war crime it was a moral crime and undermines the Allies contention that they fought a just war. On the other hand, it has also been asserted that Churchill's involvement in the bombing of Dresden was based on the strategic and tactical aspects of winning the war. The destruction of Dresden, while immense, was designed to expedite the defeat of Germany. As the historian and journalist Max Hastings said in an article subtitled, "the Allied Bombing of Dresden": "I believe it is wrong to describe strategic bombing as a war crime, for this might be held to suggest some moral equivalence with the deeds of the Nazis. Bombing represented a sincere, albeit mistaken, attempt to bring about Germany's military defeat." British historian, Frederick Taylor asserts that "All sides bombed each other's cities during the war. Half a million Soviet citizens, for example, died from German bombing during the invasion and occupation of Russia. That's roughly equivalent to the number of German citizens who died from Allied raids. But the Allied bombing campaign was attached to military operations and ceased as soon as military operations ceased."
The Second World War ends
In June 1944, the Allied Forces invaded Normandy and pushed the Nazi forces back into Germany on a broad front over the coming year. After being attacked on three fronts by the Allies, and in spite of Allied failures, such as Operation Market Garden, and German counter-attacks, including the Battle of the Bulge, Germany was eventually defeated. On 7 May 1945 at the SHAEF headquarters in Rheims the Allies accepted Germany's surrender. On the same day in a BBC news flash John Snagge announced that 8 May would be Victory in Europe Day. On Victory in Europe Day, Churchill broadcast to the nation that Germany had surrendered and that a final cease fire on all fronts in Europe would come into effect at one minute past midnight that night. Afterwards, Churchill told a huge crowd in Whitehall: "This is your victory." The people shouted: "No, it is yours", and Churchill then conducted them in the singing of Land of Hope and Glory. In the evening he made another broadcast to the nation asserting the defeat of Japan in the coming months. The Japanese later surrendered on 15 August 1945.As Europe celebrated peace at the end of six years of war, Churchill was concerned with the possibility that the celebrations would soon be brutally interrupted. He concluded that the UK and the US must prepare for the Red Army ignoring previously agreed frontiers and agreements in Europe, and prepare to "impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire." According to the Operation Unthinkable plan ordered by Churchill and developed by the British Armed Forces, the Third World War could have started on 1 July 1945 with a sudden attack against the allied Soviet troops. The plan was rejected by the British Chiefs of Staff Committee as militarily unfeasible.
Leader of the opposition
Although Churchill's role in the Second World War had generated much support for him amongst the British population, he was defeated in the 1945 election. Many reasons for this have been given, key among them being that a desire for post-war reform was widespread amongst the population and that the man who had led Britain in war was not seen as the man to lead the nation in peace. It was anticipated that Churchill would step down and hand over the leadership to Anthony Eden, who became his deputy after the election defeat, but Churchill (despite now being in his seventies) was determined to fight on as leader and Eden was too loyal to challenge his leadership. It would be another decade before Churchill finally did hand over the reins to Eden.
For six years he was to serve as the Leader of the Opposition. During these years Churchill continued to have an impact on world affairs. During his March 1946 trip to the United States, Churchill famously lost a lot of money in a poker game with Harry Truman and his advisors. (He also liked to play Bezique, which he learned while serving in the Boer War.)
During this trip he gave his Iron Curtain speech about the USSR and the creation of the Eastern Bloc. Speaking on 5 March 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, he declared:
''From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere.''
Churchill also argued strongly for British independence from the European Coal and Steel Community, which he saw as a Franco-German project. He saw Britain's place as separate from the continent, much more in-line with the countries of the Commonwealth and the Empire, and with the United States, the so-called Anglosphere.
Churchill held the office of Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Kent in 1949.
Second term as prime minister
Return to government and the decline of the British Empire
After the General Election of 1951, Churchill again held the office of Minister of Defence between October 1951 and January 1952. He also became prime minister in October 1951, and his third government—after the wartime national government and the brief caretaker government of 1945—lasted until his resignation in April 1955. His domestic priorities in his last government were overshadowed by a series of foreign policy crises, which were partly the result of the continued decline of British military and imperial prestige and power. Being a strong proponent of Britain as an international power, Churchill would often meet such moments with direct action. One example was his dispatch of British troops to Kenya to deal with the Mau Mau rebellion. Trying to retain what he could of the Empire, he once stated that, "I will not preside over a dismemberment."
War in Malaya
This was followed by events which became known as the Malayan Emergency. In Malaya, a rebellion against British rule had been in progress since 1948. Once again, Churchill's government inherited a crisis, and Churchill chose to use direct military action against those in rebellion while attempting to build an alliance with those who were not. While the rebellion was slowly being defeated, it was equally clear that colonial rule from Britain was no longer sustainable.
Relations with the United States
Churchill also devoted much of his time in office to Anglo-American relations and, although Churchill did not always agree with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Churchill attempted to maintain the ''Special Relationship'' with the United States. He made four official transatlantic visits to America during his second term as prime minister.
The series of strokes
Churchill had suffered a mild stroke while on holiday in the south of France in the summer of 1949. In June 1953, when he was 78, Churchill suffered a more severe stroke at 10 Downing Street. News of this was kept from the public and from Parliament, who were told that Churchill was suffering from exhaustion. He went to his country home, Chartwell, to recuperate from the effects of the stroke which had affected his speech and ability to walk. He returned to public life in October to make a speech at a Conservative Party conference at Margate. However, aware that he was slowing down both physically and mentally, Churchill retired as prime minister in 1955 and was succeeded by Anthony Eden. He suffered another mild stroke in December 1956.
Retirement and death
Elizabeth II offered to create Churchill Duke of London, but this was declined due to the objections of his son Randolph, who would have inherited the title on his father's death. After leaving the premiership, Churchill spent less time in parliament until he stood down at the 1964 General Election. As a mere "back-bencher," Churchill spent most of his retirement at Chartwell and at his home in Hyde Park Gate, in London. In the 1959 General Election Churchill's majority fell by more than a thousand, since many young voters in his constituency did not support an 85-year-old who could only enter the House of Commons in a wheelchair. As his mental and physical faculties decayed, he began to lose the battle he had fought for so long against the "black dog" of depression. There was speculation that Churchill may have had Alzheimer's disease in his last years, although others maintain that his reduced mental capacity was merely the result of a series of strokes. In 1963, US President John F. Kennedy, acting under authorisation granted by an Act of Congress, proclaimed him an Honorary Citizen of the United States, but he was unable to attend the White House ceremony. Despite poor health, Churchill still tried to remain active in public life, and on St George's Day 1964, sent a message of congratulations to the surviving veterans of the 1918 Zeebrugge Raid who were attending a service of commemoration in Deal, Kent, where two casualties of the raid were buried in the Hamilton Road Cemetery. On 15 January 1965, Churchill suffered a severe stroke that left him gravely ill. He died at his London home nine days later, at age 90, on the morning of Sunday 24 January 1965, 70 years to the day after his father's death.
Funeral
By decree of the Queen, his body lay in state for three days and a state funeral service was held at St Paul's Cathedral on 30 January 1965. Unusually, the Queen attended the funeral. As his lead-lined coffin passed up the River Thames from Tower Pier to Festival Pier on the , dockers lowered their crane jibs in a salute. The Royal Artillery fired the 19-gun salute due a head of government, and the RAF staged a fly-by of sixteen English Electric Lightning fighters. The coffin was then taken the short distance to Waterloo station where it was loaded onto a specially prepared and painted carriage as part of the funeral train for its rail journey to , seven miles north-west of Oxford. The funeral also saw one of the largest assemblages of statesmen in the world. The funeral train of Pullman coaches carrying his family mourners was hauled by Battle of Britain class steam locomotive No. 34051 ''Winston Churchill''. In the fields along the route, and at the stations through which the train passed, thousands stood in silence to pay their last respects. At Churchill's request, he was buried in the family plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, not far from his birthplace at Blenheim Palace. Churchill's funeral van—Southern Railway van S2464S—is now part of a preservation project with the Swanage Railway, having been repatriated to the UK in 2007 from the US, to where it had been exported in 1965.Later in 1965 a memorial to Churchill, cut by the engraver Reynolds Stone, was placed in Westminster Abbey.
Churchill as artist, historian, and writer
Winston Churchill was an accomplished artist and took great pleasure in painting, especially after his resignation as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1915. He found a haven in art to overcome the spells of depression, or as he termed it, the "Black Dog", which he suffered throughout his life. As William Rees-Mogg has stated, "In his own life, he had to suffer the 'black dog' of depression. In his landscapes and still lives there is no sign of depression." Churchill was persuaded and taught to paint by his artist friend, Paul Maze, whom he met during the First World War. Maze was a great influence on Churchill's painting and became a lifelong painting companion. He is best known for his impressionist scenes of landscape, many of which were painted while on holiday in the South of France, Egypt or Morocco. He continued his hobby throughout his life and painted hundreds of paintings, many of which are on show in the studio at Chartwell as well as private collections. Some of his paintings can today be seen in the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection at the Dallas Museum of Art. Emery Reves and Winston Churchill indeed were close friends and Churchill would often visit Emery and his wife in their villa in the South of France (villa La Pausa, originally built in 1927 for Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel). The villa was rebuilt within the museum in 1985 with a gallery of paintings and memorabilia from Sir Winston Churchill. Most of his paintings are oil-based and feature landscapes, but he also did a number of interior scenes and portraits.Due to obvious time constraints, Churchill attempted only one painting during the Second World War. He completed the painting from the tower of the Villa Taylor in Marrakesh.
Despite his lifelong fame and upper-class origins, Churchill always struggled to keep his income at a level that would fund his extravagant lifestyle. MPs before 1946 received only a nominal salary (and in fact did not receive anything at all until the Parliament Act 1911) so many had secondary professions from which to earn a living. From his first book in 1898 until his second stint as Prime Minister, Churchill's income was almost entirely made from writing books and opinion pieces for newspapers and magazines. The most famous of his newspaper articles are those that appeared in the ''Evening Standard'' from 1936 warning of the rise of Hitler and the danger of the policy of appeasement.
Churchill was also a prolific writer of books, writing a novel, two biographies, three volumes of memoirs, and several histories in addition to his many newspaper articles. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values". Two of his most famous works, published after his first premiership brought his international fame to new heights, were his six-volume memoir ''The Second World War'' and ''A History of the English-Speaking Peoples''; a four-volume history covering the period from Caesar's invasions of Britain (55 BC) to the beginning of the First World War (1914).
He was also an amateur bricklayer, building garden walls and even a cottage at Chartwell. As part of this hobby he joined the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers.
Honours
In addition to the honour of a state funeral, Churchill received a wide range of awards and other honours. For example, he was the first person to become an Honorary Citizen of the United States.In 1945, while Churchill was mentioned by Halvdan Koht as one of seven appropriate candidates for the Nobel Prize in Peace, the nomination went to Cordell Hull.
Churchill received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his numerous published works, especially his six-volume set ''The Second World War.'' In a 2002 BBC poll of the "100 Greatest Britons", he was proclaimed "The Greatest of Them All" based on approximately a million votes from BBC viewers. Churchill was also rated as one of the most influential leaders in history by ''TIME''. Churchill College, Cambridge was founded in 1958 to memorialise him.
Honorary degrees
University of Rochester (LLD) in 1941
Ancestors
{{ahnentafel-compact5 |style=font-size: 90%; line-height: 110%; |border=1 |boxstyle=padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1=1. Winston Churchill |2=2. Lord Randolph Spencer-Churchill |3=3. Jennie Jerome |4=4. John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough |5=5. Lady Frances Vane-Stewart |6=6. Leonard Walter Jerome |7=7. Clarissa Hall |8=8. George Spencer-Churchill, 6th Duke of Marlborough |9=9. Lady Jane Stewart |10=10. Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry |11=11. Lady Frances Vane-Tempest |12=12. Isaac Jerome |13=13. Aurora Murray |14=14. Ambrose Hall |15=15. Clarissa Willcox |16=16. George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough |17=17. Lady Susan Stewart |18=18. George Stewart, 8th Earl of Galloway |19=19. Lady Jane Bailey Paget |20=20. Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry |21=21. Lady Frances Pratt |22=22. Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, 2nd Baronet of Wynyard |23=23. Anne Katherine McDonnell, 2nd Countess of Antrim |24=24. Aaron Jerome |25=25. Elizabeth Ball |26=26. Reuben Murray |27=27. Sarah Guthrie |28=28. Ambrose Hall |29=29. Mehitable Beach |30=30. David Willcox |31=31. Anna Baker }}
Portrayal in film and television
Churchill has been portrayed in film and television on more than 100 occasions. Portrayals of Churchill include Dudley Field Malone (''An American in Paris'', 1951), Peter Sellers (''The Man Who Never Was'', 1956), Richard Burton (''Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years'', 1961), Simon Ward ("Young Winston", 1972), Warren Clarke (''Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill'', 1974), Wensley Pithey (''Edward and Mrs Simpson'', 1978), William Hootkins (''The Life and Times of David Lloyd George'', 1981), Robert Hardy (''War and Remembrance'', 1989), Albert Finney ("The Gathering Storm", 2002), Ian Mune ("Ike: Countdown to D-Day", 2004), Rod Taylor (''Inglourious Basterds'', 2009), Brendan Gleeson (''Into the Storm'', 2009), Ian McNeice (''Doctor Who'', 2010), and Timothy Spall (''The King's Speech'', 2010).
See also
References
Notes
Primary sources
Secondary sources
Davis, Richard Harding. ''Real Soldiers of Fortune'' (1906). Early biography. Project Gutenberg etext, wikisource here
External links
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