birth name	Jennifer Leigh Morrow
birth date	February 05, 1962
birth place	Hollywood, California,United States
occupation	Actress
years active	1973–present
spouse	Noah Baumbach(2005–present; request for divorce filed November 2010)
children	1
parents	Vic Morrow (1929-1982)Barbara Turner }}

Jennifer Jason Leigh (born February 5, 1962) is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'', ''Single White Female'', ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'', ''Georgia'' and ''Short Cuts''. She is also the co-writer and co-director of the film ''The Anniversary Party'', made with fellow actor Alan Cumming.

Leigh is known for her emotionally raw and often sexually explicit portrayals of vulnerable and damaged women, and for her intensive method inspired research into her roles.

Early life

Leigh was born on 5 February 1962 in Hollywood, California. She is the daughter of actor Vic Morrow and screenwriter Barbara Turner. Leigh's birth name was Jennifer Leigh Morrow. She changed her surname early in her acting career, taking the middle name "Jason" in honor of the actor Jason Robards, a family friend. Leigh's parents were Jewish, of Russian descent on her father's side.

Leigh has an older sister, Carrie Ann Morrow, who was credited as a "technical advisor" in ''Georgia'', and on whom the role of Sadie Flood was reputedly based. Leigh also has a half-sister actress Mina Badie, from her mother's marriage, who acted alongside Leigh in ''The Anniversary Party''. The director Reza Badiyi was her mother's second husband and was at the time her step-father.

Career

Early work

Leigh worked in her first film at the age of nine, in a nonspeaking role for the film ''Death of a Stranger (The Execution)'' (1973). At 14, she attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in Loch Sheldrake, New York summer acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg and landed a role in the Disney TV movie ''The Young Runaways'' (1978). She received her Screen Actors Guild membership for an episode of the TV series ''Baretta'' (1975) when she was 16.

An episode of ''The Waltons'' and several TV movies followed, including a portrayal of an anorexic teenager in ''The Best Little Girl in the World'', for which Leigh dropped to under medical supervision. She made her big screen debut playing a blind, deaf, and mute rape victim in the 1981 slasher film ''Eyes of a Stranger''. In 1982, she played a teenager who gets pregnant in the Cameron Crowe- scripted high school comedy ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'', which served as a launching pad for several of its young stars, including Sean Penn, Judge Reinhold, Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, Anthony Edwards, Phoebe Cates and Nicolas Cage. In 1983 Leigh had a small role in the Rodney Dangerfeild movie ''Easy Money'' playing his elder of two daughters; who marries a man that Rodney disapproves of.

With the exception of ''Ridgemont High'', Leigh's early film work consisted of playing fragile, damaged, or neurotic characters in low-budget horror or thriller genre films. She played a virginal princess kidnapped and raped by mercenaries in ''Flesh & Blood'' (1985), an innocent waitress pursued by the psychotic title character in ''The Hitcher'' (1986) (both films pitting her opposite Rutger Hauer), and a young woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown in ''Heart of Midnight'' (1989).

In 1990, Leigh made a significant career breakthrough when she was voted the year's Best Supporting Actress by both the New York Film Critics Circle and the Boston Society of Film Critics for her portrayals of two very different prostitutes: the tough streetwalker Tralala who submits to a brutal gang rape in ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'', and Susie, a teenage prostitute who falls in love with ex-con Alec Baldwin in ''Miami Blues''. Reviewers commented on Leigh's raw emotionality and apparent lack of vanity in her performances, especially in ''Last Exit'' which controversially featured prolonged scenes of sexual violence.

Leigh was then cast in her first mainstream Hollywood studio film, the firefighter drama ''Backdraft'', in which she played a somewhat more conventional role as the girlfriend of lead actor William Baldwin. Leigh reportedly told director Ron Howard that she wished that she could be the fire because it had the film's best role. In subsequent interviews, Leigh has stated that the role is her least favorite performance: "In mainstream movies, the woman's role is mostly just to prove that the leading man is heterosexual. I'm not good at that, and I'm not interested in that."

Leigh found more success in the gritty crime drama ''Rush'' (1991), in which she portrayed an undercover narcotics policewoman who becomes a junkie in the line of duty in and falls in love with her partner Jason Patric. Her next film ''Single White Female'' (1992) was a surprise box office success, bringing Leigh to her largest yet mainstream audience. As Hedy, the psychotic "roommate from hell" who steals flatmate Bridget Fonda's identity and boyfriend and commits murder with a stiletto heel, Leigh created a memorably vulnerable and frightening character, and was awarded the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain and nominated by the Chicago Film Critics Association for Best Actress.

In a change of pace from her "bad girl" roles, Leigh played the fast-talking reporter Amy Archer in the Coen Brothers’ comic homage to 1930s screwball comedy ''The Hudsucker Proxy'' (1994), modeling her performance and speaking style on the early work of Katharine Hepburn. Leigh took her first lead role as the writer and critic Dorothy Parker in Alan Rudolph's film ''Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle'' (1994). Her performance was highly acclaimed, receiving a Golden Globe nomination and a Best Actress award from the National Society of Film Critics, as well as Best Actress awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association and Fort Lauderdale Film Critics.

Arguably Leigh's finest performance was in the role of Sadie Flood, an angry, drug-addicted rock singer living in the shadow of her successful older sister (Mare Winningham) in ''Georgia'' (1995). The film was written by Leigh's mother Barbara Turner, and was co-produced by Turner and Leigh. The story of intense sibling rivalry and the problems of drug addiction within a family are reputedly based on Leigh's sister Carrie (who is credited as "technical adviser" on the film) and her relationship with Leigh as the more successful sister. Turner, Leigh and Morrow have made no public comment as to whether the film is biographical. For the role, Leigh dropped to and sang all her songs live, including a rambling 8½-minute version of Van Morrison's "Take Me Back" performed as her character is under the influence of alcohol and drugs. ''Georgia'' was met with universal critical praise, with Leigh's performance hailed as one of the best of the year. Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' wrote that "[Leigh's] fierce, funny, exasperating and deeply affecting portrayal commands attention"; James Berardinelli claimed, "There are times when it's uncomfortable to watch this performance because it's so powerful", while Kenneth Turan of the ''Los Angeles Times'' said "Leigh’s exceptional performance tears you apart… we've never seen anything like it before." Leigh won a Best Actress award from the New York Film Critics Circle and another from the Montreal World Film Festival, as well as an Independent Spirit Award nomination. She was widely predicted to receive her first Academy Award nomination for the role, but controversially, was not nominated, although her co-star Winningham received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Throughout the 1990s, Leigh showcased her versatility working with a number of acclaimed independent film directors. In 1993, she joined the ensemble cast of Robert Altman's film ''Short Cuts'', playing a phone-sex operator who diapers her newborn baby while talking to clients. Leigh reportedly interviewed phone sex operators as part of her research for the role, and wrote most of her own dialogue for the phone sex scenes.

She co-starred with Kathy Bates as a tormented, pill-popping woman hiding a history of childhood sexual abuse in the adaptation of Stephen King's novel ''Dolores Claiborne'' (1995). Working again with Altman, a family friend, she played a streetwise kidnapper alongside Miranda Richardson in Altman's Jazz Era drama ''Kansas City'' (1996). Taking another radical change of pace, she starred in Agnieszka Holland's version of the Henry James novel ''Washington Square'' (1997), as a mousy 19th-century heiress courted by a gold-digger. In David Cronenberg's ''eXistenZ'' (1999), she played a virtual reality game designer who becomes lost in her own creation. She had a brief role as a doomed gangster's wife in Sam Mendes's ''Road to Perdition'' (2002), and co-starred as Meg Ryan's brutally murdered sister in Jane Campion's erotic thriller ''In the Cut'' (2003). After a long period of avoiding prostitute roles, she played alongside Christian Bale as his prostitute girlfriend in the thriller ''The Machinist'' (2004). Mick LaSalle of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' commented that "As the downtrodden, sexy, trusting and quietly funny prostitute, Leigh is, of course, in her element". Her performance as a manipulative stage mother in Don McKellar's film ''Childstar'' won her a Genie Award in 2005.

In recent years, Leigh appeared in the 2008 ensemble film ''Synecdoche, New York'' and has acted in two films written and directed by her then-partner Noah Baumbach - ''Margot at the Wedding'', co-starring Nicole Kidman, and ''Greenberg'' as Ben Stiller's love interest.

Leigh has received three separate career tributes - at the Telluride Film Festival in 1993, a special award for her contribution to independent cinema from the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2002, and a week-long retrospective showing of her film work held by the American Cinematheque at Los Angeles' Egyptian Theatre in 2001.

Stage roles

In 1998, Leigh took on the lead role of Sally Bowles in Sam Mendes' Broadway revival of musical ''Cabaret'' on Broadway, succeeding Natasha Richardson who originated the role in Mendes' production. She succeeded Mary-Louise Parker in the lead role in ''Proof'' on Broadway in 2001. Her theatrical appearances include ''The Glass Menagerie'', ''Man of Destiny'', ''The Shadow Box'', ''Picnic'', ''Sunshine'', and ''Abigail's Party''. She is currently playing Bunny in the Broadway revival of ''House of Blue Leaves'' in New York City alongside Ben Stiller and Edie Falco.

Co-writing and -directing

In 2001, she co-wrote and co-directed ''The Anniversary Party,'' an independently produced feature film about a recently reconciled married couple who assemble their friends at their Hollywood Hills house, ostensibly to celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary. As the evening progresses, however, the party disintegrages into emotional confrontations and bitter arguments as the facade of their happy marriage crumbles. Leigh was reportedly inspired by her recent experience filming low-budget Dogme film ''The King Is Alive''. Leigh and Cumming reputedly drew freely from their personal experiences in the writing of the film. Leigh plays an aging actress who makes jokes about her lack of Academy Award nominations, and who is fearful of losing her bisexual husband (Cumming). The film was shot in 19 days on digital video, and co-starred the pair's real-life Hollywood friends including Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Beals, John C. Reilly and Parker Posey and also featured Leigh's sister Mina Badie. The film was well received and reviewed. Leigh and Cumming jointly received a citation for Excellence in Filmmaking from the National Board of Review, and were nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay.

Other work

Leigh is known for doing extensive method acting research in every role, including keeping diaries written in the character’s voice, and in the past has interviewed psychiatrists, mental patients, drug addicts, sexual abuse survivors, prostitutes and phone sex workers to prepare for her roles.

Leigh filmed a role in Stanley Kubrick's final film ''Eyes Wide Shut'' (1999) as a grieving patient of Tom Cruise, who declares her love for him after the death of her father. Kubrick wanted to re-shoot the scenes, but Leigh was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with her next film. Kubrick took the somewhat controversial step of cutting Leigh's scenes, and recasting and reshooting the role with Swedish actress Marie Richardson. Leigh has never commented publicly on the experience of working with Kubrick nor of being cut from the film.

Leigh has also spoken openly about a number of roles she unsuccessfully campaigned for, including the Linda Hamilton role in Sarah Connor in ''The Terminator'', the Holly Hunter role in ''The Piano'', and the role of Catwoman in ''Batman Returns''. Leigh was originally cast as Vincent Gallo's girlfriend in his self-directed film ''The Brown Bunny'', and was apparently prepared to perform oral sex on Gallo as the script required. Leigh subsequently commented that "it just didn't work out" and the role was eventually played by Chloë Sevigny.

In 1997, she was featured in Faith No More's music video for "Last Cup of Sorrow".

She was selected as one of "America's 10 Most Beautiful Women" by ''Harper's Bazaar'' magazine in 1989.

Leigh served as a jury member at the 2000 Venice Film Festival.

Personal life

In 1982, Leigh's father was accidentally killed when a helicopter stunt went wrong while shooting ''Twilight Zone: The Movie''. Leigh and her sister filed a lawsuit for wrongful death against Warner Brothers, John Landis, and Steven Spielberg. They settled out of court a year later. The terms of the settlement have never been made public.

Leigh was involved in long term relationships with actor Eric Stoltz and film director Steven Shainberg. She has also been romantically linked to actors Robert Downey, Jr. and Kevin Spacey.

Leigh met independent film writer-director Noah Baumbach in 2001, while she was starring on Broadway in ''Proof''. The couple married on September 2, 2005. Their son, Rohmer Emmanuel, was born on March 17, 2010. Leigh filed for divorce from Baumbach on November 15, 2010 in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences. Leigh is seeking spousal support as well as primary custody of the couple's son, with visitation for Baumbach.

Filmography

! Year !! Film !! Role !! Notes
1973	''Tod eines Fremden''	Girl playing with a rubber ball	Uncredited
1980	''Angel City''	Kristy Teeter	Made-for-TV Movie
		Tracy Harris
''The Best Little Girl in the World''	Casey Powell
	''Wrong Is Right''	Young Girl on Reality Program
''Fast Times at Ridgemont High''	Stacy Hamilton
	Bonnie Dillon
	''Girls of the White Orchid''	Carol Heath	TV
	Allison Capuletti
1984	''Grandview, U.S.A.''	Candy Webster
1985		Agnes
		Nash
''The Men's Club''	Teensy
	''Under Cover''	Tanille Lareoux
	Lucy Bonnard
1988		Carol Rivers
1989		Lydia Johnson
		Tralala	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting ActressNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
	Susie Waggoner	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting ActressNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
	Joanna Goodman	Made-for-TV Movie
		Jennifer Vaitkus
''Crooked Hearts''	Marriet Hoffman
	Kristen Cates
	''The Prom''	Lana
''Single White Female''	Hedra 'Hedy' Carlson/Ellen Besch	MTV Movie Award for Best VillainNominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
1993	''Short Cuts''	Lois Kaiser	Golden Globe Awards
	''[[The Hudsucker Proxy''	Amy Archer
''Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle''	Dorothy Parker	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female
		Sadie Flood
	Selena St. George	Nominated—Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
		Blondie O'Hara
	Anney Boatwright
		Catherine Sloper
''A Thousand Acres''	Caroline Cook
1998		Elizabeth Whitcomb	Hallmark television film
1999	''eXistenZ''	Allegra Geller
	''Beautiful View''
''The King is Alive''	Gina
''Skipped Parts''	Lydia Callahan	Also Co-Producer
	''The Man Who Wasn't There''	Female inmate	Uncredited
''The Anniversary Party''	Sally Therrian	Also Writer/Producer/DirectorNominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature shared with Alan CummingNominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay shared with Alan Cumming
	Lisa
	''Hey Arnold: The Movie''	Bridget	Voice
''Road to Perdition''	Annie Sullivan
2003	''In the Cut''	Pauline
	''Childstar''	Suzanne	Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
	"Mark" Aviva
''The Machinist''	Stevie
		Mother
''Rag Tale''	Mary Josephine 'MJ' Morton
''The Jacket''	Dr. Beth Lorenson
2007	''Margot at the Wedding''	Pauline	Peñíscola Comedy Film Festival Award for Best ActressNominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated—Gotham Award for Best Ensemble CastNominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female
2008	''Synecdoche, New York''	Maria	Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast
2009		Jill Price-Gray	TV6 episodes
2010		Beth	Also writer/producer

Further reading

References

External links

Jennifer Jason Leigh at Internet Off-Broadway Database

In-depth interview at Museum of Moving Image in 1994

The Onion A.V. Club interview

Category:1962 births Category:Actors from Los Angeles, California Category:American film actors Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:Female film directors Category:Genie Award winners for Best Supporting Actress Category:Living people

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name	Barbara Stanwyck
birth name	Ruby Catherine Stevens
birth date	July 16, 1907
birth place	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
death date	January 20, 1990
death place	Santa Monica, California, U.S.
occupation	Actress
years active	1927–86
spouse	Frank Fay (1928–35)Robert Taylor (1939–51) }}

Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress. A film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra. After a short but notable career as a stage actress in the late 1920s, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood, before turning to television.

Stanwyck was nominated for the Academy Award four times, and won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. She was the recipient of honorary lifetime awards from the Motion Picture Academy, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Golden Globes, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Screen Actors Guild, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is ranked as the eleventh greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute.

Early life and career

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens in Brooklyn, New York on July 16, 1907. She was the fifth and youngest child of Byron and Catherine (née McGee) Stevens; the couple were working-class natives of Chelsea, Massachusetts, of English and Irish extraction, respectively. When Ruby was four, her mother was killed when a drunken stranger pushed her off a moving streetcar. Two weeks after the funeral, Byron Stevens joined a work crew digging the Panama canal; and was never seen again. Ruby and her brother Byron were raised by their elder sister Mildred, five years Ruby's senior. When Mildred got a job as a John Cort showgirl, Ruby and Byron were placed in a series of foster homes (as many as four in a year), from which Ruby often ran away. Ruby attended various public schools in Brooklyn, where she received uniformly poor grades and routinely picked fights with the other students.

During the summers of 1916 and 1917, Ruby toured with Mildred, and practiced her sister's routines backstage. Another influence toward performing was watching the movies of Pearl White, whom Ruby idolized. At age 14, she dropped out of school to take a job wrapping packages at a Brooklyn department store. Soon after she took a job filing cards at the Brooklyn telephone office for a salary of $14 a week, a salary that allowed her to become financially independent. She disliked both jobs; she was interested in show business, but her sister Mildred discouraged the idea, so Ruby next took a job cutting dress patterns for ''Vogue'', however customers complained about her work and she was fired. Her next job was as a typist for the Jerome H. Remick Music Company, a job she reportedly enjoyed; however her true interest was still show business and her sister gave up trying to dissuade her.

In 1923, a few months short of her 16th birthday, Ruby auditioned for a place in the chorus at the Strand Roof, a night club over the Strand Theatre in Times Square. A few months thereafter she obtained a job as a Ziegfeld girl in the 1922 and 1923 editions of the Ziegfeld Follies. For the next several years, she worked as a chorus girl, performing from midnight to seven a.m. at nightclubs owned by Texas Guinan; she also occasionally served as a dance instructor at a speakeasy for gays and lesbians owned by Guinan.

In 1926, Ruby was introduced to Willard Mack by Billy LaHiff, who owned a popular pub frequented by showpeople. Mack was casting his play ''The Noose''; LaHiff suggested that the part of the chorus girl could be played by a real chorus girl, and Mack agreed to let Ruby audition. Ruby obtained the part, but the play was not a success. In a bid to add pathos to the drama, Ruby's part was expanded. At the suggestion of either Mack or David Belasco, Ruby adopted the stage name of Barbara Stanwyck; the "Barbara" came from Barbara Frietchie and the "Stanwyck" from English actress Jane Stanwyck. ''The Noose'' re-opened on October 20, 1926, became one of the most successful of the season, running for nine months and 197 performances. Stanwyck co-starred with actors Rex Cherryman and Wilfred Lucas.

Her performance in ''The Noose'' earned rave reviews, and she was summoned by film producer Bob Kane to make a screen test for his upcoming 1927 silent film ''Broadway Nights'' where she won a minor part of a fan dancer after losing out on the lead role, because she could not cry during the screen test. This marked Stanwyck's first film appearance. She played her first lead part on stage that year in ''Burlesque''; the play was critically panned, but Stanwyck's performance netted her rave reviews. While playing in ''Burlesque'', Stanwyck was introduced to actor Frank Fay by Oscar Levant; Stanwyck and Fay both later claimed they had hated each other immediately, but became close after the sudden death of fellow actor Rex Cherryman at the age of 30. Cherryman had become ill early in 1928, and his doctor had advised a sea voyage; while on a ship to Paris, where he and Stanwyck had arranged to meet, Cherryman died of septic poisoning. Stanwyck and Fay married on August 26, 1928, and moved to Hollywood.

Film career

Stanwyck's first sound film was ''The Locked Door'' (1929), followed by ''Mexicali Rose'' in 1929. Neither film was successful; nonetheless, Frank Capra chose Stanwyck for his ''Ladies of Leisure'' (1930). Numerous memorable roles followed, among them the children's nurse who saves two would be juvenile murder victims in ''Night Nurse'' (1931), the ambitious woman from "the wrong side of the tracks" in ''Baby Face'' (1933), the self-sacrificing mother in ''Stella Dallas'' (1937), the con artist who falls for her would-be victim (played by Henry Fonda) in ''The Lady Eve'' (1941), the woman who talks an infatuated insurance salesman (Fred McMurray) into killing her husband in ''Double Indemnity'' (1944), the columnist caught up in white lies and Christmas romance in ''Christmas in Connecticut'' (1945) and the doomed wife in ''Sorry, Wrong Number'' (1948). Stanwyck was reportedly one of the many actresses considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in ''Gone With The Wind'' (1939), although she wasn't given a screen test. In 1944, Stanwyck was the highest-paid woman in the United States.

Pauline Kael described Stanwyck's acting, "[she] seems to have an intuitive understanding of the fluid physical movements that work best on camera" and in reference to her early 1930s film work "early talkies sentimentality ... only emphasizes Stanwyck's remarkable modernism."

Stanwyck was known for her accessibility and kindness to the backstage crew on any film set. She knew the names of their wives and children, and asked after them by name. Frank Capra said she was "destined to be beloved by all directors, actors, crews and extras. In a Hollywood popularity contest she would win first prize hands down."

Television career

When Stanwyck's film career declined in 1957, she moved to television. Her – series ''The Barbara Stanwyck Show'' was not a ratings success but earned her first Emmy Award. The – Western series ''The Big Valley'' on ABC made her one of the most popular actresses on television, winning her another Emmy. She was billed as "Miss Barbara Stanwyck", and her role as frontier family matron Victoria Barkley was likened to that of Ben Cartwright, played by Lorne Greene in the series ''Bonanza''. Stanwyck's costars included Richard Long as Jarrod Thomas Barkley, (who had been in Stanwyck's 1953 film ''All I Desire''), Peter Breck as the hot headed Nick Barkley, Linda Evans as the seductress Audra Barkley, and Lee Majors as Heath Barkley, the son fathered out-of-wedlock by the Stanwyck character's husband.

Years later, Stanwyck earned her third Emmy for ''The Thorn Birds''. In , she made three guest appearances on the hit primetime soap opera ''Dynasty'' prior to the launch of its ill-fated spin-off series ''The Colbys'' in which she starred alongside Charlton Heston, Stephanie Beacham and Katharine Ross. Unhappy with the experience, Stanwyck remained with the series for only one season (it lasted for two), and her role as Constance Colby Patterson would prove to be her last. Earl Hamner Jr. (producer of ''The Waltons'') had initially wanted Stanwyck for the lead role of Angela Channing on the successful 1980s soap opera, ''Falcon Crest'', but she turned it down; the role was ultimately given to her best friend Jane Wyman.

William Holden credited her with saving his career when they co-starred in ''Golden Boy'' (1939). They remained lifelong friends. When Stanwyck and Holden were presenting the Best Sound Oscar, Holden paused to pay a special tribute to Stanwyck. Shortly after Holden's death, Stanwyck returned the favor. Upon receiving her honorary Oscar, she said aloud: "And tonight, my golden boy, you got your wish."

Personal life

Her first husband was actor Frank Fay. They were married on August 26, 1928. On December 5, 1932, they adopted a son, Dion Anthony "Tony" Fay. (He and Stanwyck eventually became estranged.) The marriage was a troubled one; Fay's successful career on Broadway did not translate to the big screen, whereas Stanwyck achieved Hollywood stardom, after a bumpy start. Fay did not shy from physical confrontations with his young wife, especially when he was inebriated. Some claim that this union was the basis for ''A Star is Born''. The couple divorced on December 30, 1935. Subsequently, Stanwyck won custody of their adoptive son.

In 1936, while making the film ''His Brother's Wife'', Stanwyck met and fell in love with her co-star, Robert Taylor. Following a whirlwind romance, the couple began living together. Their 1939 marriage was arranged with the help of Taylor's studio MGM, a common practice in Hollywood's golden age. She and Taylor enjoyed time together outdoors during the early years of their marriage, and were the owners of acres of prime West Los Angeles property. Their large ranch and home in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, Los Angeles is to this day referred to by locals as the old "Robert Taylor ranch".

Taylor reportedly had affairs during the marriage. When Stanwyck learned of Taylor's fling with Lana Turner, she filed for divorce in 1950 when a starlet made Turner's romance with Taylor public. The decree was granted on February 21, 1951. After the divorce, they acted together in Stanwyck's last feature film ''The Night Walker'' (1964). Stanwyck never remarried, collecting alimony of 15 percent of Taylor's salary until his death in 1969.

Stanwyck had an affair with actor Robert Wagner, whom she met on the set of ''Titanic''. Wagner, who was 22, and Stanwyck, who was 45 at the beginning of the affair, had a four-year romance, as described in Wagner's 2008 memoir, ''Pieces of My Heart''. Stanwyck broke off the relationship.

She was reportedly a conservative-minded Republican along with such contemporaries as William Holden, Ginger Rogers, and Gary Cooper.

Later years

Stanwyck's retirement years were active, with charity work outside the limelight. Her decline began after she was robbed and assaulted inside her Beverly Hills home in 1981. The following year, while filming ''The Thorn Birds'', the inhalation of special-effects smoke on the set caused her to contract bronchitis. The illness was compounded by her cigarette habit; she had been a smoker since age 9 until four years before her death.

Death

Stanwyck died of congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at Saint John's Health Center, in Santa Monica, California, in 1990. Her body was cremated, and her ashes scattered in Lone Pine, California.

Filmography

Awards and honors

Academy Awards

1938 - ''nominated'' - "Best Actress in a Leading Role" - ''Stella Dallas''

1942 - ''nominated'' - "Best Actress in a Leading Role" - ''Ball of Fire''

1945 - ''nominated'' - "Best Actress in a Leading Role" - ''Double Indemnity''

1949 - ''nominated'' - "Best Actress in a Leading Role" - ''Sorry, Wrong Number''

1982 - ''won'' - Honorary Award: "For superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting."

Emmy Awards

1961 - ''won'' - "Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead)" - ''The Barbara Stanwyck Show''

1966 - ''won'' - "Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series" - ''The Big Valley''

1967 - ''nominated'' - "Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series" - ''The Big Valley''

1968 - ''nominated'' - "Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series" - ''The Big Valley''

1983 - ''won'' "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special" - ''The Thorn Birds'' (part 1)

Golden Globes

1966 - ''nominated'' - "Best TV Star - Female" - ''The Big Valley''

1967 - ''nominated'' - "Best TV Star - Female" - ''The Big Valley''

1968 - ''nominated'' - "Best TV Star - Female" - ''The Big Valley''

1984 - ''won'' - "Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV" - ''The Thorn Birds''

1986 - ''won'' - Cecil B. DeMille Award

Other awards

1967 - ''won'' - Screen Actors Guild - Life Achievement Award

1981 - ''won'' - Film Society of Lincoln Center - Gala Tribute

1981 - ''won'' - Los Angeles Film Critics Association - Career Achievement Award

1987 - ''won'' - American Film Institute - Life Achievement Award

Hollywood Walk of Fame - star at 1751 Vine Street

In 1973, she was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Notes

Bibliography

Bachardy, Don. ''Stars in My Eyes.'' University of Wisconsin Press, 2000. ISBN 0299167305.

Balio, Tino. ''Grand design: Hollywood as a modern business enterprise, 1930-1939'' University of California Press, 1995; ISBN 0520203348.

"A Century of Stanwyck." ''The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)'' by John Beifuss on July 16, 2007

Chierichetti, David, and Edith Head. ''Edith Head: the life and times of Hollywood's celebrated costume designer''. HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0060567406.

Eyman, Scott. "The Lady Stanwyck". ''The Palm Beach Post (FL)'', July 15, 2007. pg. 1J; accessed through Access World News on 16 June 2009.

Flint, Peter B. "Barbara Stanwyck, Actress, Dead at 82.", ''The New York Times''. January 22, 1990; pg. D11.

Hall, Dennis. ''American icons: an encyclopedia of the people, places, and things that have shaped our culture.'' Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006; ISBN 027598429X.

Hirsch, Foster. ''The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir.'' Da Capo Press, 2008; ISBN 0306817721.

King, Susan. "Wagner Memoir Tells of Wood Death, Stanwyck Affair." ''San Jose Mercury News (CA)'' October 5, 2008, pg. 6D; accessed through Access World News on June 16, 2009.

Lesser, Wendy. ''His Other Half: Men Looking at Women Through Art''. Harvard University Press, 1992; ISBN 0674392116.

Madsen, Axel. ''Stanwyck: A Biography''. HarperCollins, 1994. ISBN 006017997X.

Muller, Eddie. ''Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir''. St. Martin's Griffin, 1998; ISBN 0312180764.

Nassour, Ellis, and Beth A. Snowberger. "Stanwyck, Barbara". ''American National Biography Online'' (subscription only), February 2000; accessed July 1, 2009.

Schackel, Sandra. "Barbara Stanwyck: Uncommon Heroine." In ''Back in the saddle: essays on Western film and television actors.'' McFarland Publishing, 1998; ISBN 078640566X.

"The Rumble: An Off-the-Ball Look at Your Favorite Sports Celebrities", ''New York Post'', December 31, 2006; accessed June 16, 2009.

External links

That Old Feeling: Ruby in the Rough Time Magazine, 2001

Saluting Stanwyck: A Life On Film Los Angeles Times, 1987

Category:1907 births Category:1990 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:Actors from New York City Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:American female models Category:American film actors Category:American people of Canadian descent Category:American people of English descent Category:American radio actors Category:American television actors Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (television) winners Category:California Republicans Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure Category:Deaths from emphysema Category:Emmy Award winners Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Western (genre) film actors Category:Ziegfeld Girls

an:Barbara Stanwyck ca:Barbara Stanwyck cy:Barbara Stanwyck da:Barbara Stanwyck de:Barbara Stanwyck es:Barbara Stanwyck eo:Barbara Stanwyck eu:Barbara Stanwyck fr:Barbara Stanwyck hr:Barbara Stanwyck it:Barbara Stanwyck he:ברברה סטנוויק nl:Barbara Stanwyck ja:バーバラ・スタンウィック no:Barbara Stanwyck pl:Barbara Stanwyck pt:Barbara Stanwyck ru:Барбара Стэнвик simple:Barbara Stanwyck sr:Барбара Стенвик sh:Barbara Stanwyck fi:Barbara Stanwyck sv:Barbara Stanwyck tr:Barbara Stanwyck uk:Барбара Стенвік vi:Barbara Stanwyck zh:芭芭拉·斯坦威克

birth date	June 22, 1958
birth place	Royal Oak, Michigan, U.S.
birth name	Bruce Lorne Campbell
occupation	Actor, author, producer, writer, director
years active	1976–present
website	http://www.bruce-campbell.com/
spouse	Ida Gearon (1991–present) }}

Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. As a cult B movie actor, Campbell starred as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in Sam Raimi's ''Evil Dead'' series of films and he has starred in many low-budget cult films such as ''Crimewave'', ''Maniac Cop'', ''Bubba Ho-tep'', ''Escape From L.A.'' and ''Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat''. He would later spoof his B-movie career in ''My Name Is Bruce'', in which he starred and directed.

Campbell broke into the mainstream in 2007 with his portrayal of Sam Axe on the USA Network cable TV series ''Burn Notice''. He has since made appearances in films including ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'' and ''Cars 2''.

Personal life

Campbell was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, the son of Joanne Louise (née Pickens), a homemaker, and Charles Newton Campbell, an amateur actor and traveling billboard inspector. He has an older brother, Don, and an older half-brother, Michael Rendine.

Campbell's first wife was Christine Deveau, whom he married in 1983. They had two children, Rebecca and Andy, before their divorce in 1989. Campbell currently lives in Jacksonville, Oregon, with his second wife, costume designer Ida Gearon, whom he met on the set of the movie ''Mindwarp''.

Life and career

Early years

Bruce Campbell began acting as a teenager and soon began making short Super 8 movies with friends. After meeting Sam Raimi in Wylie E. Groves High School, the two became very good friends and started making movies together. Campbell would go on to attend Western Michigan University while he continued to work on his acting career. Campbell and Raimi collaborated on a 30-minute Super 8 version of the first ''Evil Dead'' film, titled ''Within the Woods'', which was initially used to attract investors.

Major film roles

A few years later, Campbell and Raimi got together with family and friends and began work on ''The Evil Dead''. Campbell starred and worked behind the camera, receiving a "co-executive producer" credit. Raimi wrote, directed and edited, while fellow Michigander Rob Tapert was producer. Following an endorsement by horror writer Stephen King, the film slowly began to receive distribution. Four years following its original release, it became the number one movie in the UK. It then received distribution in the U.S., spawning two sequels: ''Evil Dead II'' and ''Army of Darkness''. Campbell's role as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams has since become iconic. The first two films in the series are considered horror classics and are credited with spawning the "horror comedy" genre.

He has appeared in many of Raimi's films outside of the ''Evil Dead'' series, notably cameo roles in the ''Spider-Man'' film series. Bruce Campbell also joined the cast in Raimi's ''Darkman'' and ''The Quick and the Dead'', though having no actual screen time in the latter film's theatrical cut.

Campbell often takes on quirky roles, such as Elvis Presley in the film ''Bubba Ho-tep'', and appears in B-Movies and starred in ''My Name Is Bruce''. Along with ''Bubba Ho-tep'', he also played a supporting role in ''Sky High (2005 film)'', He also was featured in the Jim Carrey drama ''The Majestic''. Campbell also had a key supporting role in the Coen Brothers film ''The Hudsucker Proxy''.

Other roles for Campbell included the Michael Crichton adaptation ''Congo'', the film version of ''McHale's Navy'', and ''Escape From L.A.'', the sequel to John Carpenter's film ''Escape From New York''. Campbell was also the star of the ''Maniac Cop'' B-Movie series.

Campbell had a starring voice role in the hit films 2009 animated adaptation of the children's book ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'', and ''Cars 2''.

In January 2010, he stated in an interview that his new film project is called ''Bruce vs. Frankenstein''. The film is directed and produced by his friend Mike Richardson.

On July 13, 2011, Campbell announced that he would be producing the remake of ''The Evil Dead'' along with Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. Campbell will not act in the movie as Ash, but may still make some sort of appearance in the film.

Television roles

Outside of film, Campbell has appeared in a number of television series. He starred in ''The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.'' a boisterous science fiction comedy western created by Jeffrey Boam and Carlton Cuse that ran for one season. He played a lawyer turned bounty hunter who was trying to hunt down John Bly, the man who killed his father. He starred in the television series ''Jack of All Trades'', set on a fictional island, occupied by the French in 1801. Campbell was also credited as co-executive producer, among others. The show was directed by Eric Gruendemann, and was produced by various people, including Sam Raimi. The show aired for two seasons, from 2000 to 2001. He had a recurring role as "Bill Church Jr." on ''Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman''.

In 1996–1997, Campbell was a recurring guest star on the show ''Ellen'' as Ed Billik, who becomes Ellen's boss when she sells her bookstore in season four. He is also known for his supporting role as the recurring character Autolycus ("the King of Thieves") on both ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' and ''Xena: Warrior Princess'', which reunited him with producer Rob Tapert. Campbell played ''Hercules''/''Xena'' series producer Tapert in two episodes of ''Hercules'' set in the present. He directed a number of episodes of ''Hercules'' and ''Xena'', including the ''Hercules'' series finale. Campbell also landed the lead role of race car driver Hank Cooper in the Disney made-for-television remake of ''The Love Bug''.

Campbell made a critically acclaimed dramatic guest role as a grief-stricken detective seeking revenge for his father's murder in a two-part episode of the fourth season of ''Homicide: Life on the Street''. Campbell later played the part of a bigamous demon in ''The X-Files'' episode, "Terms of Endearment". He also starred as Agent Jackman in the episode "Witch Way Now?" of the WB series ''Charmed'', as well as playing an FBI agent in an episode of the short-lived series ''American Gothic'' titled "Meet the Beetles".

Campbell currently stars on the television series ''Burn Notice'', which has aired since 2007 on USA Network. He portrays Sam Axe, a beer-chugging, womanizing former Navy SEAL now working as an unlicensed private investigator and occasional mercenary with his old friend Michael Westen, the show's main character. When working under cover, he frequently goes by the alias Chuck Finley. During Comic-Con 2010, it was revealed that Campbell would be the star of a ''Burn Notice'' made-for-television prequel focusing on Sam's Navy SEAL career, titled ''Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe''. The movie was first aired on April 17, 2011.

Voice acting

Campbell is featured as a voice actor in several video game titles. He provides the voice of Ash in the three games based on the ''Evil Dead'' film series: ''Evil Dead: Hail to the King'', ''Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick'' and ''Evil Dead: Regeneration''. As well as titles such as ''Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle'', ''Spider-Man: The Movie'', ''Spider-Man 2'' and ''Spider-Man 3''.

He provided the voice of main character Jake Logan in the PC title, ''Tachyon: The Fringe'', the voice of main character Jake Burton in the PlayStation game ''Broken Helix'' and the voice of Magnanimous in ''Megas XLR''. Campbell voiced the pulp adventurer Lobster Johnson in ''Hellboy: The Science of Evil'' and has done voice-over work for the Codemaster's game ''Hei$t'', a game which was announced on the 28 January 2010 to have been "terminated". He also provided the voice of The Mayor in the 2009 film ''Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs'', and the voice of Rod "Torque" Redline in ''Cars 2''.

Writing

In addition to acting and occasionally directing, Campbell has become a writer, including authoring an autobiography, ''If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor''. The autobiography was a successful ''New York Times'' Best Seller. The paperback version of the book adds a chapter about the reaction of fans at book signings.

"Whenever I do mainstream stuff, I think they're pseudo-interested, but they're still interested in seeing weirdo, offbeat stuff. And that's what I'm attracted to."

''If Chins Could Kill...'' was published in 2002 and follows Campbell's career to date as an actor in low-budget films and television, providing his insight into "Blue-Collar Hollywood".

Campbell has also written a book titled ''Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way'', a comical novel featuring himself as the main character struggling to make it into the world of A-list movies. He later recorded an audio play adaptation of ''Make Love'' with fellow Michigan actors including long time collaborator Ted Raimi. This radio drama styled interpretation of the novel was released through independent label Rykodisc and spans 6 discs with a 6 hour running time.

In addition to his novels, Campbell also wrote a column for ''X Ray Magazine'' in 2001, an issue of the popular comic series ''The Hire'', comic book adaptations of his ''Man With The Screaming Brain'' and most recently he wrote the introduction to Josh Becker's ''The Complete Guide To Low Budget Feature Film Making''.

He was also drawn in the Marvel Zombie comics as his character, Ash from the ''Evil Dead''. He is featured in 5 comics all the series Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness. In the comics he fights along side the Marvel heroes against the heroes and people who have turned into zombies (deadites) while in search of the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead.)

Campbell maintains a blog on his official website, where he posts mainly about politics and the film industry.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
1977	''It's Murder!''	N/A
1978	''Within the Woods''	rowspan=2
1981	''The Evil Dead''
1983		Brice Chapman	Ron Teachworth
	''Crimewave''	Renaldo 'The Heel'	Sam Raimi
''Stryker's War''	Video newscaster	Josh Becker	Also writer
1987	''Evil Dead II''		Sam Raimi
1988	''Maniac Cop''	Jack Forrest	William Lustig
		Officer Howard	Scott Spiegel
''Moontrap''	Ray Tanner	Robert Dyke
''The Dead Next Door''	Voice	J.R. Bookwalter
	''Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat''	Robert Van Helsing	Anthony Hickox
''Maniac Cop 2''	Jack Forrest	William Lustig
''Darkman''	Final Shemp	Sam Raimi
1991	''Lunatics: A Love Story''	Ray	Josh Becker
	''Eddie Presley''	Asylum Attendant	Jeff Burr
''Waxwork II: Lost in Time''	John Loftmore	Anthony Hickox
	Stover
''Army of Darkness''		Sam Raimi
1994	''The Hudsucker Proxy''	Smitty
		Charles Travis
''The Demolitionist''	Raffle Winner	Robert Kurtzman
		Soap Opera Actor
''Tornado!''	Jake Thorne	Noel Nosseck	Television film
''Escape from L.A.''	Surgeon General of Beverly Hills	John Carpenter
''Assault on Dome 4''	Alex Windham	Gilbert Po	Television film
	''In the Line of Duty: Blaze of Glory''	Jeff Erickson	Dick Lowry
''Menno's Mind''	Mick Dourif, Rebel Leader	Jon Kroll
	Carl	Josh Becker
	Virgil	Bryan Spicer
	Hank Cooper	Peyton Reed
''Goldrush: A Real Life Alaskan Adventure''	Pierce Thomas 'PT' Madison
1998	''The Ice Rink''	Actor	Jean-Philippe Toussaint
1999	''From Dusk till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money''	Barry	Scott Spiegel
	''Icebreaker''	Carl Greig	David Giancola
	William Roberts	Robert Dyke
	''Hubert's Brain''	Thompson	Phil Alden Robinson	Voice
	Roland the Intrepid Explorer	Frank Darabont
		Ring Announcer	Sam Raimi	Cameo
''Bubba Ho-tep''	Elvis Presley	Don Coscarelli
''Serving Sara''	Gordon Moore	Reginald Hudlin
''Terminal Invasion''	Jack	Sean S. Cunningham	Television film
	''Drugs''	Bruce	Chad Peter	Direct-to-video
''Intolerable Cruelty''	Soap opera actor on TV	rowspan=2
		Humane Society Worker
''Spider-Man 2''	Snooty Usher	Sam Raimi	Cameo
	''Alien Apocalypse''	Dr. Ivan Hood	Josh Becker	Television film
''Man with the Screaming Brain''	William Cole	Bruce Campbell
	Coach Boomer
		Joe Fasulo	Lucky McKee
''Touch the Top of the World''	Ed Weihenmayer	Peter Winther	Television film
	Fugax	John A. Davis
	''Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters''	Chicken Bittle	Matt Maiellaro, Dave Willis
''Spider-Man 3''	Maître d’	Sam Raimi	Cameo
''My Name is Bruce''	Bruce Campbell	Bruce Campbell
		Mayor Shelbourne	Phil Lord and Chris Miller
''White on Rice''	Muramoto	Dave Boyle
	''Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe''	Sam Axe	Jeffrey Donovan	Television film
''Cars 2''	Rod "Torque" Redline	John Lasseter, Brad Lewis	Voice
	''Oz: The Great and Powerful''		Sam Raimi

TV series

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- |1987 |''Knots Landing'' |Joel Benson |9.07 "Say Uncle" |- |1989 |''Generations'' |Alan Stuart | |- |1993 |''The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.'' |Brisco County Jr. |Series Lead (1993–1994) |- |rowspan="3" | 1995 |''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' |Autolycus |1995–1999 |- |''Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' |Bill Church Jr. |2.20 "Individual Responsibility"; 2.21 "Whine, Whine, Whine"; 3.01 "We Have a Lot to Talk About" |- |''American Gothic'' |Lt. Drey |1.07 "Meet the Beetles" |- |rowspan="3" | 1996 |''Ellen'' |Ed Billik |7 episodes (1996–1997) |- |''Xena: Warrior Princess'' |Autolycus |1996–1999 |- |''Homicide: Life on the Street'' |Jake Rodzinsky |4.13, 4.14 "Justice Parts 1 & 2" |- |1997 |''Weird Science'' |Gene the Genie |5.11 "I Dream of Gene" |- |rowspan="2" | 1998 |''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' |Rob Tapert |4.15 "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Hercules" |- |''Timecop'' |Agent Tommy Maddox |1.09 "The Future, Jack, the Future" |- |rowspan="2" | 1999 |''The X Files'' |Wayne Weinsider |6.07 "Terms of Endearment" |- |''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' |Rob Tapert |5.09 "For Those of You Just Joining Us.." |- |2000 |''Jack of All Trades'' |Jack Stiles / Daring Dragoon |Series Lead (2000–2001) |- |rowspan="2" | 2001 |''Beggars and Choosers'' |Jack |2.20 "The Long Goodbye" |- |''The Legend of Tarzan'' |Max Liebling |1.28 "Tarzan and One Punch Mullargan" |- |2002 |''Charmed'' |FBI Agent Jackman |4.22 "Witch Way Now?" |- |rowspan="2" | 2003 |''Duck Dodgers'' |Pork Piggler |1.06 "K-9 Kaddy/Pig of Action" |- |''My Life as a Teenage Robot'' |Himcules |1.11 "Daydream Believer/This Time with Feeling" |- |2004 |''Megas XLR'' |Magnanimous |1.03 "Battle Royale"; 2.02 "The Return" |- |rowspan="2" | 2006 |''Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!'' |Captain Shuggazoom |4.49 "Golden Age" |- |''The Replacements'' |Phil Mygrave |5 episodes (2006–2009) |- |2007 |''Burn Notice'' |Sam Axe |A Main Character (2007–Present) |}

See also

''If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor'' (ISBN 0-312-24264-6),

''Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way'' (ISBN 0-312-31260-1)

References

External links

Exclusive Interview with Bruce Campbell at Deadites Online

Salon Interviews Bruce Campbell

"Not My Job" Bruce Campbell appears on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me

Category:1958 births Category:Actors from Michigan Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:Living people Category:People from Jacksonville, Oregon Category:People from Royal Oak, Michigan Category:Western Michigan University alumni Category:American SubGenii

als:Bruce Campbell cs:Bruce Campbell de:Bruce Campbell es:Bruce Campbell fr:Bruce Campbell gl:Bruce Campbell ko:브루스 캠벨 hr:Bruce Campbell id:Bruce Campbell it:Bruce Campbell he:ברוס קמפבל hu:Bruce Campbell nl:Bruce Campbell ja:ブルース・キャンベル no:Bruce Campbell pl:Bruce Campbell pt:Bruce Campbell ru:Кэмпбелл, Брюс simple:Bruce Campbell fi:Bruce Campbell sv:Bruce Campbell zh:布魯斯·坎貝爾

Name	Van Morrison
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	George Ivan Morrison
Alias	Van the ManThe Belfast Cowboy
Birth date	August 31, 1945
Origin	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Genre	Rock, blues, rhythm and blues, folk, blue-eyed soul, celtic, rock and roll, jazz fusion, country
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, harmonica, saxophones, keyboards, drums, tambourine, ukulele
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
Years active	1958–present
Label	Decca, Bang, Warner Bros., London, Mercury, Exile/Polydor, Lost Highway Records, Listen to the Lion/EMI
Associated acts	Them
Website	www.vanmorrison.com }}

Van Morrison, OBE (born George Ivan Morrison; 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums ''Astral Weeks'' and ''Moondance'', and the live album ''It's Too Late to Stop Now'', are widely viewed as among the greatest ever made.

Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison started his professional career when, as a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for various Irish showbands covering the popular hits of the day. He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B; band Them, with whom he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria". His solo career began under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. After Berns' death, Warner Bros. Records bought out his contract and allowed him three sessions to record ''Astral Weeks'' in 1968. Even though this album would gradually garner high praise, it was initially poorly received; however, the next one, ''Moondance'', established Morrison as a major artist, and throughout the 1970s he built on his reputation with a series of critically acclaimed albums and live performances. Morrison continues to record and tour, producing albums and live performances that sell well and are generally warmly received, sometimes collaborating with other artists, such as Georgie Fame and The Chieftains. In 2008 he performed ''Astral Weeks'' live for the first time since 1968.

Much of Morrison's music is structured around the conventions of soul music and R&B;, such as the popular singles, "Brown Eyed Girl", "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)", "Domino" and "Wild Night". An equal part of his catalogue consists of lengthy, loosely connected, spiritually inspired musical journeys that show the influence of Celtic tradition, jazz, and stream-of-consciousness narrative, such as ''Astral Weeks'' and lesser-known works such as ''Veedon Fleece'' and ''Common One''. The two strains together are sometimes referred to as "Celtic Soul".

Morrison has received considerable acclaim, including six Grammy Awards, being inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and appearing on several "Greatest Artists" lists.

Early life and musical roots: 1945–64

George Ivan (Van) Morrison was born on 31 August 1945, 125 Hynford Street, Bloomfield, East Belfast, Northern Ireland as the only child of George Morrison, a shipyard electrician, and Violet Stitt Morrison, a singer and tap dancer in her youth. Van Morrison's family roots descend from the Ulster Scots population that settled in Belfast. From 1950 to 1956, Morrison, who began to be known as "Van" during this time, attended Elmgrove Primary School. Morrison's father had what was at the time one of the largest record collections in Ulster (acquired during his sojourn in Detroit, Michigan in the early 1950s), and the young Morrison grew up listening to artists such as Jelly Roll Morton, Ray Charles, Lead Belly, and Solomon Burke; of whom Morrison later said, "If it weren't for guys like Ray and Solomon, I wouldn't be where I am today. Those guys were the inspiration that got me going. If it wasn't for that kind of music, I couldn't do what I'm doing now." His father's record collection exposed him to various musical genres, such as the blues of Muddy Waters; the gospel of Mahalia Jackson; the jazz of Charlie Parker; the folk music of Woody Guthrie; and country music from Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers, while the first record he ever bought was by blues musician Sonny Terry. When Lonnie Donegan had a hit with "Rock Island Line", written by Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly), Morrison felt he was familiar with and able to connect with skiffle music as he had been hearing Lead Belly before that.

Morrison's father bought him his first acoustic guitar when he was eleven, and he learned to play rudimentary chords from the song book, ''The Carter Family Style'', edited by Alan Lomax. A year later, when he was twelve years old, Morrison formed his first band, a skiffle group, "The Sputniks", named after the recently launched Soviet satellite, Sputnik 1. In 1958, the band played at some of the local cinemas, and Morrison took the lead, contributing most of the singing and arranging. Other short-lived groups followed – at fourteen, he formed Midnight Special, another modified skiffle band and played at a school concert. Then, when he heard Jimmy Giuffre playing saxophone on "The Train and The River", he talked his father into buying him a saxophone, and took lessons in tenor sax and music reading. Now playing the saxophone, Morrison joined with various local bands, including one called Deanie Sands and the Javelins, with whom he played guitar and shared singing. The line-up of the band was lead vocalist Deanie Sands, guitarist George Jones and drummer, vocalist Roy Kane. Later the four main musicians of the Javelins, with the addition of Wesley Black as pianist, became known as the Monarchs.

Morrison attended Orangefield High School, leaving in July 1960 with no qualifications. As a member of a working-class community, it was expected that he would get a regular full-time job, so after several short apprenticeship positions, he settled into a job as a window cleaner— later alluded to in his songs, "Cleaning Windows" and "Saint Dominic's Preview". However, he had been developing his musical interests from an early age and continued playing with the Monarchs part-time. Young Morrison also played with the Harry Mack Showband, the Great Eight, with his older workplace friend, Geordie (G. D.) Sproule, whom he later named as one of his biggest influences.

At age 17, he toured Europe for the first time with the Monarchs, now calling themselves the International Monarchs. This Irish showband, with Morrison playing saxophone, guitar and harp, in addition to back-up duty on bass and drums, toured steamy clubs and US Army bases in Scotland, England, and Germany, often playing five sets a night. While in Germany, the band recorded a single, "Boozoo Hully Gully"/"Twingy Baby", under the name Georgie and The Monarchs. This was Morrison's first recording, taking place in November 1963 at Ariola Studios in Cologne with Morrison on saxophone; it made the lower reaches of the German charts.

Upon returning to Belfast in November 1963, the group disbanded, so Morrison connected with Geordie Sproule again and played with him in the Manhattan Showband along with guitarist Herbie Armstrong (born in 1944, West Belfast). When Armstrong auditioned to play with Brian Rossi and the Golden Eagles, Morrison went along and was hired as a blues singer.

Them: 1964–66

The roots of Them, the band that first broke Morrison on the international scene, came in April 1964 when Morrison responded to an advert for musicians to play at a new R&B; club at the Maritime Hotel – an old dance hall frequented by sailors. The new R&B; club needed a band for its opening night; however, Morrison had left the Golden Eagles (the group with which he had been performing at the time), so he created a new band out of The Gamblers, an East Belfast group formed by Ronnie Millings, Billy Harrison, and Alan Henderson in 1962. Eric Wrixon, still a schoolboy, was the piano player and keyboardist. Morrison played saxophone and harmonica and shared vocals with Billy Harrison. They followed Eric Wrixon's suggestion for a new name, and The Gamblers morphed into Them, their name taken from the Fifties horror movie ''Them!''.

The band's strong R&B; performances at the Maritime attracted attention. Them performed without a routine and Morrison ad libbed, creating his songs live as he performed. While the band did covers, they also played some of Morrison's early songs, such as "Could You Would You", which he had written in Camden Town while touring with The Manhattan Showband. The debut of Morrison's "Gloria" took place on stage here. Sometimes, depending on his mood, the song could last up to twenty minutes. Morrison has stated that "Them lived and died on the stage at the Maritime Hotel," believing that the band did not manage to capture the spontaneity and energy of their live performances on their records. The statement also reflected the instability of the Them lineup, with numerous members passing through the ranks after the definitive Maritime period. Morrison and Henderson would remain the only constants, and a highly unsuccessful version of Them even soldiered on after Morrison's departure.

Dick Rowe of Decca Records became aware of the band's performances, and signed Them to a standard two-year contract. In that period, they released two albums and ten singles, with two more singles released after Morrison departed the band. They had three chart hits, "Baby, Please Don't Go" (1964), "Here Comes the Night" (1965), and "Mystic Eyes" (1965), though it was the b-side of "Baby, Please Don't Go", the garage band classic, "Gloria", that went on to become a rock standard covered by Patti Smith, The Doors, Shadows of Knight, Jimi Hendrix and others.

Building on the success of their singles in the United States, and riding on the back of the British Invasion, Them undertook a two month tour of America in May and June 1966 that included a residency from 30 May to 18 June at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles. The Doors were the supporting act on the last week, and Morrison's influence on The Doors singer, Jim Morrison, was noted by John Densmore in his book ''Riders On The Storm''. Brian Hinton relates how "Jim Morrison learned quickly from his near namesake's stagecraft, his apparent recklessness, his air of subdued menace, the way he would improvise poetry to a rock beat, even his habit of crouching down by the bass drum during instrumental breaks." On the final night, the two Morrisons and the two bands jammed together on "Gloria".

Toward the end of the tour the band members became involved in a dispute with their manager, Decca Records' Phil Solomon, over the revenues paid to the band; that, coupled with the expiry of their work visas, meant the band returned from America dejected. After two more concerts in Ireland, Them split up. Morrison concentrated on writing some of the songs that would appear on ''Astral Weeks'', while the remnants of the band reformed in 1967 and relocated in America.

Start of solo career with Bang Records and "Brown Eyed Girl" – 1967

Bert Berns, Them’s producer and composer of their 1965 hit, "Here Comes the Night", persuaded Morrison to return to New York to record solo for his new label, Bang Records. Morrison flew over and signed a contract he had not fully studied. Then, during a two-day recording session at A & R Studios starting 28 March 1967, eight songs were recorded originally intended to be used as four singles. Instead, these songs were released as the album ''Blowin' Your Mind!'' without Morrison being consulted. He said he only became aware of the album's release when a friend mentioned on a phone call that he had just bought a copy of it. He later commented to Donal Corvin in a 1973 interview: "I wasn't really happy with it. He picked the bands and tunes. I had a different concept of it."

However, from these early sessions emerged "Brown Eyed Girl". Captured on the 22nd take on the first day, this song was released as a single in mid-June 1967, reaching number ten in the US charts in 1967. "Brown Eyed Girl" became Morrison's most played song and over the years it has remained a classic; forty years later in 2007, it was the fourth most requested song of DJs in the US.

Following the death of Berns in 1967, Morrison became involved in a contract dispute with Berns' widow that prevented him from performing on stage or recording in the New York area. The song "Big Time Operators", released in 1993, is thought to allude to his dealings with the New York music business during this time period. He then moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and was soon confronted with personal and financial problems; he had "slipped into a malaise" and had trouble finding concert bookings. However, through the few gigs he could find, he regained his professional footing and started recording with the Warner Bros. Records label. The record company managed to buy out his contract with Bang Records. Morrison fulfilled a clause that bound him to submit thirty-six original songs within a year to Web IV Music, Berns' music publishing company, by recording thirty-one songs in one session; however, Ilene Berns thought the songs "nonsense music ... about ringworms" and didn't use them. The throwaway compositions would come to be known as the "revenge" songs.

''Astral Weeks'' – 1968

"Astral Weeks is about the power of the human voice – ecstatic agony, agonising ecstacy. Here is an Irish tenor reborn as a White Negro – a Caucasian Soul Man – pleading and beseeching over a bed of dreamy folk-jazz instrumentation: acoustic bass, brushed drums, vibes and acoustic guitar, the odd string quartet – and of course flute."

Barney Hoskyns – ''Mojo''

''Into the Music'': "The album's last four songs, "Angelou", "And the Healing Has Begun", and "It's All in the Game/You Know What They're Writing About" are a veritable tour-de-force with Morrison summoning every vocal trick at his disposal from "Angelou's climactic shouts to the sexually-charged, half-mumbled monologue in "And the Healing Has Begun" to the barely audible whisper that is the album's final sound." (Scott Thomas Review')

The following year, Morrison released ''Wavelength''; it became at that time the fastest-selling album of his career and soon went gold. The title track became a modest hit, peaking at number forty-two. Making use of 1970s synthesizers, it mimics the sounds of the shortwave radio stations that he listened to in his youth. The opening track, "Kingdom Hall" evoked Morrison's own childhood experiences attending church with his mother and foretold a religious theme that would be more evident in his next album, ''Into the Music''.

Considered by Allmusic as "the definitive post-classic-era Morrison", ''Into the Music'', was released in the last year of the 1970s. Songs on this album for the first time alluded to the healing power of music, which would become an abiding interest of Morrison's. "Bright Side of the Road" was a joyful, uplifting song that would appear on the soundtrack of the movie, ''Michael''.

''Common One'' to ''Avalon Sunset'': 1980–89

With his next album, the new decade found Morrison following his muse into uncharted territory and merciless reviews. In February 1980, Morrison and a group of musicians traveled to Super Bear, a studio in the French Alps, to record (on the site of a former abbey) what is considered to be the most controversial album in his discography; later "Morrison admitted that his original concept was even more esoteric than the final product." The album, ''Common One'', consisted of six songs, each of varying length. The longest, "Summertime in England", lasted fifteen and one-half minutes and ended with the words,''"Can you feel the silence?"''. ''NME'' magazine's Paul Du Noyer called the album "colossally smug and cosmically dull; an interminable, vacuous and drearily egotistical stab at spirituality: Into the muzak." Even Greil Marcus, whose previous writings had been favourably inclined towards Morrison, said: "It's Van acting the part of the 'mystic poet' he thinks he's supposed to be." Morrison insisted that the album was never "meant to be a commercial album." Biographer Clinton Heylin concludes: "He would not attempt anything so ambitious again. Henceforth every radical idea would be tempered by some notion of commerciality." Later the critics would reassess the album more favourably with the success of "Summertime in England". Lester Bangs wrote in 1982, "Van was making holy music even though he thought he was, and us [sic] rock critics had made our usual mistake of paying too much attention to the lyrics."

Morrison's next album, ''Beautiful Vision'', released in 1982, had him returning once again to the music of his Northern Irish roots. Well received by the critics and public, it produced a minor UK hit single, "Cleaning Windows", that referenced one of Morrison's first jobs after leaving school. Several other songs on the album, "Vanlose Stairway", "She Gives Me Religion", and the instrumental, "Scandinavia" show the presence of a new personal muse in his life: a Danish public relations agent, who would share Morrison's spiritual interests and serve as a steadying influence on him throughout most of the 1980s. "Scandinavia", with Morrison on piano, was nominated in the ''Best Rock Instrumental Performance'' category for the 25th Annual Grammy Awards.

Much of the music Morrison released throughout the 1980s continued to focus on the themes of spirituality and faith. His 1983 album, ''Inarticulate Speech of the Heart'' was "a move towards creating music for meditation" with synthesisers, uilleann pipes and flute sounds and four of the tracks were instrumentals. The titling of the album and the presence of the instrumentals were noted to be indicative of Morrison's long-held belief that "it's not the words one uses but the force of conviction behind those words that matters." During this period of time, Morrison had studied Scientology and gave "Special Thanks" to L. Ron Hubbard on the album's credits.

''A Sense of Wonder'', Morrison's 1985 album, pulled together the spiritual themes contained in his last four albums, which were defined in a ''Rolling Stone'' review as: "rebirth (''Into the Music''), deep contemplation and meditation, (''Common One''); ecstasy and humility (''Beautiful Vision''); and blissful, mantra like languor (''Inarticulate Speech of the Heart'')." The single, "Tore Down a la Rimbaud" was a reference to Rimbaud and an earlier bout of writer's block that Morrison had encountered in 1974. In 1985, Morrison also wrote the musical score for the movie, ''Lamb'' starring Liam Neeson.

Morrison's 1986 release, ''No Guru, No Method, No Teacher'', was said to contain a "genuine holiness...and musical freshness that needs to be set in context to understand." Critical response was favourable with a ''Sounds'' reviewer calling the album "his most intriguingly involved since ''Astral Weeks''" and "Morrison at his most mystical, magical best." It contains the song, "In the Garden" that, according to Morrison, had a "definite meditation process which is a 'form' of transcendental meditation as its basis. It's not TM". He entitled the album as a rebuttal to media attempts to place him in various creeds. In an interview in the Observer he told Anthony Denselow:

After releasing the "No Guru" album, Morrison's music appeared less gritty and more adult contemporary with the well-received 1987 album, ''Poetic Champions Compose'', considered to be one of his recording highlights of the 1980s. The romantic ballad from this album, "Someone Like You", has been featured subsequently in the soundtracks of several movies, including 1995's ''French Kiss'', and in 2001, both ''Someone Like You'' and ''Bridget Jones's Diary''.

In 1988, he released ''Irish Heartbeat'', a collection of traditional Irish folk songs recorded with the Irish group, The Chieftains, which reached number 18 in the UK album charts. The title song, "Irish Heartbeat", was originally recorded on his 1983 album ''Inarticulate Speech of the Heart''.

The 1989 album, ''Avalon Sunset'', which featured the hit duet with Cliff Richard "Whenever God Shines His Light" and the ballad "Have I Told You Lately" (on which "earthly love transmutes into that for God."(Hinton), reached 13 on the UK album chart. Although considered to be a deeply spiritual album, it also contained "Daring Night" which "deals with full, blazing sex, whatever it's churchy organ and gentle lilt suggest."(Hinton) Morrison's familiar themes of "God, woman, his childhood in Belfast and those enchanted moments when time stands still" were prominent in the songs. He can be heard calling out the change of tempo at the end of this song, repeating the numbers "1 – 4" to cue the chord changes (the first and fourth chord in the key of the music). He often completed albums in two days, frequently releasing first takes.

''The Best of Van Morrison'' to ''Back on Top'': 1990–99

The early to middle 1990s were commercially successful for Morrison with three albums reaching the top five of the UK charts, sold out concerts, and a more visible public profile; but this period also marked a decline in the critical reception to his work. The decade began with the release of ''The Best of Van Morrison''; compiled by Morrison himself, the album was focused on his hit singles, and became a multi-platinum success remaining a year and a half on the UK charts. Allmusic determined it to be "far and away the best selling album of his career." After ''Enlightenment'' which included the hit single, "Real Real Gone", another compilation album, ''The Best of Van Morrison Volume Two'' was released in January 1993, followed by ''Too Long in Exile'' in June, another top five chart success. The 1994 live double album ''A Night in San Francisco'' received favourable reviews as well as commercial success by reaching number eight on the UK charts. 1995's ''Days Like This'' also had large sales – though the critical reviews were not always favourable. This period also saw a number of side projects, including the live jazz performances of 1996's ''How Long Has This Been Going On'', from the same year ''Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison'', and 2000's ''The Skiffle Sessions - Live In Belfast 1998'', all of which found Morrison paying tribute to his early musical influences.

In 1997, Morrison released ''The Healing Game''. The album received mixed reviews, with the lyrics being described as "tired" and "dull", though critic Greil Marcus praised the musical complexity of the album by saying: "It carries the listener into a musical home so perfect and complete he or she might have forgotten that music could call up such a place, and then populate it with people, acts, wishes, fears." The following year, Morrison finally released some of his previously unissued studio recordings in a two-disc set, ''The Philosopher's Stone''. His next release, 1999's ''Back on Top'', achieved a modest success, being his highest charting album in the US since 1978's ''Wavelength''.

Recent years: since 2000

Van Morrison continued to record and tour in the 2000s, often performing two or three times a week. He formed his own independent label, Exile Productions Ltd, which enables him to maintain full production control of each album he records, which he then delivers as a finished product to the recording label that he chooses, for marketing and distribution.

The album, ''Down the Road'' released in May 2002, received a good critical reception and proved to be his highest charting album in the US since 1972's ''Saint Dominic's Preview''. one of the tracks was written as a tribute to his late father George, who had played a pivotal role in nurturing his early musical tastes.

Morrison's 2005 album, ''Magic Time'', debuted at number twenty-five on the US Billboard 200 charts upon its May release, some forty years after Morrison first entered the public's eye as the frontman of Them. ''Rolling Stone'' listed it as number seventeen on ''The Top 50 Records of 2005''. Also in July 2005, Morrison was named by Amazon as one of their top twenty-five all-time best-selling artists and inducted into the Amazon.com Hall of Fame. Later in the year, Morrison also donated a previously unreleased studio track to a charity album, ''Hurricane Relief: Come Together Now'', which raised money for relief efforts intended for Gulf Coast victims devastated by hurricanes, Katrina and Rita. Morrison composed the song, "Blue and Green", featuring Foggy Lyttle on guitar. This song was released in 2007 on the album, ''The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3'' and also as a single in the UK. Van Morrison was a headline act at the international celtic music festival, The Hebridean Celtic Festival in Stornoway Outer Hebrides in the summer of 2005.

He released an album with a country music theme, entitled ''Pay the Devil'', on 7 March 2006 and appeared at the Ryman Auditorium where the tickets sold out immediately after they went on sale. ''Pay the Devil'' debuted at number twenty-six on The Billboard 200 and peaked at number seven on Top Country Albums. Amazon Best of 2006 Editor's Picks in Country listed the country album at number ten in December 2006. Still promoting the country album, Morrison's performance as the headline act on the first night of the Austin City Limits Music Festival on 15 September 2006 was reviewed by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as one of the top ten shows of the 2006 festival. In November 2006, a limited edition album, ''Live at Austin City Limits Festival'' was issued by Exile Productions, Ltd. A later deluxe CD/DVD release of ''Pay the Devil'', in the summer of 2006 contained tracks from the Ryman performance. In October 2006, Morrison had released his first commercial DVD, ''Live at Montreux 1980/1974'' with concerts taken from two separate appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

A new double CD compilation album ''The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3'' was released in June 2007 containing thirty-one tracks, some of which were previously unreleased. Morrison selected the tracks, which ranged from the 1993 album ''Too Long in Exile'' to the song "Stranded" from the 2005 album ''Magic Time''. On 3 September 2007, Morrison's complete catalogue of albums from 1971 through 2002 were made available exclusively at the ITunes Store in Europe and Australia and during the first week of October 2007, the albums became available at the US ITunes Store.

''Still on Top - The Greatest Hits'', a thirty-seven track double CD compilation album was released on 22 October 2007 in the UK on the Polydor label. On 29 October 2007, the album charted at number two on the Official UK Top 75 Albums—his highest UK charting. The November release in the US and Canada contains twenty-one selected tracks. The hits that were released on albums with the copyrights owned by Morrison as Exile Productions Ltd.—1971 and later—had been remastered in 2007.

''Keep It Simple'', Morrison's 33rd studio album of completely new material was released by Exile/Polydor Records on 17 March 2008 in the UK and released by Exile/Lost Highway Records in the US and Canada on 1 April 2008. It comprised eleven self-penned tracks. Morrison promoted the album with a short US tour including an appearance at the SXSW music conference, and a UK concert broadcast on BBC Radio 2. In the first week of release ''Keep It Simple'' debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at number ten, Morrison's first Top Ten charting in the US.

Live performances

By 1972, after being a performer for nearly ten years, Morrison began experiencing stage fright when performing for audiences of thousands, as opposed to the hundreds as he had experienced in his early career. He became anxious on stage and would have difficulty establishing eye contact with the audience. He once said in an interview about performing on stage, "I dig singing the songs but there are times when it's pretty agonizing for me to be out there." After a brief break from music, he started appearing in clubs, regaining his ability to perform live, albeit with smaller audiences.

The 1974 live double album, ''It's Too Late to Stop Now'', has been on lists of greatest live albums of all time. Biographer Johnny Rogan states that "Morrison was in the midst of what was arguably his greatest phase as a performer." Performances on the album were from tapes made during a three month tour of the US and Europe in 1973 with the backing group The Caledonia Soul Orchestra. Soon after recording the album, Morrison restructured the Caledonia Soul Orchestra into a smaller unit, the Caledonia Soul Express.

On Thanksgiving Day 1976, Morrison performed at the farewell concert for The Band. Morrison's first live performance in several years, he considered skipping his appearance until the last minute, even refusing to go on stage when they announced his name. His manager, Harvey Goldsmith, said he "literally kicked him out there." Morrison was on good terms with The Band as near-neighbours in Woodstock, and they had the shared experience of stage-fright. At the concert, he performed two songs. His first was a rendition of the classic Irish song Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral. His second song was "Caravan", from his 1970 album ''Moondance''. Greil Marcus, in attendance at the concert, wrote: "Van Morrison turned the show around...singing to the rafters and ...burning holes in the floor. It was a triumph, and as the song ended Van began to kick his leg into the air out of sheer exuberance and he kicked his way right offstage like a Rockette. The crowd had given him a fine welcome and they cheered wildly when he left." The filmed concert served as the basis for Martin Scorsese's 1978 film, ''The Last Waltz''.

It was during his association with The Band that Morrison acquired the nicknames: "Belfast Cowboy" and "Van the Man". When Morrison sang the duet "4% Pantomime" (that he co-wrote with Robbie Robertson), Richard Manuel calls him, "Oh, Belfast Cowboy". It would be included in The Band's album ''Cahoots''. When he left the stage, after performing "Caravan" on ''The Last Waltz'', Robertson calls out "''Van the Man!"''

On 21 July 1990, Morrison joined many other guests for Roger Waters' massive performance of ''The Wall - Live in Berlin'' with an estimated crowd of between three hundred thousand to half a million people and broadcast live on television. He sang "Comfortably Numb" with Roger Waters, and several members from The Band: Levon Helm, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko. At concert's end, he and the other performers sang "The Tide Is Turning".

Morrison performed before an estimated audience of sixty to eighty thousand people when US President Bill Clinton visited Belfast, Northern Ireland on 30 November 1995. His song "Days Like This" had become the official anthem for the Northern Irish peace movement.

Van Morrison continued performing concerts in the 2000s throughout the year rather than touring. Playing few of his best-known songs in concert, he has firmly resisted relegation to a nostalgia act. During a 2006 interview, he told Paul Sexton:

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Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:People from Belfast Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Ulster Scots people Category:Drummers from Northern Ireland Category:Guitarists from Northern Ireland Category:Keyboardists from Northern Ireland Category:Multi-instrumentalists from Northern Ireland Category:Musicians from Northern Ireland Category:Poets from Northern Ireland Category:Male singers from Northern Ireland Category:Saxophonists from Northern Ireland Category:Songwriters from Northern Ireland Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:Blues singer-songwriters Category:People associated with Dalkey Category:Mercury Records artists Category:British record producers Category:Skiffle Category:British rhythm and blues boom musicians

ca:Van Morrison cs:Van Morrison cy:Van Morrison da:Van Morrison de:Van Morrison es:Van Morrison eu:Van Morrison fr:Van Morrison ga:Van Morrison gl:Van Morrison is:Van Morrison it:Van Morrison he:ואן מוריסון hu:Van Morrison nl:Van Morrison ja:ヴァン・モリソン no:Van Morrison pl:Van Morrison pt:Van Morrison ru:Моррисон, Ван sk:Van Morrison fi:Van Morrison sv:Van Morrison th:แวน มอร์ริสัน tr:Van Morrison

birth name	Kathleen Doyle Bates
birth date	June 28, 1948
birth place	Memphis, Tennessee,
spouse
years active	1971–present
occupation	Actress, director }}

Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates (born June 28, 1948) is an American actress and director.

After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in ''Misery'' (1990), for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe. She followed this with major roles in ''Fried Green Tomatoes'' (1991) and ''Dolores Claiborne'' (1995), before playing a featured role as Margaret "Molly" Brown in ''Titanic'' (1997). During this time, she began her directing career, primarily in television.

Bates received a Tony Award nomination for her 1983 performance in the Broadway play '''night, Mother''. She won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance in ''Primary Colors'' (1998), for which she also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for ''About Schmidt'' (2002). Her television work has resulted in nine Emmy Award nominations.

Diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2003, Bates has stated that she has made a full recovery.

Early life

Bates was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the youngest of three daughters of Bertye Kathleen (née Talbot), a homemaker, and Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer. Her great-great-grandfather was an immigrant from Ireland to New Orleans and served as President Andrew Jackson's doctor. She graduated from White Station High School, and later attended Southern Methodist University, where she majored in theatre, was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority, and graduated in 1969. She moved to New York City in 1970 to pursue an acting career.

Career

Her Broadway appearances include Lanford Wilson's ''Fifth of July'' and the Robert Altman-directed ''Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean'' opposite Karen Black and Cher. She received a Tony Award nomination in 1983 for her stage role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play '''night, Mother'' opposite Anne Pitoniak. The production of '''night, Mother'' ran for more than a year. One of her other successful New York stage productions was, Off Broadway, in Terrence McNally's ''Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune'' which ran 533 performances. McNally specifically wrote the play for Bates and F. Murray Abraham, who had to drop out and was replaced by Kenneth Welsh. The play was later filmed as ''Frankie and Johnny'', starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. She also replaced Amy Irving in the Off Broadway production of ''The Road to Mecca'' in 1988.

Bates's first feature film was the 1971 Miloš Forman comedy ''Taking Off'' (credited as "Bobo Bates"), wherein she sings an original song "Even Horses Had Wings". Bates's next feature was the 1978 Dustin Hoffman vehicle ''Straight Time.'' (In 1990, she would appear again with Hoffman in Warren Beatty's ''Dick Tracy'' as a stenographer.) Bates continued to appear in little-seen films such as ''Summer Heat'' and ''The Morning After'' while guest-starring in television shows such as ''L.A. Law'' before landing the role of obsessed fan Annie Wilkes, who holds her favorite author (played by James Caan) captive, in the 1990 thriller ''Misery,'' based on the novel by Stephen King. Bates received her first Academy Award nomination for that role, winning Best Actress. Soon after, she starred with Jessica Tandy in the acclaimed 1991 movie ''Fried Green Tomatoes''.

In 1977, she made her soap opera debut as Phyllis on NBC's soap opera ''The Doctors''. From 1983 to 1984, she played prison inmate Belle Bodelle on ''All My Children'' and from 1984 to 1985, she played Evelyn Maddox on ''One Life to Live''.

In 1995, she turned in another applauded portrayal as the title character in ''Dolores Claiborne'', a film adaption of another Stephen King novel, although she was not nominated for an Oscar. In 1997, Bates played Margaret "Molly" Brown in James Cameron's ''Titanic''. Based on the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, the film went on to earn more than $1.8 billion in box-office receipts worldwide.

Bates also excelled in her role as the acid-tongued "dustbuster" political advisor Libby Holden in the 1998 drama "Primary Colors" which was adapted from the book in which political journalist Joe Klein recounted his experiences on the Presidential campaign trail in 1991–1992. For this performance, she received her second Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. In 2002 she received her third nomination, for ''About Schmidt''. More recently, she and Terry Bradshaw played the parents of Matthew McConaughey's character in the 2006 film ''Failure to Launch''. Bates was also featured in an uncredited cameo in the miniseries of Stephen King's ''The Stand''.

Bates has been nominated for an Emmy Award eight times: Outstanding actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, for her performance as Jay Leno's manager Helen Kushnick in HBO's ''The Late Shift'' (1996), and, twice again in the same category; as Miss Hannigan in Disney's remake of ''Annie'' (1999) and for the HBO Franklin Roosevelt biopic ''Warm Springs'' (2005). She was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Lifetime Television's ''Ambulance Girl'' (2006), which she also directed and revieved a Supporting Actress nomination for ''Alice''.

She appeared on 10 episodes of the HBO cable television series ''Six Feet Under'' for which she received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, as Bettina, in 2003. She also was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for ''3rd Rock from the Sun'' in 1999, the same year that she was nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Miniseries or Movie for the Dashiell Hammett-Lillian Hellman biopic ''Dash & Lilly''. She also had a recurring guest role on the American version of ''The Office'' as Jo Bennett, the head executive of the company that buys Dunder Mifflin known as Sabre.

Starting in the 1990s, Bates forged a formidable career as a director. She has directed episodes of ''Homicide: Life on the Street'', ''NYPD Blue'', ''Oz'', ''Six Feet Under'', and ''Everwood''. Bates has also directed the TV movies ''Dash and Lilly'' and the self-starring ''Ambulance Girl''.

She directed and co-starred in ''Have Mercy'' (2006) with Melanie Griffith. In 2008, she re-teamed with her ''Titanic'' co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in ''Revolutionary Road''.

Bates stars in David E. Kelley's legal drama ''Harry's Law'', which began airing on NBC on January 17, 2011.

Affiliations

Bates is the Executive Committee Chair of the Actors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors.

Personal life

Bates was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2003, but she did not reveal her illness to the general public until 2009. She stated she has been "in total remission" for over five and a half years, as of January 2009.

Filmography

+ Film and television credits
! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1971		Audition Singer: "Even the Horses Had Wings"	as Bobo Bates
1977	''''	Phyllis	several episodes
1978	''''	Sally Allison	Episodes: "Family Reunion", "Too Hot to Handle" and "Cinderella Story"
1978	''Straight Time''	Selma Darin
1982		Stella Mae
1983		Furniture man's wife
1984	''All My Children''	Belle Bodelle	several episodes
1986	''Johnny Bull''	Katherine Kovacs	TV film
1986	''Cagney & Lacey''	Brenda Harris	Episode: "Revenge"
1986		Woman on Mateo Street
1986	''St. Elsewhere''	Polly	Episodes:"Up and Down" (1986)"Visiting Daze" (1987)
1987	''Murder Ordained''	Bobbi Birk	TV miniseries
1987	''Summer Heat''	Ruth
1987	''My Best Friend Is a Vampire''	Helen Blake	as Kathy D. Bates
1988	''Arthur 2: On the Rocks''	Mrs. Canby
1989	''China Beach''	Jan	Episode: "The World: Part 2"
1989		Mary Beth Alder
1989	''High Stakes''	Jill
1989	''Roe vs. Wade''		TV film
1989	''L.A. Law''	Charlotte Haley	Episode: "One Rat, One Ranger"
1989	''No Place Like Home''		TV film
1990	''Men Don't Leave''	Lisa Coleman
1990		Mrs. Green
1990		Rosemary
1990		Annie Wilkes	Academy Award for Best ActressChicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture DramaNominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress
1991	''Shadows and Fog''	Prostitute
1991	''At Play in the Fields of the Lord''	Hazel Quarrier
1991		Evelyn Couch	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting RoleNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1992	''''	Elsa Barlow
1992		Leah Blier
1992	''Used People''	Bibby Berman
1993	''Living and Working in Space: The Countdown Has Begun''	Lunar Mom	Direct-to-video
1993	''Hostages''	Peggy Say	TV film
1993	''''	Frances Lacey
1993,2004	''''	Narrator	Episodes:"Amelia Earhart: The Price of Courage""Tupperware!"
1994	''''	Rae Flowers	Episode: "The Plague"uncredited
1994		Alaskan mom
1994	''Curse of the Starving Class''	Ella Tate
1995		Dolores Claiborne
1995	''''	Mr. Goo	TV film
1995		Meg Bethune
1996		Det. Shirley Vogel
1996	''''	Maurine Collier
1996	''''	Helen Kushnick	TV filmAmerican Comedy Award
1997	''[[Swept from the Sea''	Miss Swaffer
1997
1998		Libby Holden	American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion PictureBlockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress – DramaBroadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressChicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressLas Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting ActressSan Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting ActressScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role - Motion PictureNominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting RoleNominated—Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion PictureNominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
1998	''''	Raphaella, the Magic Bunny	voice
1998	''''	Helen 'Mama' Boucher
1998	''''	Bankruptcy judge	uncredited
1999		Miss Agatha Hannigan	TV filmAmerican Comedy Award
1999	''Baby Steps''	Mrs. Mellon	[[short film
1999	''3rd Rock from the Sun''	Charlotte Everly
1999	''Dash and Lily	Director
2000		Mother Superior
2000	''MADtv''	Stuart's Grandma
2001		The Squirrel Lady	uncredited
2001	''American Outlaws''	Ma James
2001	''King of the Hill''	Police Officer
2002	''Love Liza''	Mary Ann Bankhead
2002		Mrs. Belmont
2002	''About Schmidt''	Roberta Hertzel
2002		Grace Beasley
2002	''My Sister's Keeper''	Christine Chapman	TV filmNominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television FilmNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2003		Bettina
2004		Queen Victoria
2004	''Little Black Book''	Kippie Kann
2004	''Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy''	Sea Hag	voice
2004	''''	The Judge	short film
2004	''''	Narrator	documentary
2004	''''	The Marquesa
2005	''Hansel and Gretel''	Narrator	direct-to-video
2005	''Ambulance Girl''		TV filmNominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
2005	''Guilty Hearts''	The Judge
2005	''[[Rumor Has It...''	Aunt Mitsy	uncredited
2005		Helena Mahoney
2006	''Failure to Launch''	Sue
2006	''Have Mercy''
2006	''Solace''	Marrow's wife
2006	''Relative Strangers''	Agnes Menure
2006		Margene
2006		Bitsy the Cow	voice
2007	''Bee Movie''	Janet Benson	voice
2007	''Fred Claus''	Mother Claus
2007	''''	Hester	voice
2007		Patricia
2007	''Christmas Is Here Again''	Miss Dowdy	voice
2008	''''	Charlotte Cartwright
2008	''''	Secretary of Defense, Dr. Regina Jackson
2008		Mrs. Helen Givings	Palm Springs International Film Festival
2009		Madame Charlotte Peloux
2009
2009	''[[Personal Effects''	Gloria
2009	''''	Miss Sue
2010		Susan Milton
2010—2011	'' ''	Jo Bennett
2011	''Harry's Law''	Harriet Korn	Main cast Pending—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Drama Series
2011	''Midnight in Paris''	Gertrude Stein
2011	''You May Not Kiss the Bride''	Bryan's Mother
2011		Beverly Corbett	direct-to-video

References

External links

Category:1948 births Category:20th-century actors Category:20th-century American people Category:21st-century actors Category:21st-century American people Category:Actors from Tennessee Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:American television directors Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners Category:Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (television) winners Category:Cancer survivors Category:Female film directors Category:Female television directors Category:Living people Category:Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Memphis, Tennessee Category:Southern Methodist University alumni

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