Because the figures portrayed are actual people, whose actions and characteristics are known, biopics are considered some of the most demanding films of actors and actresses. Johnny Depp, Jim Carrey, and Jamie Foxx all gained respect as dramatic actors after starring in biopics: Depp as Edward D. Wood, Jr. in ''Ed Wood'' (1994), Carrey as Andy Kaufman in ''Man on the Moon'' (1999), and Foxx as Ray Charles in ''Ray'' (2004).
In rare cases, sometimes called autobiopics, the subject of the film plays himself or herself: Jackie Robinson in ''The Jackie Robinson Story''; Muhammad Ali in ''The Greatest''; Audie Murphy in ''To Hell and Back''; Patty Duke in ''Call Me Anna''; ''Arlo Guthrie'' in ''Alice's Restaurant''; and Howard Stern in ''Private Parts''.
Biopic scholars include George Custen of The College of Staten Island and Dennis Bingham of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Custen saw the genre as having died with the Hollywood studio era, and in particular, Daryl Zanuck, but Bingham's 2010 study ''Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre'' shows how it perpetuates as a codified genre using many of the same tropes used in the studio era that has followed a similar trajectory as that shown by Rick Altman in his landmark study, ''Film/Genre''.
Although many viewers and critics forgive such fabrications for entertainment value, some biopics have come under criticism for allegations of deception. Historians noted the wayward chronology of ''Michael Collins,'' a team of Greek lawyers threatened to sue the makers of ''Alexander'' for implying that Alexander the Great was bisexual and many boxing fans resented the villainous portrayal of Max Baer in ''Cinderella Man.'' But a more controversial biopic in terms of accuracy is 1999's ''The Hurricane,'' about boxer Rubin Carter and his hotly-disputed triple murder conviction. Several details were altered to enhance the image of Carter and details about the police procedures that lead to the conviction conflicted with court records. Also, former middle weight champion Joey Giardello, who won a title bout against Carter, sued the film's producers for suggesting he won due to a racist "fix". The case was settled out of court.
Roger Ebert defended the ''The Hurricane'' and distortions in biographical films in general, stating "those who seek the truth about a man from the film of his life might as well seek it from his loving grandmother. ... ''The Hurricane'' is not a documentary but a parable."
Some biopics purposely stretch the truth. ''Confessions of a Dangerous Mind'' was based on game show host Chuck Barris' widely debunked, yet still popular, memoir of the same name, in which he claimed to be a CIA agent, and ''Kafka'' incorporated both the life of author Franz Kafka and the surreal aspects of his fiction.
The Errol Flynn film ''They Died With Their Boots On'' tells the story of Custer but is highly romanticised.
Casting can be controversial for biographical films. Some felt that Anthony Hopkins should not have played Richard Nixon in ''Nixon'' because of a lack of resemblance between the two. Egyptian critics criticized the casting of Louis Gossett, Jr., an African American actor, as Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in the 1982 TV miniseries ''Sadat''. Also, some objected to the casting of Jennifer Lopez in ''Selena'' because she is Puerto Rican and Selena was Mexican-American.
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Name | Malcolm X |
---|---|
Birth date | May 19, 1925 |
Birth place | Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
Death date | February 21, 1965 |
Death place | New York City, U.S. |
Other names | Malcolm Little, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz |
Movement | Black nationalism, Pan-Africanism |
Organization | Nation of Islam, Muslim Mosque, Inc., Organization of Afro-American Unity |
Religion | Sunni Islam |
Influences | Elijah Muhammad, Marcus Garvey |
Influenced | |
Signature | Malcolm X Signature.svg }} |
Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. The events of his childhood, including his father's lessons concerning black pride and self-reliance, and his own experiences concerning race played a significant role in Malcolm X's adult life. By the time he was thirteen, his father had died and his mother had been committed to a mental hospital. After living in a series of foster homes, Malcolm X became involved in a number of criminal activities in Boston and New York City. In 1946, Malcolm X was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison.
While in prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam, and after his parole in 1952 he became one of the Nation's leaders and chief spokesmen. For nearly a dozen years he was the public face of the controversial group. Tension between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, led to Malcolm X's quitting the organization in March 1964. He subsequently traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East and founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the secular Organization of Afro-American Unity, which advocated Pan-Africanism. Less than a year after he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was assassinated by three members of the group while giving a speech in New York.
The beliefs expressed by Malcolm X changed during his lifetime. As a spokesman for the Nation of Islam he taught black supremacy and deified the leaders of the organization. He also advocated the separation of black and white Americans, which put him at odds with the civil rights movement, which was working towards integration. After he left the Nation of Islam in 1964, Malcolm X became a Sunni Muslim, made the pilgrimage to Mecca and disavowed racism, while remaining a champion of black self-determination, self defense, and human rights. He expressed a willingness to work with civil rights leaders and described his previous position with the Nation of Islam as that of a "zombie".
Earl Little, who was dark-skinned, was born in Reynolds, Georgia. He had three children from his first marriage: Ella, Mary, and Earl Jr.—and seven with his second wife, Louise: Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, Malcolm, Reginald, Yvonne, and Wesley. Louise Norton Little was born in Grenada. Because her father was Scottish, she was so light-skinned that she could have passed for white. Malcolm inherited his light complexion from his mother and maternal grandfather. Initially he felt his light skin was a status symbol, but he later said he "hated every drop of that white rapist's blood that is in me." Malcolm X later remembered feeling that his father favored him because he was the lightest-skinned child in the family; however, he thought his mother treated him harshly for the same reason. One of Malcolm's nicknames, "Red", derived from the tinge of his hair. According to one biographer, at birth he had "ash-blonde hair ... tinged with cinnamon", and at age four, "reddish-blonde hair". His hair darkened as he aged, yet he also resembled his paternal grandmother, whose hair "turned reddish in the summer sun." The issue of skin and hair color took on very significant implications later in Malcolm's life.
In December 1924, Louise Little was threatened by klansmen while she was pregnant with Malcolm. She recalled that the klansmen warned the family to leave Omaha, because Earl Little's activities with UNIA were "spreading trouble". After they moved to Lansing, their house was burned in 1929; however, the family escaped without physical injury. On September 8, 1931, Earl Little was fatally struck by a streetcar in Lansing. Authorities ruled his death an accident. The police reported that Earl Little was conscious when they arrived on the scene, and he told them he had slipped and fallen under the streetcar's wheels. The black community in Lansing disputed the cause of death, believing there was circumstantial evidence of assault. His family had frequently been harassed by the Black Legion, a white supremacist group that his father accused of burning down their home in 1929. Some blacks believed the Black Legion was responsible for Earl Little's death. One of the adults at the funeral told eight-year-old Philbert Little that his father had been hit from behind and shoved under the streetcar.
Though Earl Little had two life insurance policies, his family received death benefits solely from the smaller policy. The insurance company of the larger policy claimed that his father had committed suicide and refused to issue the benefit. The payout from the insurance policy was $1,000 (comparable to about $15,000 in 2010 dollars), and the probate court awarded Louise Little a monthly "widow's allowance" of $18. She rented space in the garden to raise more money, and her sons would hunt game for supper.
In 1935 or 1936, Louise Little began dating an African-American man. A marriage proposal seemed a possibility, but the man disappeared from their lives when Louise became pregnant with his child in late 1937. In December 1938, Louise Little had a nervous breakdown and was declared legally insane. The Little siblings were split up and sent to different foster homes. The state formally committed Louise Little to the state mental hospital at Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she remained until Malcolm and his siblings secured her release 24 years later.
Malcolm Little was one of the best students in his junior high school, but he dropped out after a white eighth-grade teacher told him that his aspirations of being a lawyer were "no realistic goal for a nigger." Years later, Malcolm X would laugh about the incident, but at the time it was humiliating. It made him feel that there was no place in the white world for a career-oriented black man, no matter how smart he was. After living with a series of white foster parents, Malcolm moved to Boston in February 1941 to live with his older half-sister, Ella Little Collins.
In 1943, the U.S. draft board ordered Little to register for military service. He later recalled that he put on a display to avoid the draft by telling the examining officer that he could not wait to "steal us some guns, and kill us [some] crackers." Military physicians classified him as "mentally disqualified for military service". He was issued a 4-F card, relieving him of his service obligations. In late 1945, Little returned to Boston. With a group of associates, he began a series of elaborate burglaries targeting the residences of wealthy white families. On January 12, 1946, Little was arrested for burglary while trying to pick up a stolen watch he had left for repairs at a jewelry shop. The shop owner called the police because the watch was very expensive, and the police had alerted all Boston jewelers that it had been stolen. Little told the police that he had a gun on his person and surrendered so the police would treat him more leniently. Three days later, Little was indicted for carrying firearms. On January 16, he was charged with larceny and breaking and entering, and eventually sentenced to eight to ten years in prison.
On February 27, Little began serving his sentence at the Charlestown State Prison in Charlestown, Boston. While in prison, Little earned the nickname of "Satan" for his hostility toward religion. Little met a self-educated man in prison named John Elton Bembry (referred to as "Bimbi" in ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X''). Bembry was a well-regarded prisoner at Charlestown, and Malcolm X would later describe him as "the first man I had ever seen command total respect ... with words." Gradually, the two men became friends and Bembry convinced Little to educate himself. Little developed a voracious appetite for reading, and he frequently read after the prison lights had been turned off. In 1948, Little's brother Philbert wrote, telling him about the Nation of Islam. Like the UNIA, the Nation preached black self-reliance and, ultimately, the unification of members of the African diaspora, free from white American and European domination. Little was not interested in joining until his brother Reginald wrote, saying, "Malcolm, don't eat any more pork and don't smoke any more cigarettes. I'll show you how to get out of prison." Little quit smoking, and the next time pork was served in the prison dining hall, he refused to eat it.
When Reginald came to visit Little, he described the group's teachings, including the belief that white people are devils. Afterward, Little thought about all the white people he had known, and he realized that he'd never had a relationship with a white person or social institution that wasn't based on dishonesty, injustice, greed, and hatred. Little began to reconsider his dismissal of all religion and he became receptive to the message of the Nation of Islam. Other family members who had joined the Nation wrote or visited and encouraged Little to join. In February 1948, mostly through his sister's efforts, Little was transferred to the Norfolk Prison Colony, an experimental prison in Norfolk, Massachusetts, that had a much larger library. In late 1948, he wrote a letter to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad advised him to atone for his crimes by renouncing his past and by humbly bowing in prayer to Allah and promising never to engage in destructive behavior again. Little, who always had been rebellious and deeply skeptical, found it very difficult to bow in prayer. It took him a week to bend his knees. Finally he prayed, and he became a member of the Nation of Islam. For the remainder of his incarceration, Little maintained regular correspondence with Muhammad. On August 7, 1952, Little was paroled and was released from prison. He later reflected on the time he spent in prison after his conversion: "Months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life."
When Little was released from prison in 1952, he had more than a new religion. He also had a new name. In a December 1950 letter to his brother Philbert, Little signed his name as Malcolm X for the first time. In his autobiography, he explained why: "The Muslim's 'X' symbolized the true African family name that he never could know. For me, my 'X' replaced the white slavemaster name of 'Little' which some blue-eyed devil named Little had imposed upon my paternal forebears."
Shortly after his release from prison, Malcolm X visited Elijah Muhammad in Chicago, Illinois. In June 1953, Malcolm X was named assistant minister of the Nation of Islam's Temple Number One in Detroit. Soon, he became a full-time minister. By late 1953, Malcolm X established Boston's Temple Number 11. In March 1954, he expanded Temple Number 12 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Two months later Malcolm X was selected to lead Temple Number Seven in Harlem, and he rapidly expanded its membership.
The FBI had opened a file on Malcolm X in 1950 after he wrote a letter to President Truman stating his opposition to the Korean War and declaring himself to be a communist. It began surveillance of him in 1953, and soon the FBI turned its attention from concerns about possible Communist Party association to Malcolm X's rapid ascent in the Nation of Islam.
During 1955, Malcolm X continued his successful recruitment efforts on behalf of the organization. He established temples in Springfield, Massachusetts (Number 13); Hartford, Connecticut (Number 14); and Atlanta, Georgia (Number 15). Hundreds of African Americans were joining the Nation of Islam every month. Beside his skill as a speaker, Malcolm X had an impressive physical presence. He stood tall and weighed about . One writer described him as "powerfully built", and another as "mesmerizingly handsome ... and always spotlessly well-groomed".
A woman who had seen the assault ran to the Nation of Islam's restaurant. Within a few hours, Malcolm X and a small group of Muslims went to the police station and demanded to see Hinton. The police captain initially said no Muslims were being held there, but as the crowd grew to about 500, he allowed Malcolm X to speak with Hinton. After a short talk, Malcolm X demanded that Hinton be taken to the hospital, so an ambulance was called and Hinton was taken to Harlem Hospital.
Hinton was treated and released into the custody of the police, who returned him to the police station. By this point, about 4,000 people had gathered; the police realized there was the potential for a riot and called for backup. Malcolm X went back into the police station with an attorney and made bail arrangements for the other two Muslims. The police said Hinton could not go back to the hospital until he was arraigned the following day. Malcolm X realized things were at a stalemate. He stepped outside the station house and gave a hand signal. The Nation of Islam members in the crowd silently walked away. The rest of the crowd dispersed minutes later. One police officer told the editor of the ''New York Amsterdam News'': "No one man should have that much power."
The following month, the Bureau of Special Services and Investigation of the New York Police Department (NYPD) began its surveillance of Malcolm X. The NYPD's Chief Inspector asked for information from the police department in every city where Malcolm X had lived, and from the prisons where he had served his sentence. In October, when a grand jury declined to indict the officers who had beaten Hinton, Malcolm X wrote an angry telegram to the police commissioner. In response, undercover NYPD officers were placed inside the Nation of Islam.
Malcolm X and Betty X did not have a conventional courtship. One-on-one dates were contrary to the teachings of the Nation of Islam. Instead, the couple shared their "dates" with dozens, or even hundreds of other members. Malcolm X frequently took groups to visit New York's museums and libraries, and he always invited Betty X.
Although they had never discussed the subject, Betty X suspected that Malcolm X was interested in marriage. On January 12, 1958, he called from Detroit and asked her to marry him, and they were married two days later in Lansing, Michigan.
The couple had six daughters. Their names were Attallah, born in 1958 and named after Attila the Hun; Qubilah, born in 1960 and named after Kublai Khan; Ilyasah, born in 1962 and named after Elijah Muhammad; Gamilah Lumumba, born in 1964 and named after Patrice Lumumba; and twins, Malikah and Malaak, born in 1965 after their father's assassination and named for him.
In September 1960, Fidel Castro arrived in New York to attend the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. He and his entourage stayed at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. Malcolm X was a prominent member of a Harlem-based welcoming committee made up of community leaders who met with Castro. Castro was so impressed by Malcolm X that he requested a private meeting with him. At the end of their two-hour meeting, Castro invited Malcolm X to visit him in Cuba. During the General Assembly meeting, Malcolm X was also invited to many official embassy functions sponsored by African nations, where he met heads of state and other leaders, including Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, and Kenneth Kaunda of the Zambian African National Congress.
From his adoption of the Nation of Islam in 1952 until he left the organization in 1964, Malcolm X promoted the Nation's teachings. He taught that black people were the original people of the world, and that white people were a race of devils. In his speeches, Malcolm X said that black people were superior to white people, and that the demise of the white race was imminent. While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm X advocated the complete separation of African Americans from white people. He proposed the establishment of a separate country for black people as an interim measure until African Americans could return to Africa. Malcolm X also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence, and instead advocated that black people use any necessary means of self-defense to protect themselves. Malcolm X's speeches had a powerful effect on his audiences, generally African Americans who lived in the Northern and Western cities, who were tired of being told to wait for freedom, justice, equality and respect. Many blacks felt that he articulated their complaints better than the civil rights movement did.
Many white people, and some blacks, were alarmed by Malcolm X and the things he said. He and the Nation of Islam were described as hatemongers, black supremacists, violence-seekers, and a threat to improved race relations. Civil rights organizations denounced Malcolm X and the Nation as irresponsible extremists whose views were not representative of African Americans. Malcolm X was accused of being antisemitic.
Malcolm X was equally critical of the civil rights movement. He described its leaders as "stooges" for the white establishment, and said that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a "chump". He criticized the 1963 March on Washington, which he called "the farce on Washington". He said he did not know why black people were excited over a demonstration "run by whites in front of a statue of a president who has been dead for a hundred years and who didn't like us when he was alive". Malcolm X has been widely considered the second most influential leader of the Nation of Islam after Elijah Muhammad. He was largely credited with increasing membership of the group; from 500 in 1952 to 25,000 in 1963 by one author's estimate, or from 1,200 in 1953 to 50,000 or 75,000 in 1961 by another's. He inspired the boxer Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) to join the Nation of Islam. Ali later left the group and became a Sunni Muslim, as did Malcolm X.
In early 1963, Malcolm X started collaborating with Alex Haley on ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X''. In 1964, he told Haley, "If I'm alive when this book comes out, it will be a miracle." The book was not finished when Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965. Haley completed it and published it later that year. In 1998, ''TIME'' named ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X'' one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.
On March 8, 1964, Malcolm X publicly announced his break from the Nation of Islam. He said that he was still a Muslim, but he felt the Nation of Islam had "gone as far as it can" because of its rigid religious teachings. Malcolm X said he was going to organize a black nationalist organization that would try to "heighten the political consciousness" of African Americans. He also expressed his desire to work with other civil rights leaders and said that Elijah Muhammad had prevented him from doing so in the past.
One reason for the separation was growing tension between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad because of Malcolm X's dismay about rumors of Muhammad's extramarital affairs with young secretaries, actions that were against the teachings of the Nation. Although at first Malcolm X had ignored the rumors, after speaking with Muhammad's son Wallace and the women making the accusations, he came to believe that they were true. Muhammad confirmed the rumors in 1963 but tried to justify his actions by reference to precedents set by Biblical prophets. Another reason for the separation was growing resentment by people within the Nation. As Malcolm X had become a favorite of the media, many in the Nation's Chicago headquarters felt that he was over-shadowing Muhammad. Louis Lomax's 1963 book about the Nation of Islam, ''When the Word Is Given'', featured a picture of Malcolm X on its cover and included five of his speeches, but only one of Muhammad's, which greatly upset Muhammad. Muhammad was also envious that a publisher was interested in Malcolm X's autobiography. After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the Organization of Afro-American Unity, a secular group that advocated Pan-Africanism. On March 26, 1964, he met Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington, D.C., after a press conference held when both men attended the Senate to hear the debate on the Civil Rights bill. This was the only time the two men ever met and their meeting lasted only one minute—just long enough for photographers to take a picture. In April, Malcolm X made a speech titled "The Ballot or the Bullet" in which he advised African Americans to exercise their right to vote wisely. Several Sunni Muslims encouraged Malcolm X to learn about Islam. Soon he converted to Sunni Islam, and decided to make his pilgrimage to Mecca (''hajj'').
According to his autobiography, Malcolm X saw a telephone and remembered the book ''The Eternal Message of Muhammad'' by Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam, which had been presented to him with his visa approval. He called Azzam's son, who arranged for his release. At the younger Azzam's home, he met Azzam Pasha, who gave Malcolm his suite at the Jeddah Palace Hotel. The next morning, Muhammad Faisal, the son of Prince Faisal, visited and informed Malcolm X that he was to be a state guest. The deputy chief of protocol accompanied Malcolm X to the Hajj Court, where he was allowed to make his pilgrimage.
On April 19, Malcolm X completed the Hajj, making the seven circuits around the Kaaba, drinking from the Zamzam Well, and running between the hills of Safah and Marwah seven times. After completing the Hajj, he was granted an audience with Prince Faisal. Malcolm X said the trip allowed him to see Muslims of different races interacting as equals. He came to believe that Islam could be the means by which racial problems could be overcome.
In 1959, Malcolm X traveled to Egypt (then known as the United Arab Republic), Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana to arrange a tour for Elijah Muhammad. The first of the two trips Malcolm X made to Africa in 1964 lasted from April 13 until May 21, before and after his Hajj. On May 8, following his speech at the University of Ibadan, Malcolm X was made an honorary member of the Nigerian Muslim Students' Association. During this reception the students bestowed upon him the name "Omowale", which means "the son who has come home" in the Yoruba language. Malcolm X wrote in his autobiography that he "had never received a more treasured honor."
On July 9, 1964, Malcolm X returned to Africa. On July 17, he was welcomed to the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Cairo as a representative of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. By the time he returned to the United States on November 24, 1964, Malcolm had met with every prominent African leader and established an international connection between Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora.
On February 5, 1965, Malcolm X went to Europe again. On February 8, he spoke in London, before the first meeting of the Council of African Organizations. The next day, Malcolm X tried to go to France, but he was refused entry. On February 12, he visited Smethwick, near Birmingham, which had become a byword for racial division after the 1964 general election, when the Conservative Party won the parliamentary seat after rumors that their candidate's supporters had used the slogan "If you want a nigger for your neighbour, vote Labour."
Tensions increased between Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. As early as February 1964, a member of Temple Number Seven was given orders by the group to wire explosives to Malcolm X's car. In September 1964, ''Ebony'' published a photograph of Malcolm X holding an M1 Carbine and peering out a window. The photo was intended to illustrate his determination to defend himself and his family against the death threats he was receiving.
The Nation of Islam and its leaders began making both public and private threats against Malcolm X. On March 23, 1964, Elijah Muhammad told Boston minister Louis X (later known as Louis Farrakhan) that "hypocrites like Malcolm should have their heads cut off." The April 10 edition of ''Muhammad Speaks'' featured a cartoon in which his severed head was shown bouncing. On July 9, John Ali, a top aide to Muhammad, answered a question about Malcolm X by saying that "anyone who opposes the Honorable Elijah Muhammad puts their life in jeopardy." The December 4 issue of ''Muhammad Speaks'' included an article by Louis X that railed against Malcolm X, saying "such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death."
Some threats were made anonymously. During the month of June 1964, FBI surveillance recorded two such threats. On June 8, a man called Malcolm X's home and told Betty Shabazz to "tell him he's as good as dead." On June 12, an FBI informant reported getting an anonymous telephone call from somebody who said "Malcolm X is going to be bumped off."
In June 1964, the Nation of Islam sued to reclaim Malcolm X's residence in Queens, New York, which they claimed to own. The suit was successful, and Malcolm X was ordered to vacate. On February 14, 1965, the night before a scheduled hearing to postpone the eviction date, the house burned to the ground. Malcolm X and his family survived. No one was charged with any crime.
Talmadge Hayer, a Nation of Islam member also known as Thomas Hagan, was arrested on the scene. Eyewitnesses identified two more suspects, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, also members of the Nation. All three were charged. At first Hayer denied involvement, but during the trial he confessed to having fired shots at Malcolm X. He testified that Butler and Johnson were not present and were not involved in the assassination, but he declined to name the men who had joined him in the shooting. All three men were convicted.
Butler, now known as Muhammad Abdul Aziz, was paroled in 1985. He became the head of the Nation of Islam's Harlem mosque in 1998. He continues to maintain his innocence. Johnson, who changed his name to Khalil Islam, was released from prison in 1987. During his time in prison, he rejected the teachings of the Nation of Islam and converted to Sunni Islam. He maintained his innocence until his death in August 2009. Hayer, now known as Mujahid Halim, was paroled in 2010.
Among the civil rights leaders attending were John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, James Forman, James Farmer, Jesse Gray, and Andrew Young. Actor and activist Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy, describing Malcolm X as "our shining black prince".
There are those who will consider it their duty, as friends of the Negro people, to tell us to revile him, to flee, even from the presence of his memory, to save ourselves by writing him out of the history of our turbulent times. Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial and bold young captain—and we will smile. Many will say turn away—away from this man, for he is not a man but a demon, a monster, a subverter and an enemy of the black man—and we will smile. They will say that he is of hate—a fanatic, a racist—who can only bring evil to the cause for which you struggle! And we will answer and say to them: Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him, or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did you would know him. And if you knew him you would know why we must honor him.
Malcolm X was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. At the gravesite after the ceremony, friends took the shovels from the waiting gravediggers and completed the burial themselves. Actor and activist Ruby Dee (wife of Ossie Davis) and Juanita Poitier (wife of Sidney Poitier) established the Committee of Concerned Mothers to raise funds to buy a house and pay educational expenses for Malcolm X's family.
While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems that we face as a race.
Elijah Muhammad told the annual Savior's Day convention on February 26, "Malcolm X got just what he preached." "We didn't want to kill Malcolm and didn't try to kill him," Muhammad said. "We know such ignorant, foolish teachings would bring him to his own end."
''The New York Times'' wrote that Malcolm X was "an extraordinary and twisted man" who "turn[ed] many true gifts to evil purpose" and that his life was "strangely and pitifully wasted". The ''New York Post'' wrote that "even his sharpest critics recognized his brilliance—often wild, unpredictable and eccentric, but nevertheless possessing promise that must now remain unrealized."
The international press, particularly that of Africa, was sympathetic. The ''Daily Times of Nigeria'' wrote that Malcolm X "will have a place in the palace of martyrs." The ''Ghanaian Times'' likened him to John Brown and Patrice Lumumba among "a host of Africans and Americans who were martyred in freedom's cause". ''Guangming Daily'', published in Beijing, stated that "Malcolm was murdered because he fought for freedom and equal rights", while in Cuba, ''El Mundo'' described the assassination as "another racist crime to eradicate by violence the struggle against discrimination".
In the 1970s, the public learned about COINTELPRO and other secret FBI programs directed towards infiltrating and disrupting civil rights organizations during the 1950s and 1960s. John Ali, national secretary of the Nation of Islam, was identified as an FBI undercover agent. Malcolm X had confided in a reporter that Ali exacerbated tensions between him and Elijah Muhammad. He considered Ali his "archenemy" within the Nation of Islam leadership. On February 20, 1965, the night before the assassination, Ali met with Talmadge Hayer, one of the men convicted of killing Malcolm X.
In 1977 and 1978, Talmadge Hayer submitted two sworn affidavits re-asserting his claim that Butler and Johnson were not involved in the assassination. In his affidavits Hayer named four men, all members of the Nation of Islam's Newark Temple Number 25, as having participated with him in the crime. Hayer asserted that a man, later identified as Wilbur McKinley, shouted and threw a smoke bomb to create a diversion. Hayer said that another man, later identified as William Bradley, had a shotgun and was the first to fire on Malcolm X after the diversion. Hayer asserted that he and a man later identified as Leon Davis, both armed with pistols, fired on Malcolm X immediately after the shotgun blast. Hayer also said that a fifth man, later identified as Benjamin Thomas, was involved in the conspiracy. Hayer's statements failed to convince authorities to reopen their investigation of the murder.
Some, including the Shabazz family, have accused Louis Farrakhan of being involved in the plot to assassinate Malcolm X. In a 1993 speech, Farrakhan seemed to boast of the assassination:
Was Malcolm your traitor or ours? And if we dealt with him like a nation deals with a traitor, what the ''hell'' business is it of yours? A nation has to be able to deal with traitors and cutthroats and turncoats.
In a ''60 Minutes'' interview that aired during May 2000, Farrakhan stated that some of the things he said may have led to the assassination of Malcolm X. "I may have been complicit in words that I spoke", he said. "I acknowledge that and regret that any word that I have said caused the loss of life of a human being." A few days later Farrakhan denied that he "ordered the assassination" of Malcolm X, although he again acknowledged that he "created the atmosphere that ultimately led to Malcolm X's assassination." No consensus on who was responsible has been reached.
Malcolm X taught that black people were the original people of the world, and that white people were a race of devils who were created by an evil scientist named Yakub. The Nation of Islam believed that black people were superior to white people, and that the demise of the white race was imminent. When he was questioned concerning his statements that white people were devils, Malcolm X said that "history proves the white man is a devil." He enumerated some of the historical reasons that, he felt, supported his argument: "Anybody who rapes, and plunders, and enslaves, and steals, and drops hell bombs on people... anybody who does these things is nothing but a devil."
Malcolm X said that Islam was the "true religion of black mankind" and that Christianity was "the white man's religion" that had been imposed upon African Americans by their slave-masters. He said that the Nation of Islam followed Islam as it was practiced around the world, but the Nation's teachings varied from those of other Muslims because they were adapted to the "uniquely pitiful" condition of black people in America. He taught that Wallace Fard Muhammad, the founder of the Nation, was Allah incarnate, and that Elijah Muhammad was his Messenger, or prophet.
While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm X advocated the complete separation of African Americans from white people. The Nation of Islam proposed the establishment of a separate country for black people in the Southern or Southwestern United States as an interim measure until African Americans could return to Africa. Malcolm X suggested the United States government owed reparations to black people for the unpaid labor of their enslaved ancestors. He also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence and instead advocated that black people should protect themselves by any necessary means.
Malcolm X declared that he and the other members of the Organization of Afro-American Unity were determined to defend themselves from aggressors, and to secure freedom, justice and equality "by whatever means necessary", arguing that if the government was unwilling or unable to protect black people, they should protect themselves.
Malcolm X stressed the global perspective he gained from his international travels. He emphasized the "direct connection" between the domestic struggle of African Americans for equal rights with the liberation struggles of Third World nations. He said that African Americans were wrong when they thought of themselves as a minority; in a global context, black people were a majority, not a minority.
In his speeches at the Militant Labor Forum, which was sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party, Malcolm X criticized capitalism. After one such speech, when he was asked what political and economic system he wanted, he said he didn't know, but that it was no coincidence the newly liberated countries in the Third World were turning toward socialism. Malcolm X still was concerned primarily with the freedom struggle of African Americans. When a reporter asked him what he thought about socialism, Malcolm X asked whether it was good for black people. When the reporter told him it seemed to be, Malcolm X told him, "Then I'm for it."
Although he no longer called for the separation of black people from white people, Malcolm X continued to advocate black nationalism, which he defined as self-determination for the African-American community. In the last months of his life, however, Malcolm X began to reconsider his support of black nationalism after meeting northern African revolutionaries who, to all appearances, were white.
After his Hajj, Malcolm X articulated a view of white people and racism that represented a deep change from the philosophy he had supported as a minister of the Nation of Islam. In a famous letter from Mecca, he wrote that his experiences with white people during his pilgrimage convinced him to "rearrange" his thinking about race and "toss aside some of [his] previous conclusions". In a 1965 conversation with Gordon Parks, two days before his assassination, Malcolm said:
[L]istening to leaders like Nasser, Ben Bella, and Nkrumah awakened me to the dangers of racism. I realized racism isn't just a black and white problem. It's brought bloodbaths to about every nation on earth at one time or another.
Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant—the one who wanted to help the [Black] Muslims and the whites get together—and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying? Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [Black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then—like all [Black] Muslims—I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years.
That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days—I'm glad to be free of them.
In the late 1960s, as black activists became more radical, Malcolm X and his teachings were part of the foundation on which they built their movements. The Black Power movement, the Black Arts Movement, and the widespread adoption of the slogan "Black is beautiful" can all trace their roots to Malcolm X.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a resurgence of interest in Malcolm X among young people fueled, in part, by his use as an icon by hip hop groups such as Public Enemy. Images of Malcolm X could be found on T-shirts and jackets. Pictures of him were on display in hundreds of thousands of homes, offices, and schools. This wave peaked in 1992 with the release of ''Malcolm X'', a much-anticipated film adaptation of ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X''.
Lansing, Michigan, where Malcolm Little spent his early, formative years, is home to a Michigan Historical Marker erected in 1975 marking his homesite. The city is also home to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Academy, a public charter school with an Afrocentric focus. The Academy is located in the building where Little attended elementary school.
In cities around the world, Malcolm X's birthday (May 19) is commemorated as Malcolm X Day. The first known celebration of Malcolm X Day took place in Washington, D.C., in 1971. The city of Berkeley, California, has recognized Malcolm X's birthday as a citywide holiday since 1979.
Many cities have renamed streets after Malcolm X; in 1987, New York mayor Ed Koch proclaimed Lenox Avenue in Harlem to be Malcolm X Boulevard. The name of Reid Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, was changed to Malcolm X Boulevard in 1985. In 1997, Oakland Avenue in Dallas, Texas, was renamed Malcolm X Boulevard. Main Street in Lansing, Michigan, was renamed Malcolm X Street in 2010.
There have been dozens of schools named after Malcolm X, including Malcolm X Shabazz High School in Newark, New Jersey, Malcolm Shabazz City High School in Madison, Wisconsin, and Malcolm X College in Chicago, Illinois. Meanwhile, the Malcolm X Library and Performing Arts Center of the San Diego Public Library system opened in 1996. It is the first library named after Malcolm X.
The U.S. Postal Service issued a Malcolm X postage stamp in 1999. In 2005, Columbia University announced the opening of the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. The memorial is located in the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated.
;Interviews
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Category:1925 births Category:1965 deaths Category:20th-century African-American activists Category:African American Muslims Category:African American religious leaders Category:African American life in Omaha, Nebraska Category:African Americans' rights activists Category:American autobiographers Category:American burglars Category:American people of Grenadian descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American Sunni Muslims Category:Assassinated American civil rights activists Category:Assassinated religious leaders Category:Black supremacy Category:Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery Category:COINTELPRO targets Category:Converts to Islam from Protestantism Category:Deaths by firearm in New York Category:Deaths onstage Category:Former Nation of Islam members Category:Murdered African-American people Category:Muslim activists Category:Pan-Africanism Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:People from Lansing, Michigan Category:People from North Omaha, Nebraska Category:People from Omaha, Nebraska Category:People from Queens Category:People murdered in New York Category:Racism in the United States
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name | Anjali Devi |
---|---|
birth date | 24 August 1927 |
birth place | Peddapuram, East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India |
occupation | Actress |
spouse | P. Adinarayana Rao |
website | }} |
Anjali Devi () (born 24 August 1927) is a veteran Telugu actress and producer. She is well known for her mythological role as Sita in ''Lava Kusha'' and roles in movies like ''Suvarna Sundari'' and ''Anarkali''.
She married P. Adinarayana Rao, a music director, in 1940 that couple was blessed with two sons chinna rao(1943) and kumar(1945) . Together they produced many Telugu films under the banner of Anjali Pictures. She acted in ''Lava Kusha'', a milestone film and the first color film in the Telugu film industry in 1963. She acted in various roles like damsel, angel, dancer, demon, goddess, traditional woman and later in mother characters. Her granddaughter Saila Rao is also an actress.
! Year | ! Film | ! Language | ! Character | ! Remarks |
1948 | ''Balaraju'' | Telugu | ||
1949 | ''Keelu Gurram'' | Telugu | Mohini | |
1950 | ''Palleturi Pilla'' | Telugu | Santha | |
Telugu | Swapna Sundari | |||
1951 | ''Nirdoshi'' | Telugu | Nirmala | |
''Niraparadhi'' | Tamil | |||
Tamil | ||||
1953 | ''Pakkinti Ammayi'' | Telugu | Leela Devi | |
1954 | ''Rechukka'' | Telugu | Nana | |
''Sangham'' | Telugu | |||
1955 | Telugu | Anarkali | ||
1957 | Telugu | Rama | ||
''Suvarna Sundari'' | Telugu | |||
1958 | ''Chenchu Lakshmi'' | Telugu | ||
1959 | ''Jayabheri'' | Telugu | Manjulavani | |
1960 | ''Bhatti Vikramarka'' | Telugu | ||
1962 | Telugu | Amba | ||
1963 | ''Lava Kusha'' | Telugu | Sita | |
1966 | ''Chilaka Gorinka'' | Telugu | ||
''Palnati Yudham'' | Telugu | |||
''Rangula Ratnam'' | Telugu | |||
1967 | ''Bhakta Prahlada'' | Telugu | Leelavati | |
Telugu | ||||
1971 | ''Kalyana Mandapam'' | Telugu | ||
1972 | ''Badi Panthulu'' | Telugu | ||
''Bala Bharatam'' | Telugu | |||
''Tata Manavadu'' | Telugu | |||
1973 | ''Bhakta Tukaram'' | Telugu | Avali Bai | |
''Jeevana Tarangalu'' | Telugu | |||
1975 | Telugu | |||
1976 | ''Mahakavi Kshetrayya'' | Telugu | ||
1977 | ''Shri Ram Vanvas'' | Hindi | ||
1980 | ''Ram Robert Rahim'' | Telugu | ||
1986 | ''Sri Shirdi Saibaba Mahathyam'' | Telugu | ||
1987 | ''Srutilayalu'' | Telugu | ||
1993 | ''Brundavanam'' | Telugu |
Category:1927 births Category:Living people Category:Telugu people Category:Telugu cinema Category:Indian film actors Category:Indian film producers Category:Telugu actors
te:అంజలీదేవి
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 | Dustin Lee Hoffman |
---|---|
birth date | August 08, 1937 |
birth place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
occupation | Actor |
years active | 1960–present |
spouse | Anne Byrne (1969–80)Lisa Gottsegen(1980–present) |
other names | Sam Etic }} |
He first drew critical praise for the 1966 Off-Broadway play ''Eh?'' for which he won a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk Award. This was soon followed by his breakthrough movie role as Benjamin Braddock in ''The Graduate'' (1967). Since then Hoffman's career has largely been focused in cinema with only sporadic returns to television and the stage. Some of his most noted films are ''Papillon'', ''Marathon Man'', ''Midnight Cowboy'', ''Little Big Man'', ''Lenny'', ''All the President's Men'', ''Kramer vs. Kramer'', ''Tootsie'', ''Rain Man'', ''Wag the Dog'', and ''Meet the Fockers''.
Hoffman has won two Academy Awards (for his performances in ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' and ''Rain Man''), five Golden Globes, three BAFTAs, three Drama Desk Awards, a Genie Award, and an Emmy Award. Dustin Hoffman received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999.
In 1960, Hoffman landed a role in an Off-Broadway production and followed with a walk-on role in a Broadway production in 1961. Hoffman then studied at the famed Actors Studio and became a dedicated method actor. Sidney Pink, a producer and 3D movie pioneer, discovered him in one of his Off-Broadway roles and cast him in ''Madigan's Millions''. His first critical success was in ''Eh?'' by Henry Livings which had its US premiere off-Broadway at the Circle in the Square Downtown on October 16, 1966.
Through the early and mid-1960s, Hoffman made appearances in television shows and movies, including ''Naked City'', ''The Defenders'' and ''Hallmark Hall of Fame''. Hoffman made his theatrical film debut in ''The Tiger Makes Out'' in 1967, alongside Eli Wallach.
In 1967, immediately after wrapping up principal filming on ''The Tiger Makes Out'', Hoffman flew from New York City to Fargo, North Dakota, where he directed a production of William Saroyan's ''The Time of Your Life'' for the Emma Herbst Community Theatre. The $1,000 he received for the eight-week contract was all he had to hold him over until the funds from the movie materialized.
After the success of this film, another Hoffman film, ''Madigan's Millions'', shot before ''The Graduate'', was released on the tail of the actor's newfound success. It was considered a failure at the box office.
In December 1968, Hoffman returned to Broadway to appear in the title role of Murray Schisgal and John Sebastian's musical ''Jimmy Shine''. For his performance in the production Hoffman won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. Just a few weeks after leaving the production, Hoffman's next major film ''Midnight Cowboy'' premiered in theatres across the United States on May 25, 1969. For his role as Ratso Rizzo in the film, Hoffman received his second Oscar nomination and the film won the Best Picture honor. This was followed by his role in ''Little Big Man'' (1970) where Jack Crabb, his character, ages from teenager to a 121-year-old man. The film was widely praised by critics, but was overlooked for an award except for a supporting nomination for Chief Dan George.
Hoffman continued to appear in major films over the next few years. ''Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?'' (1971), ''Straw Dogs'' (also 1971), and ''Papillon'' (1973) were followed by ''Lenny'' (1974), for which Hoffman received his third nomination for Best Actor in seven years.
Less than two years after the Watergate scandal, Hoffman and Robert Redford starred as Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, respectively, in ''All the President's Men'' (1976). Hoffman next starred in ''Marathon Man'' (also 1976), a film based on William Goldman's novel of the same name, opposite Laurence Olivier. Hoffman's next roles were less successful. He opted out of directing ''Straight Time'' (1978) but starred as a thief. His next film, Michael Apted's ''Agatha'', was with Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha Christie.
Hoffman next starred in Robert Benton's ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' (1979) as workaholic Ted Kramer whose wife (Meryl Streep) unexpectedly leaves him; he raises their son alone. Hoffman gained his first Academy Award, and the film also received the Best Picture honor, plus the awards for Best Supporting Actress (Streep) and Director.
In ''Tootsie'' (1982), Hoffman portrays Michael Dorsey, a struggling actor who finds himself dressing up as a woman to land a role on a soap opera. His co-star was Jessica Lange. ''Tootsie'' earned ten Academy Award nominations, including Hoffman's fifth nomination.
Hoffman then turned to television in the role of Willy Loman in ''Death of a Salesman'', for which he won the 1985 Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Lead Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries. He would also go on to win a Golden Globe for the same performance.
Hoffman's largest film failure was Elaine May's ''Ishtar'', with Warren Beatty. The film faced severe production problems, received almost completely negative reviews from critics and was nominated for three Razzie awards. However, Hoffman and Beatty liked the film's final cut and tried to defend it. Hoffmann and Beatty were unaffected by the flop, and ''Ishtar'' became a cult film. James House, who later became a country music artist, served as Hoffman's vocal coach in the film.
In director Barry Levinson's ''Rain Man'' (1988), Hoffman starred as an autistic savant, opposite Tom Cruise. Levinson, Hoffman and Cruise worked for two years on the film, and his performance garnered Hoffman his second Academy Award. Upon accepting, Hoffman stated softly to his fellow nominees that it was okay if they didn't vote for him because "I didn't vote for you guys either." After ''Rain Man'', Hoffman appeared with Sean Connery and Matthew Broderick in ''Family Business''. The film did relatively poorly with the critics and at the box office. In 1991, Hoffman voiced substitute teacher Mr. Bergstrom in ''The Simpsons'' episode "Lisa's Substitute", under the pseudonym Sam Etic. As a reference to this episode, during the episode featuring the Itchy & Scratchy movie, Lisa claims that Dustin Hoffman had a cameo in that movie but didn't use his real name.
Throughout the 1990s, Hoffman appeared in many large, studio films, such as ''Dick Tracy'' (1990) (where his ''Ishtar'' co-star Beatty plays the titular character), ''Hero'' (1992) and the ill-fated ''Billy Bathgate'' (1991) co-starring with Nicole Kidman who was nominated for a Golden Globe). Hoffman also played the title role of Captain Hook in Steven Spielberg's ''Hook'' (also 1991), earning a Golden Globe nomination; in this movie, Hoffman's costume was so heavy that he had to wear an air-conditioned suit under it. Hoffman played the lead role in ''Outbreak'' (1995), alongside Rene Russo, Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Donald Sutherland. Following that, he appeared in the 1996 revenge-drama/legal-thriller ''Sleepers'' (1996) with Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, and Kevin Bacon.
It was in the mid-1990s that Hoffman starred in—and was deeply involved in the production of—David Mamet's ''American Buffalo'' (also 1996), one of the very few "pure art projects" he is known for, and an early effort of film editor Kate Sanford. In 1997, Hoffman starred opposite John Travolta in the Costa Gavras film ''Mad City'' and gained his seventh Academy Award nomination for his performance in ''Wag The Dog'', in a role that allowed Hoffman the chance to work with both Robert De Niro and Dennis Leary. He next appeared in Barry Levinson's adaptation of ''Sphere'' (1998), opposite Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Coyote, Queen Latifah and Liev Schreiber. Hoffman next appeared in ''Moonlight Mile'' (2002), followed by ''Confidence'' (2003) opposite Edward Burns, Andy García and Rachel Weisz. Hoffman would finally have a chance to work with Gene Hackman, in Gary Fleder's ''Runaway Jury'' (also 2003), an adaptation of John Grisham's bestselling novel.
Hoffman played theater owner Charles Frohman in the J. M. Barrie historical fantasia ''Finding Neverland'' (2004), costarring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. In director David O. Russell's ''I Heart Huckabees'' (also 2004), Hoffman appeared opposite Lily Tomlin as an existential detective team.
Seven years after his nomination for ''Wag the Dog'', Hoffman got a second opportunity to perform again with Robert De Niro, co-starring with Barbra Streisand and Ben Stiller in the 2004 comedy ''Meet the Fockers'', a sequel to ''Meet the Parents'' (2000). Hoffman won the 2005 MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance. In 2005, he voiced a horse in ''Racing Stripes'', and appeared in cameo roles in Andy García's ''The Lost City'' and on the final episode of HBO sitcom ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'''s fifth season. Hoffman appeared in ''Stranger than Fiction'' (2006), played the perfumer Giuseppe Baldini in Tom Tykwer's film ''Perfume: The Story of a Murderer'' (also 2006) and had a cameo in the same year's ''The Holiday''.
In 2007, he was featured in an advertising campaign for Australian telecommunications company Telstra's Next G network, appeared in the 50 Cent video "Follow My Lead" as a psychiatrist, and played the title character in the family film ''Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium''. In 2008, although he was reluctant to perform in an animated film, Hoffman had a prominent role as Shifu in the acclaimed film ''Kung Fu Panda'', which was praised in part for his comedic chemistry with Jack Black and his character's poignantly complex relationship with the story's villain. He later won the Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature for ''Kung Fu Panda'' and has continued into the role in the franchise's subsequent filmed productions outside of the upcoming television series. He next voiced Roscuro in ''The Tale of Despereaux'' and played the title character in ''Last Chance Harvey''.
Hoffman will be starring in the HBO horse-racing drama ''Luck'', as a man involved in activities such as bookmaking and casino operations. He will also direct ''Quartet'', a BBC Films comedy starring Maggie Smith and Albert Finney. He also appeared in ''Little Fockers'', the critically panned, 2010 sequel to ''Meet the Fockers'', this time in a much smaller role. In 2011, Hoffman reprised his role as Shifu in ''Kung Fu Panda 2''.
A political liberal, Hoffman has long supported the Democratic Party and Ralph Nader. In 1997, he was one of a number of Hollywood stars and executives to sign an open letter to then-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, published as a newspaper advertisement in the ''International Herald Tribune'', which protested the treatment of Scientologists in Germany.
Robert Duvall was a roommate of Hoffman's during the early years of their careers in New York City.
There were many rumors and discussions in July 2010 about Hoffman canceling his appearance at the Jerusalem Film Festival as a reaction to the Gaza flotilla raid. However, his representatives told ''The New York Times'' there was “no truth” to this report.
In 2009, he received the freedom of the Italian city Ascoli Piceno for being there during 1972 to shoot the movie ''Alfredo, Alfredo'' by Pietro Germi, where he played the role of Alfredo Sbisà.
Category:1937 births Category:Actors from California Category:Actors Studio alumni Category:American film actors Category:American Jews Category:American stage actors Category:American voice actors Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Actor BAFTA Award winners Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actor Golden Globe winners Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Romanian-Jewish descent Category:Jewish actors Category:Living people Category:Obie Award recipients Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members Category:Theatre World Award winners Category:Genie Award winners for Best Supporting Actor
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Name | Jackie Robinson |
---|---|
Alt | Waist-up portrait of black batter in his mid-thirties, in Brooklyn Dodgers uniform number 42, at end of swing with bat over left shoulder, looking at where a hit ball would be |
Position | Second baseman |
Bats | Right |
Throws | Right |
Birth date | January 31, 1919 |
Birth place | Cairo, Georgia, U.S. |
Death date | October 24, 1972 |
Death place | Stamford, Connecticut, U.S. |
Debutdate | April 15 |
Debutyear | |
Debutteam | Brooklyn Dodgers |
Finaldate | October 10 |
Finalyear | |
Finalteam | Brooklyn Dodgers |
Stat1label | Batting average |
Stat1value | .311 |
Stat2label | Hits |
Stat2value | 1,518 |
Stat3label | Home runs |
Stat3value | 137 |
Stat4label | Runs batted in |
Stat4value | 734 |
Stat5label | Stolen bases |
Stat5value | 197 |
Teams | |
Highlights | |
Hofdate | |
Hofvote | 77.5% (first ballot) }} |
In addition to his cultural impact, Robinson had an exceptional baseball career. Over ten seasons, he played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Championship. He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games from 1949 to 1954, was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949—the first black player so honored. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams.
Robinson was also known for his pursuits outside the baseball diamond. He was the first black television analyst in Major League Baseball, and the first black vice-president of a major American corporation. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned financial institution based in Harlem, New York. In recognition of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
In 1936, Robinson won the junior boys singles championship in the annual Pacific Coast Negro Tennis Tournament and earned a place on the Pomona annual baseball tournament all-star team, which included future Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bob Lemon. In late January 1937, the ''Pasadena Star-News'' newspaper reported that Robinson "for two years has been the outstanding athlete at Muir, starring in football, basketball, track, baseball and tennis."
An incident at PJC illustrated Robinson's impatience with authority figures he perceived as racist—a character trait that would resurface repeatedly in his life. On January 25, 1938, he was arrested after vocally disputing the detention of a black friend by police. Robinson received a two-year suspended sentence, but the incident—along with other rumored run-ins between Robinson and police—gave Robinson a reputation for combativeness in the face of racial antagonism. Toward the end of his PJC tenure, Frank Robinson (to whom Robinson felt closest among his three brothers) was killed in a motorcycle accident. The event motivated Jackie to pursue his athletic career at the nearby University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he could remain closer to Frank's family.
After graduating from PJC in spring 1939, Robinson transferred to UCLA, where he became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track. He was one of four black players on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team; the others were Woody Strode, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett. Washington, Strode, and Robinson made up three of the team's four backfield players. At a time when only a handful of black players existed in mainstream college football, this made UCLA college football's most integrated team. In track and field, Robinson won the 1940 NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship in the Long Jump, jumping 24'10.5". Belying his future career, baseball was Robinson's "worst sport" at UCLA; he hit .097 in his only season, although in his first game he went 4-for-4 and twice stole home.
While a senior at UCLA, Robinson met his future wife, Rachel Isum, a UCLA freshman who was familiar with Robinson's athletic career at PJC. In the spring semester of 1941, despite his mother's and Isum's reservations, Robinson left college just shy of graduation. He took a job as an assistant athletic director with the government's National Youth Administration (NYA) in Atascadero, California.
After the government ceased NYA operations, Robinson traveled to Honolulu in fall 1941 to play football for the semi-professional, racially integrated Honolulu Bears. After a short season, Robinson returned to California in December 1941 to pursue a career as running back for the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the Pacific Coast Football League. By that time, however, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had taken place, drawing the United States into World War II and ending Robinson's nascent football career.
In 1942, Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas. Having the requisite qualifications, Robinson and several other black soldiers applied for admission to an Officer Candidate School (OCS) then located at Fort Riley. Although the Army's initial July 1941 guidelines for OCS had been drafted as race-neutral, practically speaking few black applicants were admitted into OCS until after subsequent directives by Army leadership. As a result, the applications of Robinson and his colleagues were delayed for several months. After protests by heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis (then stationed at Fort Riley) and the help of Truman Gibson (then an assistant civilian aide to the Secretary of War), the men were accepted into OCS. This common military experience spawned a personal friendship between Robinson and Louis. Upon finishing OCS, Robinson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in January 1943. Shortly afterward, Robinson and Isum were formally engaged.
After receiving his commission, Robinson was reassigned to Fort Hood, Texas, where he joined the 761st "Black Panthers" Tank Battalion. While at Fort Hood, 2LT Robinson often used his weekend leave to visit the Rev. Karl Downs, President of Sam Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University) in nearby Austin, Texas; Downs had been Robinson's pastor at Scott United Methodist Church while Robinson attended PJC.
An event on July 6, 1944 derailed Robinson's military career. While awaiting results of hospital tests on the ankle he had injured in junior college, Robinson boarded an Army bus with a fellow officer's wife; although the Army had commissioned its own unsegregated bus line, the bus driver ordered Robinson to move to the back of the bus. Robinson refused. The driver backed down, but after reaching the end of the line, summoned the military police, who took Robinson into custody. When Robinson later confronted the investigating duty officer about racist questioning by the officer and his assistant, the officer recommended Robinson be court-martialed. After Robinson's commander in the 761st, Paul L. Bates, refused to authorize the legal action, Robinson was summarily transferred to the 758th Battalion—where the commander quickly consented to charge Robinson with multiple offenses, including, among other charges, public drunkenness—even though Robinson did not drink.
By the time of the court-martial in August 1944, the charges against Robinson had been reduced to two counts of insubordination during questioning. Robinson was acquitted by an all-white panel of nine officers. Although his former unit, the 761st Tank Battalion, became the first black tank unit to see combat in World War II, Robinson's court-martial proceedings prohibited him from being deployed overseas, thus he never saw combat action. After his acquittal, he was transferred to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, where he served as a coach for army athletics until receiving an honorable discharge in November 1944. While there, Robinson met an ex-player for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League, who encouraged Robinson to write the Monarchs and ask for a tryout. Robinson took the ex-player's advice and wrote Monarchs' co-owner Thomas Baird.
During the season, Robinson pursued potential major league interest. The Boston Red Sox held a tryout at Fenway Park for Robinson and other black players on April 16. The tryout, however, was a farce chiefly designed to assuage the desegregationist sensibilities of powerful Boston City Councilman Isadore Muchnick. Even with the stands limited to management, Robinson was subjected to racial epithets. Robinson left the tryout humiliated, and more than fourteen years later, in July 1959, the Red Sox became the last major league team to integrate its roster.
Other teams, however, had more serious interest in signing a black ballplayer. In the mid-1940s, Branch Rickey, club president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, began to scout the Negro leagues for a possible addition to the Dodgers' roster. Rickey selected Robinson from a list of promising black players, and interviewed Robinson for possible assignment to Brooklyn's International League farm club, the Montreal Royals. Rickey was especially interested in making sure his eventual signee could withstand the inevitable racial abuse that would be directed at him. In a famous three-hour exchange on August 28, 1945, Rickey asked Robinson if he could face the racial animus without taking the bait and reacting angrily—a concern given Robinson's prior arguments with law enforcement officials at PJC and in the military. Robinson was aghast: "Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?" Rickey replied that he needed a Negro player "with guts enough not to fight back." After obtaining a commitment from Robinson to "turn the other cheek" to racial antagonism, Rickey agreed to sign him to a contract for $600 a month, equal to $}} today.
Although he required Robinson to keep the arrangement a secret for the time being, Rickey committed to formally signing Robinson before November 1, 1945. On October 23, it was publicly announced that Robinson would be assigned to the Royals for the 1946 season. On the same day, with representatives of the Royals and Dodgers present, Robinson formally signed his contract with the Royals. In what was later referred to as "The Noble Experiment", Robinson was the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s. Robinson was not necessarily the best player in the Negro leagues, and black talents Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson were upset when Robinson was selected first.
Rickey's offer allowed Robinson to leave the Monarchs and their grueling bus rides behind, and he went home to Pasadena. That September, he signed with Chet Brewer's Kansas City Royals, a post-season barnstorming team in the California Winter League. Later that off-season, he briefly toured South America with another barnstorming team, while his fiancée Isum pursued nursing opportunities in New York City. On February 10, 1946, Robinson and Isum were married by their old friend, Rev. Karl Downs.
After much lobbying of local officials by Rickey himself, the Royals were allowed to host a game involving Robinson in Daytona Beach. Robinson made his Royals debut at Daytona Beach's City Island Ballpark on March 17, 1946, in an exhibition game against the team's parent club, the Dodgers. Robinson thus simultaneously became the first black player to openly play for a minor league team and against a major league team since the ''de facto'' baseball color line had been implemented in the 1880s. Later in spring training, after some less-than-stellar performances, Robinson was shifted from shortstop to second base, allowing him to make shorter throws to first base. Robinson's performance soon rebounded. On April 18, 1946, Roosevelt Stadium hosted the Jersey City Giants' season opener against the Montreal Royals, marking the professional debut of the Royals' Jackie Robinson. In his five trips to the plate, Robinson had four hits, including a three-run home run. He also scored four runs, drove in three, and stole two bases in the Royals' 14–1 victory. Robinson proceeded to lead the International League that season with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage, and he was named the league's Most Valuable Player. Although he often faced hostility while on road trips (the Royals were forced to cancel a Southern exhibition tour, for example), the Montreal fan base enthusiastically supported Robinson. Whether fans supported or opposed it, Robinson's presence on the field was a boon to attendance; more than one million people went to games involving Robinson in 1946, an amazing figure by International League standards. In the fall of 1946, following the baseball season, Robinson returned home to California and briefly played professional basketball for the short-lived Los Angeles Red Devils.
Robinson's promotion met a generally positive, although mixed, reception among newspapers and white major league players. However, racial tension existed in the Dodger clubhouse. Some Dodger players insinuated they would sit out rather than play alongside Robinson. The brewing mutiny ended when Dodgers management took a stand for Robinson. Manager Leo Durocher informed the team, "I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a fuckin' zebra. I'm the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What's more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded."
Robinson was also derided by opposing teams. Some, notably the St. Louis Cardinals, threatened to strike if Robinson played. After the threat, National League President Ford Frick and Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler let it be known that any striking players would be suspended. Robinson nonetheless became the target of rough physical play by opponents (particularly the Cardinals). At one time, he received a seven-inch gash in his leg. On April 22, 1947, during a game between the Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies, Phillies players called Robinson a "nigger" from their dugout and yelled that he should "go back to the cotton fields". Rickey later recalled that Phillies manager Ben Chapman "did more than anybody to unite the Dodgers. When he poured out that string of unconscionable abuse, he solidified and united thirty men."
Robinson received significant encouragement from several major league players. Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese once came to Robinson's defense with the famous line, "You can hate a man for many reasons. Color is not one of them." In 1948, Reese put his arm around Robinson in response to fans who shouted racial slurs at Robinson before a game in Cincinnati. A statue by sculptor William Behrends, unveiled at KeySpan Park on November 1, 2005, commemorates this event by representing Reese with his arm around Robinson. Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg, who had to deal with racial epithets during his career, also encouraged Robinson. After colliding with Robinson at first base on one occasion, Greenberg whispered a few words into Robinson's ear, which Robinson later characterized as "words of encouragement." Greenberg had advised him that the best way to combat the slurs from the opposing players was to beat them on the field.
Robinson finished the season with 12 home runs, a league-leading 29 steals, a .297 batting average, a .427 slugging percentage, and 125 runs scored. His cumulative performance earned him the inaugural Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award (separate National and American League Rookie of the Year honors were not awarded until 1949).
Following Stanky's trade to the Boston Braves in March 1948, Robinson took over second base, where he logged a .980 fielding percentage that year (second in the National League at the position, fractionally behind Stanky). Robinson had a batting average of .296 and 22 stolen bases for the season. In a 12–7 win against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 29, , he hit for the cycle—a home run, a triple, a double, and a single in the same game. The Dodgers briefly moved into first place in the National League in late August 1948, but they ultimately finished third as the Braves went on to win the league title and lose to the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.
Racial pressure on Robinson eased in 1948 as a number of other black players entered the major leagues. Larry Doby (who broke the color barrier in the American League on July 5, 1947) and Satchel Paige played for the Cleveland Indians, and the Dodgers had three other black players besides Robinson. In February 1948, he signed a $12,500 contract (equal to $}} today) with the Dodgers; while a significant amount, this was less than Robinson made in the off-season from a vaudeville tour, where he answered pre-set baseball questions, and a speaking tour of the South. Between the tours, he underwent surgery on his right ankle. Because of his off-season activities, Robinson reported to training camp overweight. He lost the weight during training camp, but dieting left him weak at the plate.
In the spring of 1949, Robinson turned to Hall of Famer George Sisler, working as an advisor to the Dodgers, for batting help. At Sisler's suggestion, Robinson spent hours at a batting tee, learning to hit the ball to right field. Sisler taught Robinson to anticipate a fastball, on the theory that it is easier to subsequently adjust to a slower curveball. Robinson also noted that "Sisler showed me how to stop lunging, how to check my swing until the last fraction of a second". The tutelage helped Robinson raise his batting average from .296 in 1948 to .342 in 1949. In addition to his improved batting average, Robinson stole 37 bases that season, was second place in the league for both doubles and triples, and registered 124 runs batted in with 122 runs scored. For the performance Robinson earned the Most Valuable Player award for the National League. Baseball fans also voted Robinson as the starting second baseman for the 1949 All-Star Game—the first All-Star Game to include black players.
That year, a song about Robinson by Buddy Johnson, "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?", reached number 13 on the charts; Count Basie recorded a famous version. Ultimately, the Dodgers won the National League pennant, but lost in five games to the New York Yankees in the 1949 World Series.
Summer 1949 brought an unwanted distraction for Robinson. In July, he was called to testify before the United States House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) concerning statements made that April by black athlete and actor Paul Robeson. Robinson was reluctant to testify, but he eventually agreed to do so, fearing it might negatively affect his career if he declined.
In 1950, Robinson led the National League in double plays made by a second baseman with 133. His salary that year was the highest any Dodger had been paid to that point: $35,000 ($}} in dollars). He finished the year with 99 runs scored, a .328 batting average, and 12 stolen bases. The year saw the release of a film biography of Robinson's life, ''The Jackie Robinson Story'', in which Robinson played himself, and actress Ruby Dee played Rachael "Rae" (Isum) Robinson. The project had been previously delayed when the film's producers refused to accede to demands of two Hollywood studios that the movie include scenes of Robinson being tutored in baseball by a white man. ''The New York Times'' wrote that Robinson, "doing that rare thing of playing himself in the picture's leading role, displays a calm assurance and composure that might be envied by many a Hollywood star."
Robinson's Hollywood exploits, however, did not sit well with Dodgers co-owner Walter O'Malley, who referred to Robinson as "Rickey's prima donna". In late 1950, Rickey's contract as the Dodgers' team President expired. Weary of constant disagreements with O'Malley, and with no hope of being re-appointed as President of the Dodgers, Rickey cashed out his one-quarter financial interest in the team, leaving O'Malley in full control of the franchise. Rickey shortly thereafter became general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Robinson was disappointed at the turn of events and wrote a sympathetic letter to Rickey, whom he considered a father figure, stating, "Regardless of what happens to me in the future, it all can be placed on what you have done and, believe me, I appreciate it."
During the 1951 season, Robinson led the National League in double plays made by a second baseman for the second year in a row, with 137. He also kept the Dodgers in contention for the 1951 pennant. During the last game of the season, in the 13th inning, he had a hit to tie the game, and then won the game with a home run in the 14th. This forced a playoff against the New York Giants, which the Dodgers lost.
Despite Robinson's regular-season heroics, the Dodgers lost the pennant on Bobby Thomson's famous home run, known as the Shot Heard 'Round the World, on October 3, 1951. Overcoming his dejection, Robinson dutifully observed Thomson's feet to ensure he touched all the bases. Dodgers sportscaster Vin Scully later noted that the incident showed "how much of a competitor Robinson was." He finished the season with 106 runs scored, a batting average of .335, and 25 stolen bases.
Robinson had what was an average year for him in 1952. He finished the year with 104 runs, a .308 batting average, and 24 stolen bases. He did, however, record a career-high on-base percentage of .436. The Dodgers improved on their performance from the year before, winning the National League pennant before losing the 1952 World Series to the New York Yankees in seven games. That year, on the television show ''Youth Wants to Know,'' Robinson challenged the Yankees' general manager, George Weiss, on the racial record of his team, which had yet to sign a black player. Sportswriter Dick Young, whom Robinson had described as a "bigot", said, "If there was one flaw in Jackie, it was the common one. He believed that everything unpleasant that happened to him happened because of his blackness." The 1952 season was the last year Robinson was an everyday starter at second base. Afterward, Robinson played variously at first, second, and third bases, shortstop, and in the outfield, with Jim Gilliam, another black player, taking over everyday second base duties. Robinson's interests began to shift toward the prospect of managing a major league team. He had hoped to gain experience by managing in the Puerto Rican Winter League, but according to the ''New York Post'', Commissioner Happy Chandler denied the request.
In 1953, Robinson had 109 runs, a .329 batting average, and 17 steals, leading the Dodgers to another National League pennant (and another World Series loss to the Yankees, this time in six games). Robinson's continued success spawned a string of death threats. He was not dissuaded, however, from addressing racial issues publicly. That year, he served as editor for ''Our Sports'' magazine, a periodical focusing on Negro sports issues; contributions to the magazine included an article on golf course segregation by Robinson's old friend Joe Louis. Robinson also openly criticized segregated hotels and restaurants that served the Dodger organization; a number of these establishments integrated as a result, including the five-star Chase Park Hotel in St. Louis.
In 1956, Robinson had 61 runs, a .275 batting average, and 12 steals. By then, he had begun to exhibit the effects of diabetes, and to lose interest in the prospect of playing or managing professional baseball. Since Robinson had sold exclusive rights to any retirement story to ''Look'' magazine two years previously, his retirement decision was revealed through the magazine, instead of through the Dodgers organization.
Robinson's major league debut brought an end to approximately sixty years of segregation in professional baseball, known as the baseball color line. After World War II, several other forces were also leading the country toward increased equality for blacks, including their accelerated migration of to the North, where their political clout grew, and President Harry Truman's desegregation of the military in 1948. Robinson's breaking of the baseball color line and his professional success symbolized these broader changes and demonstrated that the fight for equality was more than simply a political matter. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that he was "a legend and a symbol in his own time", and that he "challenged the dark skies of intolerance and frustration." According to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Robinson's "efforts were a monumental step in the civil-rights revolution in America ... [His] accomplishments allowed black and white Americans to be more respectful and open to one another and more appreciative of everyone's abilities."
Beginning his major league career at the relatively advanced age of twenty-eight, he played only ten seasons, all of them for the Brooklyn Dodgers. During his career, the Dodgers played in six World Series, and Robinson himself played in six All-Star Games. In 1999, he was posthumously named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
Robinson's career is generally considered to mark the beginning of the post–"long ball" era in baseball, in which a reliance on raw power-hitting gave way to balanced offensive strategies that used footspeed to create runs through aggressive baserunning. Robinson exhibited the combination of hitting ability and speed which exemplified the new era. He scored more than 100 runs in six of his ten seasons (averaging more than 110 runs from 1947 to 1953), had a .311 career batting average, a .409 career on-base percentage, a .474 slugging percentage, and substantially more walks than strikeouts (740 to 291). Robinson was one of only two players during the span of 1947–56 to accumulate at least 125 steals while registering a slugging percentage over .425 (Minnie Miñoso was the other). He accumulated 197 stolen bases in total, including 19 steals of home. None of the latter were double steals (in which a player stealing home is assisted by a player stealing another base at the same time). Robinson has been referred to by author David Falkner as "the father of modern base-stealing."
Historical statistical analysis indicates Robinson was an outstanding fielder throughout his ten years in the major leagues and at virtually every position he played. After playing his rookie season at first base, Robinson spent most of his career as a second baseman. He led the league in fielding among second basemen in 1950 and 1951. Toward the end of his career, he played about 2,000 innings at third base and about 1,175 innings in the outfield, excelling at both.
Assessing himself, Robinson said, "I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me ... all I ask is that you respect me as a human being." Regarding Robinson's qualities on the field, Leo Durocher said, "Ya want a guy that comes to play. This guy didn't just come to play. He come to beat ya. He come to stuff the goddamn bat right up your ass."
In 1965, Robinson served as an analyst for ABC's ''Major League Baseball Game of the Week'' telecasts, the first black person to do so. In 1966, Robinson was hired as general manager for the short-lived Brooklyn Dodgers of the Continental Football League. In 1972, he served as a part-time commentator on Montreal Expos telecasts.
On June 4, 1972, the Dodgers retired his uniform number, 42, alongside those of Roy Campanella (39) and Sandy Koufax (32). From 1957 to 1964, Robinson was the vice president for personnel at Chock full o'Nuts; he was the first black person to serve as vice president of a major American corporation. Robinson always considered his business career as advancing the cause of black people in commerce and industry. Robinson also chaired the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) million-dollar Freedom Fund Drive in 1957, and served on the organization's board until 1967. In 1964, he helped found, with Harlem businessman Dunbar McLaurin, Freedom National Bank—a black-owned and operated commercial bank based in Harlem. He also served as the bank's first Chairman of the Board. In 1970, Robinson established the Jackie Robinson Construction Company to build housing for low-income families.
Robinson was active in politics throughout his post-baseball life. He identified himself as a political independent although he held conservative opinions on several issues, including the Vietnam War (he once wrote Martin Luther King, Jr. to defend the Johnson Administration's military policy). After supporting Richard Nixon in his 1960 presidential race against John F. Kennedy, Robinson later praised Kennedy effusively for his stance on civil rights. He subsequently supported Hubert Humphrey against Nixon in 1968. In 1964, Robinson became one of six national directors for Nelson Rockefeller's Republican presidential campaign and later became special assistant for community affairs when Rockefeller was re-elected governor of New York in 1966.
Protesting the major leagues' ongoing lack of minority managers and central office personnel, Robinson turned down an invitation to appear in an old-timers' game at Yankee Stadium in 1969. He made his final public appearance on October 15, 1972, throwing the ceremonial first pitch before Game 2 of the World Series. He gratefully accepted a plaque honoring the twenty-fifth anniversary of his MLB debut, but also commented, "I'm going to be tremendously more pleased and more proud when I look at that third base coaching line one day and see a black face managing in baseball." This wish was fulfilled only after Robinson's death: following the 1974 season, the Cleveland Indians gave their managerial post to Frank Robinson (no relation), a Hall of Fame-bound player who would go on to manage three other teams. Despite the success of these two Robinsons and other black players, the number of African-American players in Major League Baseball has declined since the 1970s.
Robinson's eldest son, Jackie Robinson Jr., had emotional trouble during his childhood and entered special education at an early age. He enrolled in the Army in search of a disciplined environment, served in the Vietnam War, and was wounded in action on November 19, 1965. After his discharge, he struggled with drug problems. Robinson Jr. eventually completed the treatment program at Daytop Village in Seymour, Connecticut, and became a counselor at the institution. On June 17, 1971, at the age of 24, he was killed in an automobile accident. The experience with his son's drug addiction turned Robinson, Sr. into an avid anti-drug crusader toward the end of his life.
Robinson did not long outlive his son. Complications of heart disease and diabetes weakened Robinson and made him almost blind by middle age. On October 24, 1972, he died of a heart attack at home in Stamford, Connecticut, aged fifty-three. Robinson's funeral service on October 27, 1972, at New York City's Riverside Church attracted 2,500 admirers. Many of his former teammates and other famous black baseball players served as pallbearers, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson gave the eulogy. Tens of thousands of people lined the subsequent procession route to Robinson's interment site at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, where he is buried next to his son Jackie and mother-in-law Zellee Isum. Jackie Robinson Parkway also runs through the cemetery.
After Robinson's death, his widow founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation, of which she remains an officer as of 2009. On April 15, 2008, she announced that in 2010 the foundation will be opening a museum devoted to Jackie in Lower Manhattan. Robinson's daughter, Sharon, became a midwife, educator, director of educational programming for MLB, and the author of two books about her father. His youngest son, David, who has ten children, is a coffee grower and social activist in Tanzania.
The City of Pasadena has recognized Robinson in several ways. Brookside Park, situated next to the Rose Bowl, features a baseball diamond and stadium named Jackie Robinson Field. The city's Human Services Department operates the Jackie Robinson Center, a community outreach center that provides early diabetes detection and other services. In 1997, a $325,000 bronze sculpture (equal to $}} today) by artists Ralph Helmick, Stu Schecter, and John Outterbridge depicting oversized nine-foot busts of Robinson and his brother Mack was erected at Garfield Avenue, across from the main entrance of Pasadena City Hall; a granite footprint lists multiple donors to the commission project, which was organized by the Robinson Memorial Foundation and supported by members of the Robinson family.
Major League Baseball has honored Robinson many times since his death. In 1987, both the National and American League Rookie of the Year Awards were renamed the "Jackie Robinson Award" in honor of the first recipient (Robinson's Major League Rookie of the Year Award in 1947 encompassed both leagues). On April 15, 1997, Robinson's jersey number, 42, was retired throughout Major League Baseball, the first time any jersey number had been retired throughout one of the four major American sports leagues. Under the terms of the retirement, a grandfather clause allowed handful of players who wore number 42 to continue doing so in tribute to Robinson, until such time as they subsequently changed teams or jersey numbers. This affected players such as the Mets' Butch Huskey and Boston's Mo Vaughn. The Yankees' Mariano Rivera is the last player in Major League Baseball to wear jersey number 42 on a regular basis. Since 1997, only Wayne Gretzky's number 99, retired by the NHL in 2000, has been retired league-wide. There have also been calls for MLB to retire number 21 in honor of Roberto Clemente (where it is already retired for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team he played for), as he is seen in a similar manner for Hispanic baseball players that Robinson is seen for African American players, as well as for the NBA to retire number 23 for Michael Jordan league-wide.
As an exception to the retired-number policy, MLB has recently begun honoring Robinson by allowing players to wear number 42 on April 15, Jackie Robinson Day. For the 60th anniversary of Robinson's major league debut, MLB invited players to wear the number 42 on Jackie Robinson Day in 2007. The gesture was originally the idea of outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr., who sought Rachel Robinson's permission to wear the number. After receiving her permission, Commissioner Bud Selig not only allowed Griffey to wear the number, but also extended an invitation to all major league teams to do the same. Ultimately, more than 200 players wore number 42, including the entire rosters of the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, and Pittsburgh Pirates. The tribute was continued in 2008, when, during games on April 15, all members of the Mets, Cardinals, Washington Nationals, and Tampa Bay Rays wore Robinson's number 42. On June 25, 2008, MLB installed a new plaque for Robinson at the Baseball Hall of Fame commemorating his off-the-field impact on the game as well as his playing statistics. In 2009, all uniformed personnel (players, managers, coaches, and umpires) wore number 42 on April 15.
At the November 2006 groundbreaking for a new ballpark for the New York Mets, Citi Field, it was announced that the main entrance, modeled on the one in Brooklyn's old Ebbets Field, would be called the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. The rotunda was dedicated at the opening of Citi Field on April 16, 2009. It honors Robinson with large quotations spanning the inner curve of the facade and features a large freestanding statue of his number, 42, which has become an attraction in itself. Mets owner Fred Wilpon announced that, in conjunction with Citigroup and the Jackie Robinson Foundation, the Mets will create a Jackie Robinson Museum and Learning Center, located at the headquarters of the Jackie Robinson Foundation at One Hudson Square in lower Manhattan. The main purpose of the museum will be to fund scholarships for "young people who live by and embody Jackie's ideals."
Robinson has also been recognized outside of baseball. In December 1956, the NAACP recognized him with the Spingarn Medal, which it awards annually for the highest achievement by an African-American. President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded Robinson the Presidential Medal of Freedom on March 26, 1984, and on March 2, 2005, President George W. Bush gave Robinson's widow the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award bestowed by Congress; Robinson was only the second baseball player to receive the award, after Roberto Clemente. On August 20, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, announced that Robinson was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento.
A number of buildings have been named in Robinson's honor. The UCLA Bruins baseball team plays in Jackie Robinson Stadium, which, because of the efforts of Jackie's brother Mack, features a memorial statue of Robinson by sculptor Richard H. Ellis. City Island Ballpark in Daytona Beach, Florida—the baseball field that became the Dodgers' de facto spring training site in 1947—was renamed Jackie Robinson Ballpark in 1989. A number of facilities at Pasadena City College (successor to PJC) are named in Robinson's honor, including Robinson Field, a football/soccer/track facility named jointly for Robinson and his brother Mack. The New York Public School system has named a middle school after Robinson, and Dorsey High School plays at a Los Angeles football stadium named after him. In 1976, his home in Brooklyn, the Jackie Robinson House, was declared a National Historic Landmark. Robinson also has an asteroid named after him, 4319 Jackierobinson. In 1997, the United States Mint issued a Jackie Robinson commemorative silver dollar, and five dollar gold coin. That same year, New York City renamed the Interboro Parkway in his honor.
In 2011, the US plans to place a plaque at his Montreal home to honor the begin of the end of segregation in baseball. The home is located at 8232 avenue de Gaspe south of rue de Guizot Est and near Jarry Park and close to Delorimier Stadium, where Robinson played for the Montreal Royals during 1946. in a letter read during the ceremony, Rachel Robinson, Jackie's widow, wrote: "I remember Montreal and that house very well and have always had warm feeling for that great city. Before Jack and I moved to Montreal, we had just been through some very rough treatment in the racially biased South during spring training in Florida. In the end, Montreal was the perfect place for him to get his start. We never had a threatening or unpleasant experience there. The people were so welcoming and saw Jack as a player and as a man."
! Year | ! Team | games played>G | at-bats>AB | run (baseball)>R | hit (baseball)>H | Double (baseball)>2B | Triple (baseball)>3B | home run>HR | run batted in>RBI | stolen base>SB | caught stealing>CS | bases on balls>BB | strikeout>SO | batting average>AVG | on base percentage>OBP | slugging percentage>SLG | total bases>TB | sacrifice bunt>SH | sacrifice fly>SF | intentional base on balls>IBB | hit by pitch>HBP | grounded into double play>GDP | error (baseball)>E |
47 | 163 | 36 | 63 | 14 | 4 | 5 | 23 | 13 | .387 | ||||||||||||||
124 | 444 | 113 | 155 | 25 | 8 | 3 | 66 | 40 | 92 | 27 | .349 | 10 | |||||||||||
151 | 590 | 125 | 175 | 31 | 5 | 12 | 48 | 29 | 74 | 36 | .297 | .383 | .427 | 252 | 28 | 9 | 5 | 16 | |||||
147 | 574 | 108 | 170 | 38 | 8 | 12 | 85 | 22 | 57 | 37 | .296 | .367 | .453 | 260 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 15 | |||||
156 | 593 | 122 | 203 | 38 | 12 | 16 | 124 | 37 | 86 | 27 | .342 | .432 | .528 | 313 | 17 | 8 | 22 | 16 | |||||
144 | 518 | 99 | 170 | 39 | 4 | 14 | 81 | 12 | 80 | 24 | .328 | .423 | .500 | 259 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 11 | |||||
153 | 548 | 106 | 185 | 33 | 7 | 19 | 88 | 25 | 8 | 79 | 27 | .338 | .429 | .527 | 289 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 7 | ||||
149 | 510 | 104 | 157 | 17 | 3 | 19 | 75 | 24 | 7 | 106 | 40 | .308 | .440 | .465 | 237 | 6 | 14 | 16 | 20 | ||||
136 | 484 | 109 | 159 | 34 | 7 | 12 | 95 | 17 | 4 | 74 | 30 | .329 | .425 | .502 | 243 | 9 | 7 | 12 | 6 | ||||
124 | 386 | 62 | 120 | 22 | 4 | 15 | 59 | 7 | 3 | 63 | 20 | .311 | .413 | .505 | 195 | 5 | 4a | 7 | 13 | 7 | |||
105 | 317 | 51 | 81 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 36 | 12 | 3 | 61 | 18 | .256 | .378 | .363 | 115 | 6 | 3 | 5b | 3 | 8 | 10 | ||
117 | 357 | 61 | 98 | 15 | 2 | 10 | 43 | 12 | 5 | 60 | 32 | .275 | .382 | .412 | 147 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 9 | ||
! Totals | ! Brooklyn | ! 1382 | ! 4877 | ! 947 | ! 1518 | ! 273 | ! 54 | ! 137 | ! 734 | ! 197 | ! | ! 740 | ! 291 | ! .311 | ! .409 | ! .474 | ! 2310 | ! 104 | ! 9 | ! 7 | ! 72 | ! 113 | ! 107 |
! | ! Career | ! 1553 | ! 5494 | ! 1096 | ! 1736 | ! 342 | ! 67 | ! 161 | ! 867 | ! 248 | ! | ! | ! | ! .316 | ! | ! | ! | ! | ! 9 | ! 7 | ! | ! | ! |
a The sacrifice fly (SF) as a unique statistical category did not exist in Major League Baseball from 1940 through 1953. Any pre-1954 sacrifice flies by Robinson would be reflected in the sacrifice hit (SH) category.
b Likewise, the intentional walk (IBB) category only became a unique statistic beginning in 1955. Any intentional walks issued to Robinson before that year would be reflected in the walk (BB) category.
Category:1919 births Category:1972 deaths Category:African American baseball players Category:African American sports history Category:African Americans' rights activists Category:American Methodists Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Baseball players from California Category:Baseball players from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Brooklyn Dodgers players Category:Burials at Cypress Hills National Cemetery Category:Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Category:College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:International League Hall of Fame inductees Category:Junior college men's basketball players in the United States Category:Kansas City Monarchs players Category:Major League Baseball announcers Category:Major League Baseball players with retired numbers Category:Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award winners Category:Major League Baseball second basemen Category:Montreal Expos broadcasters Category:Montreal Royals players Category:National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Category:National League Most Valuable Player Award winners Category:National League All-Stars Category:National League batting champions Category:National League stolen base champions Category:Negro league baseball players Category:Pasadena City College alumni Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from New York City Category:People from Pasadena, California Category:People from Stamford, Connecticut Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Racism Category:Spingarn Medal winners Category:Sportspeople of multiple sports Category:UCLA Bruins football players Category:UCLA Bruins men's basketball players Category:UCLA Bruins baseball players Category:UCLA Bruins track and field athletes Category:United States Army officers
bn:জ্যাকি রবিনসন zh-min-nan:Jackie Robinson da:Jackie Robinson de:Jackie Robinson es:Jackie Robinson fr:Jackie Robinson ko:재키 로빈슨 id:Jackie Robinson it:Jackie Robinson (giocatore di baseball) he:ג'קי רובינסון lv:Džekijs Robinsons mr:जॅकी रॉबिन्सन ja:ジャッキー・ロビンソン pl:Jackie Roosevelt Robinson pt:Jackie Robinson ru:Робинсон, Джек Рузвельт simple:Jackie Robinson sh:Jackie Robinson fi:Jackie Robinson sv:Jackie Robinson tl:Jackie Robinson ta:ஜாக்கி ராபின்சன் uk:Джекі Робінсон vi:Jackie Robinson war:Jackie Robinson yo:Jackie Robinson zh:傑基·羅賓森
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